What ▖ means
It fills the lower-left quarter of a text cell.
Together, these partial blocks make semigraphics: pictures assembled from text cells. Each filled patch contributes to the image.
Why does ▖ look different across fonts?
Its outline depends on the font's character grid.
A font draws the filled quarter inside a character cell. If neighboring block characters do not line up cleanly in the active font or a fallback, seams can show in a multi-character picture. Check the layout in the terminal and font where it will appear.
Don't confuse it with
4Questions 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 2596, 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 “quadrant lower left”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 2596, then Enter or Space.
HTML
▖CSS
\2596Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
▖
HTML hex
▖
CSS content
content: "\2596";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%96%96
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.