Box Drawing Characters: Creating Tables in Plain Text

Box drawing characters are Unicode symbols designed to draw lines, borders, and tables in monospaced text environments like terminals, README files, and code comments.

Basic set (light lines): ┌─┐ ┌──────┐ │ │ │ Text │ └─┘ └──────┘

Common characters and their purposes: - ─ Horizontal line, │ Vertical line - ┌ Top-left corner, ┐ Top-right corner - └ Bottom-left corner, ┘ Bottom-right corner - ├ Left T-junction, ┤ Right T-junction - ┬ Top T-junction, ┴ Bottom T-junction - ┼ Cross (all four directions)

Double-line variants: ═, ║, ╔, ╗, ╚, ╝, ╠, ╣, ╦, ╩, ╬ — used for heavier borders or to distinguish sections in complex tables.

Where they are used: - Terminal applications: htop, ncdu, and other TUI tools draw interfaces with box characters - README files: Section dividers and tables in plain-text documentation - Code comments: Visual hierarchy markers in function headers - Log files: Structured formatting that survives plain-text transmission

Important: Box drawing characters only render correctly in monospaced fonts. In proportional fonts, they will be misaligned. Always use them in terminals, code editors, and monospace-formatted text.

Use Tooler's Symbol Picker to browse and copy all box drawing characters in one click.