Eight-segment display

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.

Applications
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).

Displaying
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".