Formatting codes

Text in Minecraft can be formatted with the section sign. The section sign can only be entered into Book and Quills in Minecraft, in any other case an external program must be used.

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.

displays as X Y, whereas   displays as X Y. 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. can be used to reset all texts format beyond it, e.g.  displays as XXX YYY

Note: The random characters placed after  will always be the same width as the original characters, except if using   and   in 1.4.5 - 1.5.2. 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.

Sample 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 { Does not work in singleplayer or Multiplayer, use the & sign instead of § 1]

Use in server.properties
Formatting codes can be used in the  line in a server.properties file, but the section signs must be escaped as. If a section sign is entered directly, the server will replace it with  (Â§); 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.

Use in custom language packs
Formatting codes can also be used to color item/achievement names/descriptions/block names by using



样式代码 Formatting_codes

Additionally, you can rename the world's folder to contain one of the codes. In the world selection menu, the specified color or effect will appear.

You can also use a resource pack with a § already in the world name when creating a world and all the user has to do is to change the color code after the §.

Use in server names
With the use of an external tool such as NBTExplorer, server names can have custom colors. To modify this you can chose the Name attribute in the servers.dat file in your .minecraft directory. In the following example the Name tag is set to: