ImagePixel guide

Minecraft Wool vs. Concrete Colors for Pixel Art

Wool and concrete are the two most common block families for flat pixel art in Minecraft because each comes in the same 16 dye colors and is easy to get in bulk. They are not interchangeable, though: the colors differ enough that the same picture comes out noticeably different, and the material totals change too. This page compares the two sets side by side using real conversions and block counts.

Updated October 9, 2026. Every example image on this page was produced by the current ImagePixel converter code with the settings shown in its caption.

The short answer

Concrete has flat, solid faces and stronger, more saturated colors. It reads cleanly from a distance and is the usual choice for large wall or floor art.
Wool has a visible woven texture and slightly softer colors. It can look better up close and is available very early in a survival world, but it is flammable.
Both sets share the same 16 color names, so a plan made with one can be rebuilt in the other, but expect different counts per color, as the tables below show.

Concrete was added in Java Edition 1.12 in 2017. Exact appearance still varies with the game version, resource pack, shaders and lighting, so treat any color list, including the one below, as an approximation.

The 16 wool colors

These are the approximate sRGB values ImagePixel uses when it matches an image to wool. Each cell of the converted grid is assigned whichever of these 16 colors is nearest.

White Wool#E9ECEC
Orange Wool#F07613
Magenta Wool#BD44B3
Light Blue Wool#3AAFD9
Yellow Wool#F8C627
Lime Wool#70B919
Pink Wool#ED8DAC
Gray Wool#3E4447
Light Gray Wool#8E8E86
Cyan Wool#158991
Purple Wool#792AAC
Blue Wool#35399D
Brown Wool#724728
Green Wool#546D1B
Red Wool#A12722
Black Wool#141519

The 16 concrete colors

The concrete values are generally more saturated, and several neutrals are darker. Compare Light Gray (#7D7D73 for concrete against #8E8E86 for wool) or Green, which is a darker olive in concrete.

White Concrete#CFD5D6
Orange Concrete#E06100
Magenta Concrete#A9309F
Light Blue Concrete#2389C6
Yellow Concrete#F1AF15
Lime Concrete#5DAA1E
Pink Concrete#D5658E
Gray Concrete#36393D
Light Gray Concrete#7D7D73
Cyan Concrete#157788
Purple Concrete#64209C
Blue Concrete#2C2E8F
Brown Concrete#603B1F
Green Concrete#495B24
Red Concrete#8E2020
Black Concrete#080A0F

Same image, both palettes

Here is one illustration of a treasure chest converted at 32 columns, which makes a 32 × 24 wall of 768 blocks, first with wool and then with concrete. Dithering is off, which is what you want for anything you will place by hand.

Treasure chest converted to a 32 by 24 Minecraft wool block grid — Wool, 32 × 24: 8 colors used. The wood becomes Brown Wool and the bands Gray and Light Gray.

Treasure chest converted to a 32 by 24 Minecraft concrete block grid — Concrete, 32 × 24: 10 colors used. Some darker wood cells match Green Concrete, an olive tone.

The concrete version uses two more colors, and because its grays and browns sit at different values from wool's, the split between wood and metal falls in different places. It also shows a typical side effect of nearest-color matching: 38 dark wood cells are matched to Green Concrete because that olive is numerically closer to them than Brown. If that looks wrong to you, it is a reasonable manual swap, but note it in your material list.

Lake landscape converted to Minecraft wool colors at 32 columns — Landscape in wool: 4 colors (Light Blue, Gray, Cyan, Blue).

Lake landscape converted to Minecraft concrete colors at 32 columns — Landscape in concrete: 5 colors; the brightest sky picks up White Concrete.

Landscapes show the limits of both sets: neither has several shades of blue, so a sky gradient becomes one or two flat areas. If gradients matter, a wider grid will not fix it; you would need to mix in other blocks by hand.

Block counts for the 32 × 24 chest

These are the counts from the converter's color panel for the two chest conversions above, with the stack breakdown added. Every cell is one block, so the totals always equal columns × rows.

Wool version
Block	Blocks	Stacks of 64
Cyan Wool	437	6 × 64 + 53
Gray Wool	129	2 × 64 + 1
Brown Wool	122	1 × 64 + 58
Light Gray Wool	42	42
Black Wool	16	16
Red Wool	11	11
Orange Wool	7	7
Pink Wool	4	4
Total	768	12 × 64

Concrete version
Block	Blocks	Stacks of 64
Cyan Concrete	450	7 × 64 + 2
Brown Concrete	82	1 × 64 + 18
Gray Concrete	76	1 × 64 + 12
Light Gray Concrete	73	1 × 64 + 9
Green Concrete	38	38
Red Concrete	25	25
Orange Concrete	14	14
White Concrete	4	4
Black Concrete	4	4
Pink Concrete	2	2
Total	768	12 × 64

Most of each total is background. Cyan accounts for 437 of 768 wool blocks. If you are building the subject against an existing wall, convert a PNG with a transparent background instead: fully transparent cells are left empty and are not counted, so the list only contains blocks for the chest itself.

Planning tips

Pick the width from the wall, not the image. A 64-column design needs four times as many blocks as a 32-column one.
Use the grid PNG while building. It enlarges each cell and draws lines, so you can count across a row.
Copy the color list from the converter into a note before you start gathering materials.
Check in daylight. Lighting and shaders change how close two colors look in game.

The Minecraft pixel art generator opens with wool selected and grid lines included in the export. It produces a planning image and counts, not a schematic or a file you can import into the game.