White-orange or orange-white? Which color comes first?

Solution 1:

In certain domains, there are conventions which I would suggest take precedence. The convention with network cables you mentioned would certainly be to list the "color" of the cable first combined with "-white" after.

In cases where there are no clear conventions, I would suggest using two rules:

• Are there features that are common (such as the white part of the cables)? If so, those are less distinguishing and should be placed at the end.
• Is one of the colors more dominant? For example, is there just a white stripe rather than a relatively even split of the two colors? Let the dominant color come first in your speaking.

Solution 2:

For network cables, the color of the insulation itself goes first, followed by the "painted on" color; that allows you to distinguish the right wire in the pair of orange and white wires. Usually the color of the insulation is the more dominant of the two.