Important Notice

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documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

  ◄Details►      ◄Screen Modes►      ◄Adapters►      ◄Color Attributes►
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Summary of Screen Modes
 
The following table briefly summarizes each of the screen modes. The
color adapters referred to are
  ■ the IBM Color Graphics Adapter (CGA),
  ■ the IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA),
  ■ the IBM Video Graphics Array (VGA), and
  ■ the IBM Multicolor Graphics Array (MCGA).
The Hercules Graphics Card, Graphics Card Plus and InColor adapters are
supported, but only with monochrome monitors.
 
  Note: Many screen modes support more than one combination of rows and
        columns on the screen. See the ◄WIDTH statement details► for
        more information about changing the number of rows and columns
        on the display.
 
────────────────────MDPA, CGA, EGA, or VGA Adapter Boards─────────────────────
SCREEN 0: Text mode only
  ■ Either 40 x 25, 40 x 43, 40 x 50, 80 x 25, 80 x 43, or 80 x 50 text format
    with 8 x 8 character box size (8 x 14, 9 x 14, or 9 x 16 with EGA or VGA)
  ■ 16 colors assigned to 2 attributes
  ■ 16 colors assigned to any of 16 attributes (with CGA or EGA)
  ■ 64 colors assigned to any of 16 attributes (with EGA or VGA)
 
─────────────────── CGA, EGA, VGA, or MCGA Adapter Boards─────────────────────
SCREEN 1: 320 x 200 graphics
  ■ 40 x 25 text format, 8 x 8 character box
  ■ 16 background colors and one of two sets of 3 foreground colors assigned
    using COLOR statement with CGA
  ■ 16 colors assigned to 4 attributes with EGA or VGA
SCREEN 2: 640 x 200 graphics
  ■ 80 x 25 text format with character box size of 8 x 8
  ■ 16 colors assigned to 2 attributes with EGA or VGA
 
──────────────────────────Other Adapter Boards────────────────────────────────
SCREEN 3: Hercules adapter required, monochrome monitor only
  ■ 720 x 348 graphics
  ■ 80 x 25 text format, 9 x 14 character box
  ■ 2 screen pages (1 only if a second display adapter is installed)
  ■ PALETTE statement not supported
SCREEN 4:
  ■ Supports Olivetti (R) Personal Computers models M24, M240, M28,
    M280, M380, M380/C, M380/T and AT&T (R) Personal Computers 6300
    series
  ■ 640 x 400 graphics
  ■ 80 x 25 text format, 8 x 16 character box
  ■ 1 of 16 colors assigned as the foreground color (selected by the
    COLOR statement); background is fixed at black.
 
Warning: Olivetti personal computers running 3XBOX under OS/2 should avoid
         this screen mode.
 
──────────────────────────EGA and VGA Adapters────────────────────────────────
SCREEN 7: 320 x 200 graphics
  ■ 40 x 25 text format, character box size 8 x 8
  ■ 32K page size, page ranges are 0-1 (64K), 0-3 (128K), or 0-7 (256K)
  ■ Assignment of 16 colors to any of 16 attributes
SCREEN 8: 640 x 200 graphics
  ■ 80 x 25 text format, 8 x 8 character box
  ■ 64K page size, page ranges are 0 (64K), 0-1 (128K), or 0-3 (246K)
  ■ Assignment of 16 colors to any of 16 attributes
SCREEN 9: 640 x 350 graphics
  ■ 80 x 25 or 80 x 43 text format, 8 x 14 or 8 x 8 character box size
  ■ 64K page size, page range is 0 (64K);
    128K page size, page range is 0 (128K) or 0-1 (256K)
  ■ 16 colors assigned to 4 attributes (64K adapter memory), or
    64 colors assigned to 16 attributes (more than 64K adapter memory)
 
───────────────EGA and VGA Adapters, Monochrome Monitor Only──────────────────
SCREEN 10: 640 x 350 graphics, monochrome monitor only
  ■ 80 x 25 or 80 x 43 text format, 8 x 14 or 8 x 8 character box size
  ■ 128K page size, page range is 0 (128K) or 0-1 (256K)
  ■ Up to 9 pseudocolors assigned to 4 attributes
 
──────────────────────────VGA and MCGA Adapters───────────────────────────────
Screen 11
  ■ 640 x 480 graphics
  ■ 80 x 30 or 80 x 60 text format, character box size of 8 x 16 or 8 x 8
  ■ Assignment of up to 256K colors to 2 attributes
Screen 12
  ■ 640 x 480 graphics
  ■ 80 x 30 or 80 x 60 text format, character box size of 8 x 16 or 8 x 8
  ■ Assignment of up to 256K colors to 16 attributes
  ■ VGA required
Screen 13
  ■ 320 x 200 graphics
  ■ 40 x 25 text format, character box size of 8 x 8
  ■ Assignment of up to 256K colors to up to 256 attributes