Design the message players see in their server list — colours, formatting and gradients — with a live in-game preview, then copy the motd= line straight into your server.properties.
Codes insert at your cursor on the first line. Server lists show two lines of roughly 45 characters each.
Rendered the way the vanilla client draws it: a colour code resets formatting, and §k magic text animates.
Paste this into server.properties. The section sign is written as § so it survives every text editor.
The MOTD (“message of the day”) is the line of text shown under your server in the multiplayer list. It is set by the motd= key in server.properties and supports two lines, legacy colour codes and text formatting. A clear, colourful MOTD is the cheapest way to make your server stand out.
Minecraft uses section-sign (§) codes: §0–§f for the 16 colours and §l §o §n §m §k §r for bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, obfuscated and reset. In server.properties the section sign is written as the escape § — this generator outputs the escaped form for you, so it pastes cleanly.
Need every other setting too? Try the server.properties generator. Built by ChunkyHost — servers that only bill while you play.