JP2002132245A - Character drawing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To draw a bit map font at a high speed in a character drawing apparatus. SOLUTION: This apparatus has a first drawing means 2 which draws characters by forming the density patterns meeting the density of the characters and performing mask processing with a font bit map and a second drawing means 3 for drawing the font bit map as it is and selects either of the drawing means according to a density value.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character drawing device for drawing characters at high speed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional character drawing apparatus will be described below with reference to FIG.

First, a density pattern creating means 201 creates a binary density pattern corresponding to the density of a character. Thereafter, the arithmetic unit 202 performs an arithmetic operation on the binary shape pattern expressing the density pattern and the character shape and the binary image data stored in the image storage unit 203, and stores the calculation result in the image storage unit 203. Remember.

The calculation by the calculation means 202 is as follows, where D is the density pattern, F is the shape pattern, B is the image data stored in the image storage means 203, and B 'is the calculation result.

B '= 〜F & B | F & D Here, “〜” is negated, “&” is a logical product, and “|” is a logical sum.

[0006]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, there is a problem that a complicated logical operation is required to draw a character, and the processing speed is reduced. The process of creating a density pattern from the density also contributes to a reduction in speed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a character drawing device capable of drawing characters at high speed by reducing the number of logical operations and the process of creating a density pattern.

[0008]

In order to solve this problem, a character drawing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an image storage means for storing binary image data; and a binary density pattern corresponding to a character density value. A binary shape bitmap indicating the density pattern and the character shape and the binary image data stored in the image storage means, and storing the calculation result in the image storage means. Drawing means, a second drawing means for calculating a binary shape bitmap indicating the shape of a character and binary image data stored in the image storage means, and storing the calculation result in the image storage means; , And a selecting means for selecting either the first drawing means or the second drawing means in accordance with the density value of the character.

As a result, the number of logical operations and the density pattern creation processing can be reduced, and characters can be drawn at high speed.

In order to solve this problem, in the character drawing apparatus of the present invention, when performing color drawing, the selection means may be provided for each of the first drawing means or the second drawing means for each plane. Is to select.

Thus, even in the case of color drawing, the number of logical operations and the density pattern creation processing can be reduced, and characters can be drawn at high speed.

Further, in order to solve this problem, a character drawing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an image storage means for storing binary image data; and an operation instructing means for instructing an arithmetic method in accordance with a character density value. Pattern creation means for determining whether or not a binary density pattern corresponding to the density value of a character is required for the calculation instructed by the calculation instructing means, and creating a binary density pattern if necessary; A configuration in which a binary shape pattern indicating the shape of a character is calculated and binary image data stored in the image storage unit, and a calculation unit that stores the calculation result in the image storage unit; Also.

Thus, the number of logical operations and the density pattern creation processing can be reduced, and characters can be drawn at high speed.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a character drawing apparatus according to the present invention, wherein in the case of color drawing, the calculation instruction means specifies a calculation method for each plane, and
Is calculated for each plane, and the calculation result is stored in the image storage means.

Thus, even in the case of color drawing, the number of logical operations and the density pattern creation processing can be reduced, and characters can be drawn at high speed.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Image storage means for storing binary image data, and a binary density pattern created in accordance with the density value of the character, and stored in the image storage means and a binary shape bitmap indicating the density pattern and the shape of the character A first drawing unit for performing an operation on the binary image data thus obtained and storing the operation result in the image storage unit; and a binary shape bitmap indicating the shape of the character and the binary image data stored in the image storage unit. A second drawing unit for performing a calculation with the image data of the value and storing the calculation result in the image storage unit; and a first drawing unit or a second drawing unit according to the density value of the character.
And a selecting means for selecting any one of the drawing means, and has an effect of reducing the number of logical operations and the density pattern creation processing.

The second aspect of the present invention is the first aspect.
In the invention described in the above, the character drawing device is characterized in that the selection means selects either the first drawing means or the second drawing means for each plane when performing color drawing. Even in this case, there is an effect that the number of logical operations and the density pattern creation processing are reduced.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided image storage means for storing binary image data, operation instruction means for instructing an operation method in accordance with the density value of a character, and operation instruction means. A pattern creating means for determining whether or not a binary density pattern corresponding to the character density value is necessary for the calculation, and creating a binary density pattern if necessary; and a binary indicating the shape of the character. And a calculating means for calculating the shape pattern of the image and the binary image data stored in the image storage means, and storing the calculation result in the image storage means. This has the effect of reducing the number of times and density pattern creation processing.

The invention according to claim 4 of the present invention is the invention according to claim 3.
In the invention described above, in the case of color drawing, the operation instructing unit instructs an operation method for each plane, the first and second drawing units operate for each plane, and the operation result is stored in the image storage unit. This is a character drawing apparatus characterized in that it also has the effect of reducing the number of logical operations and the density pattern creation processing in the case of color drawing.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described with reference to FIG. In these drawings, the same members are denoted by the same reference numerals, and duplicate description is omitted.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the second drawing means 3, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the same shape pattern, and FIG. 5 is an example of image data stored in the image storage means. , FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a drawing result when the density is 128, FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a drawing result when the density is 255, and FIG. 8 is a drawing result when the density is 0. FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a printing device using the character drawing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an image expanding unit provided in the printing device of FIG.
1 is a flowchart of the operation in the printing apparatus of FIG.
2 is an operation flowchart of the character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the character drawing apparatus comprises a selection unit 1, a first drawing unit 2, a second drawing unit 3, and an image storage unit 4. .

The selection means 1 determines whether the character density is 0 or 2
It is determined whether the number is 25 or not, and one of the first and second drawing means is selected. Here, the density value for character drawing is from 0 to 255. The first drawing means 2 draws a character when the density is other than 0 or 255. The first character drawing means 3 draws a character when the density is 0 or 255. The image storage means 4 stores binary image data.

The structure of the first drawing means 2 and the third drawing means will be described.

The first drawing means 2, as shown in FIG.
It comprises a density pattern creating means 5 and a first calculating means 6. The density pattern creating means 5 creates a binary density pattern according to the density. The first calculation means 6 performs a calculation for drawing a character using a density pattern and a binary shape pattern indicating the shape of the character.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the second drawing means 3 comprises a second calculation means 7, which draws a character in the image storage means 4. Calculation for

Here, the processing of the first drawing means 2 will be described in more detail.

Hereinafter, it is assumed that the shape pattern is expressed as a two-shape pattern in which a pixel to be drawn is “1” and a pixel not to be drawn is “0”.

For the sake of explanation, the figure shown in FIG. 4 is used as a shape pattern, and the figure shown in FIG. 5 is used as image data stored in the image storage means 4. 4 and 5, a pixel having a value of “1” is represented as black, a pixel having a value of “0” is represented as white, a density pattern is D, a shape pattern is F, B for data and B 'for calculation result
And

First, the density pattern creating means 5 creates a density pattern corresponding to the density. For example, if the concentration is 12
The density pattern created in the case of 8 is a pattern in which pixels having a value of “1” are 50% of the entire area.

Here, the density pattern D is as follows.

D = 0011 0011 0011 0011 (Equation 1) The operation of the first operation means 6 is as follows.

B ′ = B & (〜F) | D & F (Equation 2) Further, it is assumed that the area inside the broken line in FIG. 4 and the area inside the broken line in FIG. 5 can be expressed by the following equations, respectively.

F = 0011 1110 0000 0000 (Equation 3) B = 0001 0101 0101 0100 (Equation 4) According to (Equation 1), (Equation 3), (Equation 4) and (Equation 2), B ′ is the following value.

B ′ = 0011 0001 0101 0100 (Equation 5) FIG. 6 shows the result of performing the above processing on FIGS. 4 and 5 as a whole.

As is apparent from Equation 5 and FIG. 6, the pixel having the value “1” in the shape pattern F has a density of 128.
Are written in a density pattern corresponding to the color pattern, and the color stored in the image storage means 4 is held as it is for the pixel having a value of “0”.

The calculated B 'is stored in the image storage means 4 as described above.

Next, the processing of the second drawing means 3 will be described in detail.

When the density is 255, that is, when the drawing color is "black", the calculation of the second calculation means 7 is as follows.

B '= B | F (Equation 6) From equations 3, 4 and 6, B' is as follows.

B ′ = 0011 1111 0101 0100 (Equation 7) FIG. 7 shows the result of performing the above processing on FIGS. 4 and 5 as a whole. As is clear from (Equation 7) and FIG. 7, the pixel having the value “1” in the shape pattern F is “1”.
, And the pixel whose value is “0” retains the color stored in the image storage unit 4 as it is.

When the density is 0, the calculation of the second calculation means 7 is as follows.

B '= B & (. About.F) (Equation 8) From equations 3, 4 and 8, B' is as follows.

B ′ = 00000001 0101 0100 (Equation 9) FIG. 8 shows the result of performing the above processing on FIG. 4 and FIG.

As is clear from Equation 9 and FIG. 8, in the shape pattern F, a pixel having a value of "1" is drawn as "0", and a pixel having a value of "0" is stored in the image storage means 4. The color is kept as it is. The calculated B ′ is stored in the image storage unit 4 in this manner.

Next, a printing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

The host computer 8 expresses the data of the image to be printed by a command for each figure and transfers it to the printing device 9. The types of figures include characters, graphics, bitmaps, and the like, and are represented by different commands.

The printing device 9 includes a control unit 10 and a recording unit 11. The control means 10 creates image data from the command. The recording means 11 records the image data on a predetermined recording medium.

The control means 10 further includes an image developing means 12
And image storage means 4. The image developing means 12 interprets the command and converts the figure into binary image data. The image storage unit 4 stores the image data created by the image expansion unit 12.

As shown in FIG. 10, the image expanding means 12 includes a command determining means 13, a character drawing means 14, a graphic drawing means 15, and a bitmap drawing means 1.
6 is comprised.

The command determining means 13 interprets the command, and if the command is a character drawing command,
If the command is a graphic drawing command, the graphic drawing means 15 is selected, and if the command is a bitmap drawing command, the bitmap drawing means 16 is selected, and the character drawing means 14, the graphic drawing means 15, and the bitmap drawing means 16 are selected. Draw each figure.

Hereinafter, the processing flow of the printing apparatus 9 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the printing device 9 is connected to the host computer 8.
The command is acquired from (S101). If the command is a character drawing command, the command determining unit 13 selects the character drawing unit 14 (S102), and the character drawing unit 1
4 draws a character in the image storage means 4 (S105).

If the command is a graphic drawing command, the command determining means 13 selects the graphic drawing means 15 (S103), and the graphic drawing means 15 draws a graphic in the image storage means 4 (S103).
106).

If the command is a bitmap drawing command, the command determination means 13 selects the bitmap drawing means 16 (S104), and the bitmap drawing means 16 draws the bitmap on the image storage means 4 (S104). S107).

After the drawing is completed as described above, or when the command is not any of character drawing, graphic drawing, and bitmap drawing, it is determined whether or not the processing of all commands has been completed ( S108).

If the processing of all the commands has not been completed, the same processing is repeated from the processing of S101. When the processing of all commands is completed, the recording unit 11 records on a sheet according to the image data stored in the image storage unit 4 (S109).

Here, graphic drawing and bitmap drawing will be described. The graphic drawing and the bitmap drawing are the same as the operations in the conventional printing apparatus.

The graphic drawing means 15 decomposes a polygon to be a filled area into horizontal straight lines (hereinafter referred to as "scan lines"). Then, the image data is stored in the image storage unit 4 at the designated density for each scan line. Thus, the drawing of the graphic is completed.

The bitmap drawing means 16 converts the input multi-valued bitmap into a binary bitmap, and stores the binary bitmap in the image storage means 4. In this way, the bitmap drawing ends.

Further, the character drawing process according to the first embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the selection means 1 determines whether or not the character density is 0 or 255 (S201). If the density is not 0 or 255, the first drawing means 2 is selected by the selecting means 1, and the first drawing means 2 creates a density pattern corresponding to the density (S203), and performs the calculation of Expression 3 (S204). ).

When the density is 0 or 255, the second
Is selected by the selecting unit 1, and the second drawing unit 3 performs the calculation of the expression 1 or 2 (S20).
2). The calculation result is stored in the image storage unit 4 (S2
05).

As a result, in the first embodiment, the number of logical operations and the process of creating a density pattern can be reduced, so that characters can be drawn at high speed.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention, and FIG. 14 is an operation flowchart of the character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

In the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 13, the character drawing device comprises plane drawing means 17a to 17a.
7d and an image storage means 4. The plane drawing devices 17a to 17d draw characters on a plane-by-plane basis. The image storage unit 4 stores the drawing result.

The plane drawing means 17a to 17d perform drawing of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) planes, respectively. The configuration of these plane drawing means 17a to 17d is as follows.
This is the same as FIG. 1 of the first embodiment, and includes a selecting unit 1, a first drawing unit 2, and a second drawing unit.

In the second embodiment, the shape of a character to be drawn is expressed as a shape pattern in which a pixel to be drawn is “1” and a pixel to be not drawn is “0”. Is a value from 0 to 255, where 0 is 0 and the color of each plane is 255. Also,
The components of the first drawing unit 2 and the second drawing unit 3 and the operation of each plane are the same as those in the first embodiment.

Hereinafter, the processing flow of the printing apparatus according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Since the configuration and flow of the printing apparatus are the same as those in the first embodiment, the character drawing processing which is a feature of the second embodiment will be described in detail.

First, a plane to be drawn is selected (S3
01). The selecting means 1 (FIG. 1) corresponding to the selected plane determines whether the density of the character is 0 or 255 (S302). If the concentration is not 0 or 255,
The first drawing unit 2 (FIG. 1) is selected by the selection unit 1, and the first drawing unit 2 creates a density pattern corresponding to the density (S304), and calculates the drawing result by performing the calculation of Expression 3. (S305).

When the density is 0 or 255,
The second drawing unit 3 (FIG. 1) is selected by the selection unit 1, and the second drawing unit 3 calculates the drawing result by performing the calculation of Expression 1 or 2 (S303). The calculated drawing result is stored in the image storage unit 4 (S30).
6).

The drawing of the selected plane is completed as described above. It is determined whether or not the rendering of all the planes has been completed (S307). If the rendering has been completed, the character rendering process is terminated. If the rendering has not been completed, another plane is rendered.

Thus, also in the second embodiment,
Since the number of logical operations and the process of creating a density pattern can be reduced, characters can be drawn at high speed.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention, and FIG. 16 is a flowchart of the character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

In the third embodiment, as shown in FIG. 15, the character drawing device comprises an operation instructing unit 19, a density pattern creating unit 20, an operating unit 21, and an image storage unit 22.

The calculation instruction means 19 determines whether or not the density of the character is 0 or 255, and instructs the calculation means 21 to the calculation method according to the determination result. Density pattern creating means 20
Creates a binary density pattern according to the density of the drawing color. The calculating means 21 performs a calculation for drawing a character with the density from the density pattern and the shape pattern. The image storage means 22 stores binary image data.

Here, as in the first and second embodiments, the shape of the character to be drawn is expressed as a binary shape pattern in which the pixel to be drawn is “1” and the pixel not to be drawn is “0”. And the density is a value from 0 to 255.

Further, a binary density pattern corresponding to the density of the drawing color output from the density pattern creating means 20 is represented by D,
The shape pattern of the character to be drawn is F, the image data in the image storage means 22 is B, and the calculation result is B '.

Here, the operation of the operation instructing means 19 will be described.

The operation instructing means 19 determines that the density is 0 or 25.
If none of the above, the following calculation is performed by the calculating means 2.
Specify 1

B ′ = B & (〜F) | D & F (Equation 10) When the density is 255, the following calculation is performed by the calculation unit 21
To be specified.

B ′ = B | F (Equation 11) When the density is 0, the following calculation is designated to the calculation means 21.

B ′ = B & (〜F) (Equation 12) The density pattern creating means 20 first determines whether or not the density pattern D is necessary for the calculation instructed by the calculation instruction means 19. When a density pattern is required, that is, when Expression 10 is designated, a density pattern corresponding to the density is created.

For example, in a density pattern created when the density is 128, pixels having a value of “1” are 50% of the entire area.
It is a pattern that becomes When the density pattern is not required, that is, when either the formula 11 or the formula 12 is designated, the density pattern creating means 20 does nothing.

The calculating means 21 includes a density pattern D, a shape pattern F expressing a character shape, and image data B stored in the image storing means 22 by the method specified by the calculating instruction means 19.
Is calculated.

For the sake of explanation, FIG.
5 is used as the image data stored in the image storage means 22. 4 and 5, a pixel having a value of “1” is represented as 255, and a pixel having a value of “0” is represented as 0.

It is assumed that the broken line inner area F in FIG. 4 and the broken line inner area B in FIG. 5 can be expressed by the following equations.

F = 0011 1110 0000 0000 (Equation 13) B = 0001 0101 0101 0100 (Equation 14) When the density is 128, the density pattern creating means 20
Creates the following density pattern.

D = 0011 0011 0011 0011 (Equation 15) In this case, the result obtained by the arithmetic means 21 performing the operation of Expression 10 is as follows.

B ′ = 0011 0001 0101 0100 (Equation 16) FIG. 6 shows the result of performing the above processing on FIGS. 4 and 5 as a whole. As is clear from Expression 16 and FIG. 6, in the shape pattern F, the pixel having the value “1” is drawn with the density pattern, that is, the density 128, and the pixel having the value “0” is the color stored in the image storage unit 104. Is kept as it is.

The result obtained when the calculating means 21 performs the calculation of Expression 11 is as follows.

B ′ = 0011 1111 0101 0100 (Equation 17) FIG. 7 shows the result of performing the above processing on FIGS. 4 and 5 as a whole. As is apparent from Expression 17 and FIG. 7, in the shape pattern F, a pixel having a value of “1” is drawn as “1”, that is, 255, and a pixel having a value of “0” is a color stored in the image storage unit 104. Is kept as it is.

When the calculating means 21 performs the calculation of Expression 12, the result is as follows.

B ′ = 0000 0001 0101 0100 (Equation 18) FIG. 8 shows the result of performing the above processing on the entire FIGS. 4 and 5. As is clear from Expression 18 and FIG. 8, in the shape pattern F, a pixel having a value of “1” is drawn as “0”, that is, 0, and a pixel having a value of “0” is stored in the image storage unit 10.
The color stored in No. 4 is held as it is. The calculated B ′ is stored in the image storage unit 104 in this manner.

The connection configuration of the printing apparatus (FIG. 9) used in the third embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the host computer 8 transmits the data of the image to be printed by a command for each figure. Expressed and transferred to the printing device 9. The types of figures include characters, graphics, bitmaps, and the like, and are represented by different commands.

The configuration of the printing apparatus 9 also includes a control unit 10 and a recording unit 11 as in the first embodiment. The control means 10 creates image data from the command. The recording means 11 records the image data on a predetermined recording medium.
The control means 10 can be further divided into an image development means 12 and an image storage means 4. The image developing means 12 interprets the command and converts the figure into binary image data. The image storage unit 4 stores the image data created by the image expansion unit 12.

The image developing means 12 (FIG. 10) is the same as in the first embodiment, and includes a command determining means 13, a character drawing means 14, and a graphic drawing means 1.
5 and bitmap drawing means 16.

Further, character drawing which is a feature of the third embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the operation instructing means 19 determines that the character density is 0.
Is determined (S401). If the density is 0, the calculation instruction unit 19 instructs the calculation unit 21 to perform the calculation of Expression 12 (S402). If the density is not 0, it is further determined whether or not the density is 255 (S4).
03).

If the density is 255, the operation instructing means 19 instructs the operation means 21 to perform the operation of the equation (11) (S4).
04). If the density is neither 0 nor 255, the operation instructing unit 19 performs an operation of the expression
(S405).

After the calculation method is determined as described above, the density pattern creating means 20 determines whether a density pattern is necessary for the calculation (S406). If a density pattern is required for the calculation, the density pattern creating means 20 creates a density pattern corresponding to the density (S407).

Thereafter, the operation means 21 is operated by the operation instructing means 1
The drawing result is calculated by performing the calculation specified in 9 (S408). The calculated result is stored in the image storage unit 22 (S409).

As a result, also in the third embodiment, the number of logical operations and the process of creating a density pattern can be reduced, so that characters can be drawn at high speed.

(Embodiment 4) FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention, and FIG. 18 is a flowchart of the character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention.

In the fourth embodiment, as shown in FIG. 17, the image drawing apparatus comprises plane drawing means 23a to 23d.
3d and image storage means 24. The plane drawing devices 23a to 23d draw characters on a plane-by-plane basis. The image storage means 24 stores the drawing result.

The plane drawing means 23a to 23d perform drawing of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) planes, respectively. As in the third embodiment (FIG. 15), the plane drawing means 23a to 23d determine whether the character density is 0 or 255, and instruct the calculation means 21 to the calculation method according to the determination result. It comprises an instruction means 19, a density pattern creation means 20 for creating a binary density pattern corresponding to the density of the drawing color, and an arithmetic means 21 for performing an operation for drawing a character with the density from the density pattern and the shape pattern.

Here, the shape of the character to be drawn is assumed to be expressed as a shape pattern in which the pixel to be drawn is “1” and the pixel not to be drawn is “0”, and the density is from 0 to 255. The value is 0, and the color of each plane is 255.

Here, the components of the calculation instruction means 19, the density pattern creation means 20 and the calculation means 21 and the operation of each plane are the same as in the third embodiment.

Hereinafter, the flow of processing of the printing apparatus using the technique of the present invention will be described. The configuration and flow of the printing apparatus are the same as in the third embodiment. Here, a detailed description will be given of a character drawing process which is a feature of the fourth embodiment.

The character drawing process according to the fourth embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

First, a plane to be drawn is selected (S5).
01). Calculation instruction means 1 corresponding to the selected plane
No. 9 determines whether the density of the character is 0 (S50).
2). If the density is 0, the calculation instruction unit 19 instructs the calculation unit 21 to perform the calculation of Expression 12 (S503).

If the density is not 0, the density further increases to 255.
It is determined whether or not (S504). When the concentration is 2
In the case of 55, the calculation instruction means 19 instructs the calculation means 21 to perform the calculation of Expression 11 (S505).

If the density is neither 0 nor 255, the operation instructing unit 19 instructs the operation unit 21 to perform the operation of Expression 10 (S506). After the calculation method is determined as described above, the density pattern creating unit 20 determines whether a density pattern is necessary for the calculation (S507).

If the calculation requires a density pattern, the density pattern creating means 20 creates a density pattern corresponding to the density (S508). After that, the calculation means 21 calculates the drawing result by performing the calculation specified by the calculation instruction means 19 (S509). The calculated result is stored in the image storage unit 24 (S510).

As described above, drawing of the selected plane is completed. It is determined whether or not rendering of all the planes has been completed (S511). If the rendering has been completed, the character rendering process is terminated. If not, another plane is rendered.

Thus, even in the third embodiment,
Since the number of logical operations and the process of creating a density pattern can be reduced, characters can be drawn at high speed.

[0117]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the processing time since a character is drawn by a simple calculation without forming a density pattern for a specific density. The effect is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a first drawing unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a second drawing unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a shape pattern according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of image data stored in an image storage unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a drawing result when the density is 128;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a drawing result when the density is 255;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a drawing result when the density is 0;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a printing apparatus using the character drawing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an image expanding unit provided in the printing apparatus of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of an operation in the printing apparatus of FIG. 9;

FIG. 12 is an operation flowchart of the character drawing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is an operation flowchart of the character drawing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of a character drawing apparatus according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram of a conventional character drawing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 selection means 2 first drawing means 3 second drawing means 4 image storage means 5 density pattern creation means 6 first calculation means 7 second calculation means 18 image storage means 19 calculation instruction means 20 density pattern creation means 21 Arithmetic means 22 Image storage means 24 Image storage means

Claims (4)

[Claims] An image storage means for storing binary image data, a binary density pattern is created in accordance with a density value of a character, and a binary shape bit map showing the density pattern and the shape of the character A first drawing unit for performing an operation on the binary image data stored in the image storage unit and storing the calculation result in the image storage unit; and a binary shape bitmap indicating the shape of the character. Calculating the binary image data stored in the image storage means,
A second drawing unit that stores the calculation result in the image storage unit; and a selection unit that selects one of the first drawing unit and the second drawing unit in accordance with a density value of a character. A character drawing device comprising: 2. The character drawing device according to claim 1, wherein, when performing color drawing, the selection unit selects one of the first drawing unit and the second drawing unit for each plane. A character drawing device characterized by the above-mentioned. 3. An image storage means for storing binary image data; an operation instruction means for instructing an operation method in accordance with a character density value; Determine whether the corresponding binary density pattern is necessary,
A pattern creating means for creating a binary density pattern when necessary; a binary shape pattern indicating the shape of a character; and binary image data stored in the image storage means. A character drawing device comprising: a calculation unit for storing a result in the image storage unit. 4. A character drawing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein in the case of color drawing, said calculation instruction means indicates a calculation method for each plane, and said first and second drawing means calculate for each plane. And a calculation result stored in the image storage means.