This site is dedicated to the range of video terminals produced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 to 1995. The most famous of these is the VT100, a name which is recognised most often today as a setting in terminal emulation programs.
I started this site in October 1998 as a place to put information that I had collected about the VT320 which I have been using for ten years. Although I’ve used various Digital terminals over the past decade, my favourite is the VT320, mainly because I’ve spent more time writing programs to take advantage of (and stretch) its capabilities than for any other in the range.
Probably the most famous terminal name in the world, and the most emulated. The VT100 User Guide is essential reading for anyone who wants to construct a VT100 emulator. If you use this as the specification and test your implementation
with vttest, you won’t go far wrong.
Other manuals: serial printer interface VT1XX-AC User Guide (EK-VT1AC-UG), VT101 Hot Line Troubleshooting Card (EK-101HL-RC), VT101 Series Pocket Service Guide (EK-VT101-PS).
LA100-Series Programmer Reference Manual (EK-LA100-RM). For the Letterprinter 100 hardcopy terminals.
Digital Terminals and Printers Handbook 1983-84. Information about the VT100 and VT200 terminal families and old Digital printers, from the DECWriter to the LN01 laser printer, including programming summaries.
VT220 Programmer Reference Manual (EK-VT220-RM). Describes VT220
character processing and provides the character codes, escape sequences, and control sequences needed to generate terminal control
programs.
Other manuals: VT220 Installation Guide (EK-VT220-IN) and
VT220 Pocket Service Guide (EK-VT220-PS).
VT240 Series Programmer Pocket Guide (EK-VT240-HR). VT240 Series Pocket Service Guide (EK-VT240-PS).
Installing and Using the VT320 Video Terminal (EK-VT320-UU). Provides the information you need to install, operate and maintain a VT320 terminal. VT320 Pocket Service Guide (EK-VT320-PS).
VT330/VT340 Programmer Reference Manual, Volume 2: Graphics Programming (EK-VT3XX-GP).
A comprehensive guide to the ReGIS, Tektronix and sixel graphic modes of the VT330 and VT340.
VT330 Pocket Service Guide (EK-VT330-PS).
Installing and Using the VT420 Video Terminal (EK-VT420-UU)
VT420 Service Guide (EK-VT420-PS)
VT510 Programmer Information (EK-VT510-RM)
VT520/VT525 Programmer Information (EK-VT520-RM)
There are sections for the VT200-series and VT300-series terminals.
The VT Emulation sections contains all the materials about standards and escape sequences previously linked from this page.
There are now so many manuals online from other terminal manufacturers that I’ll only be listing new ones here. For the full listings of manuals, please look at the page for that manufacturer. The following companies are currently covered: Alpha Microsystems, Ann Arbor, Beehive, C. Itoh, Data General, Hazeltine, Heath/Zenith, Kimtron, Kongsberg, Lear Siegler (LSI), Lynwood, Qume, Research, Inc., Soroc Technology, Sycor, Tandy, Tektronix, TeleVideo, Terminal Technology Ltd., Visual Technology, Volker-Craig, Wyse
Richard Shuford maintained a Terminal Information Archive from 1994 to 2010, offering carefully curated gleanings from newsgroups. The original is no longer online but there is a local archive here, which has some minor edits.
