JSON Paintings
by jbredwards
Players who want more paintings than vanilla offers can add them through JSON Paintings, a Forge library for 1.12.2 that loads custom painting art from data files.
What it does
JSON Paintings leaves painting entities and items untouched and works by expanding vanilla's own system instead of replacing it. Because of that, it is meant to coexist with other mods that leave how paintings work unchanged. Paintings added through it are drawn from their own textures rather than the shared vanilla atlas, so a pack can include a large number of paintings in bigger sizes.
Existing paintings can also be given altered properties, for example a custom item model or back and side artwork that follows the front image. The mod is Forge only, and the server and every player need it. It is released under All rights reserved and is not open source, although public links to the source code, issue tracker and wiki exist. Files for 1.12.2 were first published on 2023-06-08, and the latest Forge file, 1.5.0 for 1.12.2, is dated 2026-08-24.
Key features
Custom painting textures
Each added painting is drawn from its own texture, so artwork is not limited to vanilla's painting atlas.
Overridable painting properties
Existing paintings can be given custom item models or matching back and side textures through their data.
Capture by sneak-breaking
Breaking a painting while sneaking records its art type, so the same painting can be placed again later.
Capture with pick-block
Holding Ctrl while using pick-block on a painting captures its art type in the same way.
Tooltips and listing
Painting items with a captured art type show a tooltip, and captured paintings are listed in JEI and in a dedicated creative tab.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
How it compares
Yood's Paintings Collection is a Fabric, Forge and NeoForge painting pack for 1.19.4 – 1.20.6, released under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 only, and it is not open source. MC style paintings targets Forge and NeoForge for 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 under All rights reserved. Blckerr's Api is a library for Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt across 1.19.2 – 1.21.5, where only the server needs it and players may add it, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives 4.0.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JSON Paintings | Forge | 1.12.2 | Client and server | 2026-08-24 |
| Yood's Paintings Collection | Fabric, Forge and NeoForge | 1.19.4 – 1.20.6 | Client and server | 2024-09-06 |
| MC style paintings | Forge and NeoForge | 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2026-05-15 |
| Blckerr's Api | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.19.2 – 1.21.5 | Server required, client optional | 2026-08-14 |
Questions
Does JSON Paintings need to be installed on the server?
Which loader does JSON Paintings support?
Does JSON Paintings work with the full Paintings++ mod?
In the catalog
JSON Paintings is one of 3,514 Library mods on ModsFinder, and one of 1,576 Library mods for Forge. 2,920 mods support Minecraft 1.12.2.
More from jbredwards
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What the author says
JSON Paintings doesn't add any new painting entities/items or painting type handlers, but rather expands on vanilla's system, which means that this mod will work nicely with all other mods that don't override how paintings work! Paintings added through this mod use their own textures instead of being stuck to using…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/json-paintings
- Owner
- jbredwards
- Published
- 2023-06-08
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-08-24
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15