A method for mapping television images onto a graphics screen which can employ a standard digital-television technique to process the television signal is provided. The present invention is concerned with the sampling and storing of a color-television signal in accordance with both the requirements of digital television and the requirements of graphics displays - including windowing requirements - such as used with computers and computer workstations. The invention provides a method of contracting or expanding live color television images, which preferably had been sampled in accordance with a standard digital-television technique, while providing an output of graphics image of a reasonable visual quality for the graphics display.