Despite its many limitations, Minecraft offers some exciting customization options for your blocks and projects. Dyes are extremely important because they allow you to color some cool items and add more variety to your world. Dyes have been included since the earliest versions, but for a long time, they were only usable for wool. Nowadays, you can dye many more items and customize them to your liking! Today, we’ll show you how to obtain all dyes, where to use them, and which automatic farms you can use to make the process easier.
Crafting and Using All 16 Dyes
In Minecraft, you can craft sixteen different colors. While some require only a single item, others need to be combined. Those who paid attention in art class might find this familiar. Flowers and other items can be transformed in the crafting menu, while some blocks need to be smelted to obtain the dye. Additionally, with a bit of luck, you can get all dyes from the wandering trader by trading one emerald for three colors.
We’ve compiled all the possibilities for you in this table!
| Color | Crafting | Locations | Combination |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | Bone Meal | Lily of the Valley, Trail Ruins (Suspicious Gravel) | - |
| Light Gray | Oxeye Daisy, Azure Bluet, White Tulip | - | Black + 2x White / Gray + White |
| Gray | Closed Eye Flower | - | Black + White |
| Black | Ink Sac, Wither Rose | - | - |
| Brown | Cocoa Beans | - | - |
| Red | Poppy, Rose Bush, Beetroot, Red Tulip | - | - |
| Orange | Orange Tulip, Torchflower, Open Eye Flower | Trail Ruins (Suspicious Gravel) | Yellow + Red |
| Yellow | Sunflower, Dandelion, Wildflowers | Villages (Mason’s House), Trail Ruins | - |
| Lime | Sea Pickle (smelt) | - | Green + White |
| Green | Cactus (smelt) | Villages (Desert) | - |
| Cyan | Pitcher Plant | - | Blue + Green |
| Light Blue | Blue Orchid | Trail Ruins (Suspicious Gravel) | Blue + White |
| Blue | Lapis Lazuli, Cornflower | Trail Ruins (Suspicious Gravel) | - |
| Purple | - | - | Red + Blue |
| Magenta | Lilac, Allium | - | Pink + Purple / Red + Blue + Pink / 2x Red + Blue + White |
| Pink | Peony, Pink Tulip, Pink Petals, Cactus Flower | - | Red + White |
Applications for Dyes in Minecraft
Dyes are now used to color a variety of blocks. They can also help you distinguish between items, preventing you from losing track of them. Generally, all these items can only be dyed in the 16 different colors, but there’s an exception where you can create over 5 million color combinations!
Wool: Colored wool is probably familiar to every player since sheep can spawn in different colors. You can dye wool by right-clicking it.
Carpets: You can craft carpets from dyed wool, or you can dye already crafted carpets.
Glass: You can tint transparent glass with dyes to create really cool effects! Naturally, you can also craft stained glass panes in all 16 colors. A cool trick is to place stained glass panes on a beacon (Building a Minecraft Beacon: All Effects & Materials Explained!) to change the color of the light beam. More than 16 colors are possible here.
Concrete Powder: You can craft concrete powder from one dye and four sand and gravel each. When the block comes into contact with water, it turns into concrete. Concrete has very vibrant colors, perfect for colorful buildings or structures!
Terracotta: You can find terracotta in Badlands or by smelting a clay block. With eight terracotta blocks and one dye, you can craft dyed terracotta. Unlike concrete, dyed terracotta blocks are darker and less vibrant. You can also smelt dyed terracotta blocks to create glazed terracotta with intricate patterns.
Banners: In combination with banners, dyes are extremely versatile! You can craft simple one-color banners or combine endless patterns and colors. You can use banners to mark waypoints on a map or place them on your shield.
Shulker Box: For better organization in your inventory, you should definitely dye your shulker boxes in different colors. We’ve discussed this in a separate article (Efficient Inventory Management in Minecraft: Tips and Strategies) .
Beds: While only red beds were available for a long time, you can now choose different colors. You can also find pre-dyed beds in villages.
Candles: You can craft candles from honeycomb and string and then dye them in any of the 16 colors.
Bundles: It’s also a good idea to dye bundles for better organization in your inventory. You can redye them if you change your mind.
Firework Star: Most players use fireworks only for their Elytra, but if you add a colored firework star to the crafting recipe of paper and gunpowder, you can create beautiful rockets. Up to eight colors per star are possible, and you can create transitions with additional colors. We think this is a much underutilized feature in Minecraft!
Signs (Text): You can change the text color on a sign by right-clicking it. This can make the text easier to read. You can also outline it in a bright color with a glow ink sac.
Collars (Wolf and Cat): You can give tamed cats and wolves new collar colors to make them even more unique!
Villagers (Shepherd): Almost all dyes can be traded for a stack of 12 for one emerald. In exchange for emeralds, you can obtain various dyed items, including wool, carpets, banners, or beds.
Special Cases: Leather Armor and Horse Armor
Leather armor, horse armor, and wolf armor can also be dyed, and you have significantly more color options – over five million, to be exact! In Java, you simply combine any dyes in the crafting menu. It’s best to use an online guide to perfectly match your desired shade. The feature of coloring water in a cauldron to dye leather armor is only available to Bedrock players.
Automation: Efficient Dye Production
All methods of obtaining dyes are renewable. You don’t have to worry about running out of options. Since most dyes are derived from flowers, a corresponding flower farm is your starting point. However, other automated processes are also available.
For all farms we’ve discussed in other articles, we’ll include a link:
- Flower Farm (Minecraft Flower Farm Guide: How to Build an Automatic Flower Farm for Dyes and Bees)
- Sniffer Farm (Minecraft Sniffer Farm: Automatic Methods for Rare Crops)
- Bone Meal Farm (Build a Minecraft Monster Trap: Automatically Gain Endless Resources)
- Wither Rose Farm (Defeat the Minecraft Wither – How to Conquer the Strongest Boss!)
- Pitcher Plant (Minecraft Pale Garden & Knarz – New Biome & Dangerous Mob in Update 1.21)
- Cactus Farm (Building a Minecraft Cactus Farm: Ultimate Guide to an Automatic Cactus Farm)
- Ink Sac Farm
- Cocoa Bean Farm
- Sea Pickle Farm
- Wool Farm (Minecraft Wool Farm Guide: Easily Farm Automatic Wool in All Colors)
Conclusion
With dyes, you can color many Minecraft blocks and give your world a vibrant touch. The application now goes far beyond wool, and blocks like concrete or terracotta are perfect for various building projects. Rent your own Minecraft server with us and use some of the automatic farms to always have enough dyes available. You should definitely try some of the examples, like the firework stars or dyeing signs for your world.
