Full block █ and shade characters ░ ▒ ▓
Full Block is a solid square that fills the whole character cell, so a run of them joins into one unbroken bar: ████████. It is the character behind text progress bars, censor bars and most block-letter text art. The three shade characters (light, U2591), (medium, U2592) and (dark, U2593) are the same cell filled about a quarter, a half and three quarters with a dot pattern, which is why a ░▒▓█ run reads as a gradient from pale to solid.
All four come from the IBM PC character set of 1981, code page 437, where they were bytes 176, 177, 178 and 219, and they were among the 22 block elements present in Unicode 1.0 in 1991. In DOS they built window frames, shadows and backgrounds; today they are the texture set of ANSI and ASCII art. is the inverse medium shade (the same dots in negative), and the half-cell shades and the triangular shades let you draw a shaded edge or a soft corner in a single cell.
Half blocks and eighth blocks for progress bars and bar charts
The half blocks (upper) (lower) (left) (right) each cover one half of the cell. Stacked, and double the vertical resolution of text art, which is how terminal image viewers draw pictures two pixels per character. The eighth blocks go finer: from the bottom the cell fills in steps , and from the left . The bottom set makes an instant bar chart or sparkline (▁▂▃▅▆▇█▇▅▃▁); the left set gives a progress bar a smooth partial last block instead of a jump.
A text progress bar is just filled blocks followed by empty ones: ████████░░░░ 67% uses and , ▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒ is a softer version, and ▰▰▰▱▱ or ■■■□□ are the rounded cousins found on the Square Symbols page. Curiously, Unicode had the full ladder from the bottom and from the left for 27 years, but from the top only (⅛) and (½), and from the right only and . The missing sizes and arrived with the Symbols for Legacy Computing block in Unicode 13.0 (2020), so they need a newer font than the originals.
Quadrants, sextants and the teletext mosaic
Quadrant blocks split the cell two by two: single corners , the diagonal pairs , three-quarter shapes , and with the half blocks and you get every one of the sixteen patterns. This is the graphics set of the Commodore PET and the Sinclair ZX81, and the ten quadrants were the last block elements added to Unicode, in version 3.2 (2002). The dotted-looking separated quadrants draw the same shapes with a gap around each cell, as some home computers did.
Sextants to split the cell two by three. Sixty of them cover every two-by-three pattern that is not already a space, , or ; among them hide the horizontal thirds . This is the mosaic alphabet of teletext (Ceefax, the BBC Micro's Mode 7, Minitel) and the TRS-80, where each character cell held six chunky pixels. Unicode 16.0 (2024) went one step further with 230 octants, two by four, in a supplement block; they are not on this page because so few fonts draw them yet, and the same goes for the separated sextants that came with them.
Fills, wedges and diagonal blocks
Where the shades are random-looking dots, the fill patterns are regular: and are fine checkerboards, heavy horizontal lines, and diagonal hatching, and the Unicode 16 set adds sparse and dense line fills , crosshatches and two speckle frames that alternate for a shimmering effect. The bordered hatched squares from the Geometric Shapes block are the oldest of the lot and work almost everywhere, so they are the safe choice for a texture swatch in ordinary text.
The wedges turn block art's stairs into slopes. are quarter-cell triangles pointing each way, are hourglass pairs, and are cells with one triangle cut out. The 44 smooth mosaic diagonals to are the teletext trick for a round corner or a 45-degree line: each fills one corner of the cell up to a slanted edge, and the rows at the end of this page sort them by that corner.
How to type block characters and why they sometimes show gaps
On Windows the DOS codes still work: hold Alt and type 219 on the number pad for , 176 for , 177 for , 178 for , 220 for , 223 for , 221 for and 222 for (no leading zero). In Word, type 2588 then AltX. On a Mac open the Character Viewer and search for block; on Linux type CtrlShiftU, then 2588, then a space. For everything else, copying from this page is quicker than any shortcut.
The original 32 block elements are in nearly every font, including phone keyboards' fallback fonts. The sextants, eighth lines, fills and wedges live in the Symbols for Legacy Computing blocks and need a font that covers them: Cascadia Code, Iosevka, Unscii or GNU Unifont, and several terminals such as kitty and WezTerm draw them themselves. If stacked blocks show thin horizontal seams, the culprit is line spacing, not the characters: set the line height to 1 or use a monospace font, which is what Discord code blocks and most editors do. In proportional fonts, use the shades only where the exact width does not matter.
Simgeler
227Kopyalamak ve sayfasını açmak için bir sembole tıklayın.
Full block and shades
The classic shading ramp from light to solid, plus the shade halves and wedges from old home computers.
Fill patterns
Textures that tile edge to edge; the hatched squares at the end have a border and come from the Geometric Shapes block.
Eighth blocks: the cell fills up from one side
Each row grows in eighths. The half blocks ▀ ▄ ▌ ▐ sit in the middle column; the full block █ is at the top of the page.
Thirds and centred quarters
Odd sizes: a third and two thirds from the left, and a quarter block pushed to one edge's middle.
Quadrants: the cell split in four
Two by two, as on the Commodore PET and the ZX81. The separated set leaves a thin gap between cells.
Sextants: the cell split in six
Two by three, the teletext and BBC Micro mosaic set, sorted by how many of the six cells are filled. The left half ▌ and right half ▐ complete the set.
Thin lines and corners, one eighth of a cell
Hairlines at each eighth position across the cell; with ▏ ▕ ▔ ▁ above they make eight positions each way.
Wedges and diagonal blocks
Triangular pieces for slopes and smooth corners. The last four rows are the teletext smooth mosaic set, one row per corner they fill.
How to use them
6 situationsKopyalamak için tıklayınBlock & Shade Characters combos
13Bilinmesi gerekenler
- The shade characters were bytes 176, 177 and 178 on the original IBM PC in 1981, and was 219; the Alt codes Windows still accepts today are those same byte values.
- Only 22 of the 32 block elements were in Unicode 1.0 (1991); the ten quadrants to waited until Unicode 3.2 in 2002.
- There are 60 sextants, not 64, because four two-by-three patterns already existed: empty (a space), full (), left half () and right half (). The same logic gives 230 octants instead of 256 in Unicode 16.
- Until 2020 you could fill a character cell from the bottom in eight steps but from the top in only two ( and ); the Symbols for Legacy Computing block finally added .
- Some fonts draw as a dot pattern and others as flat grey, so a DOS-style gradient looks dithered on one screen and smooth on another.
Sık sorulan sorular
7How do I copy and paste block characters?
Tap or click any block character on this page to copy it, then paste with CtrlV, CmdV or long-press and Paste on a phone.
What is the full block character?
Full Block, U2588, is a solid square that fills the whole character cell. On Windows type it with Alt219 on the number pad; in Word type 2588 and press AltX.
How do I make a progress bar with text symbols?
Repeat for the done part and for the rest, for example 67%. For a smoother bar end use the left eighth blocks , and put the bar in a code block so every block has the same width.
What are the shaded block characters called?
is Light Shade, Medium Shade and Dark Shade (U2591 to U2593). Together with they form the shading ramp used in ASCII art and DOS-era interfaces.
What is the alt code for block characters?
Alt219 , Alt176 , Alt177 , Alt178 , Alt220 , Alt223 , Alt221 and Alt222 , typed on the number pad with Num Lock on. Other blocks have no short Alt code; copy them instead.
Why are there gaps between my block characters?
Thin horizontal lines between stacked blocks come from line spacing larger than the glyph, and uneven widths come from proportional fonts. Use a monospace font with line height 1, such as a code block, and the blocks join seamlessly.
Why do the sextant characters show as empty boxes?
to were added in Unicode 13.0 (2020) and many system fonts do not include them yet. Install a font that does, such as Cascadia Code, Iosevka, Unscii or GNU Unifont, or use the older quadrants , which every font has.
