1. A method for generating data representative of a character skeleton pattern which is to be used to generate a painted character pattern and data representative of the painted character pattern, said character skeleton pattern data representing positions of skeleton points defining line segments each belonging to one of a plurality of basic elements, wherein those basic elements that are representative of the kinds of basic element for forming the character pattern have at least one corresponding line segment characterized by a substantially straight line connecting skeleton points, said method including the steps of: (a) displaying a predetermined dot matrix pattern of a character on a display screen; (b) receiving a data signal indicative of a kind of basic element, indicated by an operator, assigned for each line segment of the displayed pattern; (c) detecting positions of points, indicated by the operator, on the display screen as points which are to be used as skeleton points of each basic line element; (d) displaying a character skeleton pattern on the displayed screen based upon the detected points and overlapping the corresponding displayed dot matrix pattern; (e) generating a character outline pattern based upon the assigned kinds of the basic elements and the positions of the indicated skeleton points so that respective portions of the outline pattern corresponding to respective basic elements are formed; and (f) displaying one of said generated character outline pattern and a character painted pattern which is a painted pattern of the generated character pattern on the display screen in superposition with the dot matrix pattern and the skeleton pattern.