Sign

Breaking

Signs can be broken with any tool or without a tool, but an axe is fastest.

A sign also breaks and drops itself as an item if the block the sign is attached to is moved, removed or destroyed.

Natural generation

An oak sign can be found in igloo basements. Spruce signs can be found in taiga village houses, as part of a chair but the sign says nothing.

Usage

Signs can be used to display text; they can be used to label storage, display information to other players or note areas of interest. Signs are also not destroyed by water or lava and therefore may be used to control the flow of these fluids.

Placement

Signs may be placed on the top or side of other blocks (including semi-solid and non-solid blocks such as fences, trapdoors and other signs). To place a sign, a sign item while pointing at the block the sign should be attached to, enter the desired text (or none), and click the "Done" button, press anywhere outside the sign texture,, press "escape" on a keyboard, or on an Xbox controller, on a PlayStation controller, or on a Nintendo Switch controller. Closing the virtual keyboard on a mobile device also exits the typing menu. To place a sign on a block that can be interacted with by the control (for example, chests, note blocks, etc.), while placing the sign. Signs on the top of a block stand on a short post and face toward the player who placed it, in any of 16 different directions. Signs placed on the side of a block simply float there, even if the block doesn't make contact with the sign. For more information about the blocks signs can be placed on, see Opacity/Placement.

Text

Placing a sign opens an editor interface resembling a magnified view of the sign. Up to four lines of text can then be entered using a keyboard (hardware or on-screen). The editor supports limited editing, including moving the cursor and inserting and deleting characters. , formatting codes with § can also be used to apply decorative effects such as color, bold, italic and obfuscated to various bits of the text. Text can be added to the back side of a sign by interacting with that side of the sign after placing it and editing the front. Signs can be waxed by a honeycomb on it. Once waxed, a sign cannot be unwaxed or edited without being broken and placed down again or by using commands like /data After placing and affixing text on a sign, a player can change the text color by a dye on it. When colored with dye, the text color may differ from any color specified by formatting codes. These values are hard-coded in the game's code, each dye color maps to one of these. The dye color on the sign's face is applied to all 4 lines of text. Any text that has been colored with text component format overwrites this color, effectively making the 'dye' color be used as a base color for any unstyled text.

Interaction

Signs can be edited after being placed by them, which opens the edit sign message GUI. Signs are destroyed and drop as an item when pushed by a piston. Signs are non-solid and have no collision, so items and mobs can move through sign blocks. Other blocks (including other signs) can be placed on any edge of a sign. Water and lava flow around signs. Lava can create fire in air blocks next to signs as if the signs were flammable, but the signs do not burn (and cannot be burned by other methods either, except ).