What ═ means
It draws one horizontal segment of a double-line box. Join it to ║ and corners such as ╔ or ╗ for a continuous border around a table, panel, or text interface. Repeated alone, ═══ makes a heavy text divider.
The set was made for character-cell graphics, not invented as one modern symbol. Unicode records it as compatible with graphic sets used before 1990, from vendor, terminal, industry, and videotex standards. Its familiar computer route runs through CP437, the old MS-DOS code page with single and double line pieces; Unicode unified those legacy pieces.
How do I type ═?
Copy it from the palette above or pick U+2550. Search for U+2550 in your editor or system character picker, then add matching ║ and double corners for a box. A CP437 byte and the Unicode character are different encodings of the same look, so mismatched UTF-8 handling garbles the border.
Use matching line weights
Mixing this double line with ─ or light corners breaks the joint. These pieces are drawn for continuous connections in fixed-pitch cells, so use a monospaced, Unicode-capable font and one border weight throughout.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
3Combination ideas
3Questions people ask
2Why does my box break in a terminal?
The font or terminal lacks the glyph, or the encoding is wrong. Terminal libraries can fall back to '-' and '|'; use a Unicode-capable monospaced font and consistent UTF-8.
Is ═ an ASCII character?
No. It sits outside 7-bit ASCII. It became familiar through extended sets such as CP437 and lives directly in Unicode.
How to type ═
═\2550Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.