ff

Ff is a two-letter sequence that can refer to several unrelated concepts across different fields. It is most often seen as an abbreviation or symbol, rather than a single, unified term.

In typography, ff denotes the double application of the lowercase f in ligatures. The ff ligature joins two f characters into a single glyph to improve readability and aesthetics in dense text. Some fonts render this as a designed ligature, while others simply display two f’s. In Unicode, the ligature is available as a single character, the Latin small ligature ff (ff, U+FB00), though many fonts substitute two separate f characters when the ligature is not supported.

In computing and digital text, FF commonly stands for form feed, the ASCII control character 0x0C used to advance a printer or page to the top of the next page. In programming, the escape sequence \f often represents a form feed. While “ff” can appear in data, it does not itself perform any control function unless defined by context.

In music notation, ff stands for fortissimo, indicating a passage should be played very loudly. It is one of several dynamic markings, with f denoting loud and ff signaling a higher volume level.

In popular culture and media, FF is widely used as an abbreviation. It most notably stands for Final Fantasy, a long-running series of role-playing games. It is also used to denote fast-forward on media players, enabling viewers to skip ahead in a recording.

See also: form feed, fortissimo, Final Fantasy, fast-forward.