Colours
Drag the stops, click the bar to add one
Stops
Arrow keys move the stop, Shift moves it further, Delete removes it.
Presets
Copy as
Pick the format your plugin or config reads
Format
Paper, Velocity and any plugin built on Adventure: chat formatters, TAB, scoreboards, MOTD plugins.
How gradient text works
One color per letter, written the way each platform expects
Minecraft has no gradient style. A gradient is every letter colored on its own, each with a hex color picked along the ramp between your stops. Java Edition has drawn arbitrary hex colors since 1.16; Bedrock still can't.
The formats differ in who does that work. MiniMessage's <gradient> tag hands the stops to the server, which colors the letters itself. The legacy outputs spell out
every letter's color: §x followed by six §-prefixed hex digits, or the &#RRGGBB shorthand plugins invented. JSON
gives each letter a color field.
Spaces don't get a color of their own unless underline or strikethrough is on, which keeps the legacy strings a little shorter. Need the 16 named codes instead? The color codes reference has them, and the text generator mixes gradients with named colors and exports a PNG.
More Minecraft tools
Text, MOTDs and chat commands
Frequently asked questions
Formats, blending and length limits
Which gradient format does my server need? +
Paper and anything built on Adventure reads MiniMessage, so <gradient:#ff0000:#0000ff>Text</gradient> is the shortest option there. EssentialsX, CMI and most Spigot chat plugins want &#RRGGBB before every character. Vanilla commands and datapacks take a JSON text component, one color per letter.
Why does my gradient show up as plain codes in chat? +
The plugin reading the text doesn't understand that format. &#RRGGBB is a plugin convention, not something Minecraft parses, and vanilla chat never translates & at all. Try the &x&R&R&G&G&B&B form for older plugins, or MiniMessage if the server runs Paper.
What's the difference between RGB and OKLab blending? +
RGB mixes the red, green and blue channels in a straight line, which is what MiniMessage's <gradient> tag does. Between saturated colors it tends to pass through a muddy, darker middle. OKLab mixes by perceived lightness and hue, so the midpoint stays as bright as the ends. With OKLab selected the MiniMessage output lists each character's color itself so the server draws exactly what you see here.
Why does every character repeat the bold code? +
In Java Edition a color code resets every format, so §x…§lA§x…B would only bold the A. Legacy outputs re-send the format after each color. MiniMessage and JSON don't have this problem: the format wraps the whole gradient once.
How long can gradient text be? +
Each legacy hex color costs 14 characters, so a 16-letter gradient is already over 220 characters of § codes. Chat input stops at 256 characters and a vanilla MOTD shows about 59 visible characters per line. Keep names and MOTDs short, or use MiniMessage, which stays short no matter how many letters there are.
Does gradient text work on Bedrock? +
No. Bedrock only has the 16 named colors plus its material colors, and it ignores hex codes. Geyser servers downsample hex to the nearest named color for Bedrock players.