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Carriage return

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It was then also possible to fit multiple line feed operations into the time taken for a single carriage return—for example for printing doublespaced text, headers/footers or title pages—to save print and transmission time without the need for additional circuitry or mechanical complexity to "filter
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Early mechanical printers were too slow to return the carriage in the time it took to process one character. Therefore, the time spent sending the line feed was not wasted (often several more characters had to be sent to ensure the carriage return had happened before sending a printing character).
193:, this lever was on the left attached to the moving carriage, and operated after typing a line of text to cause the carriage to return to the far right so the type element would be aligned to the left side of the paper. The lever would also usually 285:
Carriage return by itself provided the ability to overprint the line with new text. This could be used to produce bold or accented characters, underscores, struck-out text, and some composite symbols.
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Electric made carriage return to be another key on the keyboard instead of a lever. The key was usually labeled "carriage return", "return", or "power return". With typewriters like the
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Many computer programs use the carriage return character, alone or with a line feed, to signal the end of a line of text, but other characters are also used for this function (see
439: 212:, where the type element moved when typing and the paper was held stationary, the key returned the type element to the far left and the term " 431: 410: 469: 545: 100: 72: 312:(a "hard return"). Some standards which introduce their own representations for line and paragraph control (for example 79: 274:(LF), a move to the next line, so that together they start a new line. Together, this sequence can be referred to as 119: 53: 86: 17: 57: 317: 68: 205: 178: 890: 639: 538: 708: 336: 381: 201: 46: 531: 93: 900: 649: 8: 895: 854: 786: 554: 512: 400: 461: 340: 267: 243: 859: 155: 869: 259: 230:) was introduced to communicate the combined carriage return and line feed action. 864: 627: 612: 309: 812: 781: 576: 495: 263: 189:. For machines where the type element was fixed and the paper held in a moving 281:
The carriage return and line feed functions were split for practical reasons:
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Originally, the term "carriage return" referred to a mechanism or lever on a
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to the first position on the same line. It was mostly used along with
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concepts, although it can be considered separately in its own right.
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or mechanism used to reset a device's position to the beginning of a
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To improve the keyboard for non-English-speakers, the symbol ↵ (
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contained separate carriage return and line feed characters.
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In both ASCII and Unicode, the carriage return is assigned
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and in many other languages (including representations of
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This is why the carriage return was always sent first.
60:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. 262:, or other output system such as the display of a 162:. It is closely associated with the line feed and 882: 489: 539: 335:. In character and string constants in the 546: 532: 459: 120:Learn how and when to remove this message 216:" was sometimes used for this function. 173: 27:Reset to the beginning of a line of text 331:); it may also be seen as control+M or 197:the paper to advance to the next line. 14: 883: 258:, and many other codes. It commands a 527: 432:"Regular expression syntax reference" 293:out" spurious additional CR signals. 242:, the carriage return is one of the 58:adding citations to reliable sources 29: 24: 200:Many electric typewriters such as 181:with carriage return lever at left 25: 912: 553: 505: 462:"Regular Expressions Quick Start" 34: 472:from the original on 2024-02-21 442:from the original on 2023-10-03 413:from the original on 2024-03-04 45:needs additional citations for 483: 453: 424: 393: 266:, to move the position of the 169: 13: 1: 387: 308:); others use it only for a 233: 7: 350: 10: 917: 826: 795: 737: 696: 663: 585: 562: 492:The Art and Science of C 490:Eric S. Roberts (1995). 466:regular-expressions.info 347:denotes this character. 382:C0 and C1 control codes 140:and often shortened to 136:, sometimes known as a 337:C programming language 182: 834:Power management keys 177: 836:(Power, Sleep, Wake) 54:improve this article 855:Keyboard technology 343:) influenced by C, 341:regular expressions 891:Control characters 297:As early as 1901, 244:control characters 183: 878: 877: 860:Keyboard shortcut 709:Page Up/Page Down 156:control character 130: 129: 122: 104: 69:"Carriage return" 16:(Redirected from 908: 870:Keyboard mapping 548: 541: 534: 525: 524: 520: 500: 499: 487: 481: 480: 478: 477: 457: 451: 450: 448: 447: 428: 422: 421: 419: 418: 397: 346: 334: 229: 179:Touchmaster Five 148: 138:cartridge return 125: 118: 114: 111: 105: 103: 62: 38: 30: 21: 916: 915: 911: 910: 909: 907: 906: 905: 881: 880: 879: 874: 865:Keyboard layout 822: 791: 750:Carriage return 733: 697:Navigation keys 692: 659: 581: 558: 552: 511: 508: 503: 488: 484: 475: 473: 460:Jan Goyvaerts. 458: 454: 445: 443: 430: 429: 425: 416: 414: 399: 398: 394: 390: 353: 344: 332: 310:paragraph break 236: 227: 172: 146: 134:carriage return 126: 115: 109: 106: 63: 61: 51: 39: 28: 23: 22: 18:Carriage Return 15: 12: 11: 5: 914: 904: 903: 898: 893: 876: 875: 873: 872: 867: 862: 857: 852: 847: 842: 837: 830: 828: 824: 823: 821: 820: 815: 813:System request 810: 805: 799: 797: 793: 792: 790: 789: 787:Language input 784: 782:Numeric keypad 779: 774: 769: 764: 759: 754: 753: 752: 741: 739: 735: 734: 732: 731: 726: 721: 716: 711: 706: 700: 698: 694: 693: 691: 690: 685: 680: 675: 669: 667: 661: 660: 658: 657: 652: 647: 642: 621: 616: 602: 597: 591: 589: 583: 582: 580: 579: 574: 568: 566: 560: 559: 551: 550: 543: 536: 528: 522: 521: 507: 506:External links 504: 502: 501: 498:. p. 311. 496:Addison-Wesley 482: 452: 423: 391: 389: 386: 385: 384: 379: 374: 369: 364: 359: 352: 349: 295: 294: 290: 286: 264:system console 235: 232: 214:carrier return 171: 168: 128: 127: 42: 40: 33: 26: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 913: 902: 899: 897: 894: 892: 889: 888: 886: 871: 868: 866: 863: 861: 858: 856: 853: 851: 848: 846: 843: 841: 838: 835: 832: 831: 829: 825: 819: 816: 814: 811: 809: 806: 804: 803:Function keys 801: 800: 798: 794: 788: 785: 783: 780: 778: 775: 773: 770: 768: 765: 763: 760: 758: 755: 751: 748: 747: 746: 743: 742: 740: 736: 730: 727: 725: 722: 720: 717: 715: 712: 710: 707: 705: 702: 701: 699: 695: 689: 686: 684: 681: 679: 676: 674: 671: 670: 668: 666: 662: 656: 653: 651: 648: 646: 643: 641: 637: 633: 629: 625: 622: 620: 617: 614: 610: 606: 603: 601: 598: 596: 593: 592: 590: 588: 587:Modifier keys 584: 578: 575: 573: 570: 569: 567: 565: 561: 556: 549: 544: 542: 537: 535: 530: 529: 526: 518: 514: 510: 509: 497: 493: 486: 471: 467: 463: 456: 441: 437: 433: 427: 412: 408: 407: 402: 396: 392: 383: 380: 378: 375: 373: 370: 368: 365: 363: 360: 358: 355: 354: 348: 342: 338: 330: 327:13 (or 0D in 326: 321: 319: 315: 311: 307: 302: 300: 291: 287: 284: 283: 282: 279: 277: 273: 269: 265: 261: 257: 253: 249: 245: 241: 231: 226: 222: 217: 215: 211: 207: 203: 198: 196: 192: 188: 180: 176: 167: 165: 161: 157: 153: 149: 143: 139: 135: 124: 121: 113: 102: 99: 95: 92: 88: 85: 81: 78: 74: 71: –  70: 66: 65:Find sources: 59: 55: 49: 48: 43:This article 41: 37: 32: 31: 19: 808:Print Screen 749: 745:Enter/Return 491: 485: 474:. Retrieved 465: 455: 444:. Retrieved 426: 415:. Retrieved 406:MDN Web Docs 404: 395: 322: 303: 296: 280: 275: 237: 218: 213: 202:IBM Electric 199: 194: 190: 184: 160:line of text 151: 145: 141: 137: 133: 131: 116: 110:January 2008 107: 97: 90: 83: 76: 64: 52:Please help 47:verification 44: 901:Typewriters 850:Copilot key 818:Break/Pause 673:Scroll Lock 372:Hard return 367:Soft return 329:hexadecimal 299:Baudot code 228:&crarr; 225:HTML entity 170:Typewriters 896:Whitespace 885:Categories 796:Contextual 704:Arrow keys 476:2024-03-04 446:2024-03-04 417:2024-03-04 388:References 325:code point 318:whitespace 248:ASCII code 187:typewriter 147:<CR> 80:newspapers 845:Macro key 777:Space bar 757:Backspace 683:Caps Lock 665:Lock keys 636:Microsoft 564:Dead keys 436:JetBrains 362:Enter key 272:line feed 240:computing 234:Computers 210:Selectric 206:Underwood 678:Num Lock 555:Keyboard 470:Archived 440:Archived 411:Archived 377:Unix2dos 351:See also 191:carriage 840:Any key 738:Editing 632:Windows 624:Command 595:Control 572:Compose 357:Newline 306:newline 260:printer 252:Unicode 223:+21B5, 164:newline 154:, is a 94:scholar 767:Delete 762:Insert 688:F-Lock 609:Option 517:Lenovo 401:"CRLF" 268:cursor 256:EBCDIC 152:return 96:  89:  82:  75:  67:  827:Misc. 650:Hyper 640:Super 628:Apple 619:AltGr 613:Apple 600:Shift 101:JSTOR 87:books 729:Menu 714:Home 645:Meta 638:) / 630:) / 577:Gold 557:keys 314:HTML 276:CRLF 195:feed 73:news 772:Tab 724:Esc 719:End 605:Alt 519:US. 246:in 238:In 204:or 150:or 56:by 887:: 655:Fn 607:/ 515:. 494:. 468:. 464:. 438:. 434:. 409:. 403:. 345:\r 333:^M 320:. 278:. 254:, 250:, 144:, 142:CR 132:A 634:( 626:( 615:) 611:( 547:e 540:t 533:v 479:. 449:. 420:. 221:U 123:) 117:( 112:) 108:( 98:· 91:· 84:· 77:· 50:. 20:)

Index

Carriage Return

verification
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"Carriage return"
news
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JSTOR
Learn how and when to remove this message
control character
line of text
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Touchmaster Five
typewriter
IBM Electric
Underwood
Selectric
U
HTML entity
computing
control characters
ASCII code
Unicode
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printer
system console

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