4-color Characters#

The color of each pixel (4 in a line instead of the usual 8) depends on the bit combination of the byte in the character definition.

Bit PairColorAddress decAddress hexcomment
00COLOR4 BAK712$02C8
01COLOR0 PF0708$02C4
10COLOR1 PF1709$02C5
11COLOR2 PF2710$02C6if bit 7 of character code = 0
11COLOR3 PF3711$02C7if bit 7 of character code = 1

Example#

character "A" (code=65) would be displayed as
00000000 BAK BAK BAK BAK
00011000 BAK PF0 PF1 BAK
00111100 BAK PF2 PF2 BAK compare with line 3 below
01100110 PF0 PF1 PF0 PF1
01100110 PF0 PF1 PF0 PF1
01111110 PF0 PF2 PF2 PF1 compare with line 6 below
01100110 PF0 PF1 PF0 PF1
00000000 BAK BAK BAK BAK

character "inverse A" (code=193 Bit 7 set!) would be displayed as

00000000 BAK BAK BAK BAK
00011000 BAK PF0 PF1 BAK
00111100 BAK PF3 PF3 BAK compare with line 3 above
01100110 PF0 PF1 PF0 PF1
01100110 PF0 PF1 PF0 PF1 
01111110 PF0 PF3 PF3 PF0 compare with line 6 above
01100110 PF0 PF1 PF0 PF1
00000000 BAK BAK BAK BAK

To try this type on an ATARI XL or XE:

GRAPHICS 13:? #6;"A A A":? #6;"A A A":REM the second 3 "A"s are inverse video!

see also: Color topics