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.

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.

Smelting[]

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[]

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.

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.

Dyeing terracotta[]

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

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).

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.

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.

Dyeing beds[]

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

Dyeing candles[]

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

Banner patterns[]

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

Dyeing armor[]

Leather armor can be dyed by:

• Crafting dyes with a piece of leather armor or leather horse armor.‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• Dousing the leather armor or leather horse 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 can be, as it is possible to put more than one dye on the crafting bench alongside the leather 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 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.

Creating balloons[]

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

Creating glow sticks[]

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

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.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Achievements[]

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 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 Sample 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

Gallery[]

• 

  White Dye

• 

  Light Gray Dye

• 

  Gray Dye

• 

  Black Dye

• 

  Brown Dye

• 

  Red Dye

• 

  Orange Dye

• 

  Yellow Dye

• 

  Lime Dye

• 

  Green Dye

• 

  Cyan Dye

• 

  Light Blue Dye

• 

  Blue Dye

• 

  Purple Dye

• 

  Magenta Dye

• 

  Pink Dye

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[]

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