In Minecraft, a banner is a tall block specifically made to show off a pattern or design — the perfect accessory for decorating an inside space. You can find banners naturally spawning in Minecraft, but the results are limited and unimpressive, with few complex options beyond simple white flower banners in Woodland Mansions, or villager face banners in pillager outposts.
Fortunately, it’s possible to craft your own banner using the right kind of dyes in the right positions. Here’s how to do it!
Further reading
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Step 1: Create or find a banner
First, get yourself a banner! You can usually loot a banner by attacking one or attacking a villager holding one, then inspecting what drops. Otherwise, you can create your own banner easily with six segments of matching wool colors and a stick.
Step 2: Bleach the banner if necessary
You don’t have to bleach a banner before you start, but it’s an option. This gives you a white, blank slate to start with any dyes you might want to add, and gets rid of existing patterns if you looted the banner. However, you will need bleach, which can only be created with a lab table (available with the Education Edition or direct commands), where you combine three water and three sodium hypochlorite. Then you can craft the banner with the newly created bleach to wipe it clean.
Otherwise, we suggest just starting with white wool when crafting, since that will yield the best results.
Step 3: Add dyes to the banner
If you don’t have any dyes yet, now is the time to start gathering, buying, or crafting them. There are a total of 16 dyes you can use, so pick the colors you have in mind and get to work. Bonemeal, ink sacs, flowers, and plants are all common ingredients you can put in the crafting grid to yield various dyes.
When you have enough dye for your project, it’s time to craft it as well. The key is proper positioning: Where you put your banner and your dyes in the 3×3 crafting grid will determine the pattern that appears on your banner.
Most of the placements are largely intuitive, especially if you want to create a crest-inspired design. Popping a single dye into the corner of the crafting grid, with the banner in the middle, will yield a square shape of color in that section. A dye in the center will create a large dot. Surrounding the banner with dyes will create a border of that color. You can make a gradient by positioning dyes in the upper right and left corners and the bottom two middle sections of the grid. Crosses and X’s are likewise made by positioning dyes in the proper patterns. A triangle of dyes can create chevrons at the top or bottom of the banner, or diagonally divide the banner with color depending on placement — and so on.
Special designs
You can also create special banner designs by adding in additional items along with a dye color for more complex results. These options include:
- Brick: Adding a brick will create a brick pattern. Add a single dye and a brick to create a colored brick pattern.
- Vine: Crafting a vine, a dye, and your banner will create a wavy border in the color of your preference.
- Creeper head: This gives you a Creeper-like face on the banner, in the color of your choice.
- Wither skeleton skull: Use this to create a skull and crossbones design.
- Oxeye daisy: This provide a vague flower shape.
- Enchanted gold apple: Use this to get the Mojang logo.
Remember, you can craft dyes on a banner multiple times! This allows you to complement and overlay designs to get just the look that you want. If you want to experiment first so you don’t waste any materials, Minecraft has a tool for that very thing. People have created everything from real-world national flags to the crests of the Houses in Game of Thrones, so you can find plenty of good advice for more complex plans.
If you have access to a loom, you can create even more banner patterns with a wider variety of logos, but this is not necessary to get the look your want.
Step 4: Place your banner
With your dyes and design crafted, you are ready to place your banner in the desired location. Banners have no collision mechanics and are placed either on the ground (like a sign) or on a wall. Lava cannot hurt them, and objects move right through them if necessary, including running water.
Step 5: Arrange multiple banners if necessary
Sometimes one banner isn’t enough to get the exact look you want, especially if you want to spell something out or create a large billboard. For this, you will need to create and place multiple banners in the same position, using their color patterns to form a larger design.
If you want to create a banner with the same colors, simply put a blank banner and your dyed banner into the crafting grid. This allows you to copy the design without needing to gather all the materials again.
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