List of Control Characters

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Capitalized Text Tags (Direct Formatting)

These text tags draw something that isn't text in the textbox.

Text Tag	Meaning	Description
[BAR]	-	Inserts a bar covering the entire line, then applies a line break.
[LINE:X:#]	-	Inserts a line of type (135,139) [type X=0] or (135,140) [type X=1], with thickness #. Used only in JP. Functional in other regions, but only produces redacted text.
[M:X], [M:#]	Markfont	Inserts an icon from markfont.dat as specified by X. Alternatively, a raw index for the icon can be provided. See [this] table for more info.

These text tags alter the properties of normal text characters that follow them.

Text Tag	Meaning	Description
[CS:X],[CS:#,X]	Color Set	Sets colored text with color code X. Or more accurately, adds one layer of colored text. Has an optional numerical param "#" with an unknown use.
[CR], [CR:#]	Color Reset	Reverts colored text. Or more accurately, reverts the top-most layer of colored text. Has an optional numerical param "#" with an unknown use.
[FT:#]	Font	Sets the current font to the #th font. 0 = Normal, 1 = Unown, 2 = Credits Small, 3 = Credits Large. Fonts 2 and 3 do not function as intended outside of the credits sequence, with 2 being entirely icons, and 3 being empty characters.
[LS:#]	Link Start	Starts a link to another text string. Used in move/item/status/etc. descriptions for subtopics. Ex: Sleep Seed may link the description of the Sleep status.
[LE]	Link End	Ends a link to another text string. Used in move/item/status/etc. descriptions for subtopics. Ex: Sleep Seed may link the description of the Sleep status.

These text tags insert different characters depending on the system language.

Text Tag	Meaning	Description
[MP]	Money Partition	Inserts the language-appropriate equivalent for the thousands-place separator: comma, period, space, etc.
[GP]	Gold Partition	Seems to be a carbon copy of [MP]? Only exists in EU, will crash NA and JP.
[F:X]	Foreign	Displays certain "Foreign" characters by abbreviation. Can differ by language in EU, see [this] table for more info.

These text tags alter the rate that text is printed, and/or create a line break.

Text Tag	Meaning	Description
[K]	Key Wait	Pauses text printing until the player makes an input with A, B, or the Touch Screen.
[W:#]	Wait	Waits # frames before continuing to print text.
[C]	Continue	Begins the next page of text, erasing the current block of text instantly.
[P]	Page	Scrolls the currently printed text off the window, then begins the next page of text. A pause in dialogue.
[STS]	Sudden Text Start	Ends instant text printing for the line prematurely.
[STE]	Sudden Text End	Begins instant text printing, until the next line break.
[R]	Return	Two characters longer than an actual new line, or one if "\n" is used. Redundant.
[HR]	Half Return	Does a line break, but only moves down by half the normal amount.

These text tags alter the printing position of characters that follow them.

Text Tag	Meaning	Description
[CN]	Center	Begins text centering, until the next line break.
[CLUM_SET:#]	Column Set	Moves the cursor left or right to the #th pixel in the window. Can be used to move backwards horizontally in a textbox.
[CLUM_OFFSET:#]	Column Offset	Offsets the cursor's current horizontal position by #. Most likely identical to [S:#].
[MS:#]	Multiple Space	Inserts 6*# horizontal pixels of space.
[S:#]	Space	Inserts # horizontal pixels of space.

These text tags create audio effects when they are parsed, but do not affect the textbox visually.

Text Tag	Meaning	Description
[ME_PLAY:#]	Message Effect Play	Plays the #th me_effect directly!
[SE_PLAY:#]	Sound Effect Play	Plays the #th sound effect directly!

A detailed table of all available [F:X] subtags.

[F:X] Text Tag		Character		Hex Id		Description
Tag	Abbrev.	German	Other	German	Other
[F:ER]	-	er		0x96	0x96	e and r condensed into one character. Used in French when referring to Sky Peak Station Pass 1.
[F:RE]	-	re		0x97	0x97	r and e condensed to one character. Unused
[F:O]	-	º		0xBA	0xBA	Masculine Ordinal Indicator. Unused?
[F:E]	-	ᵉ		0x8D	0x8D	Superscript "e". Used in French when referring to Sky Peak Station Pass 2+
[F:RQ]	Reverse Question	¿		0xBF	0xBF	Reverse question mark. Unused?
[F:S1]	Start 1	‚	‘	0xB8	0x91	Start of a single quote. Differs in German, to match the language's quotation mark convention. Unused.
[F:E1]	End 1	‘	’	0x91	0x92	End of a single quote. Differs in German, to match the language's quotation mark convention. Unused.
[F:S2]	Start 2	„	“	0xB7	0x93	Start of a double quote. Differs in German, to match the language's quotation mark convention. Used frequently in EU.
[F:E2]	End 2	“	”	0x93	0x94	End of a double quote. Differs in German, to match the language's quotation mark convention. Used frequently in EU.

A detailed table of all [M:X]/[M:#] subtags.

Tag (Name + #)		Description	Icon	Tag (Name + #)		Description	Icon	Tag (Name + #)		Description	Icon
[M:B0]	[M:0]	Start	[TODO]	[M:B23]	[M:23]	Check Gold Block	[TODO]	[M:H5]	[M:46]	Heart yellow small	[TODO]
[M:B1]	[M:1]	Select	[TODO]	[M:B24]	[M:24]	X Gold Block	[TODO]	[M:H6]	[M:47]	Heart yellow	[TODO]
[M:B2]	[M:2]	A	[TODO]	[M:B25]	[M:25]	Up Gold Block	[TODO]	[M:H7]	[M:48]	Heart yellow big	[TODO]
[M:B3]	[M:3]	B	[TODO]	[M:B26]	[M:26]	Down Gold Block	[TODO]	[M:H8]	[M:49]	Heart pink unshaded	[TODO]
[M:B4]	[M:4]	X	[TODO]	[M:B27]	[M:27]	Left Gold Block	[TODO]	[M:R0]	[M:50]	Dash	[TODO]
[M:B5]	[M:5]	Y	[TODO]	[M:B28]	[M:28]	Right Gold Block	[TODO]	[M:R1]	[M:51]	Half Star	[TODO]
[M:B6]	[M:6]	L	[TODO]	[M:B29]	[M:29]	Rewind Gold Block	[TODO]	[M:R2]	[M:52]	Amber Gem?	[TODO]
[M:B7]	[M:7]	R	[TODO]	[M:B30]	[M:30]	FF Gold Block	[TODO]	[M:R3]	[M:53]	Unopened Mail	[TODO]
[M:B8]	[M:8]	D-Pad	[TODO]	[M:B31]	[M:31]	Sort Gold Block	[TODO]	[M:R4]	[M:54]	Open Mail	[TODO]
[M:B9]	[M:9]	- Block	[TODO]	[M:B32]	[M:32]	Search Gold Block	[TODO]	[M:R5]	[M:55]	Letter	[TODO]
[M:B10]	[M:10]	Check Block	[TODO]	[M:S0]	[M:33]	P-Money	[TODO]	[M:R6]	[M:56]	Newspaper	[TODO]
[M:B11]	[M:11]	X Block	[TODO]	[M:S1]	[M:34]	Space	[TODO]	[M:R7]	[M:57]	! Box	[TODO]
[M:B12]	[M:12]	Up Block	[TODO]	[M:S2]	[M:35]	Check	[TODO]	[M:R8]	[M:58]	Wi-Fi	[TODO]
[M:B13]	[M:13]	Down Block	[TODO]	[M:S3]	[M:36]	Star	[TODO]	[M:R9]	[M:59]	E-Mail	[TODO]
[M:B14]	[M:14]	Left Block	[TODO]	[M:S4]	[M:37]	X	[TODO]	[M:T0]	[M:60]	Colon	[TODO]
[M:B15]	[M:15]	Right Block	[TODO]	[M:S5]	[M:38]	Check X	[TODO]	[M:T1]	[M:61]	Text Bubble	[TODO]
[M:B16]	[M:16]	Rewind Block	[TODO]	[M:S6]	[M:39]	Bag	[TODO]	[M:T2]	[M:62]	Space Indicator	[TODO]
[M:B17]	[M:17]	FF Block	[TODO]	[M:S7]	[M:40]	Hut	[TODO]	[M:T3]	[M:63]	Space Indicator Red	[TODO]
[M:B18]	[M:18]	Sort Block	[TODO]	[M:H0]	[M:41]	Heart pink vsmall	[TODO]	[M:T4]	[M:64]	Kanji 'Kari' (temp)	[TODO]
[M:B19]	[M:19]	Search Block	[TODO]	[M:H1]	[M:42]	Heart pink small	[TODO]	[M:T5]	[M:65]	Kanji 'Su' (end)	[TODO]
[M:B20]	[M:20]	D-Pad U-D Block	[TODO]	[M:H2]	[M:43]	Heart pink	[TODO]	[M:T6]	[M:66]	Katakana 'De'	[TODO]
[M:B21]	[M:21]	D-Pad L-R Block	[TODO]	[M:H3]	[M:44]	Heart pink big	[TODO]	[M:I0]	[M:67]	TM	[TODO]
[M:B22]	[M:22]	- Gold Block	[TODO]	[M:H4]	[M:45]	Heart yellow vsmall	[TODO]	[M:I1]	[M:68]	Orb	[TODO]

CS

The following control characters are used to change the color of text in scripts.

Tag	Color	Use Case
[CS:A]	Cream #F8C8C8	Effectively unused; described in ADEBUG as "Identified Item". Same color as [CS:I].
[CS:B]	Red #F80000	Forbidden choice.
[CS:C]	Yellow #F8F800	Used for rare miscellaneous and debug messages. Same color as [CS:F].
[CS:D]	White #F8F8F8	Standard text color.
[CS:E]	Cyan #00F8F8	Used by subjects, stats, abilities, weather, etc. Described in ADEBUG as "Bold Text". Same color as [CS:G], [CS:N] and [CS:V].
[CS:F]	Yellow #F8F800	Names of other members of the player's team, including the partner. However, this is not used for Special Episode allies in cutscenes. Same color as [CS:C].
[CS:G]	Cyan #00F8F8	Money. Same color as [CS:E], [CS:N] and [CS:V].
[CS:H]	Pink #F87878	Trap names.
[CS:I]	Cream #F8C8C8	Item names. In cutscenes, this is not used for unobtainable story objects such as Perfect Apples or Time Gears, but is used for items the player could obtain themselves.
[CS:j]	Dark Cream #F8C060	The color is used by already-recruited Pokémon species whenever one requests to join within dungeons, and Chimecho uses the control character while explaining this text color. Same color as [CS:P].
[CS:J]	Light Yellow #F8F8A0	Status effects.
[CS:K]	Light Green #00F800	Pokémon species names, including those in shop names. Should not be used to refer to a character ([CS:N]), even if they use the name of their species as their personal name. Same color as [CS:M].
[CS:L]	Green #00E060	The control character itself is effectively unused in the base game, but the same text color is used for [LS:x] hyperlinks in item/move descriptions. The kiosk demo uses the control character to note the title of the game.
[CS:M]	Light Green #00F800	Move names. Also commonly used on the word "move" itself in non-dialogue strings. Same color as [CS:K].
[CS:N]	Cyan #00F8F8	Regular character names. The hero and partner will also fall back to this if they're not in a primary story role, as seen in Special Episode 5's intro scene. Same color as [CS:E], [CS:G] and [CS:V].
[CS:O]	Dark Green #009800	Unused.
[CS:P]	Dark Cream #F8C060	Dungeon names and other destinations such as Fogbound Lake and Shaymin Village. Not used in the base game for other location names such as Treasure Town or the Hot Spring in dialogue. Same color as [CS:j].
[CS:Q]	Blue #0080F8	Unused.
[CS:r]	<todo>	Unused.
[CS:R]	Pale Green #40F840	Selling price.
[CS:S]	Purple #6080E0	Effectively unused. Described in ADEBUG as "Multiple Items Selected", but doing this in shop or storage menus changes the color of the surrounding background rather than the text itself.
[CS:T]	Transparent	Unused and seemingly useless, as it makes the text unreadable.
[CS:U]	Yellow #F8F800	Effectively unused. Described in ADEBUG as "Unidentified Item". Same color as [CS:C] and [CS:F].
[CS:V]	Cyan #00F8F8	Used for "bold" numbers. Same color as [CS:E], [CS:G] and [CS:N]. Base game example: You can get only [CS:V]two wrong[CR], OK?
[CS:W]	Red #F80000	Only used for debug messages, particularly warnings. Same color as [CS:B].
[CS:X]	Bright Pink #F8A0F8	Any team's name, not including the word "team". Also used by the names of other players in multiplayer-related strings.
[CS:Y]	Light Blue #0098F8	Used for the current leader's name, including the hero and Special Episode protagonists. Regular recruited Pokémon will also use this color if set as the leader, even if spoken to in Spinda's Café.
[CS:Z]	Light Purple #8080F8	Exclusive item names. This includes the Water Float and Defend Globe when referred to in cutscenes.
[CR]	N/A	Terminates the coloring of the text. Essential to prevent errors.