PURPOSE: To display the graphic pattern of a character, etc., on the screen of a display device at an optional position by providing a means which specifies pieces of position information including row information, column information, row-directional shift information, and column-directional shift information indicating a position on the display device where the graphic pattern is to be displayed.

CONSTITUTION: An application program calls the display routine of an OS by using the character code of the character to be displayed and a row number, a column number, a longitudinal shift, and a lateral shift indicating the display position on the display device 6 for the character as parameters. The row number and column numbers are information for specifying the display position roughly. The longitudinal shift specifies the display position in the column direction in detail. Further, the lateral shift specifies the display position in the row direction in detail. The display routine of the OS calculates the address of a VRAM 3 corresponding to the row number and column number passed from the application program and then uses the longitudinal shift and lateral shift to edit display data.