JP2003523015A - How to determine line spacing based on traditional Japanese customs - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) SUMMARY A method and apparatus, including a computer program product, that implements and uses a technique for controlling leading. An area that is displayed on the display device and includes a plurality of rows in the data being formatted is specified. One of the plurality of lines is selected, and a new line feed value is set by receiving a user input (S11, S12). The current line feed value of the selected line is determined (S13). A difference between the new line feed value and the current line feed value is determined (S14). The space amount of the selected row is adjusted based on the difference. A desktop publishing system that controls leading is also described.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to desktop publishing (DTP) technology,
More specifically, it relates to a typesetting technique for DTP.

[0002]

[Prior art]

In DTP using a computer, data to be edited is displayed on a display device, and layout work and typesetting (that is, character typesetting) of the data are performed according to the user's input. In the typesetting operation, "line feed" (corresponding to "leading", that is, "reading" in European typesetting), which is a relative positional relationship between a plurality of lines, is set. Leading is the distance between one line and the next when it is displayed or printed, that is, from the reference point of one line to the reference point of the next line. It corresponds. Thus, line spacing includes the "line height" of one line and the "acquisition" (ie, "line spacing") between that line and the next line.

By the way, the character data to be edited is not limited to Japanese, but may be European.
In some cases, both are mixed and used. Therefore, the DTP system is required to be able to process not only Japanese text but also European text, and to be able to handle texts in which both are mixed. In that case, the typesetting rules differ between the European typesetting and the Japanese typesetting in various respects, which makes it difficult to automate the DTP typesetting work. It needs to be handled by the work. Due to such circumstances, line-feeding in typesetting work has conventionally required manual intervention by the user.
Therefore, the typesetting work has been made difficult and complicated.

For example, in the Roman typesetting and the conventional DTP, the reading, that is, the line feed is set as the baseline of the previous line from the baseline of the current line. That is, FIG.
As shown in (A), in the Western typesetting, the two lines included in the text frame 31 are aligned with their respective baselines on the screen of the display device on which the data for the typesetting work is displayed. The distance 32 between the baseline of the first row and the baseline of the continuous row corresponds to the line feed. For this reason, the upper side of the text frame 31, that is, the upper side of the first line is shifted downward from the reference line 30 set in the page by the gap 33.

On the other hand, the example shown in FIG. 7 (B) is a case where a Japanese sentence is allocated in the text frame 35, and is arranged according to the European sentence baseline as in FIG. 7 (A). In both cases, the characters are of 24 point size, and as a result of being set by the automatic line feed setting, the line feed of 29 point size is set. Both the text frames 31 and 35 are in alignment with the European baseline. However, the top and bottom sides of the text frame in FIG. 7B are vertically displaced from those in FIG. 7A. Unlike the case of FIG. 7 (A),
In FIG. 7B, the upper side of the text frame, that is, the upper side of the first line matches the reference line 34 set in the page.

[0006] In most of the current electronic composition, the line feed setting is performed based on the baseline. Therefore, for example, if the line feed value of the current line is increased, the line is moved downward in the text frame. Will be moved to and will be located further away from the previous row. However, it is not desirable to change the current line position by changing the setting of the line feed value in this way, especially in Japanese composition.
Therefore, it is necessary for the user to manually correct the vertical position of one or more lines each time the line feed setting value is changed.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In general, in one aspect, the invention provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for implementing and using techniques for controlling line spacing. Select an area that is displayed on the display device and that contains a plurality of lines of data in the composition. Select one of the plurality of rows and receive user input to set a new line spacing value. The current leading value for the selected row is determined. The difference between the new line feed value and the current line feed value is determined and based on this difference the amount of space in the selected line is adjusted.

Implementations can include one or more of the following features. The lower row of the selected row can be sequentially and continuously processed up to the penultimate row of the plurality of rows after the processing of the selected row. The line leading value can be the distance between the maximum height position of one line and the maximum height position of the next line. The maximum height can be the maximum point size of the plurality of data point sizes contained within a row. The line feed value can be the sum of the height and the space amount for one line, the line height can be the maximum height of the line, and the space amount can be the lower end of the line. Can be the distance between and the maximum height position of the next row.

In general, in another aspect, the invention provides a desktop publishing system that implements and uses techniques for controlling line spacing. This desktop publishing system has a desktop publishing processing control device having a typesetting control means, a display device for displaying data during typesetting, and an input means for user input. The typesetting control means has line feed control means, which receives a user's designation of an area containing a plurality of lines in the data being typeset, and selects one of the plurality of lines. And set a new line feed value for the selected line. Further, the line feed control means determines a continuous line height and an amount of space for the selected line and the next line, determines a current line feed value, and a new line feed value and a current line feed value. It is configured to adjust the current amount of space based on the line feed value of.

In general, in another aspect, the invention provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for implementing and using techniques for controlling line spacing. Receives the user's designation of an area containing multiple lines in the data being formatted. Select one of the plurality of rows. A new line feed value is set for the selected line. Determine continuous row height and space for the selected row and the next row. The current line feed value is determined and the current space amount is adjusted based on the new line feed value and the current line feed value.

Potential advantages of the present invention can include one or more of the following. It is possible to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art and to improve the line feed control in electronic typesetting. It is possible to provide a line feed control technique for electronic typesetting that can automatically change all line feeds without requiring manual adjustment by the user. It is possible to provide a DTP system capable of appropriately and quickly setting and changing the line spacing for European texts, Japanese texts, or mixed texts thereof. It is possible to provide an improved line feed control method for electronic typesetting and a recording medium storing the line feed control program.

The details of one or more implementations of the invention are set forth below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An electronic DTP processing system 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. The DTP processing system 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes a DTP processing control device 2 capable of performing electronic typesetting and layout editing, a display device 3 for displaying data being processed, graphics, text, control commands, etc. It has an input means 5 for inputting various types of data and an output means 6 for outputting processed data. The DTP processing control device 2 has a typesetting control means 2a for performing typesetting control and a layout control means 2b for controlling layout editing. The typesetting control means 2a has a line feed control means 8 for automatically setting or changing line feed for a plurality of lines in a region designated in the data during the typesetting operation in electronic typesetting. .

The display device 3 can be composed of various types of display devices such as CRTs and LCDs, and the input means 5 is, for example, a keyboard, a pointing device (mouse, trackball, trackpoint, etc.). ), Scanners, communication interfaces, etc. Further, the output means 6 can be composed of a printer, an external storage device, etc.
It can be configured by a processor such as a CPU, a memory, and an electronic typesetting processing program including a line feed control routine loaded in the memory and processed by the processor. On the other hand, the DTP processing control device 2 may be configured by firmware or hardware in part or in whole.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a state in which the DTP system 10 having the line feed control function of the present invention is configured by applying the present invention to a general-purpose computer system. That is, the system 10 shown in FIG. 2 includes a CPU 11, a memory 12, a CRT 13, a hard disk 14, a keyboard 15, and a mouse 16.
, A CD-ROM drive 17, an FD drive 18, and a printer 19, which are operatively coupled to each other by a bus 9. Then, the line feed control program 8 in electronic editing according to the present invention is installed in the system 10 via the CD-ROM drive 17 or the FD drive 18 as one routine in another electronic editing program, for example. It is stored on the hard disk 14. Then, when the user operates the keyboard 15 or the mouse 16 to activate the line feed control program 8 or an electronic typesetting program including the line feed control program 8, the memory 1 as shown in FIG.
Loaded in 2. Therefore, the CPU 11 and the line feed control program 8 loaded in the memory 12 cooperate to form line feed control means. Therefore, in one aspect of the present invention, a computer-readable recording medium (for example, a CD, which records a line feed control program capable of converting a general-purpose computer system into a DTP system having the line feed control function of the present invention. -ROM, FD, tape, semiconductor memory, etc.) are provided.

FIG. 3 shows two lines in which a desired line feed value is to be set according to the present invention. For example, the data during the electronic typesetting operation displayed on the screen of the display device 3 is shown. It constitutes a part. Each row 20 is displayed on the page of the electronic document displayed on the screen, each row 20 has a plurality of cells 20a, and each character is arranged in one cell 20a. Each row 20 has an upper end (upper side)
It has 20b and the lower end (bottom) 20c, and the distance 23 in the vertical direction between these upper end 20b and the lower end 20c is the height of the row. The vertical distance 2 between the upper end 20c of the first row and the upper end 20c of the second row is 2
1 is the line feed value for these lines, and the vertical distance 22 between the lower end 20c of the first line and the upper end 25b of the second line is the space (line spacing) amount. is there. Therefore, the line feed value 21 is defined as the sum of the line height 23 and the space amount 22.
The present invention is characterized in that the row height 23 and the space amount 22 are treated as two different amounts.

It should be noted that it is not always the case that characters of the same font or size are included in each line, and different fonts, especially characters of different sizes are included in each line. is there. In such a case, according to the present invention, the upper end portion 20b and the lower end portion 20c of the row are determined by the maximum height position and the minimum height position of the row, respectively. In this case, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the concept of embox is used to regulate the arrangement of characters within each line. As shown in FIG. 6, the embox is an outer frame 30 around the glyph 32 (in this case, the character “A”), which corresponds to a so-called “virtual body”. The embox 30 has a square shape, and the length of one side thereof corresponds to the point size H of the character. In FIG. 6, a bounding box (enclosing box) surrounding the glyph 32 is defined by a pair of parallel horizontal lines and a pair of parallel vertical lines that contact the outermost points in the vertical and horizontal directions of the glyph 32. 31 is shown. The bounding box 31 corresponds to a so-called "character surface". Since the height of the embox 30 is the point size, and the point size is one of the attributes of the glyph 32, the height of the line can be determined by checking all the point sizes of the characters to be included in the line. It is possible to decide. In one embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of characters included in the line are arranged so that the bases of the emboxes 30 are aligned. Therefore, in this case,
The largest point size letter embox 30 contained within that row will project upwards relative to the others.

Next, referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, a line feed control function according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 4 shows a plurality of lines displayed in a rectangular text frame on a page of an electronic document which is being electronically formatted on the screen of the display device 3 (CRT 13). Four (a) to (d) are schematically shown. The text frame is, for example, a toolbox (not shown) displayed on the screen.
The user can create a rectangular area by selecting a text tool for text input from among the above and moving the cursor on the screen to determine the position. Then, the text can be placed in the text frame by directly typing in the text frame or by pouring from another file. Furthermore, it is also possible to select a part of the text already existing on the electronic page and insert it into the text frame. It is assumed that line length and line feed values are set in the text frame by default or by user setting. Therefore, when character data is input in the text frame, characters are arranged in each line, and each line has a space between lines according to the line feed value set as shown in FIG. Is set.

By the way, as described above, each row is not always the same size (point size).
In this embodiment, all the characters in each line are arranged such that the bottoms (bottoms) of their emboxes are aligned with a reference line (eg, the horizontal line of a grid in a text frame). Therefore, since a large size character has a large embox, the embox protrudes upward as compared with other small characters. Therefore, in the current line (a) in FIG. 4, the largest size character is placed near the end of the line, and its embox projects upwards relative to the others, It defines the height Hi and thus the maximum height position of the row. Further, in the next line (b), the maximum size character is located almost in the middle position of the line, and the embox of the character protrudes upward as compared with emboxes of other characters and the embox of the embox. The dimensions define the height Hi of the row and thus the maximum height position of the row. The space (i.e., the space) Ai is defined between the position of the lower end of the current row (a) and the maximum height position of the next row (b), and the maximum height of the current row (a) is defined. The distance between the height position and the maximum height position of the next row (b) is the line feed Li. Then, as shown in FIG. 4, in the last line (d), the maximum size character is located near the end of the line, but in the second line from the last line (c), everything in the line is Characters have the same size.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 5A and 5B, a case will be described in which line feed is set according to the electronic type line feed control procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention. First, the user operates the input means 5 such as the mouse 16 or the keyboard 15 among the plurality of lines shown in the text frame to display the current line (a) (shown in FIG. 4).
This is not necessarily the first line in the text frame) is selected using the mouse 16 or the keyboard 15 (step S1) and the current line (a
) To the last line (d), it is assumed that new line feed values are set (S2). Then, the present line feed control procedure determines the line feed value Li set in the current line (a) selected by executing the "aki calculation procedure" shown in FIG. 5 (B).

That is, as shown in the routine of FIG. 5B, the line feed control procedure finds the maximum size, for example, the maximum point size, in the selected current line (a) and Height Hi and the maximum height position of the row are determined (step S11).
Then, the maximum size in the next row (b), for example, the maximum point size, is found, and the height Hi + 1 of that row and the maximum height position of that row are determined (step S1).
2). Then, the row set for the current row (a) as the difference between the maximum height position of the current row (a) thus determined and the maximum height position of the next row (b). The feed value Li is determined (step S13). Then, the space amount Ai of the current line (a) is calculated from the line feed value Li thus determined and the line height Hi previously determined by the formula of Ai = Li-Hi. If it is known that the same line feed value is set for all lines, or if the line feed value set for each line can be obtained by some method, In step S1, the current line (
It is also possible to add a routine for branching to step S14 after determining the line height Hi in a).

When the space amount Ai of the current line (a) is determined as described above, the line feed value Li set in the current line (a) is then compared with the new line feed value Ln. If the new line feed value Ln is larger (step S4), the difference ΔL between them is added to the current space amount Ai of the current line (a) (step S5), while the new line feed value is added. If the value Ln is smaller, the difference ΔL between them is subtracted from the current space amount Ai of the current row (a) (step S6), and as a result, a new row is added to the current row (a). The feed value Ln will be set.

Next, the above-described processing is sequentially executed for the row following the next row (b), and the processing continues until the last row (d) to the second row (c) in the frame are processed. Processing is executed. In this case, if the preset line feed values for all the rows are known, or if the line feed values for all the rows are known to be the same,
It is also possible to provide a branch routine for adjusting the space amount of each row by determining only the height Hi of each row and adding or subtracting it to the known line feed value.

Therefore, according to the above-described line feed control mechanism of the present invention, it is possible to set a new line feed value by moving only all the subsequent lines without moving the selected current line. It is possible. This makes it possible to automatically perform, in electronic composition, what was conventionally done to manually set the line spacing of Japanese sentences, and it is possible to improve the efficiency of composition work. Furthermore, the current row selected does not change its position, whether the line feed value is increased or decreased.

Furthermore, in another embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to arrange the obtained space amount Ai above each row calculated as described above or an appropriately selected row. In this case, the current line is also moved upward or downward depending on the size of the space amount Ai, which can provide a function equivalent to the line feed control based on the baseline in the Roman text composition. Become.

Although the specific embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention should not be limited to these specific examples, and various modifications can be made without departing from the technical scope of the present invention. Of course, it is possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a line feed controllable DTP system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing a DTP system capable of line feed control according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for explaining various parameters used when setting line feed in the present invention.

4A to 4D are schematic views showing a plurality of lines which are arranged in a text frame displayed on a screen of a display device and for which a new line spacing is to be set.

5A and 5B are flow charts showing a line feed control procedure in electronic typesetting according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing an embox 30 used when performing line feed control in one embodiment of the present invention.

7 (A) and 7 (B) are schematic diagrams comparing and comparing the difference between the case of a European electronic set and the case of a Japanese case when automatic line feed is set in a conventional electronic composition.

[Explanation of symbols]

  1, 10: DTP system   2: DTP processing control device   2a: Typesetting control means   2b: Layout control means   3: Display device   5: Input means   8: Feed control program   11: CPU   12: Memory   30: M Box   A: Aki (line spacing)   H: line height   L: Leading

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A method for controlling line feed, wherein an area displayed on a display device and including a plurality of lines of data in a typesetting is specified, and one of the lines in the plurality of lines is specified. Selecting and receiving a user input to set a new leading value, determining a current leading value for the selected row, determining a difference between the new leading value and the current leading value, Adjusting the amount of space in the selected row based on the difference. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: sequentially processing the lower row of the selected row after processing the selected row up to the penultimate row of the plurality of rows. And including. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the line feed value is the distance between the maximum height position of one row and the maximum height position of the next row. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the maximum height is the maximum point size of the plurality of data point sizes contained within the row. 5. The line feed value according to claim 1, wherein the line feed value is the sum of the height of one line and the space amount, the line height is the maximum height of the line, and the space amount is the lower end of the line. The method which is the distance between the division and the maximum height position of the next row. 6. A computer program product stored on a machine-readable medium, comprising a programmable processor, the area being displayed on a display device and containing a plurality of rows of data in a typeset. Selecting one of the rows in the plurality of rows and receiving user input to set a new spacing value, determining a current spacing value for the selected row, A product having instructions operable to determine a difference between a new line feed value and a current line feed value, and adjust the amount of space in the selected line based on the difference. 7. The programmable processor according to claim 6, further comprising a programmable processor, wherein after processing the selected row up to the penultimate row of the plurality of rows, the row under the selected row is processed. A product that has instructions that can be processed sequentially and continuously. 8. The product of claim 6, wherein the leading value is the distance between the maximum height position of one row and the maximum height position of the next row. 9. The product of claim 8, wherein the maximum height is the maximum point size of the plurality of data point sizes contained within the row. 10. The line feed value according to claim 6, wherein the line feed value is the sum of the height of one line and the space amount, the line height is the maximum height of the line, and the space amount is the lower end portion of the line. The product that is the distance between and the maximum height position of the next row. 11. A desktop publishing system for controlling line feed, comprising: a desktop publishing processing control device provided with a typesetting control means, a display device for displaying data during typesetting, and an input means for user input. The typesetting control means receives the user's identification of an area including a plurality of lines in the data being typeset,
Selecting one of the plurality of rows, setting a new leading value for the selected row, and setting a continuous row height for the selected row and the next row; It has line feed control means arranged to determine the amount of space, to determine the current line feed value, and to adjust the current amount of space based on the new line feed value and the current line feed value. System. 12. A method of controlling leading, comprising:   Receives the user's designation of the area containing multiple lines in the data being formatted,   Select one of the plurality of rows,   Set a new leading value for the selected row,   Determining a continuous row height and space for the selected row and the next row,   Determine the current line feed value,   Adjust the current space amount based on the new line feed value and the current line feed value, A method that includes that. 13. A computer program product stored on a machine-readable medium for causing a programmable processor to receive a user designation of an area containing a plurality of lines of data in a typeset, Select one of the plurality of lines, set a new line feed value for the selected line, and determine continuous line height and space for the selected line and the next line. A product having an instruction operable to determine the current line feed value and adjust the current space amount based on the new line feed value and the current line feed value.