Arrangement for reducing the display size of characters stored in a character store

A character generator arrangement for use in a character display system for producing character generating data for causing the display of characters by the system;

• which arrangement comprises a character store in which is stored information pertaining to characters which conform to a format contained within a co-ordinate matrix of discrete character elements arranged in rows and columns, input addressing means for addressing the character store with input data for a character selected for display, row selection means for producing row addresses each of which is for selecting, for a read-out operation from the character store, the information pertaining to a particular character element row of the matrix, and data output means for producing in said read-out operation character generating data for the character element(s) in the selected character element row of the selected character;
• characterized in that said arrangement further comprises logic control means for controlling the row selection means in its row selection, in respect of each of a plurality of characters to be displayed as a row of characters on a number of display lines, such that the output means produces character generating data for m successive element rows of the character to be displayed on m alternate display lines of said number of display lines, and character generating data for n successive character element rows of the character to be displayed on n adjacently intervening display lines of said number of display lines, where n=m or (m.+-.1), n=p-t and m=p-s, where p is the number of character element rows of the character matrix, and s and t, respectively and where the character shapes within the character format are so chosen in relation to the omitted character element rows s and t that each such omitted row would contain only a single element or non-adjacent elements along the row, represent numbers of character element rows to be omitted by which m<p and n<p, respectively.