Non-printing character

A non-printing character, also called a control character or non-printable character, is an object that's not visible by default and serves some function. For example, non-printing characters are used in HTML (hypertext markup language) to dictate how text or numbers appear on a web page. Others, like the whitespace, make gaps between characters.

Some control characters represent audible or silent signals that are to be sent or received. Examples of control characters (ASCII code) include the backspace, line feed, form feed, carriage return, escape, and delete.

ASCII, Character, Escape sequence, Null character, Output, Pilcrow, Special character, Typography terms