For each character position there was an attribute byte (from C500 to C7FF in memory, see [4](translate with Babelfish)). The three least significant bits (0,1 & 2) determined the foreground color, and the next three bits (3, 4 & 5) the background color, from LSB to MSB in the order blue, red, green. Bit six was used to switch between predefined, and software-defined characters. A similar scheme was used when one of the 16 semi graphics characters was chosen, where two attribute bytes were used for each of the sixteen block combinations, to determine the color of each quadrant of the semi graphics character.
Somewhat like the Sinclair Spectrum with its "parallel attributes" the serial attributes of the Oric could, using an amount of video memory that was just big enough for a monochrome display, create a color display with many extra features. In Oric's case they were double-height characters, blinking characters, switching between text and high-res graphics on the screen, switching between character sets, (from character ROM, or programmable character sets) switching the eight fore- and background colors, and more. However, it came with the price that the screen was difficult to manage, and that the attributes took up six consecutive pixels (a character) on the screen in which only the background color could be displayed. Reference see: [1]Archived 2010-02-15 at the Wayback Machine
2K VRAM + 2K Character RAM according to old-computers.com [2]Archived 2010-11-22 at the Wayback Machine. and according to this "self portrait picture [3]"
Somewhat like the Sinclair Spectrum with its "parallel attributes" the serial attributes of the Oric could, using an amount of video memory that was just big enough for a monochrome display, create a color display with many extra features. In Oric's case they were double-height characters, blinking characters, switching between text and high-res graphics on the screen, switching between character sets, (from character ROM, or programmable character sets) switching the eight fore- and background colors, and more. However, it came with the price that the screen was difficult to manage, and that the attributes took up six consecutive pixels (a character) on the screen in which only the background color could be displayed. Reference see: [1]Archived 2010-02-15 at the Wayback Machine
2K VRAM + 2K Character RAM according to old-computers.com [2]Archived 2010-11-22 at the Wayback Machine. and according to this "self portrait picture [3]"
![[3]](http://www.old-computers.com/museum/software/matsushita_jr200_schema_ss.gif){kind=link}