Does Spanish ever use Ì instead of Í?

No. Spanish has only one written accent, the acute, so it's always Í, as in ÍNDICE, Íñigo and país. Catalan does use grave accents, but only on a, e and o, and its i takes the acute too, as in príncep and veí. Ì belongs to Italian, so in Spanish text it's a typo.

Why doesn't std::string(40, '═') give me a line in C++?

Because '═' isn't one char. Saved as UTF-8 it's three bytes, so the literal becomes a multi-character constant, the compiler squeezes it into a single char, and you get 40 copies of one broken byte. Append the string instead: `for (int i = 0; i < 40; ++i) line += "═";`. On Windows, `std::wstring(40, L'═')` also works if you print it with wide output.

Why does a full-width ═ banner leave a blank line under it?

On the classic Windows console, a line that fills every column pushes the cursor onto the next row by itself, and the newline printed afterwards moves it down again. Make the banner one column shorter, as in `print('═' * (os.get_terminal_size().columns - 1))`, or print the full width with end='' so no newline follows.

Why does Alt+205 draw ═ instead of Í?

Alt+205 without a zero reads the DOS table, where 205 is the double horizontal line ═ that double box borders are built from. Alt+0205 gives Í. On Spanish and other Western European PCs, whose DOS code page is 850, Alt+214 also types Í, while on a US machine that code gives ╓.

ASCII 205

Q: Why does a full-width ═ banner leave a blank line under it?

On the classic Windows console, a line that fills every column pushes the cursor onto the next row by itself, and the newline printed afterwards moves it down again. Make the banner one column shorter, as in `print('═' * (os.get_terminal_size().columns - 1))`, or print the full width with end='' so no newline follows.

Uppercase I with acute accentDouble box horizontal line

ASCII 205 is Í on Windows and ═ in old DOS.

Í (Capital I with Acute) is byte 205 in Windows-1252, Unicode U+00CD. Spanish puts it on capitals like ÍNDICE and names like Íñigo, and Icelandic and Hungarian start words with it (Ísland, Írország). Don't confuse it with the Turkish capital İ (U+0130), which has a dot instead of an accent: İstanbul written with Í is a misspelling, and Windows-1252 has no İ at all. UTF-8 stores Í as C3 8D, and 8D is one of the unassigned bytes in Windows-1252, so a strict decoder stops on it. The HTML entity is Í.

═ (Double Horizontal) is byte 205 in code page 437, the original IBM PC character set, and maps to Unicode U+2550. It's the top and bottom edge of every all-double frame, running between corners like ╔ (201) and ╗ (187), and people also use it for banner lines in plain text. In a README, a row of ═ under a title looks like Markdown's === heading underline, but Markdown only recognizes the ASCII = (0x3D) there, so ═══ stays an ordinary line of text and the title never becomes a heading. It isn't ≡ (identical to, U+2261) either. In UTF-8 it's E2 95 90, and the HTML entity is &boxH;.

Latin LetterBox Drawing

Technical Details

Code Example

</>

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    /* On Windows (code page 1252) byte 205 is Í.
       Modern terminals expect UTF-8, so print the code point, not the byte. */
    printf("\u00CD\n");   /* UTF-8: C3 8D */

    unsigned char b = 205;         /* the raw Windows-1252 byte */
    printf("%d 0x%02X\n", b, b);    /* 205 0xCD */
    return 0;
}

Code Example

</>

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    /* Byte 205 is ═ only on a console using code page 437
       (chcp 437 on Windows, or DOSBox). On a UTF-8 terminal the
       lone byte 0xCD is invalid and prints as garbage, often �. */
    putchar(205);

    /* char is signed on x86, so a plain char holding 0xCD is -51.
       Use unsigned char when you compare or index by byte value. */
    char c = (char)205;
    unsigned char u = 205;
    printf("\n%d %d\n", c, u);   /* -51 205 */

    /* Portable: print the Unicode character as UTF-8 instead. */
    printf("\u2550\n");          /* E2 95 90 */
    return 0;
}

How to Type It

Windows: Hold Alt and type 0205 on the numeric keypad, with Num Lock on. The leading zero picks the Windows code page. No numeric keypad? In Word, type 00CD and press Alt+X.
Mac: Press Option+Shift+S.
Linux: In GNOME, or any desktop running IBus, press Ctrl+Shift+U, type cd, then Space. With a Compose key set up, press Compose, apostrophe, I.
Phone: Tap Shift, then long-press I and pick Í.

How to Type It

Windows: Hold Alt and type 205 on the numeric keypad, with no leading zero. Windows reads it as a DOS code and inserts ═. No numeric keypad? In Word, type 2550 and press Alt+X.
Mac: Press Control+Command+Space to open the Character Viewer, then search for "box drawings double horizontal".
Linux: In GNOME, or any desktop running IBus, press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 2550, 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

No. Spanish has only one written accent, the acute, so it's always Í, as in ÍNDICE, Íñigo and país. Catalan does use grave accents, but only on a, e and o, and its i takes the acute too, as in príncep and veí. Ì belongs to Italian, so in Spanish text it's a typo.
Alt+205 without a zero reads the DOS table, where 205 is the double horizontal line ═ that double box borders are built from. Alt+0205 gives Í. On Spanish and other Western European PCs, whose DOS code page is 850, Alt+214 also types Í, while on a US machine that code gives ╓.

Frequently Asked Questions

Because '═' isn't one char. Saved as UTF-8 it's three bytes, so the literal becomes a multi-character constant, the compiler squeezes it into a single char, and you get 40 copies of one broken byte. Append the string instead: `for (int i = 0; i < 40; ++i) line += "═";`. On Windows, `std::wstring(40, L'═')` also works if you print it with wide output.
On the classic Windows console, a line that fills every column pushes the cursor onto the next row by itself, and the newline printed afterwards moves it down again. Make the banner one column shorter, as in `print('═' * (os.get_terminal_size().columns - 1))`, or print the full width with end='' so no newline follows.
Alt+205 without a zero reads the DOS table, where 205 is the double horizontal line ═ that double box borders are built from. Alt+0205 gives Í. On Spanish and other Western European PCs, whose DOS code page is 850, Alt+214 also types Í, while on a US machine that code gives ╓.

ASCII 205

Uppercase I with acute accentDouble box horizontal line

ASCII 205 is Í on Windows and ═ in old DOS.

Latin Letter

Box Drawing

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {

/* On Windows (code page 1252) byte 205 is Í.

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

printf("\u00CD\n"); /* UTF-8: C3 8D */

unsigned char b = 205; /* the raw Windows-1252 byte */

printf("%d 0x%02X\n", b, b); /* 205 0xCD */

return 0;

}

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {

/* Byte 205 is ═ only on a console using code page 437

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

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

putchar(205);

/* char is signed on x86, so a plain char holding 0xCD is -51.

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

char c = (char)205;

unsigned char u = 205;

printf("\n%d %d\n", c, u); /* -51 205 */

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

printf("\u2550\n"); /* E2 95 90 */

return 0;

}