Is » okay as a breadcrumb separator for screen readers?

It works visually, but a screen reader may announce it by name between every link, which gets tedious fast. Hide it from assistive tech with ` » ` and mark up the trail as a list inside ` `, so the structure carries the meaning instead. The same fix applies to Read more » links.

Does the period go inside or outside » in French?

It depends on what's quoted. A full sentence introduced with a colon keeps its own period inside, and nothing follows the »: Il a dit : « Je viens demain. » A fragment worked into your own sentence takes the period outside: Il parle d'« une erreur ». A period never goes on both sides.

Why does my regex miss German quotations?

Which end » goes on depends on the language. French closes with it, « comme ça », German and Danish open with it, »so«, and Swedish can use it on both sides, »så». So a regex that extracts quotations by matching « then » works for French and misses German entirely. Match both orders, or treat either mark as a possible opener.

How do I draw a ╔═╗ box around text in Python?

Set w to the longest line, then pad every row to that width: `print('╔' + '═' * (w + 2) + '╗')`, then `print(f'║ {line:<{w}} ║')` for each line, and close with ╚ and ╝ the same way. If you already use the rich library, `Panel(text, box=box.DOUBLE)` draws the same frame and handles the padding for you.

Why does Alt+187 draw ╗ instead of typing »?

Because 187 without a zero is looked up in the DOS table, and there it's the double-line corner ╗, in both the US and Western European sets. Add the zero, Alt+0187, to get ». The DOS table has » as well, at 175, so Alt+175 is the short route.

ASCII 187

Right angle quotesDouble box top-right corner

ASCII 187 is » on Windows and ╗ in old DOS.

» (Right Guillemet) is byte 187 in Windows-1252, Unicode U+00BB. French closes quotes with it and German opens them, and on the web it's the arrow in links like Read more ». When that arrow comes from CSS, as in content: '»' on an ::after rule, it can break on its own. If the stylesheet is served with a Latin-1 charset, or the page that links it isn't UTF-8, the browser decodes the CSS file that way and the » shows up as Â». Writing the escape '\BB' instead of the literal character sidesteps the question entirely. Old DOS had » too, at 175. In UTF-8 it's C2 BB, and the HTML entity is ».

╗ (Double Down and Left) is byte 187 in code page 437, the original IBM PC character set, and maps to Unicode U+2557. It's the top-right corner of an all-double frame, with ═ (205) coming in from the left and ║ (186) going down; ╔ at 201 starts the same edge. Old DOS box art opened as Windows-1252 has a recognizable look because of it: the top border ╔═══╗ turns into ÉÍÍÍ», and the sides become º. If you see that pattern, reopen the file as code page 437. In UTF-8 it's E2 95 97, and the HTML entity is &boxDL;.

PunctuationBox Drawing

Technical Details

Code Example

</>

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    /* On Windows (code page 1252) byte 187 is ».
       Modern terminals expect UTF-8, so print the code point, not the byte. */
    printf("\u00BB\n");   /* UTF-8: C2 BB */

    unsigned char b = 187;         /* the raw Windows-1252 byte */
    printf("%d 0x%02X\n", b, b);    /* 187 0xBB */
    return 0;
}

Code Example

</>

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    /* Byte 187 is ╗ only on a console using code page 437
       (chcp 437 on Windows, or DOSBox). On a UTF-8 terminal the
       lone byte 0xBB is invalid and prints as garbage, often �. */
    putchar(187);

    /* char is signed on x86, so a plain char holding 0xBB is -69.
       Use unsigned char when you compare or index by byte value. */
    char c = (char)187;
    unsigned char u = 187;
    printf("\n%d %d\n", c, u);   /* -69 187 */

    /* Portable: print the Unicode character as UTF-8 instead. */
    printf("\u2557\n");          /* E2 95 97 */
    return 0;
}

How to Type It

Windows: Hold Alt and type 0187 on the numeric keypad, with Num Lock on. The leading zero picks the Windows code page. Alt+175, without the zero, types it too. No numeric keypad? In Word, type 00BB and press Alt+X.
Mac: Press Option+Shift+\.
Linux: In GNOME, or any desktop running IBus, press Ctrl+Shift+U, type bb, then Space. With a Compose key set up, press Compose, greater-than, greater-than.
Phone: iPhone: open the 123 keyboard, long-press " and pick ». Android (Gboard): tap the character at the top of this page to copy it.

How to Type It

Windows: Hold Alt and type 187 on the numeric keypad, with no leading zero. Windows reads it as a DOS code and inserts ╗. No numeric keypad? In Word, type 2557 and press Alt+X.
Mac: Press Control+Command+Space to open the Character Viewer, then search for "box drawings double down and left".
Linux: In GNOME, or any desktop running IBus, press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 2557, then Space.
Phone: Phone keyboards have no key for it. Tap the character at the top of this page to copy it.

Frequently Asked Questions

It works visually, but a screen reader may announce it by name between every link, which gets tedious fast. Hide it from assistive tech with `<span aria-hidden="true">»</span>` and mark up the trail as a list inside `<nav aria-label="Breadcrumb">`, so the structure carries the meaning instead. The same fix applies to Read more » links.
It depends on what's quoted. A full sentence introduced with a colon keeps its own period inside, and nothing follows the »: Il a dit : « Je viens demain. » A fragment worked into your own sentence takes the period outside: Il parle d'« une erreur ». A period never goes on both sides.
Which end » goes on depends on the language. French closes with it, « comme ça », German and Danish open with it, »so«, and Swedish can use it on both sides, »så». So a regex that extracts quotations by matching « then » works for French and misses German entirely. Match both orders, or treat either mark as a possible opener.
Because 187 without a zero is looked up in the DOS table, and there it's the double-line corner ╗, in both the US and Western European sets. Add the zero, Alt+0187, to get ». The DOS table has » as well, at 175, so Alt+175 is the short route.

Frequently Asked Questions

Set w to the longest line, then pad every row to that width: `print('╔' + '═' * (w + 2) + '╗')`, then `print(f'║ {line:<{w}} ║')` for each line, and close with ╚ and ╝ the same way. If you already use the rich library, `Panel(text, box=box.DOUBLE)` draws the same frame and handles the padding for you.
Because 187 without a zero is looked up in the DOS table, and there it's the double-line corner ╗, in both the US and Western European sets. Add the zero, Alt+0187, to get ». The DOS table has » as well, at 175, so Alt+175 is the short route.

ASCII 187

Right angle quotesDouble box top-right corner

ASCII 187 is » on Windows and ╗ in old DOS.

Punctuation

Box Drawing

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {

/* On Windows (code page 1252) byte 187 is ».

Modern terminals expect UTF-8, so print the code point, not the byte. */

printf("\u00BB\n"); /* UTF-8: C2 BB */

unsigned char b = 187; /* the raw Windows-1252 byte */

printf("%d 0x%02X\n", b, b); /* 187 0xBB */

return 0;

}

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {

/* Byte 187 is ╗ only on a console using code page 437

(chcp 437 on Windows, or DOSBox). On a UTF-8 terminal the

lone byte 0xBB is invalid and prints as garbage, often �. */

putchar(187);

/* char is signed on x86, so a plain char holding 0xBB is -69.

Use unsigned char when you compare or index by byte value. */

char c = (char)187;

unsigned char u = 187;

printf("\n%d %d\n", c, u); /* -69 187 */

/* Portable: print the Unicode character as UTF-8 instead. */

printf("\u2557\n"); /* E2 95 97 */

return 0;

}