Unicode character to represent "fullscreen"?

Question

I'm sort of surprised that this doesn't exist given the sheer number of arrow-like symbols in Unicode. Have I missed something? Or is there a character that looks similar to a fullscreen icon?

Solution 1

There is also U+26F6 "SQUARE FOUR CORNERS" ⛶ that looks somewhat similar to this image

that you've linked. No idea what the symbol was originally supposed to stand for, though... I'm also not sure that it actually does look like four corners in all fonts, maybe it's just the font of my particular browser.

Solution 2

If you search for expand from the link Hans Passant commented above you'll get the below

⛶ like what Youtube uses does appear among the result

Another suggestion:

• U+21F1 ⇱ North West Arrow to Corner
• U+21F2 ⇲ South East Arrow to Corner

The North East and South West versions don't exist but you can rotate or mirror the available ones to create the remaining two corners. But two corners are already enough to represent a fullscreen action, you don't need to fill all four corners

Other alternatives

• U+2725 ✥ FOUR CLUB-SPOKED ASTERISK
• U+21F9 ⇹ LEFT RIGHT ARROW WITH VERTICAL STROKE
• U+21FC ⇼ LEFT RIGHT ARROW WITH DOUBLE VERTICAL STROKE
• U+2921 ⤡ NORTH WEST AND SOUTH EAST ARROW
• U+1F542 🕂 CROSS POMMEE (needs some modification or a special font to make the heads more arrow-like)
• ↔↕ (use alone or drawn onto each other to get a cross with arrows)
• ⤡⤢
• ⇳
• ⤄
• 🡤🡥🡦🡧
• 🡴🡵🡶🡷
• 🢄🢅🢆🢇
• 🢔🢕🢖🢗

Some examples with arrows

Here is another variation used by the player in vtvgiaitri.vn

I guess they can be made from ◣ U+25E3 Black Lower Left Triangle and ◥ U+25E5 Black Upper Right Triangle or some of the triangles like below

• ◸ U+25F8 Upper Left Triangle
• ◹ U+25F9 Upper Right Triangle
• ◺ U+25FA Lower Left Triangle
• ◿ U+25FF Lower Right Triangle
• 𝅊 U+1D14A Musical Symbol Triangle Notehead Left White
• 𝅋 U+1D14B Musical Symbol Triangle Notehead Left Black
• 𝅌 U+1D14C Musical Symbol Triangle Notehead Right White
• 𝅍 U+1D14D Musical Symbol Triangle Notehead Right Black
• 𝅎 U+1D14E Musical Symbol Triangle Notehead Down White
• 𝅏 U+1D14F Musical Symbol Triangle Notehead Down Black
• 𝅐 U+1D150 Musical Symbol Triangle Notehead Up Right White
• 𝅑 U+1D151 Musical Symbol Triangle Notehead Up Right Black

There are also ⤧⤨⤩⤪⤭⤮⤯⤰, unfortunately they don't have the double-head arrow version, but a simple solution like ⤪⤭ might work

You can draw on shapecatcher to find more relevant solutions or look for more arrows on

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_(symbol)#Arrows_in_Unicode
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrows_(Unicode_block)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplemental_Arrows-A
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplemental_Arrows-B
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supplemental_Arrows-C

Solution 3

FWIW, as of this writing, YouTube is using an SVG for its "SQUARE FOUR CORNERS" icon; here's the code:

<svg height="100%" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 36 36" width="100%">
<path d="m 10,16 2,0 0,-4 4,0 0,-2 L 10,10 l 0,6 0,0 z"></path>
<path d="m 20,10 0,2 4,0 0,4 2,0 L 26,10 l -6,0 0,0 z"></path>
<path d="m 24,24 -4,0 0,2 L 26,26 l 0,-6 -2,0 0,4 0,0 z"></path>
<path d="M 12,20 10,20 10,26 l 6,0 0,-2 -4,0 0,-4 0,0 z"></path>
</svg>

Solution 4

You can use some of these Unicode chars:

⌈⌊⌊⌋
「」
┘┌└ ┐
╬
⛶
╭ ╮╯╰

with <sub> or <sup> + overlapping

Or arrows:

⇱⇲
⇳⇖⇗⇘⇙⇕⇔↔↕↖↗↘↙ (and other arrows...) 

View more solutions

Comments

[user1703401]

Don't search for "fullscreen", you want "maximize". U+1F5D6. FontAwesome is pretty popular: fontawesome.com/icons?d=gallery&q=maximize.

[AlexMelw]

To be used in HTML: ⛶

[AlexMelw]

To be used in CSS: SELECTOR::after { content: '\26F6'; padding: 10px; }

[T.V.]

Unfortunately this unicode symbol is NOT yet supported in Apple MacOS/iOS (but it is already supported in Windows, Android, Linux, etc.)

[Ben J]

For more options, there's also ◰ "White Square With Upper Left Quadrant" and the other similar ones ◱◲◳ .