Dye

Dyes are a set of sixteen items used to change the color of wool, carpets, terracotta, concrete powder, glass, shulker boxes, beds, candles, the patterns on banners, firework stars, certain mobs, and text on signs and hanging signs. In Bedrock Edition they can also be used to dye water in a cauldron (which is thereafter used to dye leather armor); in Java Edition leather armor can be dyed directly. In Minecraft Education dyes can also be used to dye balloons and glow sticks.

In Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education, bone meal, ink sacs, lapis lazuli, and cocoa beans can generally substitute for white dye, black dye, blue dye, and brown dye, respectively, in crafting recipes and for use in dyeing items or mobs. However, they have other important uses that aren't related to color, and are therefore not considered true dyes. They are mentioned in this article only in regard to their use as dyeing agents; see their individual articles for complete information about them.

Dye Recipes — A guide for creating all the dyes

Obtaining

Dyes can be produced by crafting them from plants (mainly flowers), by crafting dyes of different colors together, by smelting plants, or by trading with a wandering trader.

Crafting

[edit]

Smelting

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Lime Dye	Sea Pickle + Any fuel	0.2
Green Dye	Cactus + Any fuel	1

Trading

Wandering traders can sell 3 dyes for an emerald. In Bedrock Edition, they can also sell 3 lapis lazuli, bone meal, cocoa beans, or ink sacs for one emerald.

Apprentice-level cleric villagers sell one lapis lazuli per emerald.

Chest loot

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition
Blue Dye	Trail ruins	Suspicious gravel	1	4.4%
Green Dye	Village	Desert house chest	1	14.3%
Orange Dye	Trail ruins	Suspicious gravel	1	4.4%
Light Blue Dye	Trail ruins	Suspicious gravel	1	4.4%
Yellow Dye	Trail ruins	Suspicious gravel	1	4.4%
Yellow Dye	Village	Mason's chest	1	20.8%
White Dye	Trail ruins	Suspicious gravel	1	4.4%
Bedrock Edition
Blue Dye	Trail ruins	Suspicious gravel	1	4.3%
Green Dye	Village	Desert house chest	1	14.3%
Orange Dye	Trail ruins	Suspicious gravel	1	4.3%
Light Blue Dye	Trail ruins	Suspicious gravel	1	4.3%
Yellow Dye	Trail ruins	Suspicious gravel	1	4.3%
Yellow Dye	Village	Mason's chest	1	20.8%
White Dye	Trail ruins	Suspicious gravel	1	4.3%

Other

Ink sacs can also be created using 1 iron, 1 sulfur, and 4 oxygen in the compound creator. ‌^{[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]}

Usage

Similar to their use in crafting, bone meal, ink sacs, lapis lazuli, and cocoa beans can be substituted for the corresponding dye in any of the following usages unless otherwise specified.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Dyeing wool and mobs

Players can dye wool by placing wool and any dye in a crafting grid.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Any Wool + Matching Dye

Dyes can be used on sheep to change the color of the wool. Shearing a colored sheep drops the corresponding color of the wool, and the sheep retains the color when the wool regenerates. Breeding colored sheep produces a lamb colored as one of the parent sheep, or a color resulting from the combination of both parents' color. The color combining follows the same rules that dyes use – red and yellow sheep 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 a tamed wolf or cat to change the color of its collar from the default red to the color of the dye.

Dyeing carpets

Carpets can be dyed.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Any Carpet + Matching Dye

Dyeing terracotta

Terracotta can be dyed by placing 8 blocks around a dye on a crafting table.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Terracotta + Matching Dye	8888888888888888

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	8888888888888888

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.

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Stained Glass	Glass + Matching Dye	8888888888888888
Stained Glass Pane	Glass Pane + Matching Dye	8888888888888888

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

Dyeing beds

Players can dye beds by placing a bed and any color dye in a crafting grid.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Any Bed + Matching Dye

Dyeing candles

Players can dye candles by placing an undyed candle and any color dye in a crafting grid.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Candle + Matching Dye

Banner patterns

Dyes are used in most banner patterns to determine the pattern and color displayed.

Dyeing armor

DyeGraph2 — A graph showing all combinations of two dyes on a tunic.

Leather armor and wolf armor can be dyed by:

Crafting dyes with a piece of leather armor, leather horse armor, or wolf armor.‌^{[Java Edition only]}
Dousing the leather armor, leather horse armor, or wolf armor in a cauldron to which dyes have been added.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

There are 5,713,438^[1] (34.1% of sRGB) colors leather armor and wolf armor can be, as it is possible to put more than one dye on the crafting table alongside the leather armor and the wolf 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(redValue, greenValue, blueValue)
 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 can never be darker than the average of the input colors and is often lighter and more saturated. Of course, the resulting color can never be lighter or more saturated than the lightest or most saturated input color. In addition, this formula never creates an RGB value higher than 255 (which would be invalid in the 8-bit RGB color model).

If leather armor or wolf armor is renamed on an anvil, it retains its name when dyed or undyed.

Mixing Samples: + = #FED83D; + + = #C898BE; + + = #B56D51

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 adds 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

Creating balloons

Dye can be used to craft balloons.‌^{[Minecraft Education only]}

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Latex + Matching Dye + Helium + Lead

Creating glow sticks

Dye can also be used to craft glow sticks.‌^{[Minecraft Education only]}

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Polyethylene + Hydrogen Peroxide + Matching Dye + Luminol

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 Edition only]}

Signs

Dye can be used on a sign or a hanging sign to change the text color. In Bedrock Edition, ink sacs cannot be used for this purpose; black dye must be used to change the text to black.

Trading

Apprentice, journeyman and expert-level shepherd villagers buy any of the 12 dyes for an emerald.

Color values

The "color codes" are used to determine the color imparted on sheep, wolf and cat collars, firework stars, beacon beams, 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. The color values for firework stars are slightly different from the ones listed below, and use these values instead.

Description	Color Code
Description	Dec	Hex
White	16383998	#F9FFFE
Light gray	10329495	#9D9D97
Gray	4673362	#474F52
Black	1908001	#1D1D21
Brown	8606770	#835432
Red	11546150	#B02E26
Orange	16351261	#F9801D
Yellow	16701501	#FED83D
Lime	8439583	#80C71F
Green	6192150	#5E7C16
Cyan	1481884	#169C9C
Light blue	3847130	#3AB3DA
Blue	3949738	#3C44AA
Purple	8991416	#8932B8
Magenta	13061821	#C74EBD
Pink	15961002	#F38BAA

Sounds

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Dye stains	Blocks	When dye is used on a sign	`item.dye.use`	`subtitles.item.dye.use`	1.0	1.0/0.9/0.95/1.1	16
	Dye stains	Players	When dye is used on a sheep	`item.dye.use`	`subtitles.item.dye.use`	1.0	1.0/0.9/0.95/1.1	16

Bedrock Edition:

Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
Sound	When dye is used on a sign	`sign.dye.use`	1.0	1.0
Blocks	When dye is added to a cauldron	`cauldron.adddye`	0.1	1.0
Blocks	When armor is dyed using a cauldron	`cauldron.dyearmor`	0.1	1.0
Blocks	When dye is removed from armor using a cauldron	`cauldron.cleanarmor`	0.1	1.0

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
		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: These videos are outdated, as it does not include details of the 1.7.2 update's changes to the dyeing system/production chain.

History

Java Edition Beta

January 3, 2011 Notch mentions adding a "paint" feature if he can figure out how.

January 10, 2011 [n 1] Shown rose red in development as part of Minecraft: The Story of Mojang.

1.2 Added dyes.

Leftovers of old textures can be seen in items.png with 100% opacity. The white dye texture was reused for Sugar.

The colors were as follows:^[verify]

Description	Color Code
Description	Dec	Hex
White	16777215	#FFFFFF
Light gray	10066329	#999999
Gray	5000268	#4C4C4C
Black	1644825	#191919
Brown	6704179	#664C33
Red	10040115	#993333
Orange	14188339	#D87F33
Yellow	15066419	#E5E533
Lime	8375321	#7FCC19
Green	6717235	#667F33
Cyan	5013401	#4C7F99
Light blue	6724056	#6699D8
Blue	3361970	#334CB2
Purple	8339378	#7F3FB2
Magenta	11685080	#B24CD8
Pink	15892389	#F27FA5

Java Edition

1.1 11w49a Sheep can now regrow their wool by eating grass. Dyed sheep regrow wool in their new color.

1.3.1 12w19a The texture of cocoa beans has been changed.

1.3 The textures of bone meal, cactus green, cocoa beans and rose red have been changed. The textures have been lowered one pixel.

1.4.2 12w34a Added the ability to dye leather armor and wolf collars.

1.4.4 1.4.3 Color codes have been changed. The colors of red, brown, blue, purple, cyan, pink, light blue, magenta and orange were adjusted a little vividly.

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 14w02a As cleric villagers now sell lapis lazuli, all dyes have become fully renewable.

14w30a Added banners, which can be dyed.

1.9 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.

Color codes have been changed. All colors are adjusted more vividly. The changes were as follows:

Name	Old Color Code		New Color Code
Color	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex
White	16777215	#FFFFFF	16383998	#F9FFFE
Light Gray	10066329	#999999	10329495	#9D9D97
Gray	5000268	#4C4C4C	4673362	#474F52
Black	1644825	#191919	1908001	#1D1D21
Brown	6704179	#664C33	8606770	#835432
Red	10040115	#993333	11546150	#B02E26
Orange	14188339	#D87F33	16351261	#F9801D
Yellow	15066419	#E5E533	16701501	#FED83D
Lime	8375321	#7FCC19	8439583	#80C71F
Green	6717235	#667F33	6192150	#5E7C16
Cyan	5013401	#4C7F99	1481884	#169C9C
Light Blue	6724056	#6699D8	3847130	#3AB3DA
Blue	3361970	#334CB2	3949738	#3C44AA
Purple	8339378	#7F3FB2	8991416	#8932B8
Magenta	11685080	#B24CD8	13061821	#C74EBD
Pink	15892389	#F27FA5	15961002	#F38BAA

Light blue dye, stained glass, and stained glass panes, did not change colors in this update. This means that they still use old colors.^[2]

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 Bone meal, ink sacs, cocoa beans and lapis lazuli are no longer considered dyes.

Added white, black, brown and blue dyes.

"Rose Red", "Dandelion Yellow" and "Cactus Green" have been renamed to "Red Dye", "Yellow Dye" and "Green Dye", respectively.

Glass panes and carpets can now be dyed.

The textures of light gray, gray, red, orange, yellow, lime, green, cyan, light blue, purple, magenta, and pink dyes, have been changed. The color texture for light blue dye was not changed to reflect the updated colors from 1.12.^[2]

18w44a The color of the text on signs can now be changed with dye.

18w49a Yellow dyes can now be found in chests in village mason houses.

18w50a Green dyes can now be found in chests in desert village houses.

19w05a Added the wandering trader, which can sell any type of dye.

19w11a All 16 types of dyes can now be bought by shepherd villagers.

1.16.2 Pre-release 2 Reversed the order of dyes to match other colored items in the Creative inventory.^[3]

Regrouped dyes in the Creative inventory such that white, blue, brown, and black dyes are within and not cocoa beans, ink sacs, lapis lazuli, and bone meal.^[4]

1.17 20w45a Added candles, which can be dyed.

21w03a Added a sound for applying dyes.

21w19a Candles can no longer be dyed.

Pre-release 1 Candles can now once again be dyed.

1.20
(Experimental) 22w42a The color of the text on hanging signs can now be changed with dye.

23w07a Torchflowers can now be crafted into orange dye.

Pink petals can now be crafted into pink dye.

1.20 23w12a Pitcher plants can now be crafted into cyan dye.

Blue, light blue, orange, white, and yellow dye can now be found in suspicious gravel and suspicious sand in trail ruins.

23w14a Pitcher plants can now craft two cyan dye instead of one.

23w16a Blue, light blue, orange, white, and yellow dye no longer generates in suspicious sand in trail ruins.

Due to the split of the archaeological loot tables for the suspicious gravel within the trail ruins; blue, light blue, orange, white, and yellow dye now are in the common loot.

Pocket Edition Alpha

v0.3.0 Added dyes. Only dandelion yellow and lapis lazuli are currently obtainable and have functionality.

v0.3.2 Cactus green is now obtainable by smelting cacti.

v0.3.3 Bone meal is now obtainable via crafting.

v0.4.0 Cyan dye, light blue dye, lime dye, magenta dye, orange dye, pink dye, and purple dye are now obtainable via crafting.

Rose red is now obtainable by smelting red mushrooms.

All available dyes, excluding bone meal, can now be used to craft their respective wool color.

v0.8.0 build 1 The texture of cocoa beans has been changed.

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.

v0.9.0 build 1 Cocoa beans can now be obtained from cocoa pods.

The rose has 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.

v0.11.0 build 1 Ink sacs can now be obtained from squid.

Added the ability to dye wolf collars.

v0.12.1 build 1 Red mushrooms can no longer be smelted to obtain rose red.

v0.14.0 build 1 Cauldrons now used for leather dyeing, by applying a dye to a water-filled cauldron.

v0.16.0 build 1 Cocoa beans can no longer be crafted.

Pocket Edition

1.0.0 alpha 0.17.0.1 Added a Dye button for sheep.

Added shulkers, which can be dyed.

Added stained glass. Stain glass 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 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, brown, black and blue dyes, which can be crafted from lapis lazuli, bone meal, cocoa beans and ink sacs. This, however, the later four still use as dyes.^[5]

"Rose Red", "Dandelion Yellow" and "Cactus Green" have 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.

The textures of bone meal, light gray, gray, ink sac, cocoa beans, red, orange, yellow, lime, green, cyan, light blue, lapis lazuli, purple, magenta, and pink dyes have been changed.

1.11.0 beta 1.11.0.4 Dye can now be sold to shepherd villagers.

1.16.210 beta 1.16.210.59 The color of the text on signs can now be changed with dye.

beta 1.16.210.60 The ability to dye the color of the text on signs was temporarily removed.

1.16.220 beta 1.16.220.50 The color of the text on signs can now be changed with dye again.

1.17.10 beta 1.17.10.22 Added candles, which can be dyed.

Legacy Console Edition

TU1 CU1 1.0 Patch 1 1.0.1 Added dyes.

TU9 The texture of cocoa beans has been changed.

1.83 Added white, black, brown, and blue dyes, which can crafted from bone meal, ink sac, cocoa beans, and lapis lazuli.

"Rose Red", "Dandelion Yellow" and "Cactus Green" have been renamed to "Red Dye", "Yellow Dye" and "Green Dye", respectively.

1.90 The textures of bone meal, light gray, gray, ink sac, cocoa beans, red, orange, yellow, lime, green, cyan, light blue, lapis lazuli, purple, magenta, and pink dyes have been changed.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

0.1.0 Added dyes from Pocket Edition v0.15.4 alpha.

Pre-release dye textures hidden within Items.png.

Notes

↑ Supposed time when fragment was filmed. Based on modified date of client.jar/gui/trap.png in Beta 1.2.

Gallery

Issues

Issues relating to "Dye" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

Players can obtain each one of every color with 1 cocoa bean, 2 yellow dye, 2 ink sac, 3 green dye, 4 lapis lazuli, 4 red dye, 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.
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).
The texture for light blue dye still uses the color from prior to the 1.12 World of Color update.^[2]

References

↑ https://anrar4.github.io/DyeLeatherArmor/
↑ ^a ^b ^c MC-214643
MC-214641
↑ MC-136553
↑ MC-177684
↑ MCPE-42473

External Links

Tools for calculating leather dye combination: minecraft.tools (webapp); pyMCDyes (open-source Python script, outdated); DyeLeatherArmor: a tool for calculating an exact crafting recipe for any sRGB color

Items

[2] Supposed time when fragment was filmed. Based on modified date of client.jar/gui/trap.png in Beta 1.2.

[1] ttps://anrar4.github.io/DyeLeatherArmor/

[unchanged_dyes-3] MC-214643
MC-214641

[reverse_dye-4] MC-136553

[regroup_dye-5] MC-177684

[6] MCPE-42473

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

Dye

Contents

Obtaining

Crafting

Smelting

Trading

Chest loot

Other

Usage

Dyeing wool and mobs

Dyeing carpets

Dyeing terracotta

Creating concrete powder

Staining glass

Dyeing shulker boxes

Dyeing beds

Dyeing candles

Banner patterns

Dyeing armor

Dyeing firework stars

Creating balloons

Creating glow sticks

Dyeing water inside cauldrons

Signs

Trading

Color values

Sounds

Achievements

Video

History

Gallery

Issues

Trivia

References

External Links

More Information