What means
The gaps mark teletext’s separated mode. Teletext began in the UK in the early 1970s, broadcasting text and block pictures; it became common across Europe. The 2002 Enhanced Teletext standard documents the switch from touching to separated cells.
After a proposal in 2021, Unicode 16 encoded each separated pattern as a character so teletext emulators could reproduce the graphics and older software could keep its custom-symbol codes.
A technical, diagrammatic tile for text-mode artwork.
Don't confuse it with
4Questions people ask
1Why does it appear as a box?
It is a font issue: a font without this glyph may show a missing-character box even when the text still contains the correct character.
How to type
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 1CE79, 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 “separated block sextant-146”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 1ce79, then Enter or Space.
HTML
𜹹CSS
\1CE79HTML source for U+1CE79
Write `𜹹` where the character should appear.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
𜹹
HTML hex
𜹹
CSS content
content: "\1CE79";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%F0%9C%B9%B9
1
On screen
1
Code points
2
JS .length
4
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.