Minecraft banner designer: make your own banners online

What banners are in Minecraft

Banners are decorative blocks added in Minecraft Java Edition 1.8 (September 2014). They are tall, narrow flags that you can stand on the ground, hang on a wall or put on a shield. Every banner has a base color (one of the 16 dye colors) and optional pattern layers, up to 6 in Java Edition and Bedrock Edition.

Banners are 1 block wide and 2 blocks tall (although they only take up a single block space). They do not block movement, so players and mobs can walk right through them. You can break a banner by hand or with a tool.

Banners have plenty of uses: decorating buildings, marking guild territory on servers, making flags for countries and cities, customizing shields, and even marking locations on maps.

How to make a banner: crafting and the loom

Making a banner takes two stages: crafting a blank banner at a crafting table, then adding patterns at a loom.

Step 1: Craft the base banner

At a crafting table, place 6 wool of the same color in the top two rows (2 rows of 3 squares) and 1 stick in the bottom center slot. The wool color sets the base color of the banner. You can use any of the 16 wool colors, from white to black.

Step 2: Add patterns at a loom

The loom is a special crafting block. To craft one, you need 2 planks and 2 string. Open the loom, put the banner in the first slot and a dye in the second. A list of available patterns appears. Pick a pattern and take the finished banner from the output slot.

Some patterns need an extra item: a special banner pattern. Put it in the third slot of the loom and the matching pattern shows up in the list.

Special banner patterns

Minecraft has a few special patterns that need separate items:

• Creeper face (Creeper Charge): craft paper + creeper head
• Skull and crossbones (Skull Charge): craft paper + wither skeleton skull
• Flower (Flower Charge): craft paper + oxeye daisy
• Mojang logo (Thing): craft paper + enchanted golden apple
• Globe: bought from a cartographer for emeralds
• Piglin snout (Snout): found in the chests of bastion remnants in the Nether

The 16 dye colors in Minecraft

Minecraft has 16 dyes, and each one matches a banner color. You get dyes from a range of sources: flowers, minerals, crafting or smelting:

• White: from bone meal or a lily of the valley
• Orange: from an orange tulip, or by mixing red and yellow dye
• Magenta: from an allium, or by mixing purple and pink dye
• Light blue: from a blue orchid, or by mixing blue and white dye
• Yellow: from a dandelion or a sunflower
• Lime: from smelting a cactus (green dye) + white dye
• Pink: from a pink tulip or a peony, or by mixing red and white dye
• Gray: by mixing black and white dye
• Light gray: from an oxeye daisy, a white tulip or an azure bluet, or by mixing gray and white dye
• Cyan: by mixing blue and green dye
• Purple: by mixing red and blue dye
• Blue: from lapis lazuli or a cornflower
• Brown: from cocoa beans
• Green: from smelting a cactus in a furnace
• Red: from a poppy, a red tulip, a rose bush or beetroot
• Black: from an ink sac or a wither rose

Any dye can be used to recolor a pattern layer on a banner. Experiment with contrasting colors: for example, a yellow pattern on a blue background gives a heraldic look, and a white pattern on a black background looks elegant and modern.

Over 40 banner patterns: the full list

Minecraft gives you a big set of patterns to layer onto banners. Here are the main categories:

Stripes and halves

Basic patterns that split a banner into parts: bottom stripe, top stripe, left stripe, right stripe, horizontal center, vertical center, left half, right half, top half, bottom half. They are ideal for national flags (for example, the flag of Poland is a white top stripe on a red background).

Triangles and diagonals

Diagonal and triangular patterns: top left triangle, top right triangle, bottom left triangle, bottom right triangle, diagonal line to the right, diagonal line to the left, bottom triangle, top triangle. Useful for crests, shields and geometric designs.

Shapes and borders

Straight cross, diagonal cross (X), center diamond, frame, thin frame, indented border, corners (top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right), bottom teeth, top teeth. Frames and borders give a banner a finished, heraldic look.

Gradients and effects

Gradient from the top, gradient from the bottom, small stripes (four stripes), brick pattern. Gradients create nice color transitions, for example a red gradient from the bottom on a yellow background gives a sunset effect.

Special patterns (item required)

Creeper face, skull and crossbones, flower, Mojang logo (Thing), globe, piglin snout. These patterns are the hardest to get, but they make the most recognizable and eye-catching banners.

Banner design tips

Layer order matters

Layers are applied from the bottom up: the last layer sits on top and covers the earlier ones. Plan the order before you start at the loom, because in the game you cannot change the order once a layer is applied. In our designer you can reorder layers freely, which makes experimenting easy.

Use contrasting colors

A banner with low-contrast colors (for example yellow on lime) is hard to read from a distance. Light patterns on dark backgrounds, and the other way around, work best: for example a white cross on a red background, or a yellow diamond on a black background.

Take inspiration from heraldry

Minecraft banners have a lot in common with real heraldry: stripes, crosses, diamonds, frames and field divisions are classic elements of coats of arms. Look for inspiration in the coats of arms of cities, noble families and countries. Many national flags can be recreated in Minecraft with 2-3 layers.

Banners on shields

You can put a banner on a shield by combining the two items at a crafting table. It is a great way to personalize your gear: fight with your guild's crest!

Ways to use banners in the game

Decorating buildings

You can place banners on the ground or hang them on a wall. They look great at castle entrances, in throne rooms, at city gates and on defensive towers. Use identical banners along a corridor to give a palace a consistent look.

Map markers

A named banner (renamed at an anvil) can show up on a map as a marker with its label. That works well for marking important locations: bases, villages, mines, portals. Different banner colors let you sort places into categories on the map.

Guilds and multiplayer servers

On multiplayer servers, banners serve as guild and faction markers. Many servers run contests for the best guild crest. A shared banner builds team identity and makes it easier to spot allies in PvP.

Color zones and orientation

In big bases and on adventure maps, banners in different colors help with navigation. For example, red banners near the combat zone, green near farms, blue near ports. It is a natural wayfinding system that does not need text signs.

How to use the banner designer

1. Pick a base color: click one of the 16 colors in the "Base color" section. That is the background color of your banner.
2. Add pattern layers: in the "Pattern layers" section, pick a pattern from the dropdown, pick a pattern color and click "Add layer". You can add up to 6 layers.
3. Edit layers: change the order with the up and down arrows and remove layers you do not need with the X button.
4. Watch the preview: the banner preview updates in real time after every change.
5. Copy the /give command: you can get the finished banner in the game by pasting the command into chat (it requires operator permissions).
6. Explore the gallery: expand the gallery of ready-made designs to load one of the 20+ presets as a starting point for further editing.

Inspiration gallery: popular banner designs

Here are a few banner ideas you can make in our designer:

• National flags: Poland (white top stripe on red), Ukraine (blue top stripe on yellow), Germany (three stripes), France (three vertical stripes) and many more.
• Guild crests: a knight's cross on a blue background, a yellow diamond on black, a red frame with a flower in the middle.
• Themes from the game: a creeper face on a green background, a pirate skull on black, a Nether look (red-orange gradient).
• Abstract designs: a rainbow (many gradient layers), a checkerboard (four corners), geometric divisions.
• Seasonal decorations: a snowflake banner (white on light blue), an autumn one (orange-brown gradient), a spring one (green with a flower).

Banners and commands: the NBT format

The designer generates commands in the Minecraft Java Edition 1.20.5+ format (the new data components format). Each pattern layer is stored as an object with two fields:

• pattern: the pattern identifier
• color: the name of the dye color (for example "black", "red", "white")

In older versions of Minecraft (before 1.20.5) the NBT format was different: patterns were stored in the BlockEntityTag tag with numeric color IDs. If you play on an older version, you have to convert the command by hand.

The /give command requires operator (OP) permissions. On a server, type it in chat or in a command block. In a single-player world, turn on cheats in the world settings.

Frequently asked questions