Formatting Codes

A book showing the possible formatting options with the letter that performs them.

Text in Minecraft can be formatted with the section sign (§).

Color codes

Hex digit to color mapping. Use § followed by the corresponding color letter/number; e.g. §a will give you green.

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.

Sample	Code	In-game Name	Foreground Color				Background Color
			R	G	B	HEX	R	G	B	HEX
	§0	Black	0	0	0	#000000	0	0	0	#000000
	§1	Dark Blue	0	0	170	#0000AA	0	0	42	#00002A
	§2	Dark Green	0	170	0	#00AA00	0	42	0	#002A00
	§3	Dark Aqua	0	170	170	#00AAAA	0	42	42	#002A2A
	§4	Dark Red	170	0	0	#AA0000	42	0	0	#2A0000
	§5	Purple	170	0	170	#AA00AA	42	0	42	#2A002A
	§6	Gold	255	170	0	#FFAA00	42	42	0	#2A2A00
	§7	Gray	170	170	170	#AAAAAA	42	42	42	#2A2A2A
	§8	Dark Gray	85	85	85	#555555	21	21	21	#151515
	§9	Blue	85	85	255	#5555FF	21	21	63	#15153F
	§a	Green	85	255	85	#55FF55	21	63	21	#153F15
	§b	Aqua	85	255	255	#55FFFF	21	63	63	#153F3F
	§c	Red	255	85	85	#FF5555	63	21	21	#3F1515
	§d	Light Purple	255	85	255	#FF55FF	63	21	63	#3F153F
	§e	Yellow	255	255	85	#FFFF55	63	63	21	#3F3F15
	§f	White	255	255	255	#FFFFFF	63	63	63	#3F3F3F

Formatting codes

Text can also be formatted using the § symbol followed by a letter.

To make § on Windows with most US/UK English keyboards type Alt+21(MUST use the Number Pad). On a Mac US keyboard, Template:Unicode Option+6. On Linux with the compose key activated, type Compose, s, o.

If a color code is used after a formatting code, the formatting code will be disabled beyond the color code point. For example, §cX§nY displays as XY, whereas §nX§cY displays as XY. 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.

§r can be used to reset all texts format beyond it, e.g. §nXXX§rYYY displays as XXXYYY

Code	Official Name
§k	Obfuscated
§l	Bold
§m	Strikethrough
§n	Underline
§o	Italic
§r	Reset

Note: The random characters placed after §k will always be the same width as the original characters, except if using [ and ]. 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.

Example Text

The following text can be pasted into a Book and Quill to produce what is shown in the picture at the top:

§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

Use in server.properties

Formatting codes can be used in the motd line in a server.properties file, but the section signs must be escaped as \u00A7. If a section sign is entered directly, the server will replace it with \u00C2\u00A7 (§); clients will display the \u00C2 character as a question mark.