![](http://text-mode.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/cga-mda3.webp)
![](http://text-mode.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/cga-mda1.jpg)
![](http://text-mode.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/cga-mda2.jpg)
airconditioncomputingnightmare:
CGA and MDA, Part 2
As I briefly touched upon in my previous writeup on CGA vs. MDA, CGA’s 80×25 text mode is significantly coarser than MDA’s. CGA’s 80 column text mode is rendered at 640×200 with 8×8 characters (stretched vertically to approximately 640×400), while MDA’s 80 column text mode is rendered at 720×350 with larger 9×14 characters. MDA was capable of giving text attributes such as being bolded, italicized or underlined.
Seen here are the two side-to-side on the same display, a Compaq Portable’s screen.