Minecraft MOTD Color Codes & Formatting Guide: RGB Hex, Gradients & MiniMessage

Master Minecraft server MOTD (Message of the Day) styling. Learn classic section sign & ampersand color codes, 16-million RGB hex colors, animated spacing, and modern MiniMessage formatting for Paper, Velocity, and BungeeCord.

Veles B.H

Lead Systems Architect & Core Developer

1. Classic Minecraft Color Codes (&0 - &f) & Formatting Tags

The Minecraft server list displays two lines of text (each roughly 45 to 60 characters depending on character pixel width). In traditional `server.properties` files, colors are designated using `\u00A7` (section sign §) or plugin formatting codes with `&`.

TEXT

&0 - Black (#000000)          &8 - Dark Gray (#555555)
&1 - Dark Blue (#0000AA)       &9 - Blue (#5555FF)
&2 - Dark Green (#00AA00)      &a - Green (#55FF55)
&3 - Dark Aqua (#00AAAA)       &b - Aqua (#55FFFF)
&4 - Dark Red (#AA0000)        &c - Red (#FF5555)
&5 - Dark Purple (#AA00AA)     &d - Light Purple (#FF55FF)
&6 - Gold (#FFAA00)            &e - Yellow (#FFFF55)
&7 - Gray (#AAAAAA)            &f - White (#FFFFFF)

&k - Obfuscated (Magic)        &l - Bold
&m - Strikethrough             &n - Underline
&o - Italic                    &r - Reset Formatting

2. Modern RGB Hex Color Codes in Server MOTDs (1.16+)

Starting in Minecraft 1.16, Mojang introduced support for 24-bit TrueColor RGB (over 16.7 million distinct colors). In BungeeCord, Paper, and modern server list plugins (like MiniPlaceholders or CleanMOTD), format custom Hex colors using `&#RRGGBB` or `<#RRGGBB>`.

PROPERTIES

# server.properties MOTD with Unicode Escapes & Hex formatting:
motd=\u00A7a\u00A7lENZONIC CLOUD \u00A78\u00BB \u00A7fSurvival SMP \u00A77[1.20.4-1.21]\n\u00A7e\u00A7oCustom Dungeons \u00A78| \u00A7bLow Latency \u00A78| \u00A7dplay.enzonic.com

3. Next-Gen MiniMessage Gradients & Rainbows

If using Paper 1.18+ or Velocity proxy, Kyori MiniMessage provides human-readable gradient tags without clumsy Unicode escaping.

XML

<gradient:#b2ff00:#00ffaa><b>ENZONIC SURVIVAL SMP</b></gradient> <dark_gray>» <gray>Season 4 Live!
<rainbow> Custom Enchants</rainbow> <dark_gray>| <yellow>Join Now: <white>play.yourserver.com

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