Book and Quill Rarity color Common Renewable Yes Stackable No

A book and quill is an item used to write written books.

Obtaining [ edit ]

Crafting [ edit ]

Natural generation [ edit ]

Usage [ edit ]

Crafting ingredient [ edit ]

Writing [ edit ]

By pressing use item or long pressing screen anywhere‌[Bedrock Edition only] while holding a book and quill in their hand, the player can open a text editor GUI.

Using this GUI, the player can write a single book up to 100 pages‌[Java Edition only] or 50‌[Bedrock Edition only] long, with up to 255 characters per page, with line breaks counting as two characters. The player can write up to 12,800 characters inside the entire book. No page may be longer than 14 lines and each line can have a width of 113 pixels (see pixel width of each character here).

The player has the ability to copy and paste into books. However, the paste does not work if the text being pasted is longer than a single page. Most Unicode characters are available in books, and they may be pasted in without issue.

In singleplayer, the world pauses while a book is being edited.‌[Java Edition only]

Lecterns [ edit ]

One can place a book and quill or a written book on an empty lectern.

The lectern then emits a redstone signal depending on the displayed page in the book. On the last page, the lectern emits a signal strength of 15. This is why lecterns are listed in the "redstone" tab in the creative inventory.

Formatting codes [ edit ]

Text in a book can be styled using codes starting with the § character (section sign).

§ + k creates randomly changing characters.

+ creates randomly changing characters. § + l creates bold text.

+ creates bold text. § + o creates italic text.

+ creates italic text. § + 0 – f (hexadecimal) creates colored text.

+ – (hexadecimal) creates colored text. § + r resets any of the previous styles so text after it appears normally.

If the player uses multiple codes, and continue typing past the end of a line, the next line exhibits only the last formatting code used.

Signing [ edit ]

Books can be signed by pressing the "Sign" button while in the interface. In Java Edition, when signed, a book bears the name of the player who wrote it and a title chosen upon signing. In Bedrock Edition, the book doesn't get the name of the player, instead, it gets any text the player wants. After it has been signed, it cannot be edited again – it has turned into a written book.

The title of the book can be up to 16 characters long, and the player cannot paste into a title. Special characters can be used in the title, if typed from a keyboard that supports them. Alt codes do not work, and the § character cannot be typed even using a keyboard that implements it, meaning titles cannot be colored or formatted in-game. However, on Linux using the compose key to produce special characters does work.

Trading [ edit ]

Expert-level librarian villagers buy a book and quill for one emerald. ‌[Bedrock Edition only]

Expert-level librarian villagers have a 50% chance to buy 2 book and quills for one emerald.‌[Java Edition only]

Sounds [ edit ]

Sound Subtitle Source Description Namespaced ID Translation key Volume Pitch Attenuation

distance Sound parameters Volume Pitch Attenuation

distance Stream Preload https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/File:Page_turn1.ogg https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/File:Page_turn2.ogg https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/File:Page_turn3.ogg Page rustles ? ? item.book.page_turn subtitles.item.book.page_turn 2 ? 16 ? ? ? ? ? https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/File:Book_thump1.ogg https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/File:Book_thump2.ogg Book thumps ? ? item.book.put subtitles.item.book.put ? ? 16 ? ? ? ? ?

Data values [ edit ]

ID [ edit ]

Java Edition:

Name Namespaced ID Item tags (JE) Translation key Book and Quill writable_book lectern_books item.minecraft.writable_book

Bedrock Edition:

Name Namespaced ID Numeric ID Translation key Book and Quill writable_book 386 item.writable_book.name

Item data [ edit ]

tag : The tag tag. pages : The list of pages in the book. : A single page in the book. Each page is a string and uses the escape sequence

for a line break. However, the command parser does not accept

, because of which line breaks need to be set by a player or using loot tables.



Video [ edit ]

History [ edit ]

Issues [ edit ]

Issues relating to "Book and Quill" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia [ edit ]

The in-game restrictions on books are not hard limits. Third party editors or commands can make books have more than 100 pages‌ [ Java Edition only ] (2,147,483,639 pages), more than 256 characters per page (32,767 characters per page), can change author names, and can have colored titles, among other things. These books still function properly in vanilla Minecraft , meaning the player may encounter such books on adventure maps or multiplayer servers. [1]

(2,147,483,639 pages), more than 256 characters per page (32,767 characters per page), can change author names, and can have colored titles, among other things. These books still function properly in vanilla , meaning the player may encounter such books on adventure maps or multiplayer servers. Although the name blank is only 16 characters long, the player can give it a longer name using an anvil.

If the player renames a book and quill in an anvil before signing it, it retains the name from the anvil instead of taking the name from signing.‌ [ Java Edition only ]

If the player renames a book and quill in an anvil before writing in it, they cannot write anything in the book. If something is written in it before it is renamed, then it functions normally.

Because of the massive text limit, players on certain servers have figured out how to "Book ban" other players by filling a shulker box with books filled with random characters and unicode symbols, and then tricking players into picking up the box. The player who picked it up is instantly disconnected from the server due to the massive amount of data they just recieved, and they are unable to log back in unless an admin clears that player's inventory.

Gallery [ edit ]

The first image of a book seen. [2]

The GUI of writing a book.

The GUI of signing a book.

A signed book.

Display of styles used in a book. "e" and "f" are difficult to see.

Different types of characters can be used to simulate a different font.

A book and quill in Bedrock Edition.

References [ edit ]



