Banner designer: banners layer by layer, with loom steps and the /give command
Design a banner from a base color and pattern layers, see it live, and get the loom steps in order, the Java /give command, a PNG and a share link.
A banner is a base color with pattern layers stacked on top, each in its own dye. Planning one in a loom costs dyes for every try; here you can try as many designs as you like, see the result at once, and then follow the steps in order. The designer covers the loom's standard patterns: stripes, halves, quarters, diagonals, crosses, triangles, borders, bricks and gradients.
How to design a banner
- Pick the base color. It is the color of the wool the banner is made from, and it cannot be changed later.
- Add a layer and pick its pattern and dye color. The small pictures show each pattern in the layer's color, so you can see what it does before you choose.
- Add more layers. Layer 1 goes on first and every later layer covers the ones before it, so put large shapes (halves, gradients) first and small details (a roundel, a border) last.
- Reorder with the arrows, remove a layer with the cross, or press Random for ideas and Clear to start over.
- Save the picture, copy the command, or copy the share link to send the design to a friend.
Making it in survival with a loom
- Craft a loom from two string over two planks of any wood.
- Craft the banner: six wool of the base color in the top two rows of a crafting grid, with a stick in the bottom middle.
- Gather one dye for each layer. Each layer uses up one dye; the banner keeps its base color.
- Open the loom, put the banner in the first slot and the dye of layer 1 in the second, pick the pattern, and take the banner out.
- Put it back and repeat for each layer, in the order of the steps the designer lists.
- Field Masoned and Bordure Indented also need a banner pattern item in the third slot: paper with bricks, or paper with vines. The pattern item is not used up.
A loom adds at most six layers. When your design has more, the designer marks the extra layers and tells you; you can still make the first six by hand.
How the command works
In Java Edition, a banner's patterns are an item component. The command gives a banner of the base color, such as blue_banner, with a list of layers: each one a pattern id like stripe_bottom or rhombus and a dye color like red. Run it in chat with cheats on, or from a command block. Commands longer than 256 characters do not fit in the chat box, so paste a long one into a command block instead. Choose Shield to give a shield with the same design: a shield gets its base color from base_color.
With commands, Java Edition shows up to 16 layers on a banner, though the item's tooltip lists only the first six. Banners with more than six layers cannot be copied in a crafting grid. Bedrock Edition shows six layers at most, and its /give command cannot add patterns, so on Bedrock use the loom steps.
Tips
- Copy a banner by crafting it with a blank banner of the same base color: you get the copy and keep the original.
- Put a banner and a plain shield in a crafting grid to paint the shield with the design. The banner is used up, so make a copy first.
- Made a mistake? Use the banner on a cauldron with water to wash off the last layer.
- In Java Edition, use a map on a placed banner to mark it on the map; a banner renamed in an anvil shows its name there.
- Some names differ in Bedrock Edition: Base and Chief are called Base Fess and Chief Fess, and the four diagonal halves trade names. The picture is what counts.
Questions
Will my banner look exactly like the picture?
The shapes and colors match the game's patterns and dye colors, but the drawing is our own: the game adds its cloth texture and lighting, and a few edges fall a texel differently. Gradients look smoother in the game.
Why are the creeper, skull and flower missing?
Those emblems need banner pattern items and are pictures from the game itself, so this tool leaves them out. Everything a loom makes without an emblem is here.
Is my design saved?
Yes, in this browser: the page remembers your last banner. The share link holds the whole design too, so you can bookmark it.
Everything happens in this page: nothing is uploaded. For more, see the command generator for other /give commands, the painting maker, and all tools.