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documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

                                                 ◄Contents►  ◄Index►  ◄Back►
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Screen Mode Summary
 
See ◄Adapters and Displays► for the valid ranges for apage% and vpage%
for each graphics adapter. See ◄Attributes and Colors► for a list of
the default color attributes for different screen modes.
 
The following table briefly summarizes each of the screen modes. The
color adapters referred to are:
 
    ■ The IBM Monochrome Display and Printer Adapter (MDPA)
    ■ The IBM Color Graphics Adapter (CGA)
    ■ The IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA)
    ■ The IBM Video Graphics Array (VGA)
    ■ The IBM Multicolor Graphics Array (MCGA)
    ■ The Olivetti Color Adapter
 
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, Hercules, Olivetti, EGA, VGA, or MCGA Adapters───────────────
SCREEN 0: Text mode only
    ■ 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 two 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 Adapters───────────────────────────
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
 
─────────────Hercules, Olivetti, or AT&T Adapters─────────────────────────────
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 (or one, if a second display adapter is installed)
    ■ PALETTE statement not supported
SCREEN 4:
    ■ Supports Olivetti 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
         screen mode 4.
 
──────────────────────────EGA or VGA Adapters─────────────────────────────────
SCREEN 7: 320 x 200 graphics
    ■ 40 x 25 text format, character box size 8 x 8
    ■ 32K page size, pages 0-1 (64K adapter memory), 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, pages 0 (64K adapter memory), 0-1 (128K), or 0-3 (256K)
    ■ 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 0 (64K adapter memory);
      128K page size, pages 0 (128K adapter memory) 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 or 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, pages 0 (128K adapter memory) or 0-1 (256K)
    ■ Up to 9 shades of gray assigned to 4 attributes
 
──────────────────────────VGA or MCGA Adapters────────────────────────────────
Screen 11 (VGA or MCGA)
    ■ 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 (VGA)
    ■ 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
Screen 13 (VGA or MCGA)
    ■ 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
 
See Also    ◄SCREEN Statement►