In the Swedish video game Minecraft, a skin refers to the texture placed onto a player model or mob. The skin is divided into areas that act as the surface area of the character (For example, there's the front head area, left leg area, etc.). A skin will only allow solid color; transparency is not allowed on the skin file except on the second head area, which is transparent by default. The second head layer can be used to give the character glasses, hats, or other accessories (even a bigger head).

The default player skin originally had a beard (commonly mistaken for a smile), which was removed in Beta 1.6.6. hough, if you happened to find one of these bearded skins, and stick it in your mob folder in the minecraft.jar, you can see what the old skin clearly looked like.
Exclusive cloaks (later renamed capes) were added in Beta 1.0 on December 20, 2010. In October 2011, Notch re-named the cloak to the cape mentioning that the name was already wrong in the first place. So far the Christmas and New Years Capes have only been given out in 2010 and not subsequent years.

As of the 1.9 pre-releases and 1.0.0, all "bottom" textures (including hand and foot) have been flipped 180 degrees. It's worth mentioning that the textures were specifically flipped and not rotated because an updated texture with the bottom surface rotated as opposed to flipped may display incorrectly depending on the intended alignment with relation to the rest of the skin. A skin can also refer to other textures in the game, such as block textures, item sprites, mob skins etc. A list of these can be found here. Modifying these has been officially supported since the Alpha 1.2.2 Update on November 10, 2010.

It is worth noting that Pigmen, Zombie, and Zombie Pigmen mobs can use typical player skins (and vice-versa). Skeleton mobs can use typical player skins as well, but keep in mind that they have their skinny arms and legs. (If a skeleton mob skin is used as a player's skin, their legs and arms will NOT be skinny.) A player can only change their character's skin if they have purchased Minecraft. This is done on the Profile page by uploading a valid .png image file, which will then replace the default skin. The char.png file in minecraft.jar can also be changed and replaced, but then, only in that game will the player character appear different, and anyone else using the default skin will appear to that player to be using the changed skin as well as it is the default skin that is being changed.

You cannot change your skin in the Xbox 360 edition, instead there are currently 8 default skin types, all of which appear to have Steve's face, but wearing different outfits, hair, skin and eye colors. The following are available through split screen and online only. A custom skin is a great way to personalize your player model and can be done either by using a variety of community-made skin editors or by editing Minecraft's char.png file manually. This is stored in the mob folder within the minecraft.jar file, and can only be accessed by using an archive decompressor (such as Winzip, Winrar, or 7-Zip).

On Windows 7, minecraft.jar is located in the .minecraft folder at "C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\bin", accessed by pressing Win+R and entering "appdata" in the command box. On a Mac it is in "/Library/Application Support/minecraft/bin" On Linux it is in ~/.minecraft/bin/. Skin files must be 64 × 32 pixels.

Creating custom Minecraft skins has become quite popular among the community of those who own the game, and the default skin, referred to often as "Steve" (listed as Steve? by Notch, as it is not the character's official name), has developed its own little fanbase, a portion of the fans of the full game itself. An estimated over half of the users of Minecraft have customized skins.

The following are a list of external references to websites featuring user-generated Minecraft skins.

SkinManager: Manage your favorite skins and switch easily between them.
Minecraft Skins: The Minecraft Skin Index. A massive selection of Minecraft skins.
Minecrafties Skin Gallery: A large and constantly updated collection consisting of only the highest quality skin creations.
PlanetMinecraft: A hosting site with a large variety of skins, texture packs, mods, and other finds.
The Skindex: A wide variety of user-uploaded skins.
Minecraft Skins: Database of high-quality skins.
Miners Need Cool Shoes An online skin designer, includes the armory: a selection of pre-made parts you can "build" a skin with, or add to one.
Skincraft An unofficial editor
Minecraft Skin Share: Find and share your favorite skins.
Minecraft Skinner: Large skin database with a walking preview.
SkinCache: Create skins online! Also, browse, rate, & comment on others skins.
Minecraft Blueprint/Skins: Database of high-quality skins, previewer, editor.
Best Minecraft Skins: Share and vote on skins.
Minecraft Skins Pro: Massive skin database and home of the iOS skin editor called MSP: Creator.
Minecraft Skins: Huge skin collection. One click upload to your Minecraft account.
MCSkinEdit A third-party program for creating and editing skins.
MineCapes.net Unified cape directory & mod – Trying to bring (HD) capes to the masses