Announcement Box

Type	MechanismFurniture
Placeable	✔️ (2 wide × 2 high)
Use time	15 (Very fast)
Rarity
Research	1 required

Desktop/Console/Mobile/Switch/tModLoader-Only Content: This information applies only to the Desktop, Console, Mobile, Switch, and tModLoader versions of Terraria.

The Announcement Box is a special sign that, when powered, will announce (in the chat) what was written on the sign.

Formatting[]

Certain keywords will change the formatting of the text, for example color. Everything written here can also be applied in a normal chat with the same effect.

Color[]

To change the color of inputted text, type [c/XXXXXX:] with text after the colon and any hexadecimal ("hex" for short) color code in place of "XXXXXX".

Example: Inputting [c/34C9EB:This text is blue.] will create the output "This text is blue."
This website can be used to choose a Hexadecimal Color for the Announcement Box.

A showcase of most of the colors that were figured out, plus an example of a gradient.

This is an incomplete list of the colors used by the game:

[c/FFFFFF:] will create white, the color shown when a player types something in the chat.
- By setting an Announcement Box up with [c/FFFFFF:<Player name> ] the text will be indistinguishable from an actual player's input.
[c/32FF82:] will create the color shown when some events start - "The Blood Moon is rising..."; "Impending doom approaches..."
[c/AF4BFF:] will create the color shown when an invasion starts or when a boss is summoned and defeated - "Skeletron has awoken!"
[c/E11919:] will create the color shown when a player dies - "<Player name> was slain."
- Note that this color is different from the one that is displayed when an NPC or a town pet dies.
[c/FF1919:] will create the color shown when an NPC or a town pet dies - "<Name of NPC> the <type of NPC> was slain..."
- Note that this color is different from the one that is displayed when a player dies.
[c/327DFF:] will create the color shown when an NPC or a town pet arrives - "<Name of NPC> the <type of NPC> has arrived!"
[c/FFF014:] will create the color shown by some general status messages, such as - "Spawn point set!"; "You are not close enough to a pylon to teleport with the pylon network"
[c/FF00A0:]will create the color shown when an NPC throws a Party - "Looks like <NPC name> is throwing a party"

One can achieve a color shift/gradient by using many [c/XXXXXX:] back to back.

Example: Inputting [c/FF0000:R][c/DF0020:e][c/BF0040:d] [c/9F0060:t][c/800080:o] [c/60009F:b][c/40009F:l][c/2000DF:u][c/0000FF:e] will create the output "Red to blue"
This website can be used to find the hex codes for gradients.

Item[]

It is possible to showcase an item in chat using Item IDs, similar to how Alt+Click works in normal chat. To show an item type [i/zXX:ID] , where "zXX" is a property of an item, and "ID" is an ID of an item".

Example: Inputting [i/s24:2] will show a dirt block with item count 24 in chat
Example: Inputting [i/p81:2786] will show a Legendary Solar Flare Pickaxe in chat

A simple Moon animation consisting of 14 frames (so 14 Announcement Boxes) that is running on a 1/4 Second Timer.

All items in chat occupy the same height and width. Coupled with the fact that there can only be 10 lines of text in the chat at one time means that one can in theory create a rudimentary animation using mechanisms. Walls are very good for this purpose as they are big squares. Be aware that by doing animations, the messages are spamming the chat which can lead to the annoyance of other players as they can not communicate via chat. It can also make one miss status messages.

Valid item properties are (XX — a number):

sXX — items in stack.
pXX — prefix of an item.

The easiest way of getting an Item code is doing the following: first open the chat, Alt+Click needed item, press Ctrl+A to select all text in the chat, press Ctrl+C to copy it, and finally paste the code into Announcement Box.

Achievement[]

It is also possible to write a link to achievement into chat, for this type[a:NAME] , with "NAME" being an Achievement name.

Example: Inputting [a:STAR_POWER] will put a message into chat: "Star Power", one can click on it to open achievement menu at this achievement's position.
Achievements with an exclamation at the end will be written without it. For example, [a:TIMBER] will show the "Timber!!" achievement.

Glyphs[]

Controller buttons can be displayed using the [g:#] tag, where # corresponds to one of the following functions:

Index	Image	Name
0		A
1		B
2		X
3		Y
4		Back
5		Start
6		Left shoulder button
7		Right shoulder button
8		Left trigger
9		Right trigger
10		Left stick
11		Right stick
12		Undefined stick
13		D-pad right
14		D-pad left
15		D-pad down
16		D-pad up
17		Left stick left
18		Left stick right
19		Left stick up
20		Left stick down
21		Right stick left
22		Right stick right
23		Right stick up
24		Right stick down
25		Left stick wiggling left and right

Example: The following sequence could be used to display the classic Konami Code:

[g:16][g:16][g:15][g:15][g:14][g:13][g:14][g:13][g:1][g:0][g:5] Note that this outputs literal button glyphs, and the output may not match functions assigned in the player's current control scheme. While minor, this could limit the usefulness in custom world designs.

Crafting[]

Recipes[]

Result	Ingredients	Crafting station
Announcement Box	Sign Any Iron Bar (4) Wire (4)	Iron Anvil or Lead Anvil

Notes[]

The Announcement Box's functionality can be disabled by launching the game with a -disableannouncementbox command line parameter.
If the Announcement Box is to be powered by a time sensor any message that is tied to that time (for example the message "The Blood Moon is rising..." in the evening) will be in chat displayed before the Announcement Box's.