If you've ever written a server MOTD, edited a book, or styled a team prefix, you've used a Minecraft color code. The system is older than most modern games — it's based on the section sign character (§) prefixing a single hex digit. Here is the full reference, plus where each code actually renders. Designing a server banner or shield to match? See our banner design guide.
All 16 color codes
- §0 — Black (#000000)
- §1 — Dark Blue (#0000AA)
- §2 — Dark Green (#00AA00)
- §3 — Dark Aqua (#00AAAA)
- §4 — Dark Red (#AA0000)
- §5 — Dark Purple (#AA00AA)
- §6 — Gold (#FFAA00)
- §7 — Gray (#AAAAAA)
- §8 — Dark Gray (#555555)
- §9 — Blue (#5555FF)
- §a — Green (#55FF55)
- §b — Aqua (#55FFFF)
- §c — Red (#FF5555)
- §d — Light Purple (#FF55FF)
- §e — Yellow (#FFFF55)
- §f — White (#FFFFFF)
All 6 formatting codes
- §k — Obfuscated (scrambled animated text)
- §l — Bold
- §m — Strikethrough
- §n — Underline
- §o — Italic
- §r — Reset (returns to default style)
Where each code works
- server.properties MOTD — all colors and formats
- Signs — colors and most formats since 1.14 (dye-driven on later versions)
- Books & quills (Java) — colors via /give NBT, not via plain typing
- Team prefix/suffix — colors and all formats
- Chat (vanilla) — read-only display; servers can color outgoing chat
Using & instead of §
Most server software (Spigot, Paper, BungeeCord, Velocity) accepts & as a substitute that gets translated to § at runtime. This is what you'll see in plugin configs: &cWelcome &7to the server. Vanilla Minecraft does not understand & — only § — so use § when editing data packs or NBT directly.
Hex colors in modern Minecraft
Since 1.16, JSON text components support arbitrary hex colors via the "color" key, e.g. {"text":"Hello","color":"#FF8800"}. This is the only way to use colors outside the 16-color palette and is the standard for resource pack lang files and command books.
Common snippets
- MOTD: §6§lMy Server §7| §aOpen Now
- Sign: §lWelcome
- Team prefix: §c[Admin]
- Book line: §0§oA hand-written note.
Copy them instantly
Open the MineBuildr Color Codes tool to click-to-copy every code in both § and & notation. The tool also previews each color and formatting combination in real time so you can sanity-check a MOTD before deploying it.
