JP2000357166A - Method and device for document processing - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily grasp font information by displaying the fonts of a printer connected to a document processor on a font style specification screen where it can be selected, and changing the font used in a document into a specific font of the printer by using the style specification screen. SOLUTION: On a document editing screen 71 displayed on a CRT with a specific font, a part 72 to be changed in the font style is selected with a mouse, etc. The start of a font style selecting process is indicated on a keyboard, etc., and then a style selection window is displayed on the CRT. Then a desired style is selected from a style selection window. A data request device side generates a character request instruction from a desired character code and sends it to a specified printer. The printer side receives the character request instruction, combines font pattern data with corresponding display control data according to the instruction to generate character expansion data, and expands and displays character patterns in a proper location in a memory.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document processing method and apparatus, and more particularly to a document processing method and apparatus capable of freely selecting a desired font from different font information and editing / outputting the document.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the case of a configuration in which separate font data is provided independently on the apparatus main body side of a document processing apparatus and on a plurality of printers serving as output apparatuses, the font data is mounted on the printer side and installed on the apparatus main body side. The CRT display when a typeface that is not mounted on the printer is specified as the typeface for document output, or conversely, the print output when the typeface is not mounted on the specified printer is an alternative typeface, that is, In this case, the output is performed using a unique typeface of a designated printer or CRT.

[0003]

However, in the above conventional example, in the case of a system configuration in which a plurality of printers having different fonts are connected to one document processing apparatus, a designated printer or CRT is used. Is output in a font unique to the apparatus, so that it was not possible to edit and print text data by freely selecting a plurality of desired fonts from an arbitrary printer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned prior art, and enables flexible document editing and output using desired font data at the time of document editing and output, and also allows the user to obtain font information held by a printer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a document processing method and a document processing apparatus which enable the user to easily grasp the document.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a document processing apparatus according to the present invention has the following arrangement. That is, a document processing device connected to a printer, means for displaying a font of the printer on a selectable typeface designation screen, and a font used for a document specified by a user using the typeface designation screen. And a change unit for changing the font into a printer font.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a document processing method in a document processing apparatus connected to a printer, the method comprising: displaying a font of the printer on a selectable typeface designation screen; And changing the font to a printer font designated by the user using the typeface designation screen.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the font of the printer connected to the document processing apparatus is displayed on a selectable typeface designation screen, and the font used in the document is designated by the user using the typeface designation screen. It works to change the font of the printer.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

A document referred to in this embodiment is a generic term including a sentence (including a table), a figure, an image, and the like.

[Schematic Description of System (FIGS. 1 and 2)] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a document processing system as a typical embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a system bus.
Connected to bus 1. 2 is a CPU. Reference numeral 3 denotes a program memory (hereinafter, referred to as PMEM), which selects and reads a program for editing processing from the hard disk 15 as appropriate and executes the program by the CPU 2.

Data input from the keyboard 9 is stored as code information in the PMEM 3 which is also a text memory. Reference numeral 8 denotes an input control unit to which input devices such as a keyboard 9 and a mouse 10 are connected. The operator operates the keyboard 9 to issue a system operation command or the like. Reference numeral 10 denotes a pointing device (hereinafter referred to as P) for instructing processing of image information on a CRT 13.
In this embodiment, a mouse is used. With this operation, the cursor on the CRT 13 is arbitrarily moved in the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) directions to select a command icon on the command menu to give an instruction for processing, an instruction for editing, an instruction for a drawing position, and the like. I do.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a video image memory (hereinafter, VR)
AM), 12 is a display output control unit, and 13 is a CRT. The data displayed on the CRT 13 is the VRAM 11
Above is deployed as bitmap data. For example, if it is character data, a character pattern corresponding to the code is developed in the VRAM. It is also possible to generate and display a cursor directly on the display area of the VRAM by software control. 14 is an external storage device controller, 1
Reference numerals 5 and 16 denote disks for data files.
Is a hard disk (hereinafter, referred to as HD), and 16 is a floppy disk (hereinafter, referred to as FD).

Further, the document processing system of the present embodiment receives the typeface / character size instruction information, print position, character code string, etc. transmitted from the communication control unit 4 via the communication port 5 and the communication line 6. A plurality of printers 7 are connected to develop a print bitmap image using character fonts or the like possessed in the own device and print out.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer 7. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 21 denotes a system bus;
Each component described below is connected to the system bus 21. Reference numeral 22 denotes a CPU, and 23 denotes a PMEM, which reads a program for print bit map image development and output processing from the hard disk 28 or the ROM 30 as appropriate, and executes the program.

The data received and input via the communication port 32 via the communication line 33 and the communication control unit 31 is stored as code information in the PMEM 23 which is also a text memory. 24 is an image memory (hereinafter referred to as IM)
EM), 25 is a print output control unit, 26 is a print output unit, and the print image is I / O data as bit map data.
After being developed in the MEM 24, it is output to the print output unit 26 under the control of the print output control unit 25. 29 is an external storage device control unit, 28 and 27 are data file disks, 27 is FD, and 28 is HD. A ROM 30 stores character font control information, bit map data, contour information, etc., a printer 7 control program, and the like.

When character font data is transferred to another device, font pattern information is obtained in accordance with the code information stored in the PMEM 23, and then the processed appropriate bit map or unmodified font data is developed. The control data is transferred via the communication control unit 31, the communication port 32, and the communication line 6 together with the control data. In addition,
If the font pattern information is transferred without processing, an appropriate bit map is developed on the receiving side.

[Structure of Font Management Data (FIG. 3)] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of font management data installed in the printer 7. The printer 7 has management data having a structure as shown in FIG. 3 for each typeface, and these data can be fetched into the apparatus main body in response to a request from the apparatus main body. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 41 denotes a typeface id code for internally recognizing typeface data; 42, a typeface name character code for displaying a typeface name in a typeface selection window; 43, such as dot data, compressed data, vector data, etc. Data types id and 44 for identifying the data type of the pattern are other typeface management data groups such as version and pattern box size.

[Communication data with other devices (FIGS. 4 and 5)]
In the document processing system according to the present embodiment, font data can be exchanged between printers as system components or between a printer and a CRT (VRAM), and a document can be output using font data that the apparatus does not have. Here, data exchanged between the system components will be described.

There are two types of communication data: (1) a character request command for requesting font data from the own device to another device, and (2) character expansion data in response to the character request command.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure of a character request command for another device. As shown in FIG. 4, the character request command includes a character code (or character string data) 51 to be printed or displayed, and a font id (FIG. 3) for identifying from which font data the font code 51 is obtained.
52, a transfer destination printer identification id 53 owning the font data, and a transfer source device identification id 5 requesting the font data.
4. Deformation information 55 on how to transform the font pattern and develop the bitmap, fill-in information 56 on the font pattern, bit image development method data 57 for identifying whether the dot data is binary or multi-valued, Font pattern vertical and horizontal dot sizes (or character size data such as points and classes obtained as a print result) 58, and display device data 59 representing the display device resolution
It consists of. Here, the display device data 59 is not necessary when the character size data 57 indicates the dot size, but is necessary for obtaining the character dot size inside the printer when indicating the size of the display result.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the structure of character expansion data sent from the printer that has received the character request command to the request source device. Generally, one character expansion data corresponds to one character code. As shown in FIG. 5, the character development data includes pattern box data 61 representing the actual vertical / horizontal dot size of the bitmap data, control data 62 for displaying the left margin, feed width, kerning, etc. of the character data, and character data. , Or pattern data 68 such as an outline.

[Font Data Upload Transfer Processing (FIGS. 6 to 8)] Here, in the document processing system having the above-described configuration, the font data transfer processing between different document output devices will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Font selection window shown in FIG. 6, C shown in FIG.
This will be described with reference to an RT display screen. Here, the font data is transferred from the printer to the CRT (and the associated VRAM) on the system body side,
It is assumed that characters are displayed in a font possessed by the printer above.

First, in step S1, a portion 72 of the document editing screen 71 displayed in a font of Chinese Mincho style on the CRT 13 as shown in FIG. When the start of the font selection process is instructed from the keyboard 9 or the mouse 10, the font selection window as shown in FIG.
Will be displayed.

FIG. 6 is a view showing an example of a typeface selection window created based on the font management data mounted on each printer 7 described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 shows that the printer A has the font data of Chinese Mincho, textbook, and square font on the printer A, the printer B has the font data of Chinese Mincho, regular, cursive, and cursive font on the printer C. The state in which the font data of the block style is registered is shown. In FIG. 6, selection of typeface data is performed according to FIG.
This is done by inputting a selection instruction of either the mouse 10 or the keyboard 9 indicated by. For example, in the case of a selection instruction using the mouse 10, the area of the desired font in FIG. 6 may be clicked, and in the case of the keyboard 9, a numerical value corresponding to the desired font displayed in the window may be input. .

Next, in step S2, a desired typeface is selected from the typeface selection window as described above. here,
A thick gothic body shall be specified.

In step S3, it is checked whether or not the designated typeface data is mounted on the designated printer. This is because the specified typeface id is
When the data is transmitted to the printer side, it is checked by checking whether or not a matching data exists in the typeface id of the management data (FIG. 3) of each typeface mounted on the printer. Here, if the designated font does not exist in the designated printer, a method of transferring a substitute font according to the conventional example is used as error processing. On the other hand, if the desired typeface exists, the process proceeds to step S4, where the font is opened so that the corresponding font data in the printer can be accessed.

Next, in step S5, a character request command shown in FIG. 4 is created from a desired character code on the data requesting device side (the document processing system main body side in this embodiment), and this is sent to the designated printer. Send. In this case, the character request command is transmitted in character units or character string units.

In step S6, the printer receives a character request command and, in accordance with the command, combines the font pattern data with the corresponding display control data to create character expansion data. That is, after receiving the character request command via the communication line, the printer reads the corresponding font pattern data and expansion control information from the HD or ROM in the printer, and performs bit map expansion according to the contents of the character request data. (Or, it may not be developed as outline data). Then, in step S7, the character expansion data is transferred to the data request source device (in this embodiment, the document processing system main body side) via a communication line.

In step S8, the data requesting device (in this embodiment, the document processing system main unit) receives the character expansion data received from the printer, the designated pattern box data, the character display control data, and the designated position parameter. In accordance with (Position and Rotation), the character pattern is bit-map-developed at an appropriate location in the memory (VRAM in this embodiment) and displayed on the CRT 13.

In step S9, it is checked whether or not the processing for the number of characters or character strings to be processed has been completed. If it is determined that the process has not been completed, the process returns to step S5, and the process is repeated for the specified number of characters or character strings. On the other hand, if it is determined that the processing has been completed, the processing is terminated. After the above processing, as shown in FIG.
The character selected in step S1 is a typeface designated here from the original typeface (China Mincho style) (here, thick gothic style)
And displayed (portion 74 in FIG. 7B).
Of course, the characters that are not selected are displayed in the original font (Mincho).

Therefore, according to this embodiment, when a part of the document displayed on the CRT is selected and a desired font is designated by the font selection, the font data is obtained from the printer having the corresponding font and the bit data is obtained. By performing map development, the designated document location can be converted into a desired typeface and displayed.

In this embodiment, a case has been described in which characters displayed on a CRT are converted and displayed using font data in a printer, but the present invention is not limited to this. Alternatively, the device requesting the character data may be another printer. For example, at the time of printing output to a certain printer, a certain part in a document can be output in another typeface using font data possessed by another printer. In this case, another font data obtained from another printer is bit-mapped to the IMEM in the printer.

Also, in this embodiment, each time a request for character data is issued, the printer is inquired about the presence or absence of the corresponding typeface.
The case has been described in which the printer creates character expansion data for each character and transfers the data to the data request source device. However, when the printer and the data requesting device are connected, all the character expansion data on the printer side are all transferred to the P on the data requesting device side.
The system can also be configured so that the data is transferred and stored in the MEM or the HD, and the data is managed on the data request source device side. This eliminates the need to access the printer every time font data is displayed, thereby improving processing efficiency. If it is not possible to save all character expansion data, secure a cache buffer area for several characters in PMEM and store the data once transferred from the printer in the cache buffer. When the same character is required again, the processing efficiency can be improved by reading data from the cache buffer.

The present invention may be applied to a system including a plurality of devices, may be applied to an apparatus including a single device, or may be applied to a system or a device for supplying a program. It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where the processing is achieved, or to a system in which processing is performed via a network such as a LAN.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention, a font of a printer connected to a document processing apparatus is displayed on a selectable typeface designation screen, and fonts used in a document are displayed on the typeface designation screen. Therefore, the font of the printer designated by the user is changed, so that the user can easily grasp the font information of the printer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a document processing system according to a representative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer connected to the document processing system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a structure of font management data mounted on a printer.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure of a character request command.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a structure of character expansion data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a typeface selection window.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a display example of font type selection and its result.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a display font upload process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 21 System bus 2, 22 CPU 3, 23 Program memory 4, 31 Communication control unit 5, 32 Communication port 6, 33 Communication line 7 Printer 8 Input control unit 9 Keyboard 10 Mouse 11 VRAM 12 Display output control unit 13 CRT 14 , 29 External storage device control unit 15, 28 Hard disk (HD) 16, 27 Proppy disk (FD) 24 Image memory 25 Print output control unit 26 Print output unit 30 ROM

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A document processing apparatus connected to a printer, comprising: means for displaying a font of the printer on a selectable typeface designation screen; and a user using the typeface designation screen to select a font used for a document. And a change unit for changing the font to a printer specified by the printer. 2. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the font designating screen displays font information of the printer and information for identifying the printer. 3. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the font designating screen is a font designating screen from which fonts of a plurality of printers can be selected. 4. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an acquisition unit configured to acquire a printer font designated by a user using the font designation screen. 5. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the change unit includes a display control unit that changes a font of a part of characters of the displayed document to a font of a printer designated by a user using the font designating screen and displays the font. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 6. A document processing method in a document processing apparatus connected to a printer, the method comprising: displaying a font of the printer on a selectable typeface designating screen; And changing the font to a printer font designated by the user by using the document processing method. 7. The document processing method according to claim 6, wherein font information of the printer and information for identifying the printer are displayed on the font designating screen. 8. The document processing method according to claim 6, wherein the font designating screen is a font designating screen from which fonts of a plurality of printers can be selected. 9. The document processing method according to claim 6, further comprising an acquiring step of acquiring a printer font designated by a user using the typeface designation screen. 10. The change step includes a display control step of changing a font of a part of characters of a displayed document to a printer font designated by a user using the typeface designation screen and displaying the changed font. 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein
Document processing method described in.