Text in Minecraft can be formatted with the section sign (§). The section sign cannot be entered via Minecraft itself; a map editor is required to edit the text to enter the § character.
Color codes[]
Messages sent from the server to the client can contain color codes, which allow coloring of text for various purposes.
A section sign (§) followed by a hex digit in the message tells the client to switch colors while displaying text.
Code | Official Name[note 1] | Foreground Color | Background Color | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
R | G | B | Hex | R | G | B | Hex | ||
§0 | Black | 0 | 0 | 0 | 000000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 000000 |
§1 | Dark Blue | 0 | 0 | 170 | 0000AA | 0 | 0 | 42 | 00002A |
§2 | Dark Green | 0 | 170 | 0 | 00AA00 | 0 | 42 | 0 | 002A00 |
§3 | Dark Aqua | 0 | 170 | 170 | 00AAAA | 0 | 42 | 42 | 002A2A |
§4 | Dark Red | 170 | 0 | 0 | AA0000 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 2A0000 |
§5 | Dark Purple | 170 | 0 | 170 | AA00AA | 42 | 0 | 42 | 2A002A |
§6 | Gold | 255 | 170 | 0 | FFAA00 | 42 | 42 | 0 | 2A2A00 |
§7 | Gray | 170 | 170 | 170 | AAAAAA | 42 | 42 | 42 | 2A2A2A |
§8 | Dark Gray | 85 | 85 | 85 | 555555 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 151515 |
§9 | Blue | 85 | 85 | 255 | 5555FF | 21 | 21 | 63 | 15153F |
§a | Green | 85 | 255 | 85 | 55FF55 | 21 | 63 | 21 | 153F15 |
§b | Aqua | 85 | 255 | 255 | 55FFFF | 21 | 63 | 63 | 153F3F |
§c | Red | 255 | 85 | 85 | FF5555 | 63 | 21 | 21 | 3F1515 |
§d | Light Purple | 255 | 85 | 255 | FF55FF | 63 | 21 | 63 | 3F153F |
§e | Yellow | 255 | 255 | 85 | FFFF55 | 63 | 63 | 21 | 3F3F15 |
§f | White | 255 | 255 | 255 | FFFFFF | 63 | 63 | 63 | 3F3F3F |
- ↑ As used in Scoreboard commands. (Note: For Scoreboard commands you have to replace the space in the name with a underscore (_), and the first letter should be a lower case.)
Formatting codes[]
Text can also be formatted using the § symbol followed by a letter.
[INFO] The § symbol cannot be used in Minecraft. Some Bukkit plugins allow you to use text via &. The § symbol may be used in the server.properties file and the Minecraft Server text box.
To make § on Windows with most US/UK English keyboards type Alt+21(MUST use the Number Pad)(To do this, hold Alt and press 2 lift your finger, then press 1. On a Mac US keyboard, ⌥ Option+6 (⌥ Option+5 for US Extended). On Linux with the compose key activated, type Compose, s, o. Alternatively, you can copy the character from this page, and press Ctrl+V to paste the character into a book. Note that this does NOT work on the Minecraft chat bar or Command Block GUI.
If a color code is used after a formatting code, the formatting code will be disabled beyond the color code point. For example, §cX§nY
displays as XY, whereas §nX§cY
displays as XY. Therefore, when using a color code in tandem with a formatting code, ensure the color code is used first and reuse the formatting code when changing colors.
§r
can be used to reset all texts format beyond it, e.g. §nXXX§rYYY
displays as XXXYYY
Code | Official Name |
---|---|
§k | Obfuscated |
§l | Bold |
§m | |
§n | Underline |
§o | Italic |
§r | Reset |
Note: The random characters placed after §k
will always be the same width as the original characters, except if using [
and ]
. For example, any random character cycled through where the letter "m" would be wide characters while any random character in the spot an "i" would be narrow characters.
Example Text[]
The following text can be pasted into a Book and Quill to produce what is shown in the picture at the top of the page:
§nMinecraft Formatting §r§00 §11 §22 §33 §44 §55 §66 §77 §88 §99 §aa §bb §cc §dd §ee §ff §r§0k §kMinecraft §rl §lMinecraft §rm §mMinecraft §rn §nMinecraft §ro §oMinecraft §rr §rMinecraft
Use in server.properties[]
Formatting codes can be used in the motd
line in a server.properties file, but the section signs must be escaped as \u00A7
. If a section sign is entered directly, the server will replace it with \u00C2\u00A7
(§); clients will display the \u00C2 character as a question mark. Delete the \u00C2 character in the MOTD if it comes with a bunch of question marks. This will happen if you are minecraft version 1.2.5 or below, or something is not compatible. Aside from these color characters, in 1.7+ you are able to add an extra line to your MOTD via \n
.
Use in custom language packs[]
Formatting codes can also be used to colour item/achievement names/descriptions/block names by using §
then any of the numbers/letters displayed above. This is also used in end.txt
and credits.txt
. An example of this is §bDiamond§r
to make the name of a diamond appear in aqua coloured text.
Use in world names[]
With the use of external tools, such as NBTExplorer, world names can have custom colours and formatting codes. To modify the name, you can choose the LevelName tag in the world's level.dat. In this example, LevelName is set to:
§1R§2e§3d§4s§5t§6o§7n§8e §9C§ar§be§ca§dt§ei§fo§1n§2s