Character display apparatus

Claim 1

IN A CHARACTER GENERATOR FOR DISPLAYING CHARACTERS ON AN IMAGE REPRODUCING DEVICE BY SELECTING SEGMENTS OF A COMPOSITE PATTERN COMPOSED OF STRAIGHT AND CURVED SEGMENTS, SIGNAL GENERATING APPARATUS COMPRISING: FIRST MEANS FOR SUPPLYING GROUPS OF SIGNALS, EACH GROUP REPRESENTATIVE OF A PARTICULAR CHARACTER TO BE DISPLAYED; SECOND MEANS FOR GENERATING A PLURALITY OF TIMING CONTROL SIGNALS; THIRD MEANS COUPLED TO SAID SECOND MEANS AND RESPONSIVE TO SAID TIMING CONTROL SIGNALS, FOR GENERATING DEFLECTION SIGNALS IN A PREDETERMINED SEQUENCE, SAID DEFLETION SIGNALS CORRESPONDING TO STRAIGHT AND CURVED SEGMENTS OF SAID COMPOSITE PATTERN; AND FOURTH MEANS COUPLED TO SAID FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD MEANS AND RESPONSIVE TO SAID CHARACTER REPRESENTATIVE, TIMING CONTROL AND DEFLECTION SIGNALS, FOR SELECTING A FIXED NUMBER OF DEFLECTION SIGNALS, SAID FIXED NUMBER INCLUDING A LESSER NUMBER CORRESPONDING TO THE SEGMENTS NEEDED TO FORM A PARTICULAR CHARACTER, AND FOR SUPPLYING SAID SELECTED DEFLECTION SIGNALS AS OUTPUT SIGNALS SUITABLE FOR USE BY SAID IMAGE REPRODUCING DEVICE, AND FOR GENERATING A FIXED NUMBER OF CONTROL SIGNALS, EACH CORRESPONDING TO A GIVEN ONE OF SAID SELECTED DEFLECTION SIGNALS AND INDICATIVE OF WHETHER OR NOT THE SEGMENT REPRESENTED BY THE CORRESPONDING SELECTED DEFLECTION SIGNAL IS TO BE DISPLAYED, AND FOR SUPPLYING SAID CONTROL SIGNALS AS OUTPUT SIGNALS SUITABLE FOR CAUSING SAID DEVICE TO DISPLAY A PARTICULAR CHARACTER.