Just Enough Painting Previews: The Ultimate Painting Browser for Minecraft
Decorating a Minecraft base often involves hanging the perfect painting to match a room’s theme. The problem? Vanilla Minecraft offers no way to preview a painting before you place it, forcing you to cycle through random artworks until you land on the one you want. That trial-and-error process becomes even more frustrating when you have dozens of custom paintings added by mods. Just Enough Painting Previews, or JEPP, solves this elegantly by giving you a visual catalog of every painting available in your game, right inside the familiar JEI or REI interface.
What Is Just Enough Painting Previews?
Just Enough Painting Previews is a lightweight addon designed for Just Enough Items (JEI) or Roughly Enough Items (REI). It adds a dedicated recipe category specifically for paintings. Instead of guessing which artwork hides behind a placed painting item, you can instantly pull up a preview window that displays every painting registered in your current modpack. The mod does not alter gameplay mechanics or add new paintings on its own — it simply makes existing paintings visible and searchable, turning a chaotic selection process into a streamlined, informed choice.
How to Access the Painting Previews
Using JEPP feels completely natural if you are already accustomed to JEI or REI. While hovering over any painting item in your inventory or in the item list, press the default keybind U (for “uses”). The interface will open a new category showing a grid of painting previews. Each entry displays the actual artwork as it would appear on a wall, alongside essential metadata: the painting’s internal name, its dimensions in blocks, and the mod identifier that adds it. This makes it effortless to distinguish between vanilla paintings and custom ones introduced by mods like Supplementaries, Quark, or any other painting-adding mod you might have installed.
Key Features That Make Painting Selection Effortless
JEPP packs a surprising amount of utility into a tiny mod. Here are the standout features that will change how you decorate:
- Full painting gallery at a glance: Every single painting available in your game appears in a scrollable, organized grid. No more placing and breaking paintings repeatedly.
- Detailed painting information: The preview window shows the exact painting name, its size (width x height in blocks), and which mod provides it. This is invaluable when troubleshooting conflicts or searching for a specific artwork.
- Seamless mod compatibility: JEPP works with any mod that adds paintings. Whether you have a small vanilla+ pack or a massive modpack with hundreds of custom paintings, the addon automatically picks them all up.
- Zero performance impact: The mod is exceptionally lightweight. It only activates when you request a painting preview and does not run any background processes, so it fits into even the most demanding modpacks without issue.
Compatibility and Mod Integration
Just Enough Painting Previews is built to complement the two most popular recipe-viewing mods: JEI for Fabric and Forge, and REI for Fabric, Forge, and NeoForge. You need one of these installed for JEPP to function. Beyond that, the addon hooks directly into the painting registry, meaning it dynamically adapts to whatever painting mods you throw at it. If a mod adds a painting, JEPP will display it. This makes it an essential quality-of-life tool for modpack authors who want to showcase custom art without leaving players confused about what each painting looks like.
Installation and Setup
Getting started with Just Enough Painting Previews takes only a few seconds. Download the mod file and place it into your Minecraft mods folder, ensuring you already have JEI or REI installed for your game version. That is all there is to it — the addon requires no configuration and activates automatically. For players who prefer a more streamlined mod management experience, the foxygame.net launcher provides a convenient, flexible, and modern way to handle installations, letting you browse and install Just Enough Painting Previews directly from its integrated mod menu without manually moving files around. Once loaded, you can immediately press U on any painting item and start exploring the full catalog.
Why You Need This Mod for Your Creative Builds
If you frequently build detailed interiors, adventure maps, or themed bases, JEPP becomes an indispensable part of your toolkit. Instead of breaking your creative flow by cycling through random paintings, you can plan your decorations with precision. Map makers especially benefit from knowing exact painting dimensions before placing them, ensuring that a large 4x4 artwork fits the intended wall space perfectly. The mod also helps you discover hidden gems from painting mods you might have overlooked, adding fresh inspiration to your builds.
Just Enough Painting Previews turns a long-standing Minecraft annoyance into a smooth, informative experience. By giving you a complete visual index of every painting at your disposal, it saves time, reduces frustration, and makes decorating genuinely enjoyable. Whether you run a small vanilla server or a heavily modded single-player world, this tiny addon deserves a permanent spot in your mods folder. Give it a try, and you will wonder how you ever managed your art collection without it.