JPH10319935A - Character generator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the efficiency in converting the outline font data having outline overlap into the outline font data having no outline overlap. SOLUTION: The generator is provided with a font storage memory 101, a shape synthesis means 102, a region overlap discriminating means 104, a full outlining means 105 and a region overlap differentiating means 103 which beforehand stores the region overlap information, that shows each character synthesis part overlaps with other character synthesis part in a certain region after a part synthesis, within the part synthesis information for every character in the memory 101, reads region overlap data and selectively instructs the execution of a region overlap discrimination between a certain synthesis part and another synthesis part. Having the information above, in which a certain outline overlaps with the outline that is required to constitute the character shape for every character beforehand stored in the memory 101, the outline overlap discrimination is eliminated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character generating device,
In particular, the present invention relates to a character and the like generating device mounted on a word processor, a computer system, and the like for generating high-quality characters by an outline font method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a word processor or a computer system, when a document is displayed on a screen or printed by a printer, a character set called a font built in the system is used. Font storage methods on these systems are roughly classified into a bitmap font method and an outline font method.

[0003] The bitmap font method is a method of expressing a character graphic as a group of points. This bitmap font method has an advantage that it is easy to develop when printing, but has a disadvantage that as the character size increases, the font storage memory increases in proportion to the square.
Further, when a bitmap font of a certain size is simply enlarged, the contour of the character is jagged, and the quality of the character deteriorates. Therefore, in the case of a bitmap font, it is necessary to prepare the same-size font data of various sizes, and a font storage memory is further required.

On the other hand, in the outline font method, the coordinates of several points for defining the outline of a character are stored as font data, and the points are interpolated between the points by a line segment, a function curve, or the like. Is converted to a bitmap font used for printing, screen display, etc. by filling the outline of the outline as necessary. In the outline font system, unlike the bitmap font system, if one character data is stored in the font storage memory, a font of any size can be freely obtained by enlarging or reducing the character data. In addition, because there is no jagged outline of the character,
There is an advantage that the quality of characters does not deteriorate. However, this outline font method has a drawback that it takes a long time to perform an operation for obtaining a character of a desired size from one font data. However, with the improvement in processing speed of arithmetic devices and the like due to advances in semiconductor technology, such problems have become relatively small, and since the quality of characters is good, word processors,
It has been used very well with the development of computer systems and the like.

[0005] The outline font system has an advantage that the font storage memory is reduced as compared with the bitmap font system. However, due to the spread of desktop publishing, the demand for the types of fonts used in document creation is very high in recent word processor models and the like. And manufacturers are competing to cut costs while mounting many fonts. Under such circumstances, attempts have been made to further reduce the font storage memory even in the outline font system, and a synthetic outline font system employing a component synthesizing system has been devised. In this method, an outline font is generated by combining a piece constituting a character, a side piece, and a piece constituting a character which is further finely divided as a composite part, and combining these in a manner reverse to that at the time of disassembly.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an outline font generated by the component synthesizing method. In this example, the component 61 forming the “positive” character pattern 610
1, 612, 613, 614, 615, three types of element 6
01, 602, and 603. As described above, the generation of a character image by the component synthesizing method involves moving and enlarging or reducing a synthetic component according to component synthesizing information for forming a character image stored in a font storage memory or the like in advance. By performing and arranging the composite parts at the appropriate positions, the intended character image is generated.
Not limited to this example, the parts 621, 6 that form the character pattern 620 are similarly formed for the characters 620 shown in FIG.
22 and 623 are formed by the pieces 601 and 603.
In this way, the segments are utilized. The font storage memory required for font data constructed by this synthesis method can be generally compressed to 20 to 30% in order to share a shared component as compared with the font storage memory of the outline font method which is not the synthesis method. However, the font data of the outline font system employing this synthesizing method is not strictly outline data since the synthesized parts are overlapped to form a character shape. a, b, c, d,
e, f) have occurred. The font data in which the outline shape of the outline has an overlapping area has two data processing problems as described below.

First, as a first problem, an outline font is converted into a bitmap font by filling in an outline of the outline. At this time, the painting process is a simple even odd rule (Eve odd rule).
n Odd Rule (hereinafter abbreviated as EOR) cannot be used, and the processing is more complicated than EOR. Non-zero winding rule (Non Zero Windin)
g Rule, hereafter abbreviated as NZWR), and need to be converted to a bitmap font.
There is a disadvantage in performance.

Here, with respect to the two filling methods, the filling operation within the outline will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the expectation of the result of the filling process in the outline contour by the EOR. In the case where the outline is drawn and then the raster scan is performed for filling, in this example, a counter of an arbitrary number of bits is provided. This counter is cleared to 0 at the start of the raster scan of an arbitrary one line. It is incremented when it crosses an odd-numbered outline contour, and decremented when it crosses an even-numbered outline contour. Filling is determined by the value of this counter, and filling is performed when the counter value is other than 0.
The above-described filling process operation is a filling process within the outline contour by the EOR, and the outline contour constituting the outline font is always a closed curve, and as shown in FIG. If there is an overlap, a portion that is not filled is generated as a result of the filling process, and a problem occurs.

On the other hand, FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the expectation of the result of the filling process in the outline of the outline by the NZWR. In the case where the outline is drawn and then the raster scan is performed for filling, the present example also has a counter of an arbitrary number of bits. This counter is cleared to 0 at the start of the raster scan of an arbitrary line, and the raster scan is performed. In the present example, the value is incremented when it crosses the outline contour of the increasing direction of the Y axis, and decremented when it crosses the outline contour of the decreasing direction of the Y axis.
Filling is determined by the value of this counter, and filling is performed when the counter value is other than 0. The above-described filling process operation is a filling process in the outline contour by the NZWR, and the outline contour line constituting the outline font is always a closed curve, and as shown in FIG. Even in the case where there is, it is possible to perform a filling process that does not generate a portion that is not filled in as a result of the filling process.

Next, as a second problem, if there is an overlapping area in the outline contour shape, there is a surface where these data processing is difficult and there is no outline data having no overlapping area in the outline contour shape for data processing. There is a problem that is required. This problem will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 9 shows an example of outline bordering of an outline font. FIG. 10 shows an example of an area overlap discrimination process. FIG. 11 shows an outline bordering of an outline font having an outline overlapping area. And FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example where outline characters are created by performing outline bordering of an outline font having no outline overlapping region. The acquired outline shape data itself is processed. For example, in the case of a character modification application or the like, when creating a white character as shown in FIG. 9, another outline is drawn along the outline contour. When a contour is created and the filling method is filled with EOR, only the edge of the outline is filled and a white character can be created. This is because the outline has an overlapping area in FIG. In the case of, there is a problem in creating the outline characters as shown in FIG.
However, when there is no overlapping area in the outline, it is possible to create a white character as shown in FIG. In addition, when it is desired to apply a color such as red or white to the characters of the outline font, even when performing the milk color process, a problem may occur if there is an overlapping area in the outline of the outline. Further, as shown in FIG. 10, (a) and (b), (a) and (c), (a) and (d), (a) and (a), (a) (C),
It is necessary to perform contour line overlap determination for all combinations as in (a), (d),.

As described above, the font data of the outline font system adopting the synthesizing method has these two data processing problems. The first problem is that although the performance is somewhat disadvantageous, The impact is relatively minor and is not a problem. However, the second problem requires conversion to font data having no overlapping area in the outline contour shape.

As a character or the like generating device which adopts the outline font of the above-described component synthesizing method and removes the overlap of outline contours at the time of synthesizing, the device shown in the basic structure block diagram in FIG. 2 is generally used. ing. This character etc. generating device is a character etc. generating device which generates outline font data of a character pattern image from font data of a component synthesizing method, and thereafter removes outline outline duplication at the time of synthesizing.

Next, the function and operation of the conventional character etc. generating apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 2, this apparatus comprises a font storage memory 201, a shape synthesizing unit 202, an area overlap judging unit 203, and a full outline forming unit 204. In the font storage memory 201,
As shown in FIG. 3, for example, outline data such as pieces necessary for synthesizing the character shapes 301 and 302 or pieces constituting a character which is further finely divided can be called as synthesis parts. From the character-synthesized component information set to which the code is added and the character-synthesized component information set in which the synthesized component code is added to each of the synthesized components, when the components 401 and 402 are synthesized as shown in FIG. Component combination information for assembling a character shape in which the used composite component code is used for each character is stored. The shape synthesizing unit 202 is a functional block that receives font data that has been converted into synthetic information from the font storage memory 201, and performs character shape synthesis for each character according to the component synthesizing information. Font storage memory 2
In the component combination information for each character stored in the storage unit 01, the position where the composite component called from the character composite component information set in the font storage memory 201 is to be arranged to form a character image, or After the component is enlarged or reduced, the shape synthesizing unit 202 performs an operation of assembling the character shape based on component synthesis information such as whether to arrange the character at a predetermined position. The area overlap determination means 203 examines outline data having outline contour overlapped by the character shape synthesis by the shape synthesis means 202, and determines on the data which composite part overlaps with which composite outline outline, This is a functional block for sending the determination signal to the full outliner 204. In general, for this determination, a method is often used for determining whether or not an outline contour constituting a composite component has an intersection with an outline contour of another composite component. The full-outlining means 204 includes the shape synthesizing means 2
02 is a functional block that deletes the outline contour overlapping area of the outline font data having the outline contour overlapped with the character shape synthesized by 02, and converts the outline font data into the outline font data without the outline contour overlapping. When the intersection is calculated on the outline using the determination signal, it means that there is an outline contour overlap, the outline is divided at the intersection, and unnecessary line segments are deleted.
Then, an operation of changing the configuration of the outline contour and reconstructing the outline contour into outline data having no outline contour overlap as shown in FIG. 5 is performed.

[0016]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional character etc. generating apparatus, the outline data having the outline contour overlapped is converted into the outline data having no outline contour overlapped. As described above, since the outline contour line overlap determination is performed for all the synthetic components constituting one character, there is a problem that the overall efficiency of generating characters and the like is significantly deteriorated. In the process of full outline conversion processing to make outline data without overlapping outline contours, which outline part overlaps with which outline part overlaps outline data with outline shape overlapped by character shape synthesis It is necessary to perform overlap determination on all composite parts constituting the corresponding character. However, as a means of this overlap determination, generally, the outline contour forming the composite part is the outline contour of another composite part. Is used to determine whether or not there is an intersection. When the intersections of the outlines constituting the composite part are straight lines, the amount of calculation for finding the intersection is relatively small, but the intersections between the outlines are relatively small. If a function curve (for example, a cubic Bezier curve) is included, the value cannot be obtained directly and the calculation method such as the Newton-Raphson method must be used. Compared to the calculation amount between the straight line segments, the calculation amount is extremely large, and the calculation amount for finding the intersection has caused a significant deterioration in the overall efficiency of generating characters and the like.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a character etc. generating apparatus which reduces the calculation amount of intersections between outline contours and improves the overall character etc. generating efficiency in order to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks. .

[0018]

In order to achieve the above object, a character etc. generating apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a character synthesizing part information set required for a character shape configuration of an outline font system;
A font storage memory for storing component synthesis information for assembling a character shape from a character synthesis component information set, a shape synthesis unit for performing character shape synthesis for each character according to the component synthesis information in the font storage memory, and a shape synthesis unit Area overlap determining means for determining the area overlap of outline contour data resulting from the shape synthesis processing, and full outline converting means for deleting the overlap area of the postponed outline contour data and converting it to outline contour data having no overlap area And, in the component synthesizing information for each character in the font storage memory, area duplication information indicating which character synthesizing part overlaps with each character synthesizing part after the component synthesizing is stored as area duplication data in advance. Reads duplicate data and selects which composite component and which composite component should be used to determine area overlap A Shimesuru region overlapping discriminator,
The present invention is characterized in that efficiency is improved when converting outline font data having outline contour duplication into outline font data having no outline contour duplication.

Further, the character-synthesizing component information set is synthesized with each of the synthesizing components so that outline data including fragments necessary for character shape synthesizing, fragments, and segments constituting characters that are further finely divided can be called as synthesizing components. It is preferable to add a part code.

Further, as the component synthesizing information, it is possible to assemble a character shape in which the used synthesizing component code for each character is used from the character synthesizing component information set to which the synthesizing component code is added. preferable.

Still further, the component synthesizing information includes component synthesizing information indicating where to place the synthetic component called from the character synthesizing component information set or to enlarge or reduce the synthetic component. Is preferred.

When the area duplication discriminating means executes the area duplication judgment, outline data having outline contour duplication obtained by combining the character shapes by the shape synthesizing means is checked, and which synthesizing part is identified with which synthesizing part and the outline part. It is preferable to determine on the data whether or not the contour lines overlap, and output a determination signal to the full outline forming means.

Further, it is preferable that the area overlap judging means determines whether or not the outline contour constituting the composite part has an intersection with the outline contour of another composite part.

Further, it is preferable that the region overlap judging means does not perform the overlap judging process of the outline contours which are known from the beginning to have no overlap.

It is preferable that the full outline forming means deletes the outline contour overlapping area of the outline font data having the outline contour overlap, and converts the outline font data into the outline font data having no outline contour overlap.

The character etc. generating apparatus of the present invention stores, in particular, a character composite component information set necessary for the outline font type character shape configuration and component composite information for assembling a character shape from this character composite component information set. A font storage memory, a shape synthesizing unit for synthesizing a character shape for each character in accordance with the component synthesizing information in the font storage memory, an area duplication determining unit for judging an area duplication of outline contour data resulting from the shape synthesizing process, A full outline generating means for deleting the overlapping area of the outline data and converting it to outline data having no overlapping area. Area overlap information of which character composite part overlaps the area after By storing the area overlap data in advance, and by reading the area overlap data, there is provided an area overlap discriminating means for selecting and instructing which composite part and which composite part are to be subjected to area overlap determination. Be composed.

As described above, in the full outline conversion process of converting into outline data having no outline overlap, unnecessary area overlap determination can be omitted by using the area overlap information stored in advance, and as a result, As a result, it is possible to obtain a character etc. generating device with an improved overall character etc. generating efficiency.

[0028]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a character etc. generating apparatus according to the present invention. This apparatus comprises a font storage memory 101, a shape synthesizing means 102, an area overlap discriminating means 103, an area overlap determining means 104, and a full outline making means 105. The font storage memory 101
It stores a character composite component information set required for the character shape configuration of the component composite outline font method, component composite information for assembling a character shape from the character composite component information set, and area overlap information after component composition. Shape synthesis means 1
Numeral 02 is a functional block for synthesizing a character shape for each character according to the component synthesizing information in the font storage memory 101, and is the same as the shape synthesizing means 202 of the conventional example.
The area duplication discriminating means 103 includes a font storage memory 101
Is a functional block for reading out the area overlap information stored in the storage area and selecting and instructing which of the combined parts and the combined parts should be subjected to the area overlap determination processing. The area overlap determination unit 104 examines outline data with outline contour overlapped by the character shape combination by the shape combination unit 202, and determines on the data which composite component overlaps with which composite outline contour line, This is a functional block for sending the determination signal to the full outliner 205. The full-outlining means 105 is a functional block that deletes the overlapping area of the outline contour data generated as a result of the shape synthesizing means 102 and converts it into outline data having no overlapping area, and is the same as the conventional full-outlining means 204. Things.

Next, the operation of this character etc. generating device will be described. In the font storage memory 101, character combining parts each having a combined part code added so that outline data such as a piece necessary for character shape synthesis, a side piece, and a segment constituting a character which is further finely divided can be called as a combined part. To assemble a character shape in which the used composite component code is used as an information set and which composite component code to use for each character from the character composite component information set in which the composite component code is added to each character composite component And the area overlapping information after the component synthesis is stored. The shape synthesizing means 102 is a functional block which receives font data converted into synthetic information from the font storage memory 101 and synthesizes a character shape for each character according to the component synthesizing information.
The component storage information for each character includes a font storage memory 101.
Where to place the composite part called from the character composite part information set in
Alternatively, after enlarging or reducing the composite part, the character shape outline font data is assembled based on the part composite information such as whether to place the composite part at a predetermined position, and the outline font data of the character image is converted. Output. The area overlap discriminating means 103 obtains an area overlap information signal after component synthesis in the case of forming a character shape for each character, and determines which character synthesized component overlaps the area after each character synthesized component is synthesized. Based on the area overlap information, a selection instruction signal is output to the area overlap determination means 104 as to whether or not to perform outline contour overlap determination for each character composite component in the process of the area overlap determination means 104. The area duplication discriminating means 104 is provided by the area duplication discriminating means 103.
In the case where the processing for determining whether or not to perform the area overlap determination is performed based on the signal from the CPU and the area overlap determination is performed, the character synthesis is performed by the shape synthesis unit 102 in the same manner as described in the section of the related art. The outline data having the overlapped outline contours is examined, which combination component is overlapped with which combination outline line is determined on the data, and the determination signal is output to the full outliner 105. In general, it is mentioned in the description of the prior art that a method of determining whether or not an outline of a composite part has an intersection with an outline of another composite part is often used for this determination. As expected. The full outline forming unit 105 is a functional block that deletes the outline contour overlapping region of the outline font data having the outline contour overlapping with the character shape synthesized by the shape combining unit 102 and converts the outline font data into the outline font data without the outline contour overlapping. If an intersection is calculated on the outline using the determination signal from the area overlap determination unit 104, it means that there is an outline contour overlap, and the outline is divided at the intersection and unnecessary. Line segments are deleted. And
As shown in FIG. 5, the operation of changing the configuration of the outline contour and reconstructing the outline contour into outline data having no outline contour overlap is performed as described in the section of the related art. Area duplication determination means 104
Then, based on the selection instruction signal of the area overlap discriminating means 103, the operation of determining whether or not to execute the intersection calculation operation on the outline contour of the corresponding composite component is separated, and the operation with high processing efficiency eliminating unnecessary outline outline duplication determination is omitted. do.

The relationship between the operation of the area overlap judging means 104 based on the selection instruction signal output from the area overlap discriminating means 103 will be described with reference to FIG. As described above, in FIG. 10, in the conventional example, in order to determine whether or not there is a contour line overlap, the composite parts (A) and (A), (A) and (C),
(A) and (d), or (a) and (a), (a) and (c), (a) and (d), ... However, according to the present invention, the area overlap discriminating means 103 determines (a), (b), and (b) of the composite component shown in FIG.
An operation of outputting a selection instruction signal for performing the area overlap determination process only to the combination of (c) and (c) to the area overlap determination means 104 is performed.

As described above, in the conventional example, even when the outline contours do not overlap, the processing of judging the overlap of the outline contours is performed on all the outline contours. However, in the present invention, the outline contours are determined from the beginning. For outline contours that are determined not to overlap, the overlap determination processing of the outline contours is not performed. Therefore, as shown in the functional block diagram described in the present embodiment, one character is combined with the character shape combining information necessary for forming the character shape of each character stored in the font storage memory 101 in advance. In this case, the combined component has information on which combined component the region overlaps with, thereby achieving the object effect of the present invention, that is, in the full outline conversion process of converting to outline font data without outline contour line overlap. Unnecessary outline contour line overlap determination can be omitted, and as a result, a character etc. generating device with improved overall character etc. generation efficiency can be obtained.

In the above description, as an example, the outline font data stored in the font storage memory 101 is assumed to store the outline font data adopting the synthesizing method. However, the present invention is not limited to this. In general outline font data that is not a method, even if the outline outline is overlapped due to the easiness of shape design, etc., for convenience, outline outline overlap information is stored in advance for each outline outline. It is clear that the same effect as that of the present embodiment can be obtained by storing in the first embodiment, and the object of the present invention can be achieved.

[0034]

In the character etc. generating apparatus according to the present invention, the area overlapping information is stored in advance in a composite part for synthesizing one character in a character shape, and unnecessary outline contour line overlapping judgment is performed by using this area overlapping information. Can be omitted. Accordingly, in the outline font data adopting the synthesizing method, although the outline contour data has an outline contour overlapping area, the effect is obtained that the outline font data can be efficiently converted to the outline font data having no outline contour overlapping area.

In addition, area line overlap information is stored in advance for each outline contour constituting one character, and
Unnecessary outline contour line overlap determination can be omitted by using this area overlap information. Therefore, even in the case of a general outline font data which is not a synthesis method, even when the outline contour data has a design in which the outline contour overlapping area is included, the outline font data having no outline contour overlapping area is efficiently used. This has the effect of being able to convert well.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a character etc. generating device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional example.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a typical example of a character synthesizing part such as a fragment necessary for character shape synthesis stored in a font storage memory, a fragment constituting a character that is further finely divided, and the like.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example in which synthetic components are combined based on component synthetic information for assembling a character shape.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of converting outline contour data having a contour overlapping region into outline contour data having no contour overlapping;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of component synthesis of a component synthesis outline method.

FIG. 7: Even Odd Rule (Even Odd R)
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a filling method by ule).

FIG. 8: Non-zero winding rule (Non Ze
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hard application method using a “ro Winding Rule”.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of outline bordering of an outline font.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a region overlap discrimination process.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a case where outline characters are created by performing outline bordering of an outline font having an outline overlapping region.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of the case where outline characters are created by performing outline bordering of an outline font having no outline overlapping region.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Font storage memory 102 Shape synthesizing means 103 Area overlapping discriminating means 104 Area overlapping judging means 105 Full outline making means 106 Font storage memory 201 Font storage memory 202 Shape synthesizing means 203 Area overlapping judging means 204 Full outline making means 301, 302 Synthetic parts 401, 402 Synthetic component synthesized at synthesis position 403 Contour line area overlap 404, 405 Example of character pattern synthesized by synthetic component

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A font storage memory for storing a character combination component information set required for a character shape configuration of an outline font system, and component combination information for assembling a character shape from the character combination component information set, and the font storage. Shape synthesizing means for performing character shape synthesis for each character in accordance with the component synthesizing information in a memory; area overlapping determining means for performing area overlapping determination of outline contour data resulting from the shape synthesizing process of the shape synthesizing means; Full outline generating means for deleting overlapping areas of the outline contour data and converting the outline contour data into outline contour data having no overlapping area; and each of the character synthesizing parts in the character synthesizing information for each character in the font storage memory. The area duplication information indicating which character composite part and the area overlap after the part composition Area overlap discriminating means for reading out the area overlap data and selecting and instructing which composite part and which composite part should be subjected to area overlap determination, comprising: an outline font having an outline contour line overlap A character etc. generating apparatus characterized in that efficiency is improved when converting data into outline font data having no outline contour overlap. 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the character-synthesizing component information set includes outline data including a fragment necessary for character shape synthesis, a side segment, and a segment constituting a further finely divided character. 2. The character etc. generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a composite part code is added to the character string. 3. A character shape in which the used composite part code for each character is used as information from the character composite part information set to which the composite part code is added, as the component composite information. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein
And the like. 4. The component composition information includes component composition information indicating where to place a composite component called from the character composite component information set, or whether to enlarge or reduce the composite component. The character generator according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: 5. When the area overlap discriminating means executes the area overlap judgment, outline data having outline contour overlapped by character shape synthesis by the shape synthesizing means is checked, and which synthesized component is which synthesized 5. The character etc. generating device according to claim 1, wherein it is determined on the data whether the outline contour line overlaps with the part, and a determination signal is output to the full outline forming means. 6. A method according to claim 1, wherein said area overlap judging means is based on whether or not an outline contour constituting said composite part has an intersection with an outline contour of another composite part. A character etc. generating device according to any of the above. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said region overlap judging means does not perform the overlap judging processing of the outline contours which have been determined from the beginning that the outline contours do not overlap. 7. The character etc. generating device according to any one of to 6 above. 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the full outline forming means deletes the outline contour overlapping area of the outline font data having the outline contour overlap and converts the outline font data into the outline font data having no outline contour overlap. The character etc. generating device according to any one of claims 1 to 7.