NCURSES Extended Characters Quick Reference Chart

By Frank Cox
(September 5, 2010)

It is convenient to have a small quick-reference chart showing the NCURSES extended characters. Since I couldn't find one, I made this one.

This graphic is made from a (very) slightly modified version of the ACS variables example program found here.

This shows the NCURSES extended characters as displayed on a gnome-terminal under Centos 5.

Right-click on the graphic to save a copy of it for your own use. I keep a copy of this graphic handy when laying out a screen using the extended characters.

Here is the program that generated the table.

#include <ncurses.h>
int main(void)
	{
	initscr();
	attron(A_UNDERLINE);
	mvprintw(0,7,"NCURSES EXTENDED CHARACTERS\n");
	attroff(A_UNDERLINE);
	printw("Upper left corner         "); addch(ACS_ULCORNER); printw("  ACS_ULCORNER)\n"); 
	printw("Lower left corner         "); addch(ACS_LLCORNER); printw("  ACS_LLCORNER\n");
	printw("Lower right corner        "); addch(ACS_LRCORNER); printw("  ACS_LRCORNER\n");
	printw("Tee pointing right        "); addch(ACS_LTEE); printw("  ACS_LTEE\n");
	printw("Tee pointing left         "); addch(ACS_RTEE); printw("  ACS_RTEE\n");
	printw("Tee pointing up           "); addch(ACS_BTEE); printw("  ACS_BTEE\n");
	printw("Tee pointing down         "); addch(ACS_TTEE); printw("  ACS_TTEE\n");
	printw("Horizontal line           "); addch(ACS_HLINE); printw("  ACS_HLINE\n");
	printw("Vertical line             "); addch(ACS_VLINE); printw("  ACS_VLINE\n");
	printw("Large Plus or cross over  "); addch(ACS_PLUS); printw("  ACS_PLUS\n");
	printw("Scan Line 1               "); addch(ACS_S1); printw("  ACS_S1\n");
	printw("Scan Line 3               "); addch(ACS_S3); printw("  ACS_S3\n");
	printw("Scan Line 7               "); addch(ACS_S7); printw("  ACS_S7\n");
	printw("Scan Line 9               "); addch(ACS_S9); printw("  ACS_S9\n");
	printw("Diamond                   "); addch(ACS_DIAMOND); printw("  ACS_DIAMOND\n");
	printw("Checker board (stipple)   "); addch(ACS_CKBOARD); printw("  ACS_CKBOARD\n");
	printw("Degree Symbol             "); addch(ACS_DEGREE); printw("  ACS_DEGREE\n");
	printw("Plus/Minus Symbol         "); addch(ACS_PLMINUS); printw("  ACS_PLMINUS\n");
	printw("Bullet                    "); addch(ACS_BULLET); printw("  ACS_BULLET\n");
	printw("Arrow Pointing Left       "); addch(ACS_LARROW); printw("  ACS_LARROW\n");
	printw("Arrow Pointing Right      "); addch(ACS_RARROW); printw("  ACS_RARROW\n");
	printw("Arrow Pointing Down       "); addch(ACS_DARROW); printw("  ACS_DARROW\n");
	printw("Arrow Pointing Up         "); addch(ACS_UARROW); printw("  ACS_UARROW\n");
	printw("Board of squares          "); addch(ACS_BOARD); printw("  ACS_BOARD\n");
	printw("Lantern Symbol            "); addch(ACS_LANTERN); printw("  ACS_LANTERN\n");
	printw("Solid Square Block        "); addch(ACS_BLOCK); printw("  ACS_BLOCK\n");
	printw("Less/Equal sign           "); addch(ACS_LEQUAL); printw("  ACS_LEQUAL\n");
	printw("Greater/Equal sign        "); addch(ACS_GEQUAL); printw("  ACS_GEQUAL\n");
	printw("Pi                        "); addch(ACS_PI); printw("  ACS_PI\n");
	printw("Not equal                 "); addch(ACS_NEQUAL); printw("  ACS_NEQUAL\n");
	printw("UK pound sign             "); addch(ACS_STERLING); printw("  ACS_STERLING\n\n");
	refresh();
	getch();
	endwin();
	return 0;
	}

Other lookup tables (html, ASCII, etc.) that I find useful can be found here.

Other articles written by Frank Cox can be found here.

Frank Cox owns and operates the Melville Theatre in Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada, and has been playing with computers for over 30 years.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.