A method for displaying characters on a raster display including the steps of storing a digitized font of normalized encoded characters in a first store, storing the identity size, and display location of the characters in a second store, generating a succession of raster lines, 1 through N, said first raster line being 1 and said last raster line being N in a predetermined order of raster lines, arranging successive characters in said second store into segments, each segment referenced to a respective raster line 1 through N, reordering the sequence of said segments by the value of each segment's respective raster line 1 through N, sequentially identifying respective segments for successively generated raster lines, identifying the boundaries of the characters within the said segments intersecting the raster lines and displaying the said characters responsive to said identified intersections.