Presentation Form for Vertical Colon

It marks the same pause or introduction as an ordinary colon.

In Japanese tategaki (vertical writing), ︓ is the colon's vertical presentation. It keeps the colon's punctuation role; only the typographic form changes.

Japanese punctuation conventions shifted under Western influence during Japan's Meiji era, a period of modernization. In Chinese typography, a colon fills one full character space, but vertical placement conventions differ between Mainland China and Taiwan and Hong Kong. Unicode also preserves ︓ for compatibility with GB 18030, a Chinese character-encoding standard.

Should I use ︓ instead of a regular colon?

Use it only when the exact vertical form is required.

A text-layout system can position or turn a regular colon for vertical writing; ︓ is a separate character and does not make horizontal text vertical. In ordinary horizontal prose, : is usually the right choice. If a file requires ︓, replacing it with a similar-looking colon changes the stored text.