Dye Crafting Production Chain
Wool dyes are items used to change the color of wool. There are currently 16 dyes, including seven "primary" dyes (red, yellow, blue, green, white, black and brown), seven "secondary" dyes, and two "tertiary" dyes.
History
Wool dyes were added in the Beta 1.2 update.
Update 1.1 gave sheep the ability to regrow their wool by eating grass. Dyed sheep will regrow wool in their new color.
Snapshot 12w34a gave you the ability to dye leather Armor and Wolf Collars.
Uses
Dyes can be placed with wool on a crafting table (in any position) to dye a single block. It can also be used on sheep to paint them. After shearing, the wool dropped will be of the painted color as well, sometimes yielding more colored wool than from crafting (see Notes section). Not all the dyes are renewable, but the colored wool itself is; after shearing colored sheep, they will regenerate their wool by eating grass (11w49a). Additionally, there are naturally occurring gray, light gray, black, brown and pink sheep that drop corresponding color wool as well. Note, only white wool can be dyed via crafting – painting colored sheep is the only way to dye non-white wool. For example, you can get "bleached" wool by using white dye on a colored sheep. As of 12w32a, Leather Armor can be dyed. You dye it by placing dyes in the crafting bench with the piece of Leather Armor you wish to dye. There are 12326391 possible colors. Leather can be "washed" by right clicking a full caldron to remove all the dye. Also in 12w32a, you can dye Wolfs collars.
Primary Colors
These primary dyes are created from a single ingredient spawned naturally in a world.
| Name | Source | Color | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rose Red | Rose | Red | Made by placing rose on a crafting grid. In Pocket Edition 0.4.0 it is made by cooking a Red Mushroom in a Furnace. |
| Dandelion Yellow | Dandelion | Yellow | Made by placing dandelion on a crafting grid. |
| Lapis Lazuli | Lapis Lazuli Ore | Blue | Mined (one ore yields 4-8 dye). |
| Cactus Green | Cactus | Green | Made by cooking cactus in a furnace. |
| Ink Sac | Squid | Black | Each squid drops 0-3 ink sacs upon dying. (Black wool can also be obtained from black sheep.) |
| Bone Meal | Bone | White | Made by placing bone on a crafting grid. (White wool can also be obtained from white sheep.) |
| Cocoa Beans | Cocoa plants, Dungeons. | Brown | Found in dungeons, or growing on jungle trees. (Brown wool can also be obtained from brown sheep.) |
Secondary Colors
Secondary dyes are created by combining primary dyes together.
| Name | Source | Color | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orange Dye | Rose Red + Dandelion Yellow | Orange | |
| Cyan Dye | Cactus Green + Lapis Lazuli | Cyan | |
| Purple Dye | Rose Red + Lapis Lazuli | Purple | |
| Gray Dye | Ink Sac + Bone Meal | Gray | (Gray wool can also be obtained from gray sheep.) |
| Light Blue Dye | Lapis Lazuli + Bone Meal | Light Blue | |
| Pink Dye | Rose Red + Bone Meal | Pink | (Pink wool can also be obtained from rare pink sheep.) |
| Lime Dye | Cactus Green + Bone Meal | Lime Green |
Tertiary Colors
Tertiary dyes are created by combining at least one secondary dye.
| Name | Source | Color | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magenta Dye | Purple Dye + Pink Dye | Magenta | See Magenta Dye page for alternate recipes and comparison of recipes' efficiency. |
| Light Gray Dye | Gray Dye + Bone Meal | Light Gray | See Light Gray Dye page for alternate recipe and comparison of recipes' efficiency. (Light gray wool can also be obtained from light gray sheep.) |
Video
Wool Dyes/video
Notes
If you are looking to make Wool dyed a certain color, it is better to dye a sheep the desired color and shear the sheep. This method gives you a permanent supply of that wool color (1-3 blocks per shearing), for a single piece of dye, where crafting gives you only one dyed block per dye unit. Note that you can also bleach and re-dye non-white sheep. Sheep can also be bred, and the lambs inherit the color of one of their parents.
These colors of wool naturally occur on sheep; all others must be created by using dye on a sheep (right-click):
- White sheep (the most common)
- Light gray sheep
- Dark gray sheep
- Black sheep
- Brown sheep
- Pink sheep (rarest)
Data Values
The color of a dye item depends on a secondary data field (beyond the item ID of 254), which is also used to store the damage for tools and so is commonly referred to as a “damage value”.
| Icon | Dec | Hex | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0x0 | Ink Sac | |
| 1 | 0x1 | Rose Red | |
| 2 | 0x2 | Cactus Green | |
| 3 | 0x3 | Cocoa Beans | |
| 4 | 0x4 | Lapis Lazuli | |
| 5 | 0x5 | Purple Dye | |
| 6 | 0x6 | Cyan Dye | |
| 7 | 0x7 | Light Gray Dye | |
| 8 | 0x8 | Gray Dye | |
| 9 | 0x9 | Pink Dye | |
| 10 | 0xA | Lime Dye | |
| 11 | 0xB | Dandelion Yellow | |
| 12 | 0xC | Light Blue Dye | |
| 13 | 0xD | Magenta Dye | |
| 14 | 0xE | Orange Dye | |
| 15 | 0xF | Bone Meal |
Trivia
- The reversed color values closely resemble an ANSI or VGA palette with the biggest outlier being Orange.
- The metadata values for the Wool and Wool Dyes are the inverse of each other, with White Wool having 0, Bone Meal 15; Orange Wool having 1, Orange Dye 14; etc.
- Giving yourself a dye with damage value bigger than or equal to 16, will be in result of it looking like a random item, at first it looks like a wooden tool. Moving the mouse over it to get the tooltip will crash the game.
- Dying sheep is more efficient than dying wool, as one dye can be used to get endless colored wool, as long as the player has shears.
See also
- Renewable Resources, for which dye colors are renewable.