Character generator

A character generator, often abbreviated as CG, is a device or software that produces static or animated text (such as news crawls and credits rolls) for keying into a video stream.

Monoscopes were used as character generators for text mode video rendering in computer displays for a short time in the 1960s.

[3] CBS Laboratories later developed the more advanced Vidifont system in preparation for the 1968 US presidential elections, where a rapid method of all-electronic character generation was required so that news outlets could identify unexpected interviewees on the spot.

The character generator is one of many technologies used to meet the demands of live television, where events on the field or in the newsroom dictate the direction of the coverage.

Before character generators were available, the primary method of adding titles to video images was to dedicate one camera to shooting white letters on a black background, which then was combined with the video from a live-action camera to form what appeared to be a single image with white letters seemingly superimposed over it.

They also provide a key signal, which the compositing vision mixer can use as an alpha channel to determine which areas of the CG video are translucent.

Hungarian hardware character generator
An Aston Ethos hardware character generator
Hardware character generator for home and semiprofessional use (1994; operated by a pen on a drawing area)
Creation of a title with the above shown hardware character generator (1994; the menu displayed on the TV screen is controlled by the pen movement on the drawing area)