What is a banner in Minecraft?
A banner is a decorative block made of cloth on a pole. It comes in the 16 dye colors, and you can layer patterns on top of the base color: stripes, borders, crosses, gradients and emblems like the creeper face or the globe. Banners stand on the ground or hang on a wall, you can carry the design onto a shield, and in Java Edition you can mark them on a map.
Each banner design is a stack of layers. The base color comes from the wool you craft it with. Every layer after that is one pattern in one dye color, and each new layer covers the ones under it. Order matters: the same five layers in a different order can give a completely different picture.
How do you use this banner creator?
- Pick the base color. This is the banner itself, the color of the wool you craft it from.
- Add layers. Choose a dye color, then click a pattern. Every tile already shows that pattern on your banner, so what you see is what you get.
- Fix the order. Drag a layer by its handle or use the arrows. Click a layer to change its pattern or color, duplicate it, or remove it.
- Get it into the game. Pick your version and copy a give or setblock command, or follow the loom steps to make it in survival.
- Keep it. Copy the link to share it, download a PNG, or come back later: your last design is saved in your browser.
Stuck for ideas? Press Random for a loom friendly design, or start from a letter or a preset and change it.
How do you make a banner in survival?
Craft a plain banner from 6 wool of one color and 1 stick: wool across the top two rows of the crafting grid, the stick in the bottom middle. Then build a loom from 2 string over 2 planks. The loom has three slots: the banner, a dye, and an optional banner pattern item. Put in the banner and the dye, pick a pattern from the list, and take the new banner out. The dye is used up. Repeat once per layer. To copy a finished design, put it in a crafting grid with a blank banner of the same base color: you get a second one, as long as the design has 6 layers or fewer.
Most patterns need only a dye. Ten need a banner pattern item in the third slot, and that item is never used up, so one copy lasts forever. The Loom tab in the tool lists them for your design, but here they are:
- Crafted from paper: Flower Charge (paper + oxeye daisy), Creeper Charge (paper + creeper head), Skull Charge (paper + wither skeleton skull), Thing (paper + enchanted golden apple), Field Masoned (paper + bricks) and Bordure Indented (paper + vines).
- Found or traded only: Globe from a master level cartographer for 8 emeralds, Snout from bastion remnant chests, Flow from ominous vaults and Guster from vaults in trial chambers.
Field Masoned and Bordure Indented became pattern items in Java 1.21.2. Before that, any loom made them with dye alone, and some older guides still say so.
How many layers can a banner have?
Six in survival. A loom will not add a pattern to a banner that already has six, in both Java and Bedrock Edition. With commands, Java Edition draws up to 16 layers on one banner, which is why this tool goes up to 16. Bedrock draws only the first six, whatever the item holds.
Layers 7 to 16 come with catches. The tooltip still lists only six. A banner with more than six patterns cannot be copied in a crafting grid, and you cannot add to it in a loom. Washing it in a cauldron removes the top layer, one wash at a time. The counter under the preview turns orange as soon as you pass six, and each layer past the limit is marked "Commands only".
What are all the banner patterns?
Java Edition 26.3 has 43 patterns: 42 you can pick in a loom and Field, which fills the whole banner and only exists in commands. The id is what 1.20.5 and newer commands use. The short code is the older name, used in 1.13 to 1.20.4 commands and earlier.
| Pattern | Id | Code | Loom needs |
|---|
| Base | stripe_bottom | bs | Dye |
| Chief | stripe_top | ts | Dye |
| Pale Dexter | stripe_left | ls | Dye |
| Pale Sinister | stripe_right | rs | Dye |
| Pale | stripe_center | cs | Dye |
| Fess | stripe_middle | ms | Dye |
| Bend | stripe_downright | drs | Dye |
| Bend Sinister | stripe_downleft | dls | Dye |
| Paly | small_stripes | ss | Dye |
| Saltire | cross | cr | Dye |
| Cross | straight_cross | sc | Dye |
| Per Bend Sinister | diagonal_left | ld | Dye |
| Per Bend | diagonal_right | rud | Dye |
| Per Bend Inverted | diagonal_up_left | lud | Dye |
| Per Bend Sinister Inverted | diagonal_up_right | rd | Dye |
| Per Pale | half_vertical | vh | Dye |
| Per Pale Inverted | half_vertical_right | vhr | Dye |
| Per Fess | half_horizontal | hh | Dye |
| Per Fess Inverted | half_horizontal_bottom | hhb | Dye |
| Base Dexter Canton | square_bottom_left | bl | Dye |
| Base Sinister Canton | square_bottom_right | br | Dye |
| Chief Dexter Canton | square_top_left | tl | Dye |
| Chief Sinister Canton | square_top_right | tr | Dye |
| Chevron | triangle_bottom | bt | Dye |
| Inverted Chevron | triangle_top | tt | Dye |
| Base Indented | triangles_bottom | bts | Dye |
| Chief Indented | triangles_top | tts | Dye |
| Roundel | circle | mc | Dye |
| Lozenge | rhombus | mr | Dye |
| Bordure | border | bo | Dye |
| Gradient | gradient | gra | Dye |
| Base Gradient | gradient_up | gru | Dye |
| Bordure Indented | curly_border | cbo | Pattern item (1.21.2+) |
| Field Masoned | bricks | bri | Pattern item (1.21.2+) |
| Flower Charge | flower | flo | Pattern item |
| Creeper Charge | creeper | cre | Pattern item |
| Skull Charge | skull | sku | Pattern item |
| Thing | mojang | moj | Pattern item |
| Globe (1.14+) | globe | glb | Pattern item |
| Snout (1.16+) | piglin | pig | Pattern item |
| Flow (1.21+) | flow | flw | Pattern item |
| Guster (1.21+) | guster | gus | Pattern item |
| Field | base | b | Commands only |
Flow and Guster arrived in 1.21, after Java commands stopped using short codes, so their codes only show up in Bedrock data. The names come from heraldry: "dexter" is the left side as you look at the banner, "sinister" the right, "chief" the top and "base" the bottom.
Which dye colors can a banner use?
The same 16 as everything else. The number matters only for old commands: Java 1.13 to 1.20.4 counts from white (0) to black (15), while 1.12 and older, and Bedrock's banner data value, count the other way round. The hex code is the tint Java puts on banners.
| Color | Id | 1.13 to 1.20.4 | 1.12 and Bedrock | Hex |
|---|
| White | white | 0 | 15 | #F9FFFE |
| Orange | orange | 1 | 14 | #F9801D |
| Magenta | magenta | 2 | 13 | #C74EBD |
| Light Blue | light_blue | 3 | 12 | #3AB3DA |
| Yellow | yellow | 4 | 11 | #FED83D |
| Lime | lime | 5 | 10 | #80C71F |
| Pink | pink | 6 | 9 | #F38BAA |
| Gray | gray | 7 | 8 | #474F52 |
| Light Gray | light_gray | 8 | 7 | #9D9D97 |
| Cyan | cyan | 9 | 6 | #169C9C |
| Purple | purple | 10 | 5 | #8932B8 |
| Blue | blue | 11 | 4 | #3C44AA |
| Brown | brown | 12 | 3 | #835432 |
| Green | green | 13 | 2 | #5E7C16 |
| Red | red | 14 | 1 | #B02E26 |
| Black | black | 15 | 0 | #1D1D21 |
How do you use the banner commands?
Pick the tab for your game version first, because the format changed twice. Java 1.20.5 replaced item NBT with item components, so a modern give command looks like this:
/give @p minecraft:red_banner[minecraft:banner_patterns=[{pattern:"minecraft:creeper",color:"black"}]]
From 1.13 to 1.20.4 the same banner was written with a block entity tag, short codes and color numbers:
/give @p minecraft:red_banner{BlockEntityTag:{Patterns:[{Pattern:"cre",Color:15}]}}
And in 1.12 and older there was one banner item whose data value set the base color. A modern command in an old world, or an old one in a new world, fails or gives a plain banner, so this matters. If you are not sure which version a server runs, this guide to Minecraft versions helps.
You need operator rights or cheats enabled to run these. @p means the nearest player; change it to your name or @a in the Player box. Chat accepts 256 characters at most. Long designs go over that quickly, and the tool flags it: paste those into a command block, which takes far longer commands. On a server, command blocks also need enable-command-block=true, one of the server.properties settings. Managing who can run commands is covered in whitelist, ops and permissions.
Setblock: standing and wall banners
A give command puts the banner in your inventory. A setblock command places it straight into the world at the position you enter (~ ~ ~ is where you stand). Standing banners take a rotation from 0 to 15 in steps of 22.5 degrees: 0 faces south, 4 west, 8 north and 12 east. Wall banners take facing, the direction the front looks, and hang on the block behind them. The two dropdowns above the commands set both.
Can you give a banner with patterns in Bedrock?
No. Bedrock commands cannot set item data like banner patterns, so /give only hands out a plain banner, with the data value choosing its color (the Bedrock tab shows the command). For the patterns, use a loom: the loom steps work the same in Bedrock, and Bedrock can also add most patterns in a crafting table. Bedrock draws six layers at most, even on a banner that holds more, so tick "Bedrock" under the preview to see what Bedrock players will see. More differences between the two editions are in Bedrock or Java.
How do you put a banner on a shield?
Put a finished banner and a shield with no design into a crafting grid. You get the shield back with the banner's base color and patterns, and the banner is used up. Durability and enchantments stay. A shield shows the same patterns as the banner, squeezed into a smaller 12 by 22 face, which is why fine details like the eyes of the skull can disappear. Use the Shield view to check, or copy the shield give command to skip the crafting.
How do you use banners as map markers?
In Java Edition, place a banner, hold a map of that area and use the map on the banner. A marker in the banner's base color appears on the map, and if you renamed the banner in an anvil, the name shows under it. Patterns do not show on the marker, only the base color. Break the banner and the marker goes, unless the map was locked in a cartography table. Bedrock has no banner markers. If maps are your thing, the map art generator turns pictures into maps too.
How do you make letter banners?
Letters are built from stripes and shapes in two colors, then a Bordure in the background color trims everything back from the edges so the letter stands free. Open the Gallery tab in the tool, pick a letter color and a background, and click a letter to load it. Most letters fit in six layers, so you can craft them in survival. R, 6, 8 and 9 need seven, which means commands. Put several on a wall, one banner per letter, to spell a name or a shop sign.
What is the Ominous Banner?
The Ominous Banner is the gray and cyan banner pillager captains wear. It has a white base and eight layers: cyan Lozenge, light gray Base, gray Pale, light gray Bordure, black Fess, light gray Per Fess, light gray Roundel and black Bordure. Eight is two more than a loom allows, so you cannot make one in survival; you get it by defeating a captain. The preset in the gallery recreates the look so you can copy the commands, though the real item also carries its own "Ominous Banner" name.
How does this compare with other banner makers?
Most banner makers online do part of the job. Some stop at six layers, or cover only the older patterns and miss Globe, Snout, Flow and Guster. Some show a preview but no command, or one command for one version. Others list loom steps without saying where the pattern items come from. A few are image generators that make banner art you cannot put in the game.
This one does all of it on one page: every pattern previewed live on your own banner, 16 layers with drag reordering and per layer editing, banner, wall and shield previews at the game's real resolution, give and setblock commands for every Java version and an honest answer for Bedrock, loom steps with a shopping list, letters and numbers in any colors, and a link that carries the whole design with no account. Nothing is uploaded: the design is made and drawn in your browser.
Want to try your designs on a server you control, with command blocks and creative mode? You can run a free Minecraft server and paste the commands there, and the MOTD maker gives its server list entry some color to match.
