Box Drawing Characters: Unicode List and Reference

How to use the box drawing characters

1. Browse the groups above to find the box drawing characters you need.
2. Click any character in the grid to copy it directly to your clipboard.
3. Use the reference table below to look up the code point and Alt code of the most common characters.
4. Paste the copied symbol into your terminal, text editor or source code.

What Are Box Drawing Characters?

Box drawing characters are a collection of Unicode symbols located primarily in the U+2500 to U+257F range. They were originally designed for text-based user interfaces in DOS and early terminal emulators to render borders, tables and frames without relying on graphical assets. Today they remain widely used in command-line tools, README files, log outputs and retro-style designs.

The set includes light, heavy and double line styles. Each style has horizontal segments, vertical segments, corners and junction pieces that connect seamlessly when placed next to one another in a monospaced font. Because every character occupies exactly one cell width, alignment is predictable across terminals and editors.

How to Type Box Drawing Characters

Typing these symbols directly from a keyboard requires different methods depending on your operating system. Below are the reliable approaches for Windows, Mac and Linux, plus how to insert them in HTML.

Windows Alt Codes

On Windows, hold the Alt key and type the decimal code on the numeric keypad. On a US English Windows setup (the OEM code page 437), Alt+196 produces the light horizontal line (U+2500), and Alt+179 produces the light vertical line (U+2502). You must use the numeric keypad, not the number row. If your keyboard lacks a numeric keypad, open the Character Map utility (charmap) or use the Windows emoji panel (Win+.) and search by the Unicode name.

Mac

macOS does not have built-in Alt codes for the full Unicode box drawing block. The most practical method is to open the Character Viewer via Control+Command+Space, search for "box drawing" and double-click the desired symbol. Alternatively, you can create custom text replacements in System Settings under Keyboard so that a short abbreviation expands into the character automatically.

Linux

On Linux systems running X11 or Wayland, press Ctrl+Shift+U, release, type the hexadecimal code point (for example 250c for the top-left corner), then press Enter. In terminal emulators like GNOME Terminal or Alacritty, this compose sequence works natively.

HTML Entities

In web pages, use the numeric HTML entity format ─ for the light horizontal line or ─ using the decimal value. Named entities exist for a few legacy characters (like ─ in some specifications), but numeric references are universally supported and less ambiguous.

Reference Table of Common Characters

This table lists the most frequently used box drawing characters with their code points, decimal values and common Alt codes for quick lookup. The Alt codes assume the US English OEM code page 437 and are typed on the numeric keypad without a leading zero.

Drawing a Text Table

Combining corners, junctions and straight segments lets you build structured tables in plain text. Here is a worked example using light line characters:

┌────────┬────────┐
│ Name │ Score │
├────────┼────────┤
│ Alice │ 95 │
│ Bob │ 87 │
└────────┴────────┘

The top row uses U+250C (down and right), U+2500 (horizontal), U+252C (down and horizontal) and U+2510 (down and left). Data rows use U+2502 (vertical) for the column separators. The middle divider uses U+251C, U+2500, U+253C, U+2500 and U+2524. The bottom row mirrors the top with U+2514, U+2534 and U+2518. Every character aligns perfectly because they share the same width in a monospaced font.

Block Elements and Shading

The Unicode Block Elements range (U+2580 to U+259F) complements box drawing characters by providing solid and shaded rectangles. The full block (U+2588) fills an entire character cell, while half blocks (U+2580, U+2584, U+258C, U+2590) fill only the top, bottom, left or right portion. Shade characters at U+2591 (light), U+2592 (medium) and U+2593 (dark) simulate grayscale gradients in text mode.

These are commonly used for progress bars in terminal applications. A simple progress bar might combine full blocks for the completed portion and light shade for the remaining portion: █████░░░░░ representing fifty percent completion. Unlike graphical UI libraries, block elements require no rendering engine beyond a standard terminal font.

Common Mistakes and Font Issues

The most frequent problem when working with box drawing characters is using a proportional font instead of a monospaced one. In fonts like Arial or Times New Roman, the characters do not align into continuous lines because each glyph has a different width. Always switch to a monospaced font such as Consolas, Fira Code, Source Code Pro or Courier New before building text tables.

Another issue is mixing line weights incorrectly. Connecting a heavy horizontal segment (U+2501) to a light vertical segment (U+2502) leaves a visible gap or misalignment. Use the dedicated mixed junction characters (such as U+250D, down light and right heavy) to ensure smooth connections between different stroke weights. Similarly, double-line characters have their own specific junction pieces in the U+2552 to U+256C range.

If you need other typographic symbols for your projects, explore related collections like math symbols or greek letters which follow the same copy-on-click pattern.

Worked examples