Sign

Signs are blocks that allow text to be input on one side of them. Although signs are primarily used for text related purposes, due to being a non-solid block, they may be used to block the flow of liquids while allowing players to traverse back and forth. Signs are also often used for aesthetic purposes, such as to create the sides of chairs or ends of beds.

Signs are one of the many blocks that are broken more quickly with a sword, but still deal double damage to the sword. They can be broken with an axe as well. Signs can be broken with anything, even though it is better to break it with an axe.

Properties
Signs count as a regular block, except mobs and items can pass through them. This means that other blocks can be placed on top of a sign, and static blocks can also be placed on their sides. This also means that mobs will recognize them as solid and try to walk over them even if the signs are placed over high drops, which makes convincing mobs to fall down high drops (such as in mob traps) convenient. With the 12w04a snapshot, however, they seem to recognize signs as non-solid, and will avoid walking over them if the drop below is too tall.

Any kind of liquid cannot enter the space occupied by a sign, so signs, like ladders, may be used to make a doorway through which lava and water cannot flow.

Text editing interface
After placing a sign, a window pops up where the player may input text to be placed on the sign, although signs may also be left blank. Four lines of text are available, with 15 characters on each line. To switch between lines, the player can press Enter or the up/down arrow keys. The line which is currently selected will have a greater-than and less-than sign (> and <) at the beginning and end of it, respectively. While editing, within a single line text can only be entered and deleted in an ordinal manner, meaning that it is impossible to insert text in the middle of an already typed line - the player must delete and reenter text in order to make edits. Once a line has 15 characters, no more text may be entered on that line. After the editing window is closed, the sign's text can only be changed by removing and replacing it, removing the text in the process. Copy and Paste cannot be performed, and no more than the basic/shifted characters on your keyboard may be entered.

The Xbox 360 Edition supports both the Xbox 360 on-screen keyboard and direct editing of text using a USB keyboard or controller chatpad. In online mode, the sign text is subject to word-filtering. After text is entered, the signs say "Awaiting approval" on all four lines while wordfilter is being run, after which the text appears. (In early versions, the message was also shown while text was being input, and sometimes it was shown persistently as a result of a glitch.) If the sign text contains any inappropriate language, all lines read "Censored". The words hoe, shaft, and monster are censored even though they are used frequently in game.

Placement
The player can place signs sticking out of the ground, or on walls without any post grounding them. Signs may be placed attached to any block whatsoever, including ones such as fences, glass, other signs, and minecart tracks, which torches cannot be attached to (except to fences). Signs may be placed on chests by sneaking during placement.

Free-standing signs can face one of 16 directions, and face toward the player when placed. Wall-mounted signs can only face the four cardinal directions, and are attached to the face the player clicks on of an existing block.

If a sign is placed underwater, either on the side of a block or on top of another sign, an air bubble will form, allowing the player to breathe underwater.

Colored text


The text in signs can be colored. The section sign (§) will change the color of the following text on the current line. The section sign can not be entered via Minecraft itself; a map editor is required to edit the text to enter the § character.

Trivia

 * In snapshot 12w27a text on a sign could be entered, but moving out of render distance and coming back renders the sign blank. Also, all signs are blank upon bootup of the game. This is/was a rendering issue, and all text written on signs are still saved to the game file. This bug was found and dealt with by Dinnerbone almost immediately, however, it was not deemed vital enough to warrant a re-release of that week's snapshot.
 * If a sign is placed on a fence, it will appear to be floating. This also happens with Nether Brick Fence, glass pane (connected to a block except bars, fences and cobblestone walls), iron bars (connected to any block except glass pane, fences and cobblestone walls) and cobblestone walls of any kind.
 * If a sign says "President" (or anything that looks like it), Room 717, or anything profanic on the Xbox 360 edition, it will be replaced with 'censored' on all lines on the sign.
 * Signs can be placed in Adventure Mode.
 * In Pocket Edition, Signs are flammable (iOS only?).

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