What ␌ means
It depicts the control; it does not activate it. The actual FF control advances print output to a new page or form. Pasting ␌ into ordinary text inserts this picture, not the command.
ASCII, a standard for encoding text, lists FF in the 1968 USAS X3.4 standard; RFC 20, a technical note, records it in 1969. Unicode permits alternate drawings for control pictures.
Don't confuse it with
4Questions people ask
1Why does ␌ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type ␌
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 240C, then Alt+X to get ␌.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “symbol for form feed”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 240c, then Enter or Space.
HTML
␌CSS
\240CCodes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
␌
HTML hex
␌
CSS content
content: "\240C";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E2%90%8C
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.