The Control Key

By Xah Lee. Date: .

2023-03-28 xtodo work in progress


Symbol for Control Key

(OPEN CENTRE ASTERISK) is printed on Microsoft Keyboards .

(HELM SYMBOL) is used on MacBook Pro keyboard, French Canadian Layout for the Control key, and sometimes used to indicate Control key in Linux documentation.

^ (CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT) (aka caret) is the character on normal keyboard, shifted 6. It is the classic notation to indicate ASCII control character in programing, and also used as a notation for pressing Control key for inputting control sequence. The symbol is mostly used in 1970s to 1990s, in documentation or from online posts by user.

(UP ARROWHEAD) , the actual character used by Apple website as of 2017-07, in menu, in documentation.

Microsoft Digital Media kbd 3000 vvjPY
Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard 3000. Note the symbols for Ctrl key, ❖ Window key, CapsLock key, Tab key. Also, help (F1), undo (F2), redo (F3). Also, rocker key for zoom in/out, and key for camera, documents.
MacBook Pro French Canadian vhfZN
MacBook Pro keyboard, French Canadian Layout
Note the HELM SYMBOL on Ctrl, on Alt, on CapsLock, on Enter.

The caret character ^ and UP ARROWHEAD are not good to represent the Control key, because it confuses with the printable caret character on the keyboard, the shifted digit 6 key.

[see Unicode: Keyboard Symbols ⌘ ↵ ⌫]

Control Key Positions