PURPOSE: To reduce the space of a memory necessary for address assignment by specifying the addresses of store areas corresponding to respective characters by an address specifying means and reading dot information, row by row or column by column, by an address counter in parallel.

CONSTITUTION: The address specifying means 35 and an address counter 37 are provided and the character generator CG is provided with the store areas corresponding to plural characters of letters, symbols, figures, etc. Dot information constituting the characters are stored in the store areas in a matrix shape, the addresses of the store areas are specified, and the address counter 37 specifies the addresses of the rows or columns of the store areas in order, thereby reading the dot information out by the specified rows or columns in parallel. Consequently, the dot information can be read out by specifying the addresses corresponding to the characters to be read out, thereby making the address space small.