Chat Canvas

Chat Canvas is a client-side chat HUD customization mod for Minecraft Java Edition. It provides a visual editor that lets you move, resize, style, and preview the chat interface directly inside the game.

Instead of editing configuration files manually, you can drag the chat box to the desired position, resize it from any edge or corner, and immediately preview how your messages, input field, backgrounds, player names, and notifications will look.

Chat Canvas also includes per-player name colors, mention notifications, player quick actions, and a persistent command clipboard.

Two Editor Themes

Chat Canvas includes two selectable visual themes:

Chat Canvas Theme

A modern interface featuring:

• Semi-transparent floating panels
• Custom controls
• Modern accent colors
• Smooth panel movement
• A clean, contemporary appearance

Minecraft-style Theme

A theme designed to match Minecraft’s visual language:

• Minecraft-style buttons
• Square borders and panels
• Vanilla-style sliders and text fields
• Familiar gray interface colors

Both themes use the exact same editor layout, features, settings, and editing session. Switching themes only changes the appearance of the editor.

You can switch themes at any time without losing unsaved changes, undo history, or the current page.

Visual Chat Editor

The editor displays a live preview over the current game world.

You can:

• Drag the chat HUD to any position
• Resize it from all four sides and four corners
• Preview the chat in opened and closed states
• Use edge and center alignment guides
• Adjust exact X and Y positions
• Adjust width and height
• Undo and redo changes
• Cancel changes without modifying your saved configuration
• Save and immediately apply changes to the real chat HUD

The settings panel automatically moves to the opposite side when it would overlap the chat preview.

Text Customization

Chat Canvas provides extensive text controls:

• Text size
• Line spacing
• Character spacing
• Text opacity
• Text shadow
• Left alignment
• Center alignment
• Right alignment

Text wrapping, clickable links, hover events, player name hitboxes, and chat interaction coordinates are adjusted together with the visual text layout.

Character spacing also works with the chat input field, including its cursor, selection area, and mouse positioning.

Background Customization

Message backgrounds can be configured independently from the text.

Available message background modes:

• Follow Text
• Full Width
• Hidden

Additional options include:

• Message background color
• Message background opacity
• Horizontal padding
• Vertical padding
• Input field background color
• Input field opacity
• Input field border
• Input field border color
• Input field border opacity

Background height remains independent from line spacing, preventing large dark blocks between widely spaced messages.

Per-Player Name Colors

Chat Canvas can assign a stable color to each player based on their UUID.

Features include:

• Automatic UUID-based colors
• Stable colors across sessions
• Manual color overrides
• Customizable color palette
• Online player search
• Restore automatic color
• Preserve server-provided colors

Only the player name is recolored. Message content, prefixes, formatting, click events, hover events, signatures, and indicators remain intact.

Mentions

Double-click a player name in the opened chat screen to insert:

@PlayerName

The mention is inserted at the current cursor position or replaces the selected text.

Chat Canvas never sends the message automatically.

Mention features include:

• Configurable double-click interval
• Mention text highlighting
• Custom highlight color
• Optional bold highlighting
• Optional requirement for the @ symbol
• Case-insensitive player name matching

Mention Notifications

When another player mentions your name, Chat Canvas can notify you in several ways.

Available notification methods:

• Configurable sound
• Adjustable sound volume
• Adjustable sound pitch
• Toast notification
• Configurable message preview length
• Full-screen color flash
• Configurable flash color
• Configurable flash opacity
• Configurable flash duration

Each notification method can be enabled or disabled independently.

Repeated processing, message rewrapping, and chat refreshes do not trigger duplicate notifications for the same message.

Player Quick Actions

Right-click a player name in the chat history to open a quick-action menu.

Available actions:

• Mention Player
• Message Player
• Copy Player Name

The private message template can be customized for different servers, for example:

/msg {player}

/tell {player}

/w {player}

These actions only modify the chat input field. They never send messages automatically.

Persistent Command Clipboard

Chat Canvas includes a global command clipboard for saving frequently used commands.

The command clipboard is not tied to a world or server. Saved commands remain available after leaving a world, changing servers, or restarting the game.

Features include:

• Save the current input command
• Custom command titles
• Categories
• Favorites
• Search
• Recently used commands
• Usage counters
• Edit commands
• Delete commands
• Reorder commands
• Clear a category
• Clear non-favorite commands
• Clear all saved commands
• Insert at the cursor
• Replace the current input
• Shift-click to temporarily reverse the insertion mode
• Built-in common command presets

Clicking a command only places it in the chat input field. It is never automatically executed.

The command launcher button automatically hides while the command clipboard is open and returns when the panel is closed.

Command Safety

The command clipboard stores saved commands locally as plain-text JSON.

Do not save passwords, access tokens, or private information on shared or untrusted computers. This includes commands such as:

• /login
• /register
• /password
• /changepassword

Chat Canvas displays a warning before saving commands that may contain sensitive information.

Chat Canvas does not upload your commands or send them to the mod author.

Compatibility

Chat Canvas includes compatibility handling for the following mods:

Chat Heads

Chat Canvas does not provide player avatars itself. Chat Heads can continue rendering avatars alongside customized text, backgrounds, and alignment.

Player name click areas do not include the avatar.

More Chat History

Chat Canvas does not replace or restrict chat history capacity. More Chat History remains responsible for increasing the history limit.

ChatAnimation

Chat Canvas does not add a separate message-entry animation. ChatAnimation can continue handling message animations.

Smooth Scrolling

Chat Canvas does not implement another scrolling animation. Smooth Scrolling can continue handling chat scrolling.

Compatibility may vary depending on mod versions, resource packs, custom fonts, GUI scale, and modpack configuration.

Requirements

• Minecraft 1.21.1
• Java 21 or newer
• Fabric Loader 0.19.3 or newer
• Fabric API 0.116.14+1.21.1 or a compatible newer version
• owo-lib 0.12.15.4+1.21 or a compatible newer version

Optional:

• Mod Menu 11.0.4 or a compatible version

Installation

1. Install Fabric Loader for Minecraft 1.21.1.
2. Install Fabric API.
3. Install owo-lib.
4. Place the Chat Canvas JAR file in the mods folder.
5. Start the game.
6. Enter a world and press the default K key to open the editor.

Chat Canvas is a client-side mod. The server does not need to install it.

The mod does not bypass server permissions. Whether a command or private-message command is available depends on the server.

Basic Controls

• Press K to open the Chat Canvas editor
• Press T to open the normal chat screen
• Double-click a player name to mention them
• Right-click a player name to open quick actions
• Click the Commands button to open the command clipboard
• Use Ctrl+Z to undo
• Use Ctrl+Y to redo

Numeric controls support:

• Hold left mouse and drag horizontally
• Use the mouse wheel for small adjustments
• Hold Shift for precise adjustments
• Hold Ctrl for faster adjustments
• Right-click to restore the default value

Configuration Files

Main configuration:

.minecraft/config/chat_canvas.json

Command clipboard:

.minecraft/config/chat_canvas/command_clipboard.json

These files are global client-side data and are not stored inside individual world saves.

Back up the files before editing or deleting them manually.

Deleting the main configuration restores default Chat Canvas settings. Deleting the command clipboard file removes all user-saved commands.

Known Limitations

• Currently supports Fabric for Minecraft 1.21.1 only
• No Forge or NeoForge version is currently available
• Chat Canvas is client-side only
• Player avatars are not included
• Message-entry animations are not included
• Chat scrolling animations are not included
• Some server plugins convert player chat into system messages
• Player identity may not be detectable in heavily customized server chat formats
• Player colors and quick actions may not work when the sender cannot be reliably identified
• Custom fonts may change text width, line wrapping, and click regions
• Private-message commands vary between servers
• Server permissions still apply to every command
• Saved commands are stored locally as plain text

Reporting Problems

When reporting a problem, please include:

• Chat Canvas version
• Minecraft version
• Fabric Loader version
• Fabric API version
• owo-lib version
• Mod Menu version
• Other chat-related mods
• GUI Scale
• Chat Scale
• Resource packs or custom fonts
• latest.log
• Screenshots or video
• Clear reproduction steps
• Whether the issue also occurs with only Chat Canvas and its required dependencies

Report issues on the GitHub issue tracker.

Author and Links

Chat Canvas is developed and maintained by ShouYun / 寿云.

• GitHub source code
• Bilibili channel
• Douyin channel
• Issue tracker

License

Chat Canvas is licensed under the MIT License.

You may use, modify, and distribute the project in accordance with the license terms.