JP2000148734A - Document modifying method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To speedily process arbitrary complicated modification by preparing data for generating a pattern after modification by the dots of a pattern before modification. SOLUTION: A pattern-before-modification storage part 17 is stored with the pattern before modification representing a print dot array before modification. A conversion pattern data storage part 18 is stored with a conversion pattern data group wherein print dot arrays after modification are determined by print dots constituting the pattern before modification. A control part 3 extracts the pattern before modification, dot by dot, and generates the pattern after modification in order while referring to the conversion pattern data corresponding to the dots.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a character modification method for generating desired pattern data in a character font generator (CG) of a printer or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A printer or a printer driver in a host device generates bitmap data for printing based on a character code. Usually, in the print data,
Along with the character code, attribute information indicating the type of character (pattern) and the size of the character to be printed is included. When a character code is input to a character font generator in order to generate data of a desired pattern, a basic pattern of a corresponding character is obtained. After that, the pattern is modified according to the attribute information.

There are various types of pattern modification methods such as vertical enlargement, horizontal enlargement, italics, horizontal emphasis, vertical emphasis, buoy character, shadow character, and bukuro shadow character. The same applies to not only characters but also various symbols and simple figures. In the following description, description will be made taking character modification as an example. In order to perform such character modification, a certain modification algorithm is prepared for each modification method. For example, when performing italics modification for tilting a character, the character pattern is divided into a number of lines parallel to the main scanning direction, and each line is shifted by several bits in the main scanning direction. The top line is shifted the largest, and the shift amount is gradually reduced from the top line to the bottom line. In this way, the pattern is modified so that the character looks slanted.

[0004]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problems to be solved. As the arithmetic processing capability of a printer or a personal computer that controls the printer increases, a more complicated method of modifying a character pattern to be printed is required. Therefore, for example, modification such as vertical enlargement, horizontal enlargement, and italic is performed on one character in a redundant manner to obtain a complicated pattern. However, there is a problem that such arithmetic processing becomes extremely complicated, places a heavy load on the computer, and lowers the processing speed.

[0005]

The present invention employs the following structure to solve the above problems. <Structure 1> A pre-modification pattern displaying a pre-modification print dot array and conversion pattern data defining a post-modification print dot array for each of all the print dots constituting the pre-modification pattern are collected. With reference to the conversion pattern data group, each print dot in the pattern before modification is sequentially converted according to the definition of the corresponding conversion pattern data in the conversion pattern data group, and the print dot array after modification is converted. A character modification method characterized by obtaining the displayed modified pattern.

<Structure 2> In the character modification method described in Structure 1, the conversion pattern data includes information for performing a logical operation on the contents of the print dots constituting the pattern before modification to determine a print dot array after modification. Character modification method characterized by being performed.

<Structure 3> A pre-modification pattern storage unit for storing a pre-modification pattern displaying a pre-modification print dot array, and a post-modification print dot for each print dot constituting the pre-modification pattern A conversion pattern data storage unit that stores a conversion pattern data group in which conversion pattern data in which an array is determined is collected; a post-modification pattern storage unit that stores a post-modification pattern that displays a post-modification print dot array; From the pattern storage unit, the print dot array before modification is sequentially read out, and by referring to the corresponding conversion pattern data in the conversion pattern data storage unit, for each print dot, conversion is performed according to the definition of the conversion pattern data group. And a control unit for storing the result in the post-modification pattern storage unit.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below using specific examples. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer embodying the present invention. The printer shown in the drawing is configured to receive print data from a host device via a cable 1 and a receiving unit 2 and perform printing. The control unit 3 includes a processor for controlling the entire printer. A ROM (read only memory) 5, a RAM (random access memory) 6, and an I / O control unit 7 are connected to the control unit 3 via a bus line 4.

The I / O control unit 7 is an interface for connecting various devices to the bus line 4. This I /
A print head 9 is connected to the O control unit 7 via a print head control unit 8. The space motor control unit 1
0 is connected to the space motor 11. Further, a line feed motor 13 is connected via a line feed motor control unit 12. The print head controller 8 supplies print data to the print head 9 and performs print control. The space motor control unit 10 includes a space motor 11
And controls the printing head spacing. The line feed motor control unit 12 is a part that controls the line feed motor 13 and performs line feed control of printing paper.

The ROM 5 has a program storage unit 15
And a CG section 16 are provided. Program storage unit 1
5, an operation program for operating the control unit 3 is stored. The CG unit 16 stores font data necessary for converting a character code into bitmap data. The RAM 6 stores a pattern storage unit 1 before modification.
7, a conversion pattern data storage unit 18 and a modified pattern storage unit 19 are provided.

The pre-modification pattern storage section 17 stores the CG section 16
This is a part for temporarily storing bitmap data for the character code read out from the storage device and using it for work for performing modification. The bitmap data corresponding to an arbitrary character code, which is stored in the pre-modification pattern storage unit 17 for performing the modification, is hereinafter referred to as a pre-modification pattern. The pre-modification pattern storage unit 17 may store all target pre-modification patterns, or may store only one character.

As will be described later, the conversion pattern data storage unit 18 collects conversion pattern data having contents defining a print dot array after the modification for each of all the print dots constituting the pattern before the modification. , Conversion pattern data group. The post-modification pattern storage section 19 is a section for storing bitmap data on which character modification has been completed. This modified pattern storage unit 1
The bitmap data stored in No. 9 is hereinafter referred to as a post-modification pattern.

Next, character modification will be described using a specific example. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a pattern before modification. When a character code is input to the CG unit 16 shown in FIG. 1, for example, bitmap data as shown in FIG. In the figure, black portions are black dots, and other portions are white dots. This pre-modification pattern is composed of, for example, 20 rows vertically and 26 columns horizontally.
This pre-modification pattern is for displaying the English character "I".

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the result of character modification of a general italics pattern. Conventionally, when performing the character modification of the italics pattern to the pattern before modification shown in FIG. 2, each line (L1 to L20) of the pattern before modification is shifted rightward in the drawing. The top line slides 19 dots to the right, and the second line slides 18 dots to the right. As described above, when the slide amount is reduced by “1” for each line from top to bottom, an italics pattern as shown in the figure is generated.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an italics pattern in which lines are slid every two rows. In the example of this figure, the data of two rows is shifted to the right at a time. That is, two lines (L1, L2) from the top of the pattern before modification shown in FIG.
L2), slide it to the right by “10” dots,
The fourth and fourth lines are slid rightward by "9" dots. By such a method, an italics pattern as shown in FIG. 4 is obtained. The method described with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 is a conventional character modification method, in which a line-by-line operation is performed by a certain algorithm derived from the relationship between the line of the pattern before modification and the slide amount.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a general horizontal enlarging algorithm. FIG. 5A is an explanatory diagram of a pattern before modification.
(B) is an explanatory view of a horizontal enlargement pattern. Each dot in the illustration of the pattern before modification is numbered from 1 to 24 for convenience of explanation. Conventionally, when such a horizontal enlargement is performed, for example, the logical sum of the first dot and the immediately preceding dot is taken, for example. Then, the result of the logical sum is arranged at that location, and an empty column is inserted immediately to the right.

The first dot has no immediately preceding dot, but the result of the logical sum is a black dot. (B) (CW2,
An empty column is inserted into LW1). The second dot is logically ORed with the first dot. The result is
(B) Third top row from the left (CW3, LW1)
To be displayed. Then, an empty column is inserted into (CW4, LW1). The above processing is the same processing as seen in each vertical column in FIG. Therefore, this processing employs the same algorithm for each column. That is, conventionally, FIG.
As described in FIG. 5, the pattern before modification is shifted or subjected to arithmetic processing in accordance with a predetermined algorithm for each row or column to obtain a pattern after modification.

On the other hand, in the present invention, when a target modification is determined, a print dot array after the modification is determined for each of all the print dots constituting the pattern before modification. The configuration of the pattern before modification is the same as that of the conventional pattern, and has the contents as shown in FIG. 2, for example.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the contents of the conversion pattern data. This figure is composed of a group of conversion pattern data for modifying a pre-modification pattern of, for example, 20 rows and 25 columns. The middle columns (CP6 to CP20) in the figure are not shown. Such conversion pattern data is 1
One set is prepared for each type of character modification. This character modification is one in which italic and horizontal enlargement are performed simultaneously. This is stored in the conversion pattern data storage section 18 of the RAM 6 shown in FIG. Note that a method of storing the data in the ROM 5 in advance, selecting a part of the data as necessary, and loading the selected data into the conversion pattern data storage unit 18 may be adopted.

For example, the conversion pattern data at the upper left corner of the data shown in FIG. 6 is composed of four numerical values of 9,0,11,0. The actual data is
The terminator data F has been added, and 2 in hexadecimal notation
When the digits are displayed, the six data are combined (9,
0, 11, 0, FF, FF).
If the data at this position is valid, (9, 0) and (1
The content is that the modified black dot is arranged at a position offset by (1, 0). The numerical value at the left end of the parenthesis indicates the offset amount of the X coordinate, and the numerical value at the right side indicates the offset amount of the Y coordinate.

That is, the location of the upper left corner shown in FIG.
1, RP1), if the dot at this position in the pattern before conversion is a black dot, the coordinates (1+
The converted black dot is arranged at the position of (9, 0). Further, the data (11, 0) next to the conversion pattern data sets another one at the position of coordinates (1 + 11, 0).
Black dots are arranged. This is the converted pattern. The last (FF, FF) of the conversion pattern data is data indicating that the data has been completed, and the next conversion pattern data continues from this data.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of a pattern before modification, and FIG.
FIG. 2 shows an explanatory diagram of a pattern after modification using this conversion pattern data. The modification method will be specifically described with reference to these drawings. For example, the dot indicated as No. 1 at the position (C1, R1) of the pattern before modification shown in FIG. 7 corresponds to the corresponding position shown in FIG. 6, that is, (OP
1, RP1). The result is as already explained.

FIG. 8 shows the result. By modifying the dot at the position (C1, R1) of the pattern before modification,
Dots are arranged at (CF10, R1) and (CF12, R1). When this processing is completed, 2 shown in FIG.
Performs the modification for the dot indicated by number. If such processing is performed for all black dots (valid dots), a pattern after modification as shown in FIG. 8 is obtained.
The conversion pattern data shown in FIG. 6 is data that individually designates where to place black dots when all the dots are black dots.

Each numerical value is an offset value. For example, in the case of (4, 2), a position offset by "4" in the X-axis direction and "2" in the Y-axis direction from the target position. Content such as arranging black dots. No processing is required for white dots. Therefore, the calculation process of obtaining the decoration pattern shown in FIG. 8 is repeated by referring to the conversion pattern data shown in FIG. 6 only at the place where the black dot of the pattern before decoration shown in FIG. 7 exists.

Hereinafter, a specific conversion processing operation will be described with reference to FIG. In step S1 of the figure, first, a read start point of a pattern before decoration is set. This is because the patterns before modification shown in FIG. 7 are processed in numerical order from No. 1. The initial value is “0”. Next, step S2
Sets the start point of the conversion pattern data. The initial value is “0” for the same purpose.

In the next step S3, a write start point of the converted pattern is set. This also defaults to "
0 ”. Next, in step S4, the read offset is set to“ 1. ”
The conversion pattern data and the converted pattern are sequentially set to 1 in the row direction.
This condition is set so that processing is performed one by one. Thus, the pre-modification pattern is processed in the order of No. 1, No. 2, No. 3,... In FIG.

In step S5, one dot is read by adding a read offset "1" to the pattern before modification. At the start of the process, the first dot shown in FIG. 7 is read. Then, it is determined whether or not the dot is valid.

That is, if this is a black dot, step S
The processing proceeds to 6 and thereafter, and a modification process is performed. If it is not a black dot, the process proceeds to step S10, where the read offset point is updated and the process proceeds. That is, the process proceeds to a process of referring to the next dot. Since processing is performed only for valid dots in this manner, the amount of calculation processing is reduced for characters with few valid dots.

If the dot is a valid dot, the process proceeds to step S6, where the conversion pattern data is read with the read offset added thereto. That is, the conversion pattern data at the position corresponding to the pattern before modification is read out here. And
In step S7, it is determined whether the conversion pattern data is not terminator data. The table end data is (FF, FF) already described. Here, the conversion pattern data is read one by one in the manner already described. For example, if this data is (9, 0,
(11, 0, FF, FF), the first data (9, 0) is read. If this data is (FF, FF), the process proceeds to step S10, and the process proceeds to the next dot.

When the process proceeds from step S7 to step S8,
The conversion pattern data is added to the writing start point of the modified pattern, the offset calculation described above is performed, and the modified pattern data is set to “1”. That is, as described above, the processing is performed only when the pattern after modification is a black dot. Therefore, the black dot is arranged at a position where the dot is offset by an amount specified by the conversion pattern data. Then, in step S9, the conversion point is updated. This conversion point is a process of shifting the extraction position so as to extract the second set of data when the conversion pattern data is composed of three sets.

Here, in step S7 again, it is determined whether or not the conversion pattern data is terminator data. In the above example, since the second set of conversion pattern data is (11, 0), the process proceeds to step S8 again, and black dots are arranged at positions offset by the corresponding number. Then, the process proceeds to step S9. Next is the terminator data, so the dot modification process ends here, and the process proceeds to step S10.

In step S10, it is determined whether or not all the pre-modification patterns have been processed. If the process is completed for all the black dots of the pattern before modification shown in FIG.
The modification process ends. When the pre-modification pattern shown in FIG. 7 is processed with reference to the conversion pattern data shown in FIG. 6, a post-modification pattern as shown in FIG. 8 is obtained.

That is, in the above-described example, the pre-modification pattern shown in FIG. 7 is italics-modified, and the conversion pattern data is adjusted so that the result of the horizontal enlargement modification can be obtained at once. Using conversion pattern data as shown in FIG.
Italic modification and horizontal enlargement are possible for patterns of characters and symbols of any shape.

The structure of the above-mentioned conversion pattern data is composed of two sets of valid modification data and one set of terminator data.
The offset data may be specified, or data indicating the absolute position of the print dot after the modification may be specified. However, when the offset data is specified, the numerical value of the conversion pattern data becomes smaller as a whole, and the data amount is smaller than when the absolute position is specified.

<Effects of Specific Example 1> As described above, for each of the printing dots constituting the pre-modification pattern, the post-modification printing is performed for the pre-modification pattern displaying the pre-modification printing dot array. By preparing a conversion pattern data group in which a dot arrangement is determined, any complicated character modification can be performed, and processing can be freely performed to obtain an optimal result. In addition, according to the method in which only the effective dots are individually modified as in the above example, the processing speed is higher than that of the conventional method in which all dots are collectively and uniformly modified using a fixed algorithm. This has the effect of speeding up.

The conversion pattern data as described above can be freely created and designated by the user on the host computer, and can be generated and stored. Thus, there is an effect that extremely complicated character modification and simple character modification can be realized by one conversion process.

<Specific Example 2> In the above example, when one dot constituting the pattern before modification is a valid dot, that is, a black dot, valid dots are arranged at a plurality of positions of the pattern after modification. Modifications such as doing were made possible. On the other hand, in the specific example 2, the information of the dots constituting the pattern before the modification is logically operated, and 1
The method of determining the value of one dot is adopted. Employing or combining any of the methods of the first and second embodiments enables more complicated character modification.

The conversion pattern data of this specific example includes information for designating the contents of a predetermined logical operation for every print dot constituting the pattern before modification. As a result, for example, it is possible to perform modification such that a result obtained by calculating a logical product or a logical sum with surrounding dots is arranged at an arbitrary position.

It is also possible to modify each effective dot forming the pre-modification pattern by thinning it out by an arbitrary method. The logical product conversion pattern data shown in FIG. 10 realizes this. In the data of FIG. 10, a set of information such as (F0, 1) is set at a predetermined position.

FIG. 11 shows the result of modifying the pattern data before modification shown in FIG. 7 with the logical product conversion pattern data shown in FIG. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of an example of the pattern after the logical product modification. For example, a procedure for modifying the first black dot at the upper left corner shown in FIG. 7 will be described. First, the contents of the conversion pattern data at the location (CP1, RP1) in FIG. 10 include (F0, 1). The data "F0" is data corresponding to a command to take a logical product. “1” is data provided to mean a logical product of “1” and a target black dot. Therefore, when the logical product is calculated here, the result is a black dot, which is output at the position (C1, R1) shown in FIG.

The second dot shown in FIG. 7 is a white dot, and the modification process is omitted. Since the third dot is a black dot, the third conversion pattern data from the upper left corner shown in FIG. 10 is referred to. Here, the contents of the data are all “0”. Therefore, no character modification is performed in this case as well. In such a manner, when the logical product conversion pattern data includes (F0, 1) for all the black dots, the black dot is arranged at that position, and when the logical product conversion pattern data is all “0”. To output nothing. With this method, the pattern shown in FIG. 11 is generated.

<Effect of Specific Example 2> The processing described above enables complicated character modification. of course,
By combining such processing with the processing described in the first embodiment, more complicated modification is possible. Also,
The processing of the present invention as described above can be used not only for a printer but also for an apparatus for displaying characters, symbols, or simple figures in various environments, and for an apparatus for printing. When an outline font is used, a pre-modification pattern of any size can be obtained. However, several types of conversion pattern data may be prepared for each pre-modification pattern size. Further, processing for enlarging or reducing the conversion pattern data according to the size of the pattern before modification may be performed. This is realized in the same way as the scaling of image data. With the above processing, it is possible to execute complicated modification processing quickly and easily.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a pattern before modification.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an italics pattern (a slide for each line).

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an italics pattern (slide every two rows).

FIG. 5A is an explanatory diagram of a pattern before modification, and FIG. 5B is an explanatory diagram of a general horizontal enlarging algorithm.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the contents of conversion pattern data according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a pattern before modification.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a pattern after modification.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a conversion processing operation.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the contents of logical product conversion pattern data.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a pattern after logical product modification.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 control unit 5 ROM 6 RAM 15 program storage unit 16 CG unit 17 pre-modification pattern storage unit 18 conversion pattern data storage unit 19 post-modification pattern storage unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A pre-modification pattern displaying a pre-modification print dot array, and for each print dot constituting the pre-modification pattern,
Referring to the conversion pattern data group, which is a set of conversion pattern data that defines the print dot array after the modification, each print dot in the pattern before modification is sequentially corresponded to the corresponding one in the conversion pattern data group. A character modification method comprising performing a conversion according to the conversion pattern data to obtain a modified pattern displaying a modified print dot array. 2. The character modification method according to claim 1, wherein the conversion pattern data includes information for performing a logical operation on the contents of the print dots constituting the pattern before modification to determine a print dot array after modification. A character modification method characterized by that: 3. A pre-modification pattern storage unit for storing a pre-modification pattern displaying a pre-modification print dot array, and for each print dot constituting the pre-modification pattern,
A conversion pattern data storage unit that stores a set of conversion pattern data, each of which is a set of conversion pattern data that defines a print dot array after the modification, and a pattern after modification that stores a post-modification pattern that displays the print dot array after the modification The storage unit, from the pre-modification pattern storage unit, sequentially reads the print dot array before modification, and refers to the corresponding conversion pattern data in the conversion pattern data storage unit, for each print dot, the conversion pattern data And a control unit for performing conversion in accordance with the definition of the group and storing the result in the post-modification pattern storage unit.