How to make all 16 Minecraft dyes and their uses
Craft yourself a whole world of color
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A lot of the fun on Minecraft comes from building. Whether in Creative or Survival mode, you can build almost anything you can imagine, especially given the range of colors that blocks such as Terracotta and Concrete can be made in. And that’s where dyes come in, because you can’t surround yourself with color without them.
In this guide, we’re going to take a look at how to make each of Minecraft’s 16 dyes, as well as some of their uses!
How to make dyes in Minecraft
Making dyes is (mostly) simple. The majority require an item in a Crafting Table, or even just your inventory’s 2×2 crafting table, while some require a little more work. Take a look at the table below for each of the colored dyes, which items are required to make them, and if there are any special requirements. Note that, in most cases, more than one item can be used to craft the same dye. In others, two or more dyes can be crafted together to make a dye of another color. Finally, two-high flowers – such as peonies and rose bushes – result in two of their respective dyes.
| Dye color | Items required | Notes |
| White Dye | Bone Meal | |
| Lily of the Valley | ||
| Light Grey Dye | Azure Bluet, Oxeye Daisy or White Tulip | |
| 1 x Black Dye and 2 x White Dye | ||
| 1x Grey Dye and 1 x White Dye | ||
| Grey Dye | 1 x Black Dye and 1 x White Dye | |
| Black Dye | Ink Sac | |
| Wither Rose | ||
| Brown Dye | Cocoa Beans | |
| Orange Dye | Orange Tulip | |
| 1 x Yellow and 1 x Red Dye | ||
| Yellow Dye | Dandelion or Sunflower | |
| Lime Dye | 1 x Green Dye and 1 x White Dye | |
| Sea Pickle | Must be smelted in a Furnace | |
| Green Dye | Cactus | Must be smelted in a Furnace |
| Cyan Dye | 1 x Blue Dye and 1 x Green Dye | |
| Blue Dye | Lapis Lazuli | |
| Cornflower | ||
| Light Blue Dye | Blue Orchid | |
| 1 x Blue Dye and 1 x White Dye | ||
| Purple Dye | 1 Blue Dye and 1 x Red Dye | |
| Magenta Dye | Allium or Lilac | |
| 1 x Purple Dye and 1 x Pink Dye | ||
| 1 x Red Dye, 1 x Blue Dye and 1 x White Dye | ||
| 1 x Pink Dye, 1 x Red Dye and 1 x Blue Dye | ||
| Pink Dye | Pink Tulip or Peony | |
| 1 x Red Dye and 1 x White Dye | ||
| Red Dye | Poppy, Red Tulip, Rose Bush or Beetroot |
What can dyes be used for in Minecraft?
Aside from the obvious, like dying blocks, there are loads of uses in Minecraft you might not know about. For example – and for the record, we think this is the most vital – you can use Minecraft dyes on a tamed cat or wolf to change the color of its collar. Another of our favorite uses for Minecraft dyes involves a new item, introduced in 1.17 – candles. Different colored candles can be crafted by putting a candle in a Crafting Table with a single dye color.
Other items you can dye in Minecraft include beds, wool (which can be redyed from any existing color), glass (to create stained glass) and Shulker Boxes.
There is a nice use for dyes which is exclusive to Bedrock Edition, and that is to dye water. If you add a dye to a cauldron full of water, the water inside that cauldron will appear colored. You can then use this to dye leather. In a decidedly more boring method, leather is simply crafted with a dye in Java Edition.
If you touch a sign with a piece of dye, it will change the color of the writing to that of the dye you used. To make this even more spectacular, you can then add an Ink Sac from a Glow Squid to make the letters glow brightly.
Finally, dyes are used in the crafting of Fireworks and Banners, but they are more complex in themselves, so check out our separate guides on both how to craft and use Fireworks and how to make Banners on our growing Minecraft hub!
More Minecraft Block and Item guides
- What are Grass Blocks and how to make them
- What are Amethyst Geodes and where to find them
- Everything you need to know about Nautilus Shells
- How to make Concrete and Concrete Powder in Minecraft
- How to get Blue Ice in Minecraft
- Everything you need to know about the Minecraft Crafting Table
And head over to our Minecraft hub for even more news, guides and how-tos!
