An improved color picture tube, operable in a multistandard television receiver, includes a viewing screen, a shadow mask and an electron gun for generating and projecting three electron beams through the shadow mask and onto the screen. The screen includes phosphor lines that extend in a first direction. The electron beams are subject to deflection in the first direction and in a second direction, that is substantially perpendicular to both the first direction and the phosphor lines. The shadow mask includes elongated slit-shaped apertures that are aligned in columns that substantially parallel the phosphor lines. The adjacent apertures in each column are separated from each other by tie-bars in the mask, and the tie-bars in one column are offset from the tie-bars in adjacent columns in the first direction. The improvement includes the tie-bars in alternate columns lying on substantially straight lines that form an angle of approximately 2 degrees with respect to the second direction.