Dye

Dyes

Rarity color	Common
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)

Dyes are a set of 16 items used to change the color of wool, leather armor, terracotta, certain mobs, the patterns on banners, shulker boxes, glass, concrete powder, candles, and beds.

Obtaining

Most dyes are produced by crafting or smelting various flowers, sea pickles, beetroot, cactus, lapis lazuli, ink sacs, cocoa beans, bonemeal, or by combining other dyes.

Crafting

Main article: Crafting/Dye

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Smelting

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

Ingredients	Smelting recipe	Description
Lapis Lazuli Ore + Any fuel	0.9	‌[Bedrock and Education editions only]

Trading

Wandering traders can sell 3 dyes for an emerald.

In Bedrock Edition, wandering traders can sell 3 lapis lazuli, bone meal, cocoa beans, or ink sacs for one emerald.

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

Other

Blue dye can be crafted from Lapis Lazuli, which is mined from ores underground in amounts of 4–8 per block.

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition
Lapis Lazuli	Mineshaft	Chest	4–9	16.9%
	Shipwreck	Treasure chest	1–10	61.5%
	Village	Temple chest	1–4	25.4%
Bedrock Edition
Lapis Lazuli	Mineshaft	Chest	4–9	16.9%
	Village	Temple chest	1–4	25.4%

Brown dye can be crafted from cocoa beans, which are harvested from cocoa pods in amounts of 1–3 per fully grown pod. A pod that is not fully grown yields one cocoa bean.

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Bedrock Edition
Cocoa Beans	Bonus chest	Chest	1–2	40%

Black dye can be crafted from ink sacs, which can be dropped when a squid dies, in amounts of 1–3 per squid. Using the Looting enchantment can increase this amount.

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Bedrock Edition
Ink Sac	Stronghold	Storeroom chest	1–3	40%

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

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition
Green Dye	Village	Desert house chest	1	14.3%
Bedrock Edition
Green Dye	Village	Desert house chest	1	14.3%

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition
Yellow Dye	Village	Mason's chest	1	20.8%
Bedrock Edition
Yellow Dye	Village	Mason's chest	1	20.8%

Usage

Dyeing wool and mobs

Players can dye wool by placing white wool and a dye in a crafting grid. ‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Players can dye wool by placing any wool and a dye in a crafting grid. Any wool can be redyed. ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
White Wool + Matching Dye		‌[Java Edition only]

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Any Wool + Matching Dye		‌[Bedrock Edition only]

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 tamed wolves and cats. Using a dye on one of these tamed animals changes the color of its collar from the default red to the color of the 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

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 armor

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

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 12,326,391 (73.4% 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(red, green, blue)
 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.

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

Banner patterns

Main article: Banner § Patterns

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

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

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

Creating balloons

Dye can be used to craft balloons.‌^{[Bedrock and Education editions only]}

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Latex + Matching Dye + Helium + Lead

Creating glow sticks

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

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

Dyeing beds

Players can dye beds by placing a white bed and any color dye in a crafting grid. Only white beds can be dyed. ‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Players can dye beds by placing any bed and any color dye in a crafting grid. Beds can be redyed. ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
White Bed + Matching Dye		‌[Java Edition only]

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Any Bed + Matching Dye		‌[Bedrock Edition 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]}

Dyeing candles

Players can dye candles by placing an undyed candle and any color dye in a crafting grid.‌^{[upcoming: JE 1.17]}

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Candle + Matching Dye		‌[upcoming: JE 1.17]

Signs

Dye can be used on a sign to change the text color.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Trading

Shepherd villagers can buy 12 dyes.

Other uses

Dyes have other uses specific to those colors‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}; see their separate articles for details.

• Ink sacs are used to craft dark prismarine and book and quill, and sold to librarian villager.
• Cocoa beans are used to craft cookies and can be planted on the side of a jungle wood block to grow more cocoa beans.
• Lapis lazuli is used in enchanting and to craft the lapis lazuli block.
• Bone meal is used to fertilize various plants, craft the bone block, and create huge mushrooms.

These items all have dye color equivalents.

Colors

Primary

These primary dyes are created only from ingredients spawned naturally in a world.

Name	Source
Black Dye	Ink Sac (crafting) Wither Rose (crafting)
Blue Dye	Lapis Lazuli (crafting) Cornflower (crafting)
Brown Dye	Cocoa Beans (crafting)
Green Dye	Cactus (smelting)
Red Dye	Poppy (crafting) Rose Bush (crafting) Red Tulip (crafting) Beetroot (crafting)
White Dye	Bone Meal (crafting) Lily of the Valley (crafting)
Yellow Dye	Dandelion (crafting) Sunflower (crafting)

Name	Source
Ink Sac ‌[Bedrock Edition only]	Squid (killed) Iron (1)+Sulfur (1)+Oxygen (4) (compound)
Lapis Lazuli ‌[Bedrock Edition only]	Lapis Lazuli Ore (mining) Lapis Lazuli Ore (smelting) Lapis Lazuli Block (crafting)
Cocoa Beans ‌[Bedrock Edition only]	Cocoa Pod (breaking)
Bone Meal ‌[Bedrock Edition only]	Bone (crafting) Bone Block (crafting)

Quasi-Primary

These dyes can be created from a single ingredient spawned naturally in a world, or by combining other dyes.

Name	Source	Crafting
Light Blue Dye	Blue Orchid (crafting)	Blue Dye + White Dye
Light Gray Dye	Azure Bluet (crafting) Oxeye Daisy (crafting) White Tulip (crafting)	White Dye + Gray Dye, OR 2 White Dye + 1 Black Dye
Lime Dye	Sea Pickle (smelting)	Green Dye + White Dye
Magenta Dye	Lilac (crafting) Allium (crafting)	Purple Dye + Pink Dye OR Red Dye + Blue Dye + Pink Dye OR 2 Red Dye + Blue Dye + White Dye
Orange Dye	Orange Tulip (crafting)	Red Dye + Yellow Dye
Pink Dye	Peony (crafting) Pink Tulip (crafting)	Red Dye + White Dye

Secondary

Secondary dyes are created by combining primary dyes together.

Name	Source
Cyan Dye	+ /
Gray Dye	/ + /
Purple Dye	+ /

Color values

The "color codes" are used to determine the color imparted on sheep, wolf collars, 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.

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

Sounds

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Dye stains	Blocks	Using dye on a sign‌[upcoming: JE 1.17]	item.dye.use	subtitles.item.dye.use	?	?	?

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
		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: This video is 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
3 January 2011					Notch mentions adding a "paint" feature if he can figure out how.
1.2					Added dyes.
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 has 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		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 has been changed. All colors are adjusted more vividly.
		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			Ink sacs, bone meal, cocoa beans and lapis lazuli are no longer considered dyes.
					Added black, white, 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 red, orange, yellow, green, light gray, cyan, ink sac, light blue, purple, magenta, pink, lime, gray dyes have been changed.
		18w44a			The color of the text on signs can now be changed with dye.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.17		20w45a			Candles can now be dyed.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.3.0					Added dandelion yellow.
v0.3.3					Added bone meal.
v0.4.0					Added cactus green, cyan dye, lapis lazuli, light blue dye, lime dye, magenta dye, orange dye, pink dye and purple dye.
					Added rose red, obtainable by smelting red mushrooms.
v0.8.0		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.
v0.14.0		?			Cauldrons now used for leather dyeing, by applying a dye to a water-filled cauldron.
?					As of v0.15.0 (possibly earlier), red mushrooms can no longer be smelted to obtain rose red.
v0.16.0		?			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, blue, brown and black dyes, which can be crafted from lapis lazuli, bone meal, cocoa beans and ink sacs.
					"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 red, orange, yellow, green, lapis lazuli, light gray, cyan, bone meal, ink sac, light blue, purple, magenta, pink, lime, gray dyes, and cocoa beans have been changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.4			Dye can now be sold to shepherd villagers.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
1.16.210		beta 1.16.210.59			The color of the text on signs can now be changed with dye.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added dyes.
		1.83			Added white, blue, brown and black dyes, which can crafted from lapis lazuli, bone meal, cocoa beans and ink sacs.
					"Rose Red", "Dandelion Yellow" and "Cactus Green" have been renamed to "Red Dye", "Yellow Dye" and "Green Dye", respectively.
		1.90			The textures of red, orange, yellow, green, lapis lazuli, light gray, cyan, bone meal, ink sac, light blue, purple, magenta, pink, lime, gray dyes, and cocoa beans have been changed.

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).

References

Items

View at: Template:Items/content [edit]