Minecraft colour and formatting codes

Minecraft's colour and formatting codes are two-character sequences that change how text looks. They are what turn a plain server list message into a coloured one. This page lists the codes, shows where they work on a server, and covers the one catch that trips people up: the § sign.

Checked against the Minecraft Wiki's Formatting codes and Text component format pages, October 2026. The codes below are for Java Edition.

The codes

A code is the section sign § followed by one character. Text after it takes that colour or style until another code changes it.

A colour code cancels any style set before it. Put the colour first and the style after, so gold bold text is §6§l. Bedrock Edition uses different colours for a few codes and gives §m and §n other meanings, so these tables are for Java.

Where they work on your server

The wiki lists the server list message in server.properties among the places Java reads them, and says chat is not one of them. On a Paper server, chat plugins often let players and staff type & where the code would go. Set up EssentialsX Chat shows &7 and &r in a chat format, and covers the permission nodes that let players use colours.

Colour your server list message

The simplest way is the built-in designer.

1. Open the Config Editor tab and find Server list message under World.
2. Click Design your MOTD.
3. Colour and style each of the two lines, then press Use this MOTD.
4. Click Save changes and restart the server from the Console tab.

You can also use the MOTD generator on its own and paste the result in. It outputs the form that suits the place you choose: a server.properties line, a one-line box, & codes for a plugin, or MiniMessage tags for MiniMOTD.

Writing the codes by hand

The server.properties file stores each section sign as \u00A7, and a line break as \n. A gold, bold first line and a yellow second line look like this:

motd=\u00A76\u00A7lMy Minecraft Server\n\u00A7eWelcome back!

The Server list message box in the Config Editor holds the text exactly as the file does, so paste that form there. If you type a real § into a host's box and your server list shows an odd symbol such as Â, the host saved it the old way. Use the \u00A7 form instead.

If the colours do not show

• You see &6 or §6 as text: the place you typed in does not read that code. Use the form the section above gives for that place.
• A style you did not want shows up: put §r where the style should stop, then add the colour code you want after it. §r resets the styles of the text that follows it.