Copy and paste
Text Borders and Dividers
A divider does one job: it tells the eye that a section ended. That is why they are everywhere in README files, Discord servers and profile bios.
The box-drawing characters below come from an old terminal standard and are present in every font that matters, so they hold up in proportional text as well as monospace. Keep a divider under about 40 characters or it wraps on a phone.
Solid line
──────────────────────────────
Heavy line
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Double line
══════════════════════════════
Dashed line
╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌
Dotted line
······························
Wave
〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜
Tilde run
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Star line
──────── ✦ ────────
Diamond line
──────── ◆ ────────
Dot centre
──────── • ────────
Sparkle rule
··· ✧ ··· ✧ ··· ✧ ···
Arrow rule
▸▸▸▸▸▸▸▸▸▸▸▸▸▸▸
Block fade
█▓▒░ ░▒▓█
Block bar
████████████████████
Zigzag
╱╲╱╲╱╲╱╲╱╲╱╲╱╲╱╲
Simple box
┌──────────────┐ │ │ └──────────────┘
Double box
╔══════════════╗ ║ ║ ╚══════════════╝
Rounded box
╭──────────────╮ │ │ ╰──────────────╯
Header bar
╔═════════════════════╗ ║ T I T L E ║ ╚═════════════════════╝
Corner brackets
┌─ ─┐ └─ ─┘
Bracket rule
────────[ • ]────────
Chain
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
Where these work
This page has 22 pieces: 17 single-line and 5 multi-line. The widest is 30 characters across.
The 5 multi-line ones — simple box, double box, rounded box, header bar and others — only hold their shape in a monospace font. In Discord that means wrapping them in a code block with three backticks; in a README it means a fenced code block; in a terminal they just work. Paste one into a normal chat message and the rows drift apart.
Questions
Why does my box border come out ragged?
A box only stays square in a monospace font. In Discord that means a code block; in a README it means a fenced block. The single-line dividers work anywhere because there is nothing below them to line up with.
How wide should a divider be?
Around 30 to 40 characters. That fits a phone without wrapping and still reads as a full rule on desktop. A 60-character divider wraps to two ragged lines on mobile.
Do these work in a GitHub README?
Yes, but for a plain horizontal rule GitHub already has one — three dashes on their own line renders a real HTML rule that adapts to the reader’s theme. Use text dividers when you want the decorative look specifically.
Make your own
None of these say your name. The text to ASCII generator turns any word into a banner across 133 FIGlet fonts, and the image to ASCII converter turns a picture into text art in your browser. Both are free and neither uploads anything.