Item Highlighter Mod (1.21.4, 1.20.6) – Animated Star Markers

Item Highlighter is a client-side utility mod that highlights newly picked-up items in your inventory with an animated star icon, available for Minecraft Fabric, Forge, and NeoForge across versions 1.12.2 through 1.21.4.

Every Minecraft player knows the frustration: you mine for twenty minutes, open your inventory, and spend another minute scanning rows of cobblestone and dirt trying to find the diamond you just picked up. Item Highlighter solves this with a dead-simple visual cue — a small animated star that appears on every newly acquired item. With over 13 million downloads on Modrinth, it has quietly become one of the most popular quality-of-life mods in the Minecraft ecosystem. Created by Grend, this lightweight client-side mod requires zero server installation and works across all three major mod loaders.

Key Features of Item Highlighter

• Animated New-Item Stars — Every item you pick up gets a small animated star overlay in your inventory. This means you never have to manually scan through 36 inventory slots looking for that one new drop — your eyes are drawn to it immediately.
• Client-Side Only — Item Highlighter runs entirely on your client with no server-side installation needed. This makes it safe to use on multiplayer servers, and server admins don't need to approve or install anything on their end.
• Configurable Clear Triggers — You can set the new-item markers to disappear when you close your inventory, when you hover over the item, or both. This flexibility lets you choose between a quick-glance workflow and a more thorough review of every new pickup.
• Color Matching Options — By default, the star icons appear in gold, but you can configure them to match the item's name color instead. For players who rely on rarity colors or custom resource pack name colors, this keeps the visual language of your inventory consistent.
• Resource Pack Customization — The appearance of the star markers can be fully customized through resource packs. If the default animated stars don't fit your UI theme or you want something more subtle, you can replace them with any texture you prefer.
• Multi-Loader Support — Item Highlighter is available for Fabric, Forge, and NeoForge, so you can use it regardless of which mod loader your pack is built around. This broad compatibility makes it easy to include in virtually any modpack setup.
• Broad Version Range — The mod supports Minecraft versions from 1.12.2 all the way up to 1.21.4. Whether you're playing on a modern server or sticking with an older modpack, there's likely a compatible release available.

How to Install Item Highlighter

1. Install your preferred mod loader: Fabric, Forge, or NeoForge. Make sure the loader version matches your Minecraft version.
2. If you are using Fabric, also install the Fabric API — most Fabric mods require it as a base dependency.
3. For Minecraft versions after 1.12.x, download and install the Iceberg library mod, which Item Highlighter depends on for its rendering features.
4. Download the correct Item Highlighter file for your Minecraft version and mod loader from the download section below.
5. Place the downloaded .jar file into your .minecraft/mods folder and launch the game. The mod works immediately with no additional setup required.

Requirements & Compatibility

What's New

• Ported to Minecraft 1.21.4 with full support for Fabric, Forge, and NeoForge.
• Continued compatibility with the Iceberg library dependency.
• Maintained client-side-only design with no server requirements.

Pros and Cons

Alternatives to Item Highlighter

• Inventory HUD+ — Displays your inventory, armor, and potion effects directly on the HUD, giving you a broader overview without opening your inventory screen.
• AppleSkin — A complementary utility mod that adds food value and saturation information to your HUD and tooltips, improving another area of inventory readability.
• Neat — Adds clean health bars above mobs, following the same design philosophy of adding small but impactful visual indicators to improve gameplay awareness.

Download Item Highlighter

Always download mods from official sources to stay safe.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Item Highlighter client-side only?

Yes — Item Highlighter only needs to be installed on your client. The server does not need the mod, which means you can safely use it on multiplayer servers, realms, and any server where you cannot control the mod list.

Does Item Highlighter require Iceberg?

Yes, for all Minecraft versions after 1.12.x. Iceberg is a shared library mod that provides rendering utilities used by Item Highlighter and several other mods by the same developer. Make sure to download the Iceberg version that matches both your Minecraft version and your mod loader.

Can I use Item Highlighter with OptiFine or Sodium?

Generally yes — Item Highlighter is a client-side inventory overlay mod that does not modify rendering pipelines. Since it only adds a small star texture on inventory slots, it should not conflict with performance mods like OptiFine or Sodium. However, always test with your specific modpack to confirm.

Does Item Highlighter work with modded items?

Yes — the mod highlights any item that enters your inventory, regardless of whether it comes from vanilla Minecraft or another mod. The star indicator triggers based on the pickup event, not on specific item IDs, so it works universally across modded content.

Can I customize the highlight appearance?

Yes — you can change the star color to match item name colors through the mod's configuration, and you can fully replace the star texture using a resource pack. The configuration also lets you control when markers clear: on inventory close, on hover, or both, giving you full control over the visual behavior.

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