CenterMessage

Centers chat messages by measuring the rendered pixel width of the visible glyphs only, so color codes never break the alignment. Accepts legacy & / §, BungeeCord hex &#RRGGBB, Spigot hex §x§R§R§G§G§B§B and MiniMessage tags (<color>, <gradient>, <bold>, …) — mix any of them in the same string and it just works.

GitHub: senkex/CenterMessage · JitPack: jitpack.io/#senkex/CenterMessage

MC	1.16+
Bytecode	Java 8 (runs on whatever JDK your server uses)
Platform	Bukkit / Spigot / Paper (any fork)
Adventure	Built into Paper. On Spigot, bundle adventure-platform-bukkit.

Danger

If you ship CenterMessage inside a plugin you must relocate it. See Shading.

Installation

Replace VERSION with the latest release.

build.gradle.kts

repositories {
    maven("https://jitpack.io")
}

dependencies {
    implementation("com.github.senkex:CenterMessage:VERSION")
}

build.gradle

repositories {
    maven { url 'https://jitpack.io' }
}

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.github.senkex:CenterMessage:VERSION'
}

pom.xml

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>jitpack.io</id>
        <url>https://jitpack.io</url>
    </repository>
</repositories>

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.github.senkex</groupId>
    <artifactId>CenterMessage</artifactId>
    <version>VERSION</version>
</dependency>

Shading

Relocate com.github.senkex.centermessage into your own namespace.

build.gradle.kts

plugins {
    id("com.gradleup.shadow") version "8.3.5"
}

tasks {
    shadowJar {
        relocate("com.github.senkex.centermessage", "my.plugin.libs.centermessage")
    }
}

pom.xml

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>3.6.0</version>
    <configuration>
        <relocations>
            <relocation>
                <pattern>com.github.senkex.centermessage</pattern>
                <shadedPattern>my.plugin.libs.centermessage</shadedPattern>
            </relocation>
        </relocations>
    </configuration>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals><goal>shade</goal></goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

Quick start

CenterMessage.send(player, "&aHello &b<bold>World</bold>");

String line = CenterMessage.center("&#FF55AA Centered &ltext");
player.sendMessage(line);

Adventure Component output for Paper / Adventure-native senders:

Component comp = CenterMessage.centerComponent("<gradient:#f00:#0f0>Hi</gradient>");
player.sendMessage(comp);

Component custom = Component.text("Hello").color(NamedTextColor.AQUA);
player.sendMessage(CenterMessage.centerComponent(custom));

Tip

send(CommandSender, String) picks the right path automatically: it uses Adventure when the sender supports it (Paper) and falls back to legacy sendMessage(String) otherwise. You almost never need to think about which API to call.

Mixed formats

Every supported color format is unified into MiniMessage internally and parsed once, so you can mix them in the same string:

CenterMessage.send(player,
    "&6[&aPrefix&6] &#FF55AAhex <bold>+ mini</bold> &land bold");

Pipeline order: PlaceholderAPI → &#RRGGBB → &x → legacy-to-MiniMessage → MiniMessage parse.

Note

MiniMessage tags take precedence when the same effect is expressed twice. A <reset> clears both legacy and MiniMessage state.

CenterOptions

CenterOptions opts = CenterOptions.builder()
        .centerPx(80)
        .parseMiniMessage(false)
        .parsePlaceholders(true)
        .build();

CenterMessage.send(player, "&aTitle", opts);

Option	Type	Default	Notes
centerPx	int	154	Half-width in pixels (chat = 154).
parseLegacyAmp	boolean	true	Translate &x to §x.
parseHexAmp	boolean	true	Translate &#RRGGBB to Spigot hex.
parseMiniMessage	boolean	true	Parse MiniMessage tags through Adventure.
parsePlaceholders	boolean	true	Expand PlaceholderAPI when a target is given.

Prefabs: CenterOptions.CHAT (154 px), CenterOptions.SIGN (45 px), CenterOptions.BOOK (57 px), CenterOptions.ANVIL (50 px).

Multi-line and <center> blocks

centerLines centers every line independently:

String motd =
    "&6&lWelcome\n" +
    "&7Use /help for commands.\n" +
    "&8Powered by CenterMessage";

CenterMessage.sendBlock(player, motd);

<center>...</center> lets you center only the lines you want — anything outside the block is sent verbatim:

CenterMessage.sendBlock(player,
    "<center>&6&lWelcome</center>\n" +
    "Not centered, sent as-is.\n" +
    "<center>&7Have fun.</center>");

PlaceholderAPI

When PlaceholderAPI is installed, every method that receives a Player or OfflinePlayer expands placeholders against that target before parsing:

CenterMessage.send(player, "&6Balance: &a%vault_eco_balance%");

Note

The integration is hooked through Bukkit.getPluginManager().isPluginEnabled("PlaceholderAPI") — if PAPI isn’t loaded the call short-circuits, no reflection, no errors.

Facade reference

Method	Returns
center(String, [CenterOptions], [OfflinePlayer])	String
center(String, int centerPx)	String
centerComponent(String / Component, [CenterOptions], [OfflinePlayer])	Component
centerLines(String, [CenterOptions], [OfflinePlayer])	String
processCenterTags(String, [CenterOptions], [OfflinePlayer])	String
send(CommandSender / Audience, String / Component, [CenterOptions])	void
sendBlock(CommandSender, String, [CenterOptions])	void
broadcast(String, [CenterOptions])	void
colorize(String)	String — drop-in for ChatColor.translateAlternateColorCodes
parse(String, [CenterOptions], [OfflinePlayer])	Component
translateAmpHex(String)	String — &#RRGGBB → §x§R§R§G§G§B§B

Custom font widths

Width is measured against the vanilla Minecraft font. Custom resource packs that ship a different font can override individual characters at runtime:

FontInfo.registerWidth('►', 6);
FontInfo.registerWidth('⬛', 8);

Example: welcome banner

WelcomeListener.java

package com.example.plugin.listener;

import com.github.senkex.centermessage.CenterMessage;
import org.bukkit.entity.Player;
import org.bukkit.event.EventHandler;
import org.bukkit.event.Listener;
import org.bukkit.event.player.PlayerJoinEvent;

public final class WelcomeListener implements Listener {

    private static final String[] BANNER = {
        "&8&m                                        ",
        "<gradient:#ff55aa:#55aaff><bold>Nautic Network</bold></gradient>",
        "&7Welcome back, &f%player_name%&7.",
        "&7Online: &f%server_online%",
        "&8&m                                        ",
    };

    @EventHandler
    public void onJoin(final PlayerJoinEvent event) {
        final Player player = event.getPlayer();
        for (String line : BANNER) {
            CenterMessage.send(player, line);
        }
    }
}

Example: scoreboard title

String title = CenterMessage.center(
        "&6&l" + Bukkit.getServer().getName(),
        CenterOptions.builder().centerPx(40).build());

scoreboard.getObjective("display").setDisplayName(title);

Tip

Use a tighter centerPx (around 40–60) for scoreboard titles, sign lines or BossBars. The default 154 is tuned for the chat box width.