Zeilenende

Zeilenende is the term used in typography and computing to describe the end of a line of text. In German, the word literally means “line end,” and in broader technical contexts it denotes the point at which a line ends and the next one begins.

In typography, the Zeilenende marks where line wrapping occurs or where a hard return is inserted. It interacts with concepts such as line length, justification, and paragraph flow. Soft wrapping in editors can visually show a Zeilenende without inserting a character, while a hard line break creates a new line in the underlying data.

In computing, a line ending is represented by specific control characters. The most common conventions are line feed (LF, U+000A), carriage return (CR, U+000D), and the combination CRLF (carriage return followed by line feed). Unix-like systems typically use LF, Windows uses CRLF, and classic Mac OS used CR. Modern environments generally standardize on LF, though many tools handle multiple endings and convert between them as needed. Unicode introduces additional line separator characters (U+2028 LINE SEPARATOR and U+2029 PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR) that can be used within text independently of a platform’s native convention.

Issues related to Zeilenende arise when text is exchanged between systems or tools, such as diffs, patches, or version control, where inconsistent line endings can cause spurious changes. Solutions include normalizing line endings for a project, or configuring editors and tools to automatically convert endings upon save or commit.

See also: Line break, newline, end-of-line character, CR, LF, CRLF, line separator.