SmartBooks
by bay4lly
SmartBooks lets players write in books with a canvas-style editor that places text and images anywhere on a page, instead of the plain quill interface.
What it does
Created books are built from movable text and image elements, with built-in fonts, font sizes, colors and bold, italic and underline formatting, plus left, center and right alignment. Elements can be moved, resized and rotated, and layered so that any one can be brought to the front or sent to the back with a single click. A page can be given a solid color or a lined, grid or classic style, and a starting layout can come from one of the built-in templates, which cover comics, magazines, guides, encyclopedias, quest logs, manuals and newspapers.
Books work in multiplayer: they are saved on the server and sent to clients, so every player sees the same content. Every player and the server need a copy of the mod. Files are published for Fabric and Forge, both for 1.20.1 only, with 1.0-fixed as the latest file for each loader, dated 2026-06-07. The code is not open source, and the mod is released under All rights reserved.
Key features
Canvas-based book editor
Text and image elements are placed freely on a page, with move, resize and rotate controls in the editor.
Rich text formatting
Built-in fonts can be chosen, sized and colored, and set to bold, italic or underline, with left, center or right alignment.
Page backgrounds
Pages can be given a background color or a style such as lined paper, grid or classic.
Built-in templates
More than ten ready-made layouts, from comic and newspaper to quest log and manual, format a page at once.
Element layering
Any element can be brought to the front or sent to the back with a single click.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Server guides and rules
Server owners can write a formatted guide or rule book that every player receives from the server.
Quest logs and manuals
Adventure maps and roleplay worlds can present quest logs, manuals or encyclopedias as in-game books.
Who it’s for: Players who write in-game books, map makers who want quest logs or guides in a world, and server owners who distribute written information to every player.
Questions
Does SmartBooks have to be installed on the server?
Which loaders does SmartBooks support?
Can SmartBooks be used on other Minecraft versions?
More from bay4lly
What the author says
SmartBooks is an advanced, in-game book creation and editing mod that takes Minecraft's traditional book and quill to a whole new level. Whether you are creating a detailed server guide, a rich quest log, a comic book, or an encyclopedia, SmartBooks provides a modern, canvas-like editor directly in the game.
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/smartbooks
- Owner
- bay4lly
- Published
- 2026-06-05
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-06-07
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15