PURPOSE: To save a storage capacity of a character memory by providing an area storing information designating a frame added to a character to a display memory designating the displayed character.

CONSTITUTION: A display memory 2 stores information designating a frame added to a character simultaneously with character designation information sent from an input circuit 1. A 4-bit area, for example is provided to each character information for storing frame information and each bit is made corresponding to four sides of a frame. In the case of displaying the character, the character designation information from the display memory 2 is fed to a character memory 3 and frame information therefrom is fed to a pattern generating circuit 12. A synthesis circuit 6 synthesizes a font pattern of the character and frame generated by the character memory 3 and the pattern generating circuit 12 and gives the result to an output circuit 8 as a dot pattern.