Screen Bug

A digital on-screen graphic, commonly referred to as a bug, is a watermark that identifies the channel being watched. Cartoon Network has used a variety of different bugs over the years, and bugs vary on each feed.

Comparison between feeds[]

Bottom Right Screen Bug[]

This type of screen bug only applies to the following:

CNUSAScreenBug — The screen bug of the US feed as of today. It is at the bottom-right and is not transparent.

United States (NTSC)
Latin America & Brazil (NTSC)
Canada (NTSC)
Portugal (PAL)

In almost all cases when the CN screen bug is on the bottom right of the screen, it not only often disappears during commercial breaks, but also appears and disappears for a few seconds after the program starts and ends respectively.

In the United States, the screen bug has been shown to be transparent during the Yes!, Summer '07, and Fall eras. It was also present on all of the European and African feeds in the CHECK it 1.0 era (except Turkey), and it was moved to the upper right in 2014 (upper left in Turkey in June 2018; excluding Portugal).

Upper Right + Transparent Screen Bug[]

Not all feeds show the screen bug on the bottom-right. For example, many PAL regions such as the pan-European and pan-Asian feeds show their screen bug at the upper-right.

CNScreenBugUK2013 — The UK/Ireland feed shows that their screen bug is on the upper-right corner and is transparent.

The image on the right also applies to the following:

The screen bug for the CEE variant (February 2017-present)

CEE, RSEE, Europe and Nordic feeds (PAL)
UK & Ireland (PAL)
Arabic feed (PAL)
France, Italy and Germany (PAL)
The screen bug for the Asian variant (October 2021-present)

Asia, Philippines, Indian, Korean, and Chinese (Taiwan) feeds (PAL)
Australia & New Zealand (PAL)
Japan (NTSC)

In almost all cases when the CN screen bug is on the top right of the screen, it permanently stays on screen this way even during commercial breaks. The only exception is the Japanese feed, which the screen bug disappears during commercial breaks like its American counterparts.

The Pan-Asian feed had an opaque screen bug after Check It 4.0 was introduced. In June 2016, The Philippines feed had an opaque screen bug but on the HD simulcast, it isn't but resized.

In 2017, the screen bug for the CEE feed was made smaller.

In October 2021, the screen bug for the Pan-Asian feed was made slightly bigger but with no "HD" sign.

Upper Left Screen Bug[]

Static-assets-upload15358339009560547500 — Transparent version.

This type is seen in the Turkey feed and on the CN YouTube Channel as of 2020.

Era Variations[]

Earlier eras (Checkerboard - Summer 2007)[]

These eras don't have many various banners for airing, however, Checkerboard and Powerhouse are the only eras that have a banner that represents the CartoonNetwork.com website in which .com slides in from the bottom of the bug. Cartoon Cartoon Fridays had screen bugs beginning in 1999, although only one was used. In 2000, new screen bugs were added, and were discontinued on September 26, 2003. Later in October 2003, Cartoon Network's Fridays had a simple screen bug where the CN logo quickly flips into the Fridays logo shortly then flips back into the CN logo followed by the ".com" text sliding in below it right after.

Fall[]

Fall is the first ever era to represent non-block bug banners, however only 3 banners were added, presented and were labeled "New Episode", "Marathon" and "Premiere". Three of these banners were animated with the bouncing motifs of C and N falling from above as seen in the era's branding.

Noods[]

After Fall, Noods then added more banners to their bug instead of 3 standalone banners of Fall. However some of these bugs separate HD and SD bugs apart since it was not letterboxed until April 3, 2016. From 3 different banners of Fall, there were additions such as "Special", "Happy Holidays", "Series Premiere", etc. Because idents of this era is much more used to color shifting, these bugs shift colors depending on promo or show currently being aired.

The first half of the Noods era present and solid-colored bugs and banners.

The second and last half of the Noods era use black and white motifs rather than colored ones.

New Wave (Asia & Australia) Only[]

CHECK it[]

CHECK it 1.0 & 4.0[]

The first and second variations of CHECK it presented back colored banners and using CN Bold on it.

CHECK it 4.0[]

On December 7, 2015 The fourth variation made slight refinements but were applied months after it was revealed. Such as title banners being changed from white or pink color texts on white backgrounds to just black text on yellow background. The "Season Finale" banner also returned for the finale of "Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race".

Dimensional[]

The banners were applied also not in the introduction of this era, they were applied last January 23, 2017 and still present today. Changes made were "New Episode" was shortened to "New" and all banners were changed to have white text on bright blue background. The only banner to remain from CHECK it 4.0 as of now is the Special banner.

These banners were applied on January 23, 2017 and still presently used.

The "New" banner was heavily replaced by a glowing pink colored text on a yellow background, which took effect on February 6, 2017 used for Big Day Off/New New New New. This is the very first banner to have a taller titlebox.

Cartoon Network used animated, Christmas-themed screenbugs during December 2019. All of them had a blue banner with some tree lights-like dots on them; the regular one also used a snowman on top of the logo. They also added animated bats to the screenbug during October 2019, and a yellow banner to the event ones.

Mashup 2.0 (Dimensional 4.0)[]

Cartoon Network updated the animation for its regular on-screen bug after almost 10 years.

They also made new screenbugs for special events. These do not use the star animation anymore; instead the banner bounces to the top of the logo while changing its color:

Redraw Your World[]

2022-05-01 17.04 — Cartoon Network Premiere Logo Redraw your World style

On January 1, 2022, Cartoon Network debuted a new screen bug animation based on the Redraw Your World branding, showing a colorful gradient cube launching and crashing to reveal the logo, based on the opening logo that appeared in shows starting with We Baby Bears. Initially just used for occasions, it became the permanent screen bug animation on January 17, 2022. The banners were changed to a singular multicolor gradient, were thicker, and used TT Norms Pro replacing Lubalin Graph.

Pastel[]

On October 3, 2022, Cartoon Network's screen bug size and position was changed for the first time since the 2010 rebrand of the HD feed and the HD and SD feeds merging in 2013, to be smaller and shifted closer to the edge of the screen. Initially, there was no animation, but it was added the next day, based on the Pastel branding. The banners were slimmer, used flat colors and replaced TT Norms with Intervogue Alt.

Comparison of transitional scheduling on the screen bugs[]

The 3.0 transition shows characters from various cartoons in the network's high contrast colors. In the Noods era, a color bar appears at the bottom of the screen, and then it transitions and shows the upcoming programming. In 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, the N hits the C to the middle of the screen, then the C hits the transition to show the upcoming programming, while in 4.0, blocks with various characters on them fly in from behind and below the screen bug to form a straight line next to the logo, then turn upward to show the scheduling.

Variation[]

As the eras go by, the screen bug gets a new look every time it is rebranded.

For example, the Check It 1.0 changed various episode banner designs from 3.0 and the schedule banner from the screen bug from the 3.0 also changed to the 4.0

Trivia[]

Until the Fall Era. Those feeds listed above the bottom-right screen bugs were not transparent anymore and is replaced with a solid fill.
- However until the Powerhouse era. The transparency for the bottom-right screen bug feeds has been removed and re-added in the Yes! Era. CN City is the only era in which solid fill was first seen.
After the introduction of the Check It 4.0 in Asia, their screen bug from the upper-right corner was solid fill and not transparent
Countries including India and UK/Ireland once have solid fill in their screen bug, until the defunct of the New Wave era. It is now transparent until now.
The episode banner designs from the Check It era has been changed several times.
Starting March 2017, Asia gets a blink of its HD bug (disappears for a split second) every time a show starts or comes back from a commercial. It also shows that both the logo and the HD are separate sprites, this discovery wasn't long ago, as it was discovered in movie trailers in 2016. This is a sign SEA is implementing a new screen bug.
The screen bug appears permanently on most feeds, meaning that it's not restricted to just the shows; the same is true on most international PAL Cartoon Network feeds.