🔍

Loading symbols…

››

▙

quadrant upper left and lower left and lower right

Three-Quadrant Block

▙ is a filled-cell tile for terminal art and text graphics; alone, it has no fixed message meaning. Beside other block shapes, it helps make small pictures, borders, charts, and shading. A font can break the picture even when the text is encoded correctly.

Text symbol

Also called: quadrant block · semi-graphics · block tile
Search it as: terminal art · Unicode art
Shows up in: Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws

What ▙ means

▙ is one filled tile for terminal art and text graphics. Its usual reading comes from neighboring tiles: repeated blocks create edges, shading, icons, charts, or small images. Alone, it has no agreed conversational meaning.

Block-style semi-graphics were used on Sinclair's ZX80 and ZX81 computers in 1980–1981, when text cells provided a way to draw without bitmap graphics. Unicode's block set carries forward patterns associated with IBM PC Code Page 437, GB 2312, KS X 1001, terminal graphics sets, and Videotex mosaics.

Why do my block tiles have seams?

The font must align every tile and let neighboring edges touch. Block graphics work best when their glyphs share cell dimensions and have no padding between them. A font with unsuitable width, height, or spacing can turn a clean mosaic into uneven bars or visible gaps.

A hollow square, question mark, or replacement box means the chosen font lacks a usable glyph, or the text was decoded with the wrong encoding.

Technical, retro-computing, and decorative; not a conversational symbol.

Uneven font spacing can leave seams even when the character sequence is correct.

What it means when someone sends it to you

3 readings

Alone in an ordinary message

Usually decorative or unexplained; it has no standard chat meaning.

Repeated beside other block tiles

Part of terminal art, a small image, a bar, or a patterned texture.

Mixed with half-block elements

A mosaic that combines different amounts of cell fill.

Don't confuse it with

▟

Quadrant Upper Right And Lower Left And Lower Right

Its filled pattern is mirrored: the upper-left is empty and the upper-right is filled.

▛

Quadrant Upper Left And Upper Right And Lower Left

It fills three quadrants but leaves the lower-right empty.

▚

Quadrant Upper Left And Lower Right

It fills opposite quadrants, making a diagonal split.

Questions people ask

Why does ▙ show as a square?

Usually the font lacks a usable glyph. Use UTF-8 text and a font with Block Elements coverage; if the problem appears in only one app, check that app's font.

How to type ▙

Windows (Word)

Alt+XType 2599, 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 upper left and lower left and lower right”.

Linux

Ctrl+Shift+UType 2599, then Enter or Space.

HTML

▙

CSS

\2599

UTF-8 source

Save the character as UTF-8; its UTF-8 bytes are E2 96 99.

Symbol picker

Search for “quadrant” or browse Unicode's Block Elements block.

Codes and encoding1 code points

HTML decimal

▙

HTML hex

▙

CSS content

content: "\2599";

Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.

URL encoded

%E2%96%99

On screen

Code points

JS .length

UTF-8 bytes

A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.

Families this belongs to

Lines & boxes160 symbols

─━│┃┄┅┆┇┈┉┊┋