How to Make a Banner in Minecraft

A Minecraft banner is crafted from 6 wool and 1 stick, then decorated at a loom with up to 6 pattern layers — or spawned with a give command. This guide covers Java Edition 1.8 and newer, with a Bedrock section at the end.

What do you need to make a banner?

Six wool of one color and one stick, combined in a crafting table.

1. Open a crafting table (the 2×2 inventory grid is too small).
2. Fill the top two rows with 6 wool of the same color. That color becomes the banner's base.
3. Put 1 stick in the bottom-middle slot.
4. Take the banner. Every recipe makes one; a stack of 6 wool per banner adds up fast, so shear sheep rather than kill them.

A blank banner is already a banner: place it on the ground, on a wall, or on a shield. The color comes from the wool, and there is no way to change it later — see Can you dye a banner?

How do you add patterns at the loom?

Put the banner, a dye, and (for some patterns) a pattern item into the loom, pick a pattern, and take the result.

1. Craft a loom from 2 string and 2 planks, and open it.
2. Left slot: the banner. Middle slot: a dye — that is the color of the layer you are adding.
3. Pick a pattern from the list. Most patterns are always listed; the ones below appear only when their item is in the right-hand slot.
4. Take the banner out and put it back in for the next layer. Layers stack: each one is drawn on top of the last.

Every banner on MCBanners lists its layers in loom order, so you can follow it slot by slot: browse the gallery for player designs. Skip the loom entirely: design it in the Banner Maker and copy the command.

How many layers and colors can a banner have?

6 layers at the loom, 16 with a command, in any of the 16 dye colors, from 43 patterns.

• Layers: the loom refuses a seventh layer. A give command can stack up to 16; beyond that the game may not render the banner. Banners with more than 6 layers cannot be copied or put on a shield in survival.
• Colors: the 16 dyes — white, light gray, gray, black, brown, red, orange, yellow, lime, green, cyan, light blue, blue, purple, magenta, pink — for the base and for every layer.
• Patterns: 39 in 1.8 – 1.15, 41 in 1.16 – 1.20 (Globe and Snout), 43 in 1.21+ (Flow and Guster).

How do you copy or duplicate a banner?

Put the patterned banner and a blank banner of the same base color together in a crafting grid; you get both back, now identical.

1. Craft a blank banner in the same base color as the one you want to copy.
2. Put both in any crafting grid — the 2×2 inventory grid works. Position does not matter.
3. Take the result: two banners with the same pattern. The original is not used up.

The base colors must match, and the source banner can have at most 6 layers. No cartography table is involved; that is for maps. Copying is the cheap way to line a wall with the same design — or to spell a word with letter banners.

Can you dye a banner?

No. A banner's base color is the wool it was crafted from and cannot be changed afterwards.

Dye is used at the loom to color each pattern layer, not the banner itself. If you want the same design on a different base, craft a new blank banner in that color and add the layers again — or open the design in the Banner Maker, change the base, and copy the command.

How do you name a banner?

Rename it in an anvil, like any item; the name shows in its tooltip and as a marker label on maps.

1. Put the banner in the anvil's left slot and type a name (1 experience level).
2. Place the named banner in the world, then right-click it with a map of that area: the map shows a marker in the banner's base color with the name next to it.

Naming does not change the design, and a copied banner does not carry the name.

How do you put a banner on a shield?

Put a shield and a banner together in a crafting grid; the shield takes the banner's design and the banner is used up.

1. Craft a plain shield from 6 planks and 1 iron ingot.
2. Put the shield and the finished banner in any crafting grid, in any two slots.
3. Take the shield. Its front now shows the banner's base color and layers.

The shield must be undecorated, and the banner can have at most 6 layers. Bedrock supports this too (since 1.10). Want to see it before you craft it? The Shield Maker draws any design on a shield and gives you the shield command directly, and the shield banner designs gallery has ready-made ones.

What is the banner give command for each version?

The command syntax changed in 1.13, 1.16 and 1.21, so use the row for your version. Every example gives the nearest player a black banner with a lime Creeper Charge; the pattern list is what changes between designs.

/give @p minecraft:banner 1 0 {BlockEntityTag:{Base:0,Patterns:[{Pattern:"cre",Color:10}]}}

/give @p minecraft:black_banner{BlockEntityTag:{Patterns:[{Pattern:"cre",Color:5}]}}

/give @p minecraft:black_banner{BlockEntityTag:{Patterns:[{Pattern:"cre",Color:5}]}}

/give @p minecraft:black_banner[banner_patterns=[{pattern:"minecraft:creeper",color:"lime"}]]

• 1.8 – 1.12: numeric colors (0 = black … 15 = white, the reverse of dye ids) and the short pattern codes such as cre.
• 1.13 – 1.20: the banner is its own item (black_banner) and the patterns sit in NBT under BlockEntityTag; 1.16 adds Globe and Snout.
• 1.21+: item components — banner_patterns=[…] with full pattern names — replace NBT.

You need cheats on (or operator rights) to run it: open chat, paste, press Enter. The same string works in a command block. Every banner and shield on MCBanners shows its command for each version it supports, or build your own in the Banner Maker and copy it from there.

What is different on Bedrock?

Bedrock crafts banners the same way but cannot give a patterned banner with a command.

• Crafting and the loom work as above, with the same 6-layer limit. Some patterns that are free at the Java loom need an item on Bedrock (Field Masoned needs bricks, Bordure Indented needs vines).
• Commands: Bedrock's /give has no pattern data, so the commands on this site are Java only. On Bedrock, craft the banner at the loom, or build it once and copy it with a structure block.
• Shields take a banner design on Bedrock too, and the copy recipe is the same.

Still stuck? Try the FAQ or contact us.