 <p>Use the correct character set.</p> <pre><code>3&gt;&gt; print(bytes((219,)).decode('cp437')) █ 3&gt;&gt; ord(bytes((219,)).decode('cp437')) 9608 3&gt;&gt; hex(9608) '0x2588' 3&gt;&gt; print('\u2588') █ </code></pre> <p><a href="http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2588/index.htm" rel="nofollow">Unicode Character 'FULL BLOCK' (U+2588)</a></p>