What Are Minecraft Color Codes and How To Use Them

You may have seen a variety of painted, bold, or strikethrough letters on your modded or vanilla server when playing Minecraft, and might be wondering how exactly it’s done.

Minecraft uses a color code system that anyone with the right perms to the server, can use and apply to any kind of text. Be it a name, message of the day, or just a regular text in the chatbox.

This article will most definitely be useful if you want to learn how color codes operate and how to modify text using them. Minecraft’s creators, Mojang, have devised a coding system for the game, which was released in 2011.

First and foremost, we need to learn about what the Section sign (§). This unique symbol is used to format and color all of the text.

To do that, you must start off by inputting the section sign in the chat, followed by a color or format code.

Visually, that would look something like §2 and will change the color of the following text to dark green.

If you run a server, you should be aware that all of your server’s text can be painted in any color using the numerous Minecraft color codes, and that each unique section sign is preceded by a hex code.

How To Use Color Codes In Minecraft

Unique section sign codes can only be entered into books and quills, which are tools used to convert books into written books that players can read or sell to villagers in Minecraft.

Let’s see how it works.

To change the color of the text, follow the steps below.

First we need to open the chatbox of Minecraft.
Start by typing a section sign (§) followed by a chat code.
Press the Enter key to apply the color to your text.

These steps instruct the in-game client to change colors while showing text. Your in-game client will follow the instructions and change the colors in the game while displaying the text to which the colors are being applied.

Now, to apply different formatting to the text such as Bold, Italic, etc. Copy the following steps.

Start off by hitting “T” which is the default key to open the chatbox.
Type in the section sign (§) followed by a character. This will apply the corresponding format to the text.
Hit Enter to apply.

Now let us have a look at how to insert the section sign in different versions of the game.

For Windows OS:

Hold alt and hit 2 and 1 on the numeric keypad on the US or UK English keyboard to type the “§“ symbol.

For Mac OS:

To Type “§”, press Option and 6 on a Mac, or Option and 5 on a Mac for US Extended.

For Linux OS:

Type S, O on Linux with the compose key pressed to write the “§” sign.

Another option is to copy and paste the unique section sign from and then paste the character into a book using CTRL + V.

Copying and pasting the section sign into the Command Block GUI or the Minecraft chat box, however, will not work out.

Now you must be wondering why is the Section Sign “§” so important to type out?

To apply any format or color to the text, you must start the command using the Section Sign!

For example: To make the text color black, you must type the following text “§0” into the chatbox.

Minecraft Sign Color Codes Table

COLOR	COLOR NAME	CHAT CODE	MOTD CODE	HEX
	Black	§0	\u00A70	000000
	Dark Blue	§1	\u00A71	0000AA
	Dark Green	§2	\u00A72	00AA00
	Dark Aqua	§3	\u00A73	00AAAA
	Dark Red	§4	\u00A74	AA0000
	Dark Purple	§5	\u00A75	AA00AA
	Gold	§6	\u00A76	FFAA00
	Grey	§7	\u00A77	AAAAAA
	Dark Gray	§8	\u00A78	555555
	Blue	§9	\u00A79	5555FF
	Green	§a	\u00A7a	55FF55
	Aqua	§b	\u00A7b	55FFFF
	Red	§c	\u00A7c	FF5555
	Light Purple	§d	\u00A7d	FF55FF
	Yellow	§e	\u00A7e	FFFF55
	White	§f	\u00A7f	FFFFFF

The chart above is very self-explanatory, the color name refers to the corresponding color with their chat code next to them, followed by Message Of The Day (MOTD) and Hexadecimal code for it.

Minecraft Formatting Codes

Similar to the Minecraft color codes, formatting codes help change the format of the text written. With the help of easy-to-use commands, you are able to add variations to your text format such as Bold, Italic, Underline, etc.

Description	Chat Code	MOTD Code
Bold	§l	\u00A7l
Underline	§n	\u00A7n
~~Strikethrough~~	§m	\u00A7m
Italic	§o	\u00A7o
Obfuscated	§k	\u00A7k
Reset to Default	§r	\u00A7r

And to visualize all that’s mentioned above, this is what a combination of color codes and format looks like in the menu.

Furthermore, By utilizing ß and a code such as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c, d, e, or f, formatting codes can be used to color items, achievement titles, block names, and descriptions.

World names can also have custom formatting and color codes with the help of NBTExplorer and other external programs.

Simply choose the LevelName tag in the world’s level to change the name of the world.dat.

Colors are a fun way to interact and express yourself, especially in Minecraft. We strongly recommend you make use of the Minecraft color codes and formatting feature to enhance your server and make it stand out amongst the crowd.

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