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The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software,
purely for historical purposes.
If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming,
you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully
out of date.
Screen Mode Summary
◄Contents► ◄Index► ◄Back►
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Screen Mode Summary
■ The Hercules Graphics Card, Graphics Card Plus, and InColor adapters are
supported, but only with monochrome monitors.
■ Many screen modes support more than one combination of rows and columns on
the screen.
■ The following table briefly summarizes each of the screen modes. The color
adapters referred to are:
• IBM Monochrome Display and Printer Adapter (MDPA)
• IBM Color Graphics Adapter (CGA)
• IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA)
• IBM Video Graphics Array (VGA)
• IBM Multicolor Graphics Array (MCGA)
• Olivetti Color Adapter
Adapter Screen Mode Text Format Character Box Color/Attribute
════════ ═════════════════ ═════════════ ══════════════ ═══════════════
AT&T 3-(1)720x348 80x25 9x14
4(2)-640x400 80x25 8x16 (3)
CGA 0-Text mode only 40x25,43,or50 8x8 16/16
80x25,43,or50 8x8
1-320x200 40x25 8x8 16 background(4)
2-640x200 80x25 8x8
EGA 0-Text mode only 40x25,43,or50 8x14,or9x14,16 16/16 or 64/16
80x25,43,or50 8x8
1-320x200 40x25 8x8 16/4
2-640x200 80x25 8x8 16/2
7-(5)320x200 40x25 8x8 16/16
8-(6)640x200 80x25 8x8 16/16
9-(7)640x350 80x25, 80x43 8x14, 8x8 16/4 (64k)
64/16 (>64k)
Hercules 0-Text mode only 40x25,43,or50 8x8 16/2
80x25,43,or50 8x8
3-(1)720x348 80x25 9x14
4(2)-640x400 80x25 8x16 (3)
Olivetti 0-Text mode only 40x25,43,or50 8x8 16/2
80x25,43,or50 8x8
3-(1)720x348 80x25 9x14
4(2)-640x400 80x25 8x16 (3)
MCGA 0-Text mode only 40x25,43,or50 8x8 16/2
80x25,43,or50 8x8
1-320x200 40x25 8x8
2-640x200 80x25 8x8
11-640x480 80x30, 80x60 8x16, 8x8 256k/2
MDGA 0-Text mode only 40x25,43,or50 8x8 16/2
80x25,43,or50 8x8
VGA 0-Text mode only 40x25,43,or50 8x14,or9x14,16 64/16
80x25,43,or50 8x8
1-320x200 40x25 8x8 16/4
2-640x200 80x25 8x8 16/2
7-(5)320x200 40x25 8x8 16/16
8-(6)640x200 80x25 8x8 16/16
9-(7)640x350 80x25, 80x43 8x14, 8x8 16/4 (64k)
64/16 (>64k)
10-(8)640x350 80x25, 80x43 8x14, 8x8 9 gray shades/4
(monochrome)
11-640x480 80x30, 80x60 8x16, 8x8 256k/2
12-640x480 80x30, 80x60 8x16, 8x8 256k/16
13-320x200 40x25 8x8 256k/256
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(1) Hercules adapter required, monochrome monitor only; two screen pages
(or one, if a second display adapter is installed); PALETTE statement
not supported
(2) Supports Olivetti Personal Computers models M24, M240, M28, M280, M380,
M380/C, M380/T, and AT&T (R) Personal Computers 6300 series
(3) 1 of 16 colors assigned as the foreground color (selected by the
COLOR statement); background is fixed at black.
(4) Plus one of two sets of three foreground colors assigned using COLOR
(5) 32K page size, pages 0-1 (64K adapter memory), 0-3 (128K), or 0-7 (256K)
(6) 64K page size, pages 0 (64K adapter memory), 0-1 (128K), or 0-3 (256K)
(7) 64K page size, page 0 (64K adapter memory); 128K page size,
pages 0 (128K adapter memory) or 0-1 (256K)
(8) 128K page size, pages 0 (128K adapter memory) or 0-1 (256K)
See: ◄Adapters and Displays► ◄Color Attributes and Values (SCREEN)►
◄SCREEN Statement► ◄WIDTH Statement►