Dyes are a set of 16 (20[BE & PS4 only][1]) items used to change the color of wool, leather armor, terracotta, certain mobs, the patterns on banners, shulker boxes, glass, shulkers, concrete powder, and beds.
Obtaining
Most dyes are produced by crafting various flowers or other items, or by combining other dyes.
Crafting
Smelting
| Name | Ingredients | Smelting recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Green Dye | Cactus + Any fuel |
|
| Lapis Lazuli | Lapis Lazuli Ore + Any fuel |
|
| Lime Dye | Sea Pickle + Any fuel |
Trading
Wandering traders can sell 3 dyes for an emerald.
Wandering traders can sell 3 lapis lazuli for one emerald.[Bedrock Edition only]
Wandering traders can sell 3 bone meal for one emerald.[Bedrock Edition only]
Wandering traders can sell 3 cocoa beans for one emerald.[Bedrock Edition only]
Wandering traders can sell 3 ink sacs for one emerald.[Bedrock Edition only]
Lapis lazuli can also be traded in amounts of 1–2 per emerald from cleric villagers.[Legacy Console Edition only]
Apprentice-level cleric villagers sell one lapis lazuli per emerald.[Java and Bedrock editions only]
Other
Blue dye can be crafted from lapis lazuli, which is mined from ores underground in amounts of 4–8 per block.
| Item | Structure | Container | Quantity | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java Edition | ||||
| Lapis Lazuli | Mineshaft | Chest | 4–9 | 14.5% |
| Shipwreck | Treasure chest | 1–10 | 61.5% | |
| Village | Temple chest | 1–4 | 25.4% | |
| Bedrock Edition | ||||
| Lapis Lazuli | Mineshaft | Chest | 4–9 | 14.5% |
| Shipwreck | Treasure chest | 1–10 | 61.5% | |
| Village | Temple chest | 1–4 | 25.4% | |
Brown dye can be crafted from cocoa beans, which are harvested from cocoa pods in amounts of 1–3 per fully grown pod. A pod that is not fully grown will only yield one cocoa bean.
| Item | Structure | Container | Quantity | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bedrock Edition | ||||
| Cocoa Beans | Bonus chest | Chest | 1–2 | 40% |
Black dye can be crafted from ink sacs, which can be dropped when a squid dies, in amounts of 1–3 per squid. Using the Looting enchantment can increase this amount.
| Item | Structure | Container | Quantity | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bedrock Edition | ||||
| Ink Sac | Stronghold | Storeroom chest | 1–3 | 40% |
Ink sacs can also be created using 1 iron, 1 sulfur, and 4 oxygen in the compound creator[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only].
| Item | Structure | Container | Quantity | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java Edition | ||||
| Green Dye | Village | Desert house chest | 1 | 14.3% |
| Bedrock Edition | ||||
| Green Dye | Village | Desert house chest | 1 | 14.3% |
| Item | Structure | Container | Quantity | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java Edition | ||||
| Yellow Dye | Trail ruins | Suspicious gravel | 1 | 4.4% |
| Village | Mason's chest | 1 | 20.8% | |
| Bedrock Edition | ||||
| Yellow Dye | Trail ruins | Suspicious gravel | 1 | 4.3% |
| Village | Mason's chest | 1 | 20.8% | |
Usage
Dyeing wool and mobs
Players can dye wool by placing white wool and a dye in a crafting grid.
| Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|
| White Wool + Matching Dye |
Dyes can be used on sheep to change the color of the wool. After shearing a colored sheep, they will drop the corresponding color of the wool, and they will also keep the color of their wool when it regenerates. Breeding colored sheep will result the baby sheep's color to be one of the parental sheep's color, or a resulting color of the combination of both parental sheep's color. Note that the color combining follows the same rules that dyes use – red and yellow sheep will produce an orange lamb, but a blue and yellow sheep cannot create a green lamb. The unlimited reproduction of colored sheep makes dyeing and shearing sheep infinitely more efficient than just dyeing wool directly.
Dye can also be used on tamed wolves. Using a dye on a tamed wolf will change the color of the wolf's collar (which is red by default) to the color of the dye.
Dye can also be used on shulkers to change the color of the shell.[Bedrock Edition only]
Dye can also be used the same way as tamed wolves on tamed ocelots or cats. Using a dye on a tamed cat will change the color of its collar (which is also set to red by default) to the corresponding dye.
Dyeing terracotta
Terracotta can be dyed by placing 8 blocks around a dye on a crafting table.
| Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|
| Terracotta + Matching Dye |
Staining glass
Stained glass can be stained by placing 8 blocks of glass around a dye on a crafting table. Just like regular glass, stained glass can be crafted into stained glass panes. The recipe for this is the same as with regular glass.
| Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|
| Glass + Matching Dye |
Dyeing armor
A graph showing all combinations of two dyes on a tunic.
Leather armor can be dyed by:[verify]
- Crafting dyes with a piece of leather armor.[Java and Legacy Console editions only]
- Dousing the leather armor or leather horse armor in a cauldron to which dyes have been added.[Bedrock and Legacy Console editions only]
- Combining the dye with a piece of leather armor in the inventory.[verify][Legacy Console Edition only]
There are a possible combination of 12,326,391 colors, as it is possible to put more than one dye on the crafting bench alongside the leather armor. Armor can be dyed multiple times with previous colors affecting the final outcome. Colored armor can be reverted to their original color using a cauldron with undyed water.
The game has a specific formula for calculating the color of dyed armor: each color, in the RGB color model, has a red value, green value, and blue value. For each dye in the crafting grid, and the armor itself (if it is already dyed), the red, green, and blue values are added to running totals. In addition, a running total of the highest value (be it red, green, or blue) is also kept. After this, each total is divided by the number of colors used. This effectively produces the average red, green, blue, and maximum values. The maximum value of the average RGB values is also calculated. Finally, each average RGB value is multiplied by the average maximum value, and divided by the maximum of the average RGB values. The modified average RGB values are then used as the final color. This procedure can be summed up with the following equations:
for each color (all "total" variables start at 0 before counting): totalRed = totalRed + redValue totalGreen = totalGreen + greenValue totalBlue = totalBlue + blueValue totalMaximum = totalMaximum + max(red, green, blue) numberOfColors = numberOfColors + 1 averageRed = totalRed / numberOfColors averageGreen = totalGreen / numberOfColors averageBlue = totalBlue / numberOfColors averageMaximum = totalMaximum / numberOfColors maximumOfAverage = max(averageRed, averageGreen, averageBlue) gainFactor = averageMaximum / maximumOfAverage resultRed = averageRed * gainFactor resultGreen = averageGreen * gainFactor resultBlue = averageBlue * gainFactor
Due to the way this formula works, the resulting color will never be darker than the average of the input colors, and will often be lighter and more saturated. Of course, the resulting color will never be lighter or more saturated than the lightest or most saturated input color. In addition, this formula will never create an RGB value higher than 255 (which would be invalid in the 8 bit RGB color model).
Dyeing firework stars
A firework star can have a single color or a combination of up to eight colors when crafted with dyes. Adding one or more dyes to a crafted firework star will add a "fade to color" effect to it, overwriting any existing fade colors.
| Name | Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Firework Star | Gunpowder + Any Dye (1–8) + Extra ingredient (optional) |
|
| Firework Star | Matching Firework Star + Any Dye |
Banner patterns
Dyes are used in most banner patterns to determine which pattern and what color is used.
Dyeing shulker boxes
Shulker boxes are generated in a light shade of purple (like the purpur block), but can be dyed any color. They can also be re-dyed as often as desired.
| Name | Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Shulker Box | Any Shulker Box + Matching Dye |
Creating concrete powder
Dyes can also be used to craft concrete powder, which can then be set into their respective concrete blocks (they cannot be dyed directly).
| Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|
| Sand + Gravel + Matching Dye |
Creating balloons
Dye can be used to craft balloons.[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
| Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|
| Latex + Matching Dye + Helium + Lead |
Creating glow sticks
Dye can also be used to craft glow sticks.[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
| Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|
| Polyethylene + Hydrogen Peroxide + Matching Dye + Luminol |
Dyeing beds
Players can dye beds by placing a white bed and any color dye in a crafting grid. Only white beds can be dyed.
| Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|
| White Bed + Matching Dye |
Dyeing water inside cauldrons
Water can be dyed in a cauldron by holding any dye in the hand and pressing use on a cauldron filled with water.[Bedrock and Legacy Console editions only]
Trading
12 dye can be sold to shepherd villager.
Other uses
Dyes have other uses specific to those colors[Bedrock and Legacy Console editions only]; see their separate articles for details.
- Ink sacs are used to craft dark prismarine and book and quill, and sold to librarian villager.
- Cocoa beans are used to craft cookies and can be planted on the side of a jungle wood block to grow more cocoa beans.
- Lapis lazuli is used in enchanting and to craft the lapis lazuli block.
- Bone meal is used to fertilize various plants, craft the bone block, and create huge mushrooms.
These items all have dye color equivalents.
Colors
Primary
These primary dyes are created from a single ingredient spawned naturally in a world.
| Name | Source | Color | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Dye | Poppy Rose Bush Red Tulip Beetroot |
Red | Made by placing a poppy, red tulip, beetroot, or rose bush on a crafting grid. |
| Yellow Dye | Dandelion Sunflower |
Yellow | Made by placing a dandelion or sunflower on a crafting grid. |
| Green Dye | Cactus | Green | Made by cooking cactus in a furnace. |
| Black Dye | Ink Sac Wither Rose |
Black | Made by placing an ink sac or wither rose on a crafting grid. |
| Brown Dye | Cocoa Beans | Brown | Made by placing cocoa beans on a crafting grid. |
| Blue Dye | Lapis Lazuli Cornflower |
Blue | Made by placing a lapis lazuli or cornflower on a crafting grid. |
| White Dye | Bone Meal Lily of the Valley |
White | Made by placing a bone meal or lily of the valley on a crafting grid. |
Quasi-Primary
These dyes can be created from a single ingredient spawned naturally in a world, or by combining other dyes.
| Name | Source | Color | Obtaining Naturally | Crafting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orange Dye | Orange Tulip | Orange | Made by placing an orange tulip on a crafting grid. | + |
| Light Blue Dye | Blue Orchid | Light Blue | Made by placing a blue orchid on a crafting grid. | / + / |
| Magenta Dye | Lilac Allium |
Magenta | Made by placing a lilac or allium on a crafting grid. | +
OR 2 + 1/ + 1/ |
| Pink Dye | Peony Pink Tulip |
Pink | Made by placing a peony or pink tulip on a crafting grid. | + / |
| Light Gray Dye | Azure Bluet Oxeye Daisy White Tulip |
Light Gray | Made by placing an azure bluet, oxeye daisy, or white tulip on a crafting grid. | / + OR 2/ + 1/ |
| Lime Dye | Sea Pickle | Lime Green | Made by smelting a sea pickle in a furnace. | + / |
Secondary
Secondary dyes are created by combining primary dyes together.
| Name | Source | Color |
|---|---|---|
| Cyan Dye | + / | Cyan |
| Purple Dye | + / | Purple |
| Gray Dye | / + / | Gray |
Data values
ID
Dye/ID
Item data
The color of a dye item depends on its metadata. The "color codes" are used to determine the color imparted on sheep, wolf collars, and dyed leather armor. The hex value is shown in the extended tooltips of dyed leather armor; however, to set the color using an NBT data tag in a command, the decimal value must be used instead.
Dye/DV
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| Rainbow Collection | Gather all 16 colors of wool. | All the colors of wool do not have to be in the inventory at the same time, but must have been picked up by the player at least once. | 30G | Silver | ||
| Tie Dye Outfit | Use a cauldron to dye all 4 unique pieces of leather armor. | — | 15G | Bronze | ||
Video
- Note: This video is outdated, as it does not include details of the 1.7.2 update's changes to the dyeing system/production chain.
History
| beta | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.2 | Added dyes. | ||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.1 | 11w49a | Sheep will now have the ability to regrow their wool by eating grass. Dyed sheep will regrow wool in their new color. | |||
| ? | Bone meal texture changed; lowered one pixel. | ||||
| 1.4.2 | 12w34a | Added the ability to dye leather armor and wolf collars. | |||
| 1.6.1 | 13w19a | Stained clay can now be crafted using dyes. | |||
| 1.7.2 | 13w36a | With the addition of new flowers, many secondary and tertiary dyes are now primary dyes. | |||
| 13w41a | Stained glass can now be crafted using dyes. | ||||
| 1.8 | 14w30a | Added banners, which can be dyed. | |||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Rose red can now be obtained from beetroot. | |||
| 15w34a | Added shields, which can be dyed indirectly by applying a matching banner. | ||||
| 1.11 | 16w39b | Dyes are now used to change the color of shulker boxes. | |||
| 1.12 | 17w06a | Dyes are now used to craft concrete powder. | |||
| 17w15a | Dyes can now apply color to white beds. | ||||
| 1.13 | 17w47a | The different data values for the dye ID have been split up into their own IDs. | |||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | Ink sacs, bone meal, cocoa beans and lapis lazuli are now no longer considered dyes. | |||
| Added black, white, brown and blue dyes. | |||||
| "Rose Red", "Dandelion Yellow" and "Cactus Green" have now been renamed to "Red Dye", "Yellow Dye" and "Green Dye", respectively. | |||||
| Glass panes and carpets can now be dyed. | |||||
| File:Red Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Orange Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Yellow Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Green Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Lapis Lazuli TextureUpdate.png File:Light Gray Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Cyan Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Bone Meal TextureUpdate.png File:Ink Sac TextureUpdate.png File:Light Blue Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Purple Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Magenta Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Pink Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Lime Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Gray Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Cocoa Beans TextureUpdate.png Changed the textures of red, orange, yellow, green, lapis lazuli, light gray, cyan, bone meal, ink sac, light blue, purple, magenta, pink, lime, gray dyes, and cocoa beans | |||||
| 18w44a | The color of the text on signs can now be changed with dye. | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.3.0 | Added dandelion yellow. | ||||
| 0.3.3 | Added bone meal. | ||||
| 0.4.0 | Added cactus green, cyan dye, lapis lazuli, light blue dye, lime dye, magenta dye, orange dye, pink dye and purple dye. | ||||
| Added rose red, obtainable by smelting red mushrooms. | |||||
| 0.8.0 | build 3 | Ink sacs, cocoa beans, gray dye, and light gray dye are now available in the creative inventory. | |||
| Rose red can now be obtained from beetroots. | |||||
| 0.9.0 | build 1 | Cocoa beans can now be obtained from cocoa pods. | |||
| The cyan flower has now been removed and replaced with a new poppy flower that can be crafted into rose red. | |||||
| build 3 | All new flowers can now be crafted into dyes. Because of this, many secondary and tertiary dyes are now primary dyes. | ||||
| Gray dye and light gray dye can now be obtained in survival. | |||||
| build 11 | Stained clay can now be crafted using dyes. | ||||
| 0.11.0 | build 1 | Ink sacs can now be obtained from squid. | |||
| Added the ability to dye wolf collars. | |||||
| 0.14.0 | ? | Cauldrons now used for leather dyeing, by applying a dye to a water-filled cauldron. | |||
| ? | As of 0.15.0 (possibly earlier), red mushrooms can now no longer be smelted to obtain rose red. | ||||
| 0.16.0 | ? | Cocoa beans can now no longer be crafted. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | alpha 0.17.0.1 | Added Dye button for sheep. | |||
| Added shulkers, which can be dyed. | |||||
| Added stained glass. It cannot be crafted, but purple glass generates in end cities. | |||||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | Dyes can now apply color to a white beds. | |||
| Dyes are now used to craft concrete powder. | |||||
| The color palette has now been changed. | |||||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.2.0 | beta 1.2.0.2 | Dyes can now be used for banner crafting. | |||
| Dyes can now be used to craft firework stars. | |||||
| Stained glass is now craftable, using dyes. | |||||
| 1.4.0 | beta 1.2.20.1 | Lime dye can now be obtained from smelting sea pickles. | |||
| Dyes can now used to craft glow sticks and balloons. | |||||
| 1.8.0 | beta 1.8.0.8 | Dyes can now be used to dye cat collars. | |||
| beta 1.8.0.10 | Added white, blue, brown and black dyes, which can be crafted from lapis lazuli, bone meal, cocoa beans and ink sacs. | ||||
| "Rose Red", "Dandelion Yellow" and "Cactus Green" have now been renamed to "Red Dye", "Yellow Dye" and "Green Dye", respectively. | |||||
| 1.9.0 | beta 1.9.0.0 | Blue and white dye can now be obtained from cornflowers and lily of the valleys. | |||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | Glass panes and carpets can now be dyed. | |||
| Only a single dye is now required to apply a banner pattern in a loom. | |||||
| Various dyes except black dye, white dye, brown dye, and blue dye are now sold by wandering traders. | |||||
| File:Red Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Orange Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Yellow Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Green Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Lapis Lazuli TextureUpdate.png File:Light Gray Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Cyan Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Bone Meal TextureUpdate.png File:Ink Sac TextureUpdate.png File:Light Blue Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Purple Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Magenta Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Pink Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Lime Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Gray Dye TextureUpdate.png File:Cocoa Beans TextureUpdate.png Changed the textures of red, orange, yellow, green, lapis lazuli, light gray, cyan, bone meal, ink sac, light blue, purple, magenta, pink, lime, gray dyes, and cocoa beans. | |||||
| 1.11.0 | beta 1.11.0.4 | Dye can now be sold to shepherd villagers. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | Patch s1 | Added dyes. |
| [[ | Lua error in Module:Version_link at line 14: attempt to concatenate local 'last' (a nil value). | Added white, blue, brown and black dyes, which can crafted from lapis lazuli, bone meal, cocoa beans and ink sacs. | |||
| "Rose Red", "Dandelion Yellow" and "Cactus Green" have now been renamed to "Red Dye", "Yellow Dye" and "Green Dye", respectively. | |||||
Trivia
- Players can obtain each one of every color with 1 cocoa bean, 2 yellow dye and ink sacs, 3 green dye, 4 lapis lazuli and red dyes and 6 bone meal (2 bones).
- The dyed sheep breeding behavior mirrors Lamarck's theory, in which the organisms evolve inheriting the external changes and adaptations of the previous generation, transmitting them to their offspring. (However, as dyeing a sheep technically doesn’t change its inherent material, the non-natural colors will not actually transmit in real life)
- In Bedrock Edition, tertiary colors, along with their regular crafting recipes, can be crafted with primary colors. E.g.: Magenta can be crafted with one rose red and two bone meals.
- The colors of the dyes match the chat colors in Color codes except for brown (dye only), light aqua, and gold (color codes only).