I am looking for the meaning of the pictograph depicted below (a
square with each side bisected by a shorter line.  The pictograph is
typically portrayed as being rendered with brush strokes.

A complete answer would include a link or citation where I can find the meaning.

Display the following lines in a fixed width font:

       |
   ----|----
  |    |    |
  |         |
--+--     --+--
  |         |
  |    |    |
   ----|----
       |

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Clarification of Question by mrgoldenbrown-ga on 07 Apr 2004 08:11 PDT

Yes, windings character 176 is it.  I am looking for a meaning of the
symbol in an eastern context - I originally came across it as a
pictograph that looked like brush strokes, like chinese or japanese
writing.

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Clarification of Question by mrgoldenbrown-ga on 07 Apr 2004 08:15 PDT

My apologies, but let me clarify my clarification.  Upon zooming in to
the windings character 176, I noticed that the lines intersect in the
middle.  My pictograph's lines to not meet in the middle.

Are you referring to Wingdings character 176 (Dec), "Square register mark"?

http://www.alanwood.net/demos/wingdings.html

http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/46/467.html
http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/45/4510.html
http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/45/4511.html

close, but no cigar!

If you are looking for the use of this symbol, it is an alternative to
the standard registration mark which is circular in shape used in
calibrating printing presses when printing colour seperations.

A registration mark is usually placed in the area of a page that is
cut off the finished product.  The mark would be printed by all inks
in the press (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (and sometimes other
colours)) in the same position.  If a colour was not aligned properly,
it would be easy to spot.  This is called mis-registraton.  With a
properly registered machine, the mark would appear as only black with
no surrounding colour.

You can turn on an option to print registration marks in professional
graphics programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator and Desktop
Publishing programs like InDesign and QuarkXPress.

Registration marks are also used to align negatives when manually
compositing or creating printing press "plates".

I think I have most of this correct, as it's from my general
knowledge, and I am not in the printing trade!

Cheers!