JP2016200704A - Information processor and control method thereof, computer program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that legibility sometimes deteriorates in the conventional practice because the sizes of characters become irregular when a character string with characters that should be drawn in a bitmap font and characters that should be drawn in a scalable font mixed is drawn.SOLUTION: An information processor for using a scalable font and a bitmap font to draw a character string in order to solve the problem includes an acquisition part 111 for acquiring a font size designated in a character string to be a drawing object, a determination part 113 for determining a font size for drawing characters to be a drawing object by the scalable font on the basis of a prescribed font size determined in the bitmap font and the acquired font size in the case that the drawing object by the bitmap font and the drawing object by the scalable font are mixed in a character string to be the drawing object, and a drawing part 114 for drawing a character string to be the drawing object.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a process of drawing a character using a font.

  There are two types of data formats used for drawing characters on a display device: bitmap fonts and scalable fonts. Bitmap font is a format that holds the shape of a character as a set of dots arranged in a grid of a predetermined size. On the other hand, in the case of a scalable font, the shape of a character is held as vector data and is drawn according to a specified size, so that any size can be expressed in principle. However, when a small size is drawn with a scalable font, there is a problem that a character having many lines such as kanji has no gap between the lines and the characters are crushed and the readability is lowered. For this reason, a bitmap font may be used when drawing a character having a small size among character strings using a scalable font. As a result, there may occur a situation in which characters to be drawn with a bitmap font and characters to be drawn with a scalable font are mixed in one character string to be drawn. For example, a case where kanji and alphabet are mixed.

  Due to the nature of bitmap fonts, it is necessary to prepare character data for each font size individually in order to be able to draw characters with a plurality of font sizes. However, in a low-resource environment such as an embedded device, bitmap fonts can sometimes be incorporated with a minimum size variation. Therefore, the font size specified for the character string to be drawn with the bitmap font may not match any of the size variations of the bitmap font. In such a case, drawing is generally performed with a font size closest to the font size specified in the size variation. However, if a character string to be drawn includes characters to be drawn with a bitmap font and characters to be drawn with a scalable font, the font size changes in the middle of the character string. For example, even if 32 dots are specified for the entire character string, if the font size that can be handled by the bitmap font is only 24 dots, the bitmap font is drawn with a font size of 24 dots and the scalable font is drawn with a font size of 32 dots. The In this way, characters having different font sizes are mixed in the character string, so that readability may be deteriorated.

  In Patent Document 1, it is proposed to reproduce an arbitrary font size by expanding a character pattern to be displayed / printed into a dot pattern of a predetermined size and then enlarging / reducing it with a specified enlargement / reduction size. ing.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-27743

  By enlarging / reducing a bitmap font of a predetermined size, it is possible to align the font size with a scalable font drawn with an arbitrary font size. However, when the binary bitmap font is enlarged to a non-integer multiple, gray scale conversion such as anti-aliasing may be necessary to prevent deterioration of readability. However, authorization is required for bitmap fonts in certain countries, and depending on the restrictions, it may not be allowed to enlarge the binary bitmap font and make it grayscale by anti-aliasing or the like.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is mainly intended to improve the readability of a font when drawing a character string in which characters to be drawn with a bitmap font and characters to be drawn with a scalable font are mixed. With a purpose.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an information processing apparatus that draws a character string using a scalable font and a bitmap font in which a predetermined font size that can be used for character drawing is defined. An acquisition means for acquiring a font size specified for a character string to be rendered; and a character to be rendered by the bitmap font and a character to be rendered by the scalable font in the character string to be rendered. When characters are mixed, the font size for drawing the character to be drawn by the scalable font is set based on the predetermined font size determined for the bitmap font and the font size acquired by the acquisition unit. Determining means for determining, and among the character strings to be drawn, the bitmap format. The character to be drawn by the user is drawn at one of the predetermined font sizes defined in the bitmap font, and the character to be drawn by the scalable font is drawn at the font size determined by the determining means. Drawing means.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the readability of the font at the time of drawing the character string which mixed the character which should be drawn with a bitmap font, and the character which should be drawn with a scalable font can be improved.

The figure showing an example of the composition of the information processor concerning a 1st embodiment A flowchart showing an example of processing for drawing a character string A figure showing a specific example of a character string to be drawn The figure showing an example of the functional composition of the information processor concerning a modification The flowchart showing an example of the process which draws a character string in the modification 1. A figure showing a specific example of a character string to be drawn The flowchart showing an example of the process which draws a character string in the modification 2. A figure showing a specific example of a character string to be drawn The flowchart showing an example of the process which draws a character string in the modification 3.

  Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the constituent elements described in this embodiment are merely examples, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to them.

<First Embodiment>
In the first embodiment, when a character string can be drawn with a plurality of fonts, the position on the display screen for drawing the character string is set to at least one of a designated font and a font that is considered to be used frequently. It is determined based on information of one or more fonts.

  FIG. 1A is a configuration diagram illustrating an overview of an information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 101 is a system control unit, and controls each connected element via a system bus 108. A ROM (Read-Only Memory) 102 stores various fixed data such as a CPU control program and font data that can be rendered by the information processing apparatus 100. A RAM (Random Access Memory) 103 is composed of SRAM, DRAM, and the like, and stores program control variables and the like. Various designated parameters and various work buffers are also stored in the RAM 103. The storage device 104 is composed of a hard disk or the like, and stores file data such as documents and images. The input unit 105 includes a keyboard, a touch panel, and the like, and is used by an operator to perform various input operations. The display unit 106 is used to notify the operator of display using an LCD, LED, or the like. The communication interface 107 is an interface for connecting to a network. Connection methods include LAN, USB, and the like. In the present embodiment, in addition to character input using the input unit 105, a structured document such as a WEB page saved in a server device on the Internet via a network is read and analyzed to be a drawing target. You can get a string. The configuration shown in FIG. 1A shows a part of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Depending on the apparatus, a scanner unit, a printer unit, a modem, a speaker, and the like may be used. You may join in the configuration. In addition, each component is not necessarily limited to a configuration connected in the apparatus, and may be an external apparatus connected through various interfaces.

  FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the information processing apparatus 100. Each functional unit is realized by the CPU 101 developing a program stored in the ROM 102 in the RAM 103 and executing processing according to each flowchart described later. However, the present invention can be similarly realized by an information processing apparatus that implements these functional units by hardware. Hereinafter, each element will be described.

  The character string information acquisition unit 111 is an element constituting a display screen displayed by the display unit 106 by following an instruction input by a user operation via the input unit 105 or by reading and analyzing a structured document. To obtain information representing a character string to be rendered. In the present embodiment, the character string is a small unit composed of at least one word. One input from the user or one line on the sentence notation may be taken as one unit, or may be extracted one by one according to the semantic division of the sentence. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that even when there are a plurality of character strings as constituent elements of an image to be rendered, it is assumed that character string information is acquired for each element and rendering processing is repeated. Hereinafter, the input character string is simply referred to as “input character string”.

  In addition, the character string information acquisition unit 111 follows the instruction input by the user operation via the input unit 105, or reads and analyzes the structured document, so that the character string to be drawn is analyzed. The drawing designation information designated for defining the appearance is acquired. In the present embodiment, at least one or more fonts specified for characters constituting the character string to be drawn, their types, and the font size specified for the font are acquired. Here, the font types include two types, bitmap fonts and scalable fonts. For example, if the input character string is a character string in a Web page, calculation processing is performed as necessary based on HTML and CSS that configure the Web page, and information set in a Web browser that displays the Web page. I do. As a processing result, a font type and a font size to be used for drawing are acquired.

  The drawable size acquisition unit 112 refers to the information held in the holding unit 115, specifies the type of font having the character code data of the character code of the input character string, and can draw with the specified font Get one or more font sizes. Here, when a scalable font is specified for a certain character, the font size that can be drawn is any font size. For example, information indicating that an arbitrary font size can be supported is acquired. On the other hand, when a bitmap font is specified, a predetermined font size set as a font size that can be used for drawing a character is acquired for the bitmap font. In the present embodiment, the predetermined font size determined for the bitmap font is a discontinuous one or more stage font size determined in advance as a font size that can be drawn with the font. For example, it corresponds to jump values such as 12, 16, and 24. The drawable size acquisition unit 112 acquires, for example, a table in which one or more font sizes are listed, or information indicating the location of such a table. Hereinafter, a predetermined font size that is determined as a font size that can be drawn with a certain bitmap font is referred to as a “drawable size” that is predetermined for the bitmap font.

  The determination unit 113 determines a font size for drawing each character of the input character string. When a character to be drawn with a bitmap font and a character to be drawn with a scalable font are mixed in the input character string, the font size used for drawing is determined for each type of font. Details of the processing will be described later.

  The drawing unit 114 draws each character of the input character string acquired by the character string acquisition unit 111 with the font size determined by the determination unit 113. In this embodiment, when there are a plurality of character strings as the constituent elements of the image to be drawn, the image is drawn stepwise by repeatedly drawing the character string for each element. However, it is possible to determine a process for sequentially determining the font size for the character string of the entire image and execute the entire drawing process. The holding unit 115 holds font data of a plurality of fonts that can be drawn by the information processing apparatus 100. Font data includes glyph data and glyph index arrangement information. The information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment includes at least one font font format font information and at least one scalable font format font information. However, for the sake of simplicity, hereinafter, it is assumed that one specific type of bitmap font and scalable font according to the processing of this embodiment is used.

  FIG. 2 is an example of a flowchart illustrating a flow of processing for drawing a character string, which is executed by the information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, an input character string to be rendered is input to the information processing apparatus, such as text input by the input unit 105 in the information processing apparatus 100 or information on a structured document received via the communication I / F 107. In response to the input, the flowchart of FIG. 2 is executed.

  In step S201, the character string acquisition unit 111 acquires information on a character string to be drawn. In this embodiment, when a plurality of character strings are included as components of an image to be displayed on the display unit 106, the entire drawing is performed by repeating the drawing process for each character string. Therefore, in step S201, a character string that is a unit of drawing processing is acquired. In step S201, drawing information defining the appearance is acquired for each of the characters constituting the input character string. The drawing information acquired in the present embodiment includes at least information for specifying the font type and the font size. In addition, information for decoration such as font color may be included.

  In step S202, the determination unit 113 analyzes the information acquired by the character string acquisition unit 111, and determines whether a character to be drawn with a bitmap font and a character to be drawn with a scalable font are mixed in the input character string. judge. If it is determined that the character to be drawn with the bitmap font and the character to be drawn with the scalable font are mixed in the input character string (Yes in step S202), the process proceeds to step S203. If it is determined that the character to be drawn with the bitmap font and the character to be drawn with the scalable font are not mixed in the input character string (No in step S202), the process proceeds to step S208.

  In step S203, the drawable size acquisition unit 112 acquires a predetermined drawable size for a bitmap font having character data corresponding to the character code of each character constituting the input character string. For one bitmap font, one or more discontinuous font sizes are defined as drawable sizes. The term “discontinuity” as used here means that character data is retained in order to efficiently use resources that retain font data, such as the value being skipped and the value being limited between the upper and lower limits. All cases where the font size is limited.

  In step S204, the determination unit 113 determines whether the designated font size acquired in step S201 is larger than the minimum size included in the drawable size of the bitmap font acquired in step S203. When it is determined that the specified size is larger than the minimum font size of the acquired drawable sizes (Yes in step S204), the process proceeds to step S205. If it is determined that the specified size is equal to or smaller than the minimum font size of the acquired drawable sizes (No in step S204), the process proceeds to step S208.

  In step S205, the determination unit 113 determines whether the designated font size is larger than the maximum font size by a predetermined threshold or more in a range smaller than the designated font size among the obtained one or more drawable sizes. . Here, a predetermined threshold value is set as a threshold value A. The threshold A used in the process of step S205 is a criterion for determining whether a difference in size between adjacent bitmap fonts and scalable fonts may cause deterioration in readability or designability. An appropriate value according to the display environment or the like is set in advance. If it is determined that the specified font size is larger than the maximum font size within a range smaller than the specified font size among the acquired one or more drawable sizes (Yes in step S205), step S206 Proceed to When it is determined that the designated font size is not larger than the maximum font size in the range smaller than the designated font size among the obtained one or more drawable sizes (No in step S205). Proceed to step S208.

  In step S206, the determination unit 113 employs the maximum font size in a range smaller than the designated font size among the acquired drawable sizes as the font size for drawing the scalable font. In step S207, the drawing unit 114 draws the input character string of the scalable font and the bitmap font with the size determined in step S206 or step S208, and the series of processing ends. If a character string to be drawn is further input, the processing from step S201 is repeated. In step S208, the determination unit 113 adopts the font size acquired in step S201 as the size of the scalable font.

  Here, FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of a character string to be drawn. In each drawing, three input character strings are displayed on the display unit 106. FIG. 3A shows a case where the scalable font size adjustment processing according to the present embodiment is not performed, and FIG. This corresponds to the case where the scalable font size adjustment processing is executed in the embodiment. There are three input character strings, “Large LARGE”, “Medium MEDIUM”, and “Small SMALL”, respectively. In bitmap fonts used for drawing Chinese characters, a plurality of font sizes of 12, 16, and 24 are determined in advance as drawable sizes. Assume that the font size specified for drawing is 32 for “Large LARGE”, 20 for “Medium MEDIUM”, and 10 for “Small SMALL”.

  In the case of FIG. 3A, since “LARGE”, “MEDIAUM”, and “SMALL” are Latin characters, they are drawn with a scalable font. Therefore, they are drawn with the designated font size (32, 20, 10). On the other hand, “Large”, “Medium”, and “Small” are kanji characters, and are therefore rendered with a bitmap font. The bitmap fonts used in this example have drawable sizes of 12, 16, and 24, and the font size specified for each input character string is not included. Therefore, a value close to the designated font size and smaller than the designated size is selected from among the drawable sizes, and “large” is drawn at 24, “medium” at 16, and “small” is drawn at 12. Yes. In all character strings, there is a possibility that a large difference in font size will occur at the boundary between the fonts, giving the viewer a sense of incongruity or reducing readability.

  FIG. 3B shows a case in which the size of the scalable font is adjusted to the bitmap font for the three character strings input under the same conditions as in FIG. Is the display result. Note that the threshold A in step S205 is 1.

  First, for “large LARGE”, 32 is acquired as the designated size (step S201). Since “Large LARGE” includes characters to be drawn with a bitmap font and characters to be drawn with a scalable font, information indicating 12, 16, and 24, which are drawable sizes of the bitmap font. Obtained (step S203). The designated size 32 is larger than 12 which is the minimum size that can be drawn with the bitmap font (Yes in step S204). The designated size 32 is one or more threshold values A larger than 24, which is the maximum font size within a range smaller than 32, in one or more font sizes that can be drawn with a bitmap font (in step S205). Yes). Therefore, 24 is adopted as the font size for drawing the “LARGE” portion of the “large LARGE”, which is the drawing target of the scalable font (step S206). Reference numeral 24 denotes a font size of the maximum size within a range smaller than 32 which is a specified size among one or more font sizes that can be drawn with a bitmap font. As a result, “large LARGE” is drawn with a font size of 24 for both bitmap fonts and scalable fonts (step S207).

  Next, for “medium MEDIAUM”, the designated font size 20 is larger than 12 which is the minimum size that can be drawn with the bitmap font (Yes in step S204). Then, the threshold A is one or more larger than the maximum size 16 in a range smaller than 20 among the drawable sizes (Yes in step S205). Accordingly, 16 of the possible draw sizes of the bitmap font is adopted as the font size of “MEDIAUM” to be drawn by the scalable font. As a result, “medium MEDIAUM” is drawn with a size of 16 for both bitmap fonts and scalable fonts (step S207).

  Next, in the case of “small SMALL”, the designated size 10 is smaller than 12 which is the minimum size among the drawable sizes of the bitmap font (No in step S204). Therefore, the designated size of 10 is adopted as the font size for drawing “SMALL” which is the drawing target of the scalable font among “small SMALL” (step S208). As a result, “small SMALL” is rendered with size 12 for “small” and size 10 for “SMALL” (step S207). As a result of the series of processing, in FIG. 3B, the display size of each character string has a sense of unity, and the character string is displayed without impairing the design or significantly reducing the readability. .

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a character string in which characters to be drawn with a bitmap font and characters to be drawn with a scalable font are mixed, the font size of the scalable font is set to the drawable size of the bitmap font. To be decided. Thereby, the readability of the character string in which the bitmap font and the scalable font are mixed can be improved.

  In the above example described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, it is assumed that the bitmap font used for drawing the input character string is one specific type. However, each character may be drawn using a plurality of different bitmap fonts. In that case, in step S203, the drawable size of the bitmap font designated for each character is acquired. In the process from step S204 to step S206, a process of determining the font size of the scalable font may be executed using the bitmap font having the largest difference between the drawable size and the specified size as a determination criterion.

  In step S206, one of the drawable sizes of the bitmap font is not adopted as it is, but a value obtained by adding the threshold value A in step S205 may be adopted. For example, in the case of FIG. 3, “Large” of “Large LARGE” may employ 25, which is 24 plus 1 of the threshold A.

  Some fonts include both bitmap font and scalable font data in the font data, and switch between using the scalable font and the bitmap font depending on the specified font size. Many of these fonts use bitmap font data to prevent crushing of fine characters if the specified font size is below a certain threshold, and scalable font data if it is larger than the threshold. Use. In a situation where such a font is applied to characters to be drawn in a scalable font, it is difficult to change the font size of the scalable font to an arbitrary size smaller than the specified size by the processing described in the first embodiment. There is a case. For example, when the designated font size corresponds to a threshold value that is a reference for switching the font type, drawing with a smaller font size requires use of bitmap font character data of a predetermined font size. . Therefore, as a result, there is a possibility that the size of the appearance is different from other bitmap fonts used for drawing adjacent characters. Therefore, if the designated font size corresponds to a threshold value that is a reference for switching the font type, and the determination result in step S205 is Yes, in step S206, the minimum size that can be drawn as a scalable font is adopted. Good. Specifically, when the designated font size is 32 or less and the font is drawn by switching to the bitmap font, when the designated font size is 32, the font size 33 is adopted in step S206. . As described above, in the first embodiment, it is possible to apply a modification according to the characteristics of the font used by the information processing apparatus 100.

<Variation 1 of the first embodiment>
Next, as a first modification of the first embodiment, for example, a font size for a group of a plurality of related character strings such as a plurality of item items (each item corresponds to one character string) is used. A case for performing the adjustment will be described.

  FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the information processing apparatus 100. Description of the blocks corresponding to the functional units described with reference to FIG. The association determination unit 401 includes a CPU 101, a ROM 102, a RAM 103, and the like, and determines whether or not they are associated with each other for a plurality of input character strings. For example, the character string of each item <LI> tag enclosed by HTML <UL> tags is determined to be a character string related to each other. Instead of the processing by the CPU 101, the functional unit can be configured by hardware. In that case, the above-described processing may be configured to be executed using a calculation unit or a circuit.

  The flowchart in FIG. 5 is an example of a flowchart showing a flow of processing for drawing a character string, which is executed by the information processing apparatus 100 according to the first modification. Process steps similar to those in the flowchart of FIG. 2 are assigned the same numbers, and detailed descriptions thereof are omitted.

  In the first modification, first, in step S501, the character string acquisition unit 111 acquires information on a plurality of input character strings. Similar to step S201 in the flowchart of FIG. 2, the acquired information includes character identification information, information for specifying a font used for drawing, and font size. And in the case of the modification 1, the information which shows the relationship between the character strings obtained by the analysis etc. of a structured document is acquired. It should be noted that the amount of the character string acquired by one process in step S501 follows a rule prepared in advance.

  In step S502, the association determination unit 401 determines whether a plurality of character strings to be drawn are associated with each other. For example, when sequentially reading and processing HTML, if the <UL> start tag is read, the <LI> tag character string read before the <UL> end tag is read is related. judge.

  In step S503, the determination unit 113 determines whether or not the font sizes specified for the acquired plurality of input character strings are all the same. When it is determined that the font sizes specified for the plurality of input character strings are all the same (Yes in step S503), the process proceeds to step S504. When it is determined that the font sizes specified for the plurality of input character strings are not all the same (No in step S503), the process proceeds to step S506. In step S506, the process of the first embodiment described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2 is executed for each of the plurality of character strings, and the process ends when the entire drawing is completed.

  In step S504, the determination unit 113 analyzes the information acquired by the character string acquisition unit 111, and determines whether a character to be drawn with a bitmap font and a character to be drawn with a scalable font are mixed in the input character string. judge. If it is determined that they are mixed (Yes in step S504), the process proceeds to step S203. If it is determined that they are not mixed (No in step S504), the process proceeds to step S208. The subsequent processing from step S203 to step S208 is the same as that described in the flowchart of FIG. In step S505, the drawing unit 114 draws the input character string of the scalable font and the bitmap font with the size determined in step S206 or step S208, and the series of processing ends. Depending on the content of the image displayed on the display unit 106, the processing from step S501 is continuously repeated as necessary.

  Here, FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of a character string to be drawn. Each figure represents a state in which three input character strings “large LARGE”, “today”, and “TODAY” are displayed as bullets on the display unit 106. A plurality of drawable sizes predetermined for bitmap fonts used for drawing Chinese characters are 12, 16, and 24. The font size specified for the entire plurality of character strings is 32.

  FIG. 6A shows a case where the processing according to the first embodiment is not performed, as in FIG. “LARGE” and “TODAY” are Latin characters and are drawn with a scalable font, and are drawn with 32 according to the designated font size. On the other hand, since “Large” and “Today” are kanji characters and are drawn with a bitmap font, 24 close to the designated font size is selected and drawn. As a result, in the case as shown in FIG. 6A, the font size is different between the kanji and the alphabet among the items, and the font size is different between the items. May decrease.

  FIG. 6B shows a case where the process according to the first embodiment (the process of the flowchart of FIG. 2) is performed on a plurality of input character strings instructed to be drawn under the same conditions as in FIG. Is the display result. Note that the threshold A used for the determination in step S205 is 1. As a result of applying the processing of the flowchart of FIG. 2 to the character strings of “Large LARGE”, “Today”, and “TODAY”, “Large LARGE” has the same size as FIG. 3B. Therefore, the readability is improved as compared with FIG. The second item “Today” is also drawn with a font size of 24. However, the third item “TODAY” has a character size of 32 designated because the character string to be drawn with the bitmap font and the character to be drawn with the scalable font are not mixed. Drawn. As a result, as in FIG. 6A, in a plurality of character strings included in a series of bullets, the font size is different for each character string, and readability may deteriorate.

  FIG. 6C shows a case where Modification 1 (the process of the flowchart of FIG. 5) is applied to a plurality of input character strings instructed to be drawn under the same conditions as those in FIGS. 6A and 6B. Is the display result. The three character strings “Large LARGE”, “Today”, and “TODAY” are defined to be related character strings called bullets (Yes in step S502). Furthermore, the font size designated as a whole is 32 (Yes in step S503), and characters to be drawn in the bitmap font and characters to be drawn in the scalable font are mixed (Yes in step S504). The designated font size 32 is one or more, which is the threshold value A, larger than 24 which is the largest among the plurality of drawable sizes of bitmap fonts smaller than 32 (step S205). Accordingly, in the case of the example of FIG. 6C, the font size of the character drawn by the scalable font is determined to be 24 (step S206), and the display unit 106 has a plurality of font sizes in which the font size of all characters is unified to 24. A character string is displayed (step S505). In a plurality of character strings in a series of bullets, it can be said that the readability is improved as compared with FIGS.

  As described above, according to the first modification, the font size of the scalable font is adjusted in accordance with the font size of the bitmap font in a plurality of related character strings such as each item in the itemized list. As a result, a balance as a group of a plurality of character strings is achieved, and an improvement in readability can be obtained.

<Modification 2 of the first embodiment>
In the second modification of the first embodiment, when a bitmap font and a scalable font are mixed in a plurality of character strings, the scalable font is drawn according to the ratio of the number of characters drawn for each font type. An example of determining the font size will be described.

  FIG. 4B is a block diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the second modification. Description of functional blocks common to FIG. The ratio acquisition unit 411 includes a CPU 101, a ROM 102, a RAM 103, and the like, and acquires a ratio of the number of characters for each type of font with respect to the total number of characters in the input character string for a plurality of input character strings. Note that, instead of the processing by the CPU 101, the functional unit can be configured by hardware. In that case, the above-described processing may be configured to be executed using a calculation unit or a circuit.

  The flowchart in FIG. 7 is an example of a flowchart illustrating processing for drawing a character string in the information processing apparatus 100. The processing steps common to the flowchart of FIG.

  In the second modification, if it is determined in step S504 that a plurality of character strings include a character to be drawn with a bitmap font and a character to be drawn with a scalable font (Yes in step S504), the process proceeds to step S701. In step S <b> 701, the ratio acquisition unit 411 acquires the ratio of the number of characters to be drawn with the bitmap font to the total number of characters for the entire plurality of character strings to be drawn. In subsequent step S702, the determination unit 113 determines whether the ratio acquired in step S701 is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold B. The threshold value B used here is a criterion for determining whether or not it can be said that readability is lowered due to the presence of many bitmap fonts that tend to have a smaller number of characters than scalable fonts. An appropriate value corresponding to the environment is set in advance. The subsequent processing is common to the flowchart of FIG.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of a character string to be drawn. In this example, the display unit 106 displays five input character strings in the link destination list part that is listed in the Web page. There are five input character strings, which are “Deutsch / German”, “Espanol / Spanish”, “Francais / French”, “Italiano / Italian”, and “Chinese / Chinese”, respectively. It is assumed that the drawable size predetermined for the bitmap font used for drawing is a single twelve. The size designated for the entire plurality of character strings is 32. The threshold A used for the processing in step S205 is 1.

  First, the purpose of the modified example 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 8A shows a conventional display method in which the scalable font size is not adjusted according to the first embodiment. Other than “Chinese” are Latin characters, and are drawn with a scalable font, so they are drawn with a designated font size of 32. On the other hand, “Chinese” is a Chinese character and is drawn with a bitmap font, so the font size 12 is selected and drawn. Thus, when this embodiment is not used, there is a possibility that the readability of the part may be reduced by reducing only the size of a part of the character string in which the bitmap font is used. However, on the other hand, since the characters drawn by the bitmap font are a very small part, it can be said that the influence on the whole due to the small font size is small. For example, for the purpose of selecting a link destination, it can be evaluated that each item has high identification.

  Next, FIG. 8B shows a case where the process of the modification 2 (the process of the flowchart of FIG. 5) is applied to a plurality of character strings for which drawing under the same conditions as in FIG. 8A is specified. It is a display result. The threshold A used for the determination in step S205 is 1. As a result of applying the processing of the modification 2 to each character string, each character string is drawn in a state where it is aligned with a font size of 12, which is the same as “Chinese” drawn with a bitmap font. In FIG. 8B, the readability is improved in that the overall character size is uniform compared to FIG. 8A. However, if the aligned font size is small, for example, there is a possibility that the difficulty of specifying a link destination using a mouse cursor or a finger becomes high.

  In this way, when bitmap fonts are used only in a small part or when the drawable size of bitmap fonts is limited to a small size, the effect of matching the size of scalable fonts to bitmap fonts May be low. Therefore, in the second modification, the font size determination method of the scalable font is made different according to the ratio of the number of characters to be drawn by the bitmap font with respect to the entire number of characters to be drawn. In the present embodiment, the font size of the scalable font is switched to the designated font size or to be changed in accordance with the drawable size of the bitmap font. Specifically, when the ratio is lower than a predetermined threshold value, the font size of the scalable font is not changed and is used for drawing with the specified size.

  For example, assume that the threshold value B is 5%. Then, in the plurality of character strings instructed to be drawn under the conditions described in FIGS. 8A and 8B, the ratio of the number of characters to be drawn in the bitmap font to the total number of characters is 2 characters / 70 characters = about 2.9% is acquired (step S701). Since the threshold value B is smaller than 5% (No in step S702), the font size of the character drawn in the scalable font is determined to be the designated size 32 (step S208). Accordingly, the display result is as shown in FIG. Alternatively, by changing the threshold B to 2.5% or the like, the display result can be adjusted so as to be as shown in FIG.

  As described above, according to the second modification, when the influence of the mixed font types on the whole is small, the selective process of not performing the process of aligning the font size of the scalable font with the bitmap font is performed. Is possible. Thereby, the side effect by aligning a size can be suppressed.

<Modification 3 of the first embodiment>
In the second modification of the first embodiment, whether or not to adjust the size of the character to be drawn with the scalable font is switched according to the ratio of the font types mixed in the plurality of character strings. On the other hand, in the third modification of the first embodiment, the size of the bitmap font that can be drawn is expanded to a size that is enlarged to an integral multiple, thereby reducing the size of the entire character. An example of mitigating over-prediction will be described. The functional configuration of the information processing apparatus 100 is substantially the same as that shown in FIG. However, the drawable size acquisition unit 112 according to the modified example 3 includes a font size obtained by multiplying at least one of one or more discontinuous font sizes predetermined as a font size that can be drawn in a bitmap font. Get as drawable size. It is assumed that the reference N times (N: a predetermined integer) of the process of integer multiplication is set in advance.

  The flowchart of FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of processing for drawing a character string, which is executed by the information processing apparatus 100 according to the third modification. The same steps as those in the first modification (the flowchart in FIG. 5) are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

  In the third modification, when the drawable size obtaining unit 112 obtains one or more drawable sizes defined in the bitmap font in step S203, the process proceeds to step S901. In step S <b> 901, the drawable size acquisition unit 112 further acquires a font size obtained by sequentially multiplying at least a part of the size included in the acquired drawable size from 1 to N times an integer (N: a predetermined integer). , Keep the whole as a drawable size. For example, when the drawable sizes defined in the bitmap font acquired from the holding unit 115 are 12, 16, and 24, and the reference value for the process of integer multiplication is set to 2 times, The drawable sizes are 12, 16, 24, 32, and 48. The processing from step S204 to step S208 conforms to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S902, the drawing unit 114 determines whether the font size set in the scalable font in step S206 is a font size that is N times the initial drawable size of the bitmap font. If it is determined that the font size is N times the initial drawable size of the bitmap font (Yes in step S902), the process proceeds to step S903. If it is determined that the font size is not N times the initial drawable size of the bitmap font (No in step S902), the process proceeds to step S505. In step S903, the drawing unit 114 obtains character shape data prepared in advance for a character to be drawn with a bitmap font from the holding unit 115, and generates character shape data multiplied by N. When character drawing with a bitmap font is executed in step S505 after step S903, the N-fold character data is used.

  FIG. 8C is a diagram illustrating a specific example of a character string to be drawn. As in FIGS. 8A and 8B, the display unit 106 displays a plurality of input character strings corresponding to a list of links that are itemized in the Web page. FIG. 8C shows a display result when the process of the third modification (the process of the flowchart of FIG. 9) is applied to a plurality of character strings designated to be drawn under the same conditions as in FIG. It is. Here, the reference N for the process of multiplying the drawable size of the bitmap font by an integer is N = 2. In step S901, since the font size acquired as the drawable size of the bitmap font is 12, the drawable sizes after addition are 12 and 24. Since the font size 32 specified for the whole is larger than 12 (Yes in step S204) and larger than 1 which is the threshold A than 24 (Yes in step S205), the font size for drawing the scalable font is determined to be 24. (Step S206). Since the determined font size of 24 is a size obtained by doubling the initial font size (Yes in step S902), the drawing unit 114 obtains data obtained by doubling the character data of the bitmap font. And used for drawing (step S903). As a result, a display result as shown in FIG. 8C is obtained, the character sizes are uniform in all the character strings, the readability as a whole is improved, and the entire font size can be reduced too much.

  As described above, according to the third modification, it is possible to relieve the size of the alignment font from becoming too small by extending the drawable size of the bitmap font to an integral multiple. This balances the size of the plurality of character strings as a whole and improves readability.

<Other embodiments>
The present invention supplies a program that realizes one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus via a network or a storage medium, and one or more processors in a computer of the system or apparatus read and execute the program This process can be realized. It can also be realized by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.

111 Character string information acquisition unit 112 Drawable size acquisition unit 113 Determination unit 114 Drawing unit 115 Holding unit 401 Association determination unit 411 Ratio acquisition unit

Claims (13)

An information processing apparatus that draws a character string using a scalable font and a bitmap font in which a predetermined font size that can be used for drawing a character is defined,
Acquisition means for acquiring the font size specified for the character string to be rendered;
If the character string to be drawn is mixed with characters to be drawn with the bitmap font and characters to be drawn with the scalable font, a predetermined font size defined for the bitmap font; A determining unit that determines a font size for drawing a character to be drawn by the scalable font based on the font size acquired by the acquiring unit;
Of the character string to be drawn, the character to be drawn with the bitmap font is drawn with one of the predetermined font sizes defined for the bitmap font, and the character to be drawn with the scalable font Drawing means for drawing with the font size determined by the determining means;
An information processing apparatus comprising:   The drawing unit acquires a character to be drawn by the bitmap font among the character string to be drawn by the obtaining unit out of a predetermined font size defined for the bitmap font. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein drawing is performed with a font size specified based on the font size.   The determining unit determines a font size for rendering a character to be rendered by the scalable font when the font size acquired by the acquiring unit satisfies a predetermined standard as a predetermined font defined in the bitmap font. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus determines one of the sizes. A specifying unit for specifying a maximum font size within a range smaller than the font size acquired by the acquiring unit among the predetermined font sizes determined for the bitmap font;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the reference is that the font size acquired by the acquiring unit is larger than a font size specified by the specifying unit by a predetermined threshold or more.   When the font size acquired by the acquisition unit is not larger than a predetermined threshold value by the determination unit, the determination unit draws the font size acquired by the acquisition unit using the scalable font. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the information processing apparatus determines a font size for drawing a target character. It further comprises an association determination means for determining whether or not there are associations between a plurality of character strings to be rendered,
A font for rendering a character to be rendered by the scalable font so that a font size for rendering a character included in a plurality of character strings determined to be related by the relationship determination unit is uniform; 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a size is determined.   The determination unit determines a font size for drawing a character to be drawn by the scalable font when the font size specified for all characters of the plurality of character strings acquired by the acquisition unit is the same. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the information processing apparatus is determined. A ratio acquisition means for acquiring a ratio of the number of character strings to be drawn by a bitmap font included in the plurality of character strings with respect to the total number of characters included in the plurality of character strings to be drawn;
7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the determination unit changes a font size determination method for drawing a character to be drawn by the scalable font based on the ratio size acquired by the ratio acquisition unit. The information processing apparatus described. In addition to the predetermined font size defined for the bitmap font, further includes a drawable size acquisition means for acquiring a plurality of font sizes including a font size obtained by multiplying at least one of the predetermined font sizes by an integer,
7. The information processing according to claim 6, wherein the drawing means draws a character to be drawn by the bitmap font using character shape data obtained by enlarging character shape data prepared in advance for the bitmap font. apparatus.   The information processing according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the predetermined font size determined for the bitmap font is a plurality of stepwise font sizes corresponding to discontinuous values. apparatus. A method for controlling an information processing apparatus that draws a character string using a scalable font and a bitmap font in which a predetermined font size that can be used for character drawing is defined,
An acquisition step of acquiring a font size specified in a character string to be rendered by an acquisition unit;
In the case where the character string to be drawn includes a character to be drawn by the bitmap font and a character to be drawn by the scalable font, the determining unit causes a predetermined character string defined for the bitmap font to be used. A determination step of determining a font size for drawing a character to be drawn by the scalable font based on the font size and the font size acquired in the acquisition step;
The drawing means draws the character to be drawn by the bitmap font out of the character string to be drawn by one of the predetermined font sizes defined for the bitmap font, and draws by the scalable font. A drawing step of drawing the target character with the font size determined in the determination step;
A method for controlling an information processing apparatus, comprising:   A program for causing a computer to execute the control method according to claim 11 by causing the computer to read and execute the program.   A computer-readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 12.

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