I bought a cheap pack of 5 colors of 3m electrical tape. Each cable gets one or two pieces of tape:
Data:
White if usb2
Blue if it supports USB 3 data (because 5Gbps USB 3 ports are mostly blue)
Green if TB/USB4/40Gbps
Power:
None if low/no Power Delivery
Yellow for 45W PD
Red for 65W+ PD
I suggest finding something else, electrical tape starts coming off after a few years, leaving behind sticky residue that's impossible to remove without some kind of solvent. Same goes for masking tape.
Heatshrink?
Heatshrink is great if you're making cables but you would need a really high shrinkage ratio to fit over the connector and then shrink enough, the common cheap stuff is usually 2:1, maybe 3:1.
You could cut the heatshrink tube, wrap it around the cable and then secure it with transparent tape. It would slide around but at least it wouldn't leave residue on the cable.
Maybe clip-on cable markers like this? [1] Easy to 3D print if you're so inclined.
[1] https://uk.farnell.com/multicomp-pro/pb-250-sm0c/cable-marke...
I’ve thought about just putting it on the connector itself. It may look stupid though.
You could even do combinations of colors like on resistors.
Might get sticky residue after a few years
Love this, that sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing!