1. In an electronic graphic display system, a character generator for generating a series of signals for use in displaying characters on a display screen, said generator comprising: means for receiving a first data signal defining the character type to be displayed, the character field dimensions, and the character drawing point; first memory means for storing a plurality of encoded binary valued stroke-drawing directives for the particular character defined by said first data signal; second memory means for storing encoded initial values for each character-shape dependent stroke attribute, said initial values being independent of the character type; decoding means for receiving said encoded stroke-drawing directives corresponding to the character type specified by said first data signal and for receiving said encoded initial values, said decoding means decoding said encoded stroke-drawing directives and said encoded initial values and sequentially applying the decoded drawing directives to the decoded initial values thereby generating a series of stroke signals representing a series of interconnected stroke-vectors; scaling means for receiving said stroke signals and said first data signal, said scaling means generating a series of scaled stroke signals by scaling the length of each stroke-vector so that the character image is scaled to the character field dimensions defined by said first data signal; and conversion means converting said scaled stroke signals into a series of signals designating the start/stop position of each interconnected stroke-vector, said series of signals defining a character image for the character type defined by said first data signal.