Minecraft Color Codes

A Minecraft color code is a two-character token: a special prefix character followed by a single letter or number that selects a color or a formatting style. Vanilla Minecraft uses the section sign as the prefix, written here as the section character. Most plugins and configuration files instead accept the ampersand and convert it to the section sign for you, because the ampersand is far easier to type on a normal keyboard. The codes are the same either way — only the prefix differs. The game reads the prefix, applies the style that the next character names, and keeps applying it until it hits another code or a reset.

Minecraft has sixteen built-in colors. Each is selected with a number 0 to 9 or a letter a to f after the prefix. Using the section sign as the prefix, the colors are: 0 black (hex 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), and f white (FFFFFF). The hex values are the exact colors Minecraft renders, which is useful when you want a web page, Discord embed, or logo to match your in-game palette.

Beyond color, six codes change the style of the text. After the prefix: k is obfuscated (the scrambled, constantly changing characters often called magic text), l is bold, m is strikethrough, n is underline, o is italic, and r is reset. Reset is the most important one to remember: it clears every color and format back to default, so you use it to end a styled section cleanly. You can stack a color and a format together — apply a color code, then a format code, and the text takes both until the next code or a reset.

When you edit a plugin configuration — a chat format in EssentialsX, a scoreboard, a tab list, a sign plugin — you almost always write codes with the ampersand instead of the section sign. The plugin translates the ampersand into a real section sign before the game sees it. So a code that is dark red with the section sign is written the same way with an ampersand in the config. This is why guides show both styles: they are the same sixteen colors and six formats, just a different prefix for a different place. If a plugin shows your codes as literal text instead of color, it usually means that plugin does not translate the ampersand in that specific field.

Renders Welcome in bold gold, then to the server in normal gray.

Minecraft 1.16 added full hex color support, so you are no longer limited to the sixteen named colors. How you write a hex color depends entirely on the context. In vanilla commands like /tellraw and /title, hex is expressed using JSON text components with a color key set to the hex value, such as the hash-prefixed code inside a color field. Vanilla signs and books do not support hex colors at all, regardless of format. For Paper and Spigot MOTD and plugin configs, the legacy section-sign chain is used: the section sign, then x, then each of the six hex digits each prefixed by a section sign. Modern plugins built on the Adventure library instead use the much cleaner MiniMessage format, where a color is a tag with the hex value in angle brackets. EssentialsX accepts an ampersand-hash-then-six-digits form in its chat and message settings. Hex colors only work on 1.16 and later; on older versions Minecraft ignores or breaks the code, so fall back to the sixteen named colors.

Colors the word Loafhosts in the exact hex shade #FF7A00.

Color codes work in most places your server shows text. The big ones are the server list MOTD (the description players see in their multiplayer list), signs and written books, team prefixes and suffixes, scoreboard and tab list text from plugins, and kick or ban messages. Chat color is usually controlled by a chat plugin such as EssentialsX rather than typed by players. Each surface has its own quirk: the MOTD lives in server.properties, signs and books are edited in-game, and most colored chat, tab, and scoreboard text comes from plugin configs using the ampersand style covered above.

On Loafhosts you set the MOTD in server.properties, and the LPV5 Config Editor opens it right in your browser — no downloading and re-uploading the file. Open the Config Editor from the panel, find the motd field, and add your codes. In server.properties the prefix must be a real section sign rather than an ampersand, so paste the section character or use its escape form if your editor inserts it. Save, then restart the server so the new MOTD is served. Pair a colored MOTD with a custom server icon and your listing stands out in the multiplayer browser.

1. 1Open your server in the LPV5 panel at hub.loafhosts.com and launch the Config Editor
2. 2Open server.properties and find the motd line
3. 3Add your color and format codes using the section sign prefix, ending with a reset
4. 4Save the file in the Config Editor
5. 5Restart the server so the new MOTD is sent to the multiplayer list

The most common problem is using an ampersand where the game expects a section sign, such as directly in server.properties or a raw command — those need the section sign, while plugin configs accept the ampersand. The second is hex colors on a version older than 1.16, which simply will not render. The third is forgetting a reset, so a color or bold style bleeds into text you did not mean to style. On Bedrock Edition the section sign colors work but some formats, like underline and strikethrough, are not supported, and Bedrock has a few extra colors Java does not. When in doubt, test in chat or the MOTD, add a reset at the end of each styled run, and confirm your server version supports hex before relying on it.