What ❘ means
❘ is the light vertical bar. Unicode classifies it as an “other symbol” — Unicode's shelf for signs that are neither maths, money nor punctuation and files it in the Dingbats block; this site shelves it under Stars & signs.
Its appearance depends on the font and text styling.
How it is encoded
❘ is a single code point, U+2758. In HTML that is ❘, and in CSS \2758.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does ❘ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type ❘
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 2758, then Alt+X to get ❘.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “light vertical bar”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 2758, then Enter or Space.
HTML
❘CSS
\2758Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
❘
HTML hex
❘
CSS content
content: "\2758";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%9D%98
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.