Text borders are frames built from characters: four corners, a run of line, a wall each side and your words in the middle. Nothing here is generated and no frame resizes itself: these are 54 ready-made frames round the sample YOUR TEXT, in five styles.
Read the full guide
Frames that need no fitting
Three sections need no counting. One line holds ten frames that sit either side of your words, Open sides six with no side walls, and Empty frames three with 20 columns of room. In the rest, YOUR TEXT is nine characters: for each one you add, add one fill character to the top line and one to the bottom, or a pair where the fill is two, such as ★☆.
Why a right-hand wall drifts
Unicode classes 112 of its 128 box drawing characters as ambiguous: narrow by default, sometimes wide in an East Asian setting. So are ★, ☆ and ♡. 22 frames hold none: the 21 under Keyboard characters only and the Flower border. A Chinese character or an emoji counts as two. Fonts: the cat page.
Open sides marks six frames with no side walls, so there is no right-hand wall to drift.
In Markdown, put a frame in a code fence. Outside one, a line of asterisks becomes a rule and Slash corner box loses both backslashes.
For a file header, search comment: the Hash box is a comment in Python and YAML, the Block comment box in JavaScript and CSS.
Questions and answers
Does a border resize as I type?
No. Each is fixed text. Paste it, replace YOUR TEXT, then add or remove fill characters until top and bottom match the middle line. Empty frames holds three with 20 columns of room, one filled with full stops, which nothing can squash.
Which are the cute text borders?
Cute borders holds eleven: stars, hearts, florettes, sparkles and moons. The hearts are white heart suits, ♡: Unicode lists the black one as an emoji and some places colour it. Kaomoji borders adds seven with a face at a corner, on an edge or beside them.
Is there a cool text box for one line?
Yes. One line holds ten that put a rule, brackets, stars, hearts or a kaomoji either side of the words. Cool text boxes are the ten with a shape, such as a speech bubble, a ticket and a signpost; eight are keyboard characters only.
All 54 borders
Line boxes 15
Box inside a boxA light box with a double one round it, one space apart. Add a letter and both boxes grow: one ─ and one ═, top and bottom. 5 lines, 17 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518), Box drawings double horizontal (U+2550), Box drawings double vertical (U+2551), Box drawings double down and right (U+2554), Box drawings double down and left (U+2557), Box drawings double up and right (U+255A), Box drawings double up and left (U+255D). All 12 are of ambiguous width.
Corner marks onlyFour corners and a short stroke from each, with nothing between them. There is no right-hand wall, so a longer line of text cannot push one out of place. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518). All 5 are of ambiguous width.
Dashed line boxLight corners with the triple dash between them: ┄ along the top and bottom, ┆ down the sides. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings light triple dash horizontal (U+2504), Box drawings light triple dash vertical (U+2506), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518). All 6 are of ambiguous width.
Show all 54 borders (51 more)
Line boxes, continued
Double line boxTwo lines all the way round, with the corner pieces that join them. It grows by one ═ a letter. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings double horizontal (U+2550), Box drawings double vertical (U+2551), Box drawings double down and right (U+2554), Box drawings double down and left (U+2557), Box drawings double up and right (U+255A), Box drawings double up and left (U+255D). All 6 are of ambiguous width.
Double top, light sidesA double line above and below and a single line down the sides, joined by the four corner pieces made for that meeting. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings double horizontal (U+2550), Box drawings down single and right double (U+2552), Box drawings down single and left double (U+2555), Box drawings up single and right double (U+2558), Box drawings up single and left double (U+255B). All 6 are of ambiguous width.
Empty double line boxThe same room as the empty light box, twenty columns by three lines, inside the double line. 5 lines, 22 wide. Borrows Box drawings double horizontal (U+2550), Box drawings double vertical (U+2551), Box drawings double down and right (U+2554), Box drawings double down and left (U+2557), Box drawings double up and right (U+255A), Box drawings double up and left (U+255D). All 6 are of ambiguous width.
Empty line boxTwenty columns by three lines of room. The inside is ordinary spaces, so it needs a place that keeps spaces as typed. 5 lines, 22 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518). All 6 are of ambiguous width.
Heavy line boxEvery part from the heavy set, so the corners meet the sides at full weight. It grows by one ━ a letter. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings heavy horizontal (U+2501), Box drawings heavy vertical (U+2503), Box drawings heavy down and right (U+250F), Box drawings heavy down and left (U+2513), Box drawings heavy up and right (U+2517), Box drawings heavy up and left (U+251B). All 6 are of ambiguous width.
Heavy rule ends, one lineA heavy rule either side of the words, each closed by a T piece so the line has a finished end. 1 line, 17 wide. Borrows Box drawings heavy horizontal (U+2501), Box drawings heavy vertical and right (U+2523), Box drawings heavy vertical and left (U+252B). All 3 are of ambiguous width.
Label and text line boxTwo cells side by side with a shared wall: a short label on the left and the words on the right. The ┬ and ┴ mark where the wall meets the frame. 3 lines, 20 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518), Box drawings light down and horizontal (U+252C), Box drawings light up and horizontal (U+2534). All 8 are of ambiguous width.
Light corners, one lineTop corners on the left, bottom corners on the right: read together they suggest a frame without using a second line. 1 line, 15 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518). All 3 are of ambiguous width.
Light line boxThe plain frame: four corners, a light line and one space either side of the words. For every letter more than the nine of YOUR TEXT, add one ─ to the top line and one to the bottom. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518). All 6 are of ambiguous width.
Line box with a shadowA light box with a full block down its right side and half blocks under it, set one column in, so the box seems to stand off the page. 4 lines, 14 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518), Upper half block (U+2580), Full block (U+2588). All 8 are of ambiguous width.
Line box with a titleThe word NOTE is set into the top line. Change it to any short word and take out or add ─ after it so the top stays as long as the bottom. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518). All 6 are of ambiguous width.
Rounded line boxThe light line with the four arc corners. It grows the same way: one ─ top and bottom for each extra letter. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light arc down and right (U+256D), Box drawings light arc down and left (U+256E), Box drawings light arc up and left (U+256F), Box drawings light arc up and right (U+2570). All 6 are of ambiguous width.
Keyboard boxes 11
Block comment boxOpens with /* and closes with */ and holds neither in between, so JavaScript and CSS read all three lines as one comment. 3 lines, 15 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Dots and tildes, one lineA full stop, a colon, an asterisk and a tilde, then the same four in reverse after the words. 1 line, 19 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Empty box, dots insideAn empty box that cannot be squashed: the inside is full stops, not spaces. Type over the dots you need and leave the rest, or swap them for spaces where spaces are kept. 4 lines, 22 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Equals rules, open sidesA rule above and a rule below and nothing at the sides. In Markdown a line of equals signs under text turns that text into a top-level heading, so use a code fence there. 3 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Hash boxHash signs all the way round. Every line starts with one, and a hash starts a comment in Python and in YAML, so the box can head a script or a settings file. Markdown turns the middle line into a heading. 3 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Plus and minus boxThe frame every keyboard can type: plus signs at the corners, hyphens between them and a bar each side. It grows by one hyphen a letter. 3 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Round keyboard boxA full stop for each top corner and an apostrophe for each bottom one, which rounds the box off without leaving the keyboard. 3 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Slash corner boxSlashes cut the four corners off. Two of the four are backslashes, and Markdown swallows both: one ends its line and one comes before a hyphen. Type each twice there, or use a code fence. 3 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Square brackets, one lineA hyphen, an equals sign and a square bracket each side, mirrored. 1 line, 17 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Star boxAsterisks all the way round. Markdown reads a line of three or more asterisks as a rule across the page and the middle line as a list item, so put this one inside a code fence there. 3 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Tilde and star rulesTildes and asterisks in turn, above and below. The pattern repeats every two characters, so lengthen it two at a time. Markdown pairs the asterisks up as emphasis marks and hides them. 3 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Cool text boxes 10
Folder with a tabA tab with a label on the top left and the body of the folder under it. The top edge is underscores, which sit at the foot of their line. 5 lines, 17 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Marquee box with lightsA lower-case o for every bulb with a hyphen of wire between them. The pattern is two characters long, so lengthen it two at a time. 3 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Note with a folded cornerA sheet with its top right corner turned down: a bar, two backslashes and an underscore draw the flap. The top and bottom edges are underscores. 5 lines, 16 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Ribbon banner boxA panel of underscores and bars with a forked ribbon tail folded behind each end. 4 lines, 17 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Scroll with rolled endsA rod of equals signs with a rolled end either side, above and below a sheet that sits one column in. 3 lines, 15 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Sign on a postA light box with a ┬ in the middle of its bottom line, a post under it and a foot on the ground. 6 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518), Box drawings light down and horizontal (U+252C), Box drawings light up and horizontal (U+2534). All 8 are of ambiguous width.
Speech bubble boxA rounded keyboard box with a gap in its bottom line and a tail under the gap. Move the gap and the tail together to point at another spot. 4 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Thought bubble boxBrackets for the sides, tildes for the fluffy top and bottom, and three shrinking circles trailing off to the thinker. 6 lines, 15 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Ticket with a stubOne round keyboard box with a colon for the tear line and a number on the stub. 3 lines, 19 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Window with a title barA title bar with a close button in its own cell, and the words in the pane under it. Replace message with a title of seven letters, or adjust the spaces after it. 5 lines, 17 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518), Box drawings light vertical and right (U+251C), Box drawings light vertical and left (U+2524), Box drawings light down and horizontal (U+252C), Box drawings light up and horizontal (U+2534). All 10 are of ambiguous width.
Cute borders 11
Flower borderTwo kinds of florette in turn with a space between, and one each side of the words. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Black florette (U+273F), White florette (U+2740). Neither is of ambiguous width.
Flower ends, one lineA florette at each end with two strokes of light line leading in to the words. 1 line, 19 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Black florette (U+273F). 1 of the 2 is of ambiguous width (─).
Heart border, open sidesA row of white heart suits above and below, a space between each. With no side walls there is no right-hand edge to drift. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows White heart suit (U+2661). It is of ambiguous width.
Heart corner boxA light line box with a white heart suit in place of each corner. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), White heart suit (U+2661). All 3 are of ambiguous width.
Hearts each side, one lineA white heart suit and a small star each side. 1 line, 17 wide. Borrows Star operator (U+22C6), White heart suit (U+2661). 1 of the 2 is of ambiguous width (♡).
Moon and star borderA crescent at each end, curved round the row like a pair of brackets, and small and large stars in turn between them. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Star operator (U+22C6), White star (U+2606), First quarter moon (U+263D), Last quarter moon (U+263E). 1 of the 4 is of ambiguous width (☆).
Sparkle border, open sidesBlack and white four-pointed stars with a middle dot between each pair, above and below. 3 lines, 17 wide. Borrows Middle dot (U+00B7), Black four pointed star (U+2726), White four pointed star (U+2727). 1 of the 3 is of ambiguous width (·).
Star corner double boxThe double line box with a black star in place of each corner. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings double horizontal (U+2550), Box drawings double vertical (U+2551), Black star (U+2605). All 3 are of ambiguous width.
Stars each side, one lineA black star and a white star before the words and the same two, mirrored, after them. 1 line, 17 wide. Borrows Black star (U+2605), White star (U+2606). Both are of ambiguous width.
Two-star borderBlack and white stars in turn all the way round, with a white one each side of the words. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Black star (U+2605), White star (U+2606). Both are of ambiguous width.
Wavy bracket boxRound brackets for the sides and a ripple of tildes and asterisks above and below, closed with a full stop and an apostrophe. 3 lines, 13 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Kaomoji borders 7
Cheering kaomoji, one lineA face with both arms up each side of the words. All of it can be typed on a keyboard, backslashes included. 1 line, 25 wide. Keyboard characters only.
Hugging kaomoji, one lineTwo faces reach in toward the words from either side. The arms are a small Japanese letter, which Unicode classes as wide, and the subset sign. 1 line, 25 wide. Borrows Undertie (U+203F), Subset of (U+2282), Circle with all but upper left quadrant black (U+25D5), Hiragana letter small tu (U+3063). 1 of the 4 is of ambiguous width (⊂). One is wide (っ).
Kaomoji asleep on a boxA sleeping face rests on the top line and its snore drifts off to the right. Made of keyboard characters and the light line. 4 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518). All 6 are of ambiguous width.
Kaomoji corner boxA happy face for each corner, joined by light lines. The side walls hang from the middle of the faces. 3 lines, 17 wide. Borrows Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502). Both are of ambiguous width.
Kaomoji holding a lineA face at each end holds a heavy rule, one hand raised. The two hands are Japanese characters that Unicode classes as wide. 1 line, 27 wide. Borrows Bullet (U+2022), Undertie (U+203F), Box drawings heavy horizontal (U+2501), Katakana letter no (U+30CE), Katakana iteration mark (U+30FD). 2 of the 5 are of ambiguous width (• ━). 2 are wide (ノ ヽ).
Kaomoji in the bottom edgeA light box with a small face set into its bottom line near the right-hand corner, like a signature. 3 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Bullet (U+2022), Undertie (U+203F), Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518). 7 of the 8 are of ambiguous width (┌ ─ ┐ │ └ • ┘).
Kaomoji peeking over a boxA smiling face looks over the top edge, with a hand on the line either side of it. 4 lines, 13 wide. Borrows Bullet (U+2022), Undertie (U+203F), Union (U+222A), Box drawings light horizontal (U+2500), Box drawings light vertical (U+2502), Box drawings light down and right (U+250C), Box drawings light down and left (U+2510), Box drawings light up and right (U+2514), Box drawings light up and left (U+2518). 8 of the 9 are of ambiguous width (• ┌ ─ ∪ ┐ │ └ ┘).
How this list was compiled: Every piece was drawn for this page and checked in a monospaced font on 2026-09-19; none is copied from an archive or another site. Every frame was put together for this page on 2026-09-19 from its own parts (a corner, a fill and a side) round the sample words YOUR TEXT, or typed out as a drawing; no border site, generator or archive piece was copied. The sample is nine characters long, and a frame with side walls has one space either side of it. Each character was looked up in the Unicode Character Database, version 18.0.0: names and categories in https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt, width classes in https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/EastAsianWidth.txt, the Emoji property in https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/emoji/emoji-data.txt, all read on 2026-09-19. Keyboard characters only means the 95 printable ASCII characters, U+0020 to U+007E. Squash-proof means no line starts with a space and no two spaces touch. The comment box badge means at most 8 lines and 30 columns: a rule of thumb of this site, not a promise about any app. Width: 112 of the 128 characters of the Box Drawing block (U+2500 to U+254B, U+2550 to U+2573) are East Asian Ambiguous (class A) in https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/EastAsianWidth.txt, counted on 2026-09-19; the other 16 (U+254C to U+254F, U+2574 to U+257F) are not. Unicode Standard Annex #11 (https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr11/, revision 46 for Unicode 18.0.0, read on 2026-09-19) defines ambiguous characters as those that may be wide or narrow by turns, and says they should be treated as narrow by default when the context cannot be established reliably. Markdown: the notes on the star, hash, equals, tilde and slash frames were checked against CommonMark 0.31.2 (https://spec.commonmark.org/0.31.2/, sections 2.4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 5.2, read on 2026-09-19) and by running each frame through a CommonMark renderer. Comments: a hash starts a comment in Python (https://docs.python.org/3/reference/lexical_analysis.html) and in YAML 1.2.2 (https://yaml.org/spec/1.2.2/); /* and */ bound a comment in JavaScript (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Lexical_grammar) and in CSS (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Comments); all four read on 2026-09-19. Licence: own work