How a gradient is built
A gradient from red to blue over the word Hello becomes five separately coloured letters: the first fully red, the last fully blue and the three in between mixed. Spaces don’t get a colour of their own, so a gap doesn’t cause a jump.
That is why gradient output is long. Every character carries a full colour code, and some formats repeat bold or italic codes too.
Choose the format for where the text goes
| Where the text is used | Format | Example of one coloured letter |
|---|---|---|
Vanilla /tellraw, /title and similar commands | Text component with a color for each part (hex colours since Java Edition 1.16) | {"text":"H","color":"#FF5555"} |
| Paper, Velocity and plugins built on Adventure | MiniMessage, which has its own gradient tag | <gradient:#FF5555:#5555FF>Hello</gradient> |
Plugins that document &# hex codes | Ampersand hex codes | &#FF5555H |
| Spigot and BungeeCord style configs | Section-sign hex codes | §x§F§F§5§5§5§5H |
Since Java Edition 1.21.5, commands take text components written in SNBT. The quoted, JSON-style form shown above is still valid SNBT, so it can be pasted into a command as it is.
Where gradients don’t work
- server.properties: the vanilla
motdonly has the 16 standard colours. The MOTD Generator replaces hex colours with the nearest standard one. - Bedrock Edition: it has no hex colours at all.
- Plugins with a different format: if you see codes like
&#FF5555as plain text in game, the plugin expects another format. Check its documentation.
Making it look good
- Short text works best. Over a long sentence, neighbouring letters are too similar to notice a gradient.
- Pick two colours with similar brightness, or one end becomes hard to read on the dark chat background.
- Check the result on the in-game background. The generator’s preview uses a dark surface like the game’s chat.