Abstract: A character and graphics display device for displaying character and graphics data which includes a receiving circuit for deriving the character and graphics data from a signal carrying that data encoded therein, a memory for storing the received data, a decoder circuit for decoding the encoded data into suitable form for transfer to a display device, and a display memory for temporarily storing this decoded data, further includes compression circuits for converting the decoded data into a form whereby patterns represented by that data are displayed in compressed size. Pattern and graphics data can thereby be displayed together with other data such as a television picture, or a number of pages of the character and graphics data can be displayed simultaneously.