Examples
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Sharp EL-8 with eight-segment displays -
Eight-segment display of the Sharp EL-8 -
Eight-segment display displaying an 8 -
Eight-segment display displaying a D
An eight-segment display is a type of display based on eight segments that can be turned on or off according to the font pattern to be produced.
It is similar to a nine-segment display whose middle vertical bars are vertical, except that on an eight-segment display, the bars F and G are merged.
One application was in the Sharp EL-8, an early electronic calculator. The eight-segment display produces more rounded digits than a seven-segment display, yielding a more "script-like" output, with the trade-off that fewer possible alphabetic characters can be displayed because the bars F and G are merged (see table below).
An eight segment display can sometimes display alphabetic characters with less readability because the segments F and G are combined and the corners are rounded. The asymmetrical layout of the elements produced a distinctive "handwritten" digit style, with a half-height "0".
| Script | Characters |
|---|---|
| Latin | C, c, d, G, L, N, n, 0, o, r, U, Z, Ə |
| Greek | Γ, Ζ, Ν, Ξ, Ο, ο, Π, π |
| Cyrillic | Г, г, д, П, п, Э |
| Others | 0, (, [, ", ^, -, /, ? |
| Characters | What they display as on an eight-segment display |
|---|---|
| C, [, ( | E |
| c, L, r, г | t |
| d, U | Ɐ |
| G | 6 |
| N, Ν, λ, Π, П | A |
| n, π, п | h |
| o, ο | b |
| Z, Ζ, | e |
| 0, O, Ə, Ο, д | 8 |
| Γ, Г | F |
| Ξ | C̠ |
| Э | 9 |
| " | ˅ |
| ^ | ° |
| - | ` |
| / | μ |
| ? | P |
