What 🮌 means
On GNOME/GTK, press Ctrl+Shift+U, enter 1FB8C, then Enter.
In Word for Windows, type 1FB8C at the insertion point and press Alt+X. In HTML, use 🮌.
What did this shading block do?
It filled part of a text cell for low-resolution graphics.
Some early computer screens made simple graphics from fixed text cells. Semigraphics—partial block characters arranged in a grid—let programs approximate a larger picture. 🮌 supplies a medium-shaded left half. Historical character-set records include matching shade tiles in the Commodore PET/VIC-20 and C64/C128, Amstrad CPC, Mattel Aquarius, Ohio Scientific, and Japan’s Sharp MZ home computers. Unicode brought those machine-specific graphics into a shared character set.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
2Why does the shade pattern change between fonts?
Fonts draw characters with their own glyphs, so the dot pattern can vary. 🮌 still denotes a medium-shaded left half.
Can I enter `1FB8C` directly with macOS Unicode Hex Input?
No. As of 2026, macOS’s built-in Unicode Hex Input cannot take `1FB8C` as one five-digit value; use Character Viewer or another input method.
How to type 🮌
🮌\1FB8CCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.