JP2790186B2 - Character output method and device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a character output method and an apparatus therefor, and in particular, a character capable of handling a font such as a vector font or a stroke font, which can be easily enlarged and reduced, and a bitmap font. The present invention relates to an output method and an apparatus therefor.

[Related Art] Conventionally, when a vector font, a stroke font, or the like is used in a printing apparatus, if the data is developed into a dot pattern each time data is input, the printing speed becomes extremely slow. For this reason, a method called "casting" is used in which characters used once or frequently used characters are temporarily stored as bitmap fonts. This caching method is used only for assisting the vector font and the stroke font, and therefore does not perform the same operation as the bitmap font. For example, a casted character pattern is usually deleted when the memory is insufficient or the frequency of use is low, but when it is used again, it is newly created from a vector font or a stroke font.

On the other hand, when a character set is created from a certain character set (for example, in a typeface), a method of copying is performed. In the prior art, when copying, a bitmap font is copied as a bitmap font, and a font that can be easily enlarged and reduced is copied as a font that can be easily enlarged and reduced. For these copies, refer to the Canon FBP-8 II Programmer's Manual for bitmap fonts, and for PostScript Language Reference Manual (Adobe System In
c.)).

The copy includes a copy of pattern information or a copy of a pointer indicating a storage location of a pattern or information.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-described conventional example, fonts that can be easily scaled up and down operate as they are in a form that can be easily scaled up and down. It is necessary to perform printing after decompressing the image and developing it into dots, which takes time. In order to avoid this, a technique such as casting is used. However, usually, there is a case where the casting is once created and then erased due to the limitation of the memory, so that it cannot be treated completely the same as the bitmap font. In addition, there is a method of creating a bitmap font by specifying a size to be created first.In this case, in order to perform printing of an arbitrary size, a large number of bitmap fonts must be created in advance, and speed and memory are required. Very inefficient in terms of capacity.

The present invention eliminates the above-mentioned conventional disadvantages, and executes a font copy instruction according to the type of font.
In particular, when the character set to be copied is a vector font, a character output method that can be copied as a bitmap font character set by developing a vector font into a bitmap font and creating a bitmap font character set Provide the device.

[Means for Solving the Problems] To solve this problem, a character output device of the present invention determines whether a character set to be copied is a vector font based on an input copy command. Means, and if the character set to be copied is determined to be a vector font by the determination means, the vector font is developed into a bitmap font at a specified size to create a bitmap font character set. If the character set to be copied is determined to be a bitmap font by the determination means, the bitmap font is copied to create a character set of the bitmap font. Output means for outputting characters using the character set of the bitmap font. Features. Here, the output unit is a printing unit.

The character output method according to the present invention further includes a determining step of determining whether or not the character set to be copied is a vector font based on the input copy command. Is determined, the vector font is expanded into a bitmap font with the specified size,
Create a character set of a bitmap font, and if the character set to be copied is determined to be a bitmap font in the determination step, copy the bitmap font and create a character set of the bitmap font. And an output step of outputting a character to an output unit using the character set of the bitmap font created in the creation step. Here, the output unit is a printing unit.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing apparatus according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an input unit for receiving data, and 2 denotes a CPU that controls and processes the printing apparatus according to a program stored in a control ROM 8, and fonts are also copied by the CPU. . Reference numeral 3 denotes a pattern developing unit for developing vector fonts into bitmaps, 4 denotes a vector font data storage unit for storing vector font data, and 5 stores bitmap fonts and other data created by copying and RA used for work.
M and 6 are page buffers for temporarily storing data to be printed in the form of codes or bitmaps, 7 is a printing unit for printing the contents of the page buffer 6, and 8 is a control ROM for storing the above control procedures. And store the data.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the printing apparatus of FIG. 1, and the operation of the printing apparatus of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In step S101, data is received by the input unit 1 from an external device (not shown). In step S102, it is determined whether or not the received data is a copy command as indicated by 203 in FIG.
If it is a copy command, the process proceeds to step S103. If it is not a copy command, the process proceeds to step S107. In step S103, it is determined whether or not the currently selected font is a vector font (for example, whether the font "Courier" is supplied as a font or a vector font in the apparatus). Step
Proceed to S104, and if not vector font, step S106
Proceed to.

In step S104, the vector font to be copied is developed into a bitmap font. The designation of the character size and the selection of the font at this time have already been executed as a part of the normal processing in step S109. In step S105, the vector font developed in step S104 is stored in the RAM 5 as a bitmap font so that it can be identified. Step S1
The font expansion of 04 is the vector font data storage unit 4
Is developed into a bit image by the pattern developing unit 3. The font stored in step S105 is stored in the font developed by the pattern developing unit 3.
This is performed by storing the data on the RAM 5 through the CPU 2.

On the other hand, in step S106, the current font is stored in the RAM 5 so that it can be identified as it is. Examples of the current font here include a bitmap font created by downloading or the like, and a bitmap font that is built in the control ROM 8 together. Once the copy process is performed, the characters of the specified size and typeface are automatically stored in RAM5
Is read from the bitmap font.

If it is not a copy command, it is determined in step S107 whether or not printing is to be performed. If printing is to be performed, printing is performed in step S108. If printing is not to be performed, normal processing is performed in step S109. Selection of the font is performed in step S109 of the normal processing. In step S108, page buffer 6
Is sent to the printing unit 7. The normal processing to be performed in step S109 includes selection of a font, designation of a character size,
A print position is determined, a print process is performed, and print data is formed on the page buffer 6 in accordance with the content of the data.

In step S110, it is determined whether or not printing has been completed. If printing is to be continued, the process returns to step S101 to repeat the above processing.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a command for controlling a copy process in the printing apparatus of the present embodiment. The command 201 is a command for selecting the font name “Courier”. At this time, if “Courier” is a vector font, it is necessary to specify the character size. Instruction 202 is an instruction to enlarge or reduce the current font to 100 units. Instructions 201 and 202 select the current vector font "Courier" and its size is 100 units. The instruction 203 copies the current font under the name “Courier100”. This changes the typeface to "Cour
A bitmap font having a name of “Courier100” with a size of 100 units is created in the RAM 5. The instruction 204 selects “Courier100”, and after these processes, the font is “Courier100”. In the case of "100-unit size printing", "Courier100" which is a bitmap font on the RAM 5 may be selected for printing.

As an effect of the above embodiment, the bitmap font obtained by copying the vector font with a fixed size is created as a bitmap font on the RAM 5, which is equivalent to the case where the bitmap font is used. Is obtained. Also, since the bitmap font is not deleted unlike the cache font, there is an advantage that once expanded, there is no need to expand again and the vector font can be used freely.

In addition, create a cache area on the RAM, and copy frequently used characters as bitmap fonts on the RAM by copying them, and do not put them in the cache area.
Only the font that is frequently used among the fonts that were not copied remains in the cache. In this way, printing can be performed at high speed, and even if the cache area is reduced, the efficiency does not decrease and the memory can be used efficiently. As a method of caching, there is a method of putting data in a cache depending on FIFO, frequency, and the like. However, all methods are generally performed and description thereof is omitted here.

As described above, the following effects can be obtained by performing vector font copy with a fixed size.

1) By copying frequently used font characters, overall performance is improved. In addition, since this font is not erased due to the memory use state unlike the cache, it is possible to increase the efficiency of the cache.

2) In a system in which vector fonts and bitmap fonts are mixed, it is not necessary to develop all fonts to be used in bitmaps in advance, and if the fonts that are used most often are copied, the fonts that are used most often are bitmap fonts. Fonts that can be printed at the same speed as the font and that are not often used may be created dynamically from vector fonts, and the memory can be used efficiently.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, by executing a font copy instruction according to the type of font, especially when the character set to be copied is a vector font, the vector font is developed into a bitmap font, By creating a character set of a bitmap font, it is possible to provide a character output method and apparatus capable of copying as a character set of a bitmap font.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the printing apparatus of this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the printing apparatus of this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an instruction in the printing apparatus of this embodiment. It is. In the figure, 1 ... input unit, 2 ... CPU, 3 ... pattern development unit, 4 ... vector font data storage unit, 5 ... RA
M, 6... Page buffer, 7... Printing section.

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B41J 2/485 B41J 5/30 D41J 5/44 G06F 3/12 G09G 5/24 620

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] A determining means for determining whether a character set to be copied is a vector font based on an input copy command; and determining that the character set to be copied is a vector font by the determining means. If this is the case, expand the vector font into a bitmap font at the specified size, create a bitmap font character set,
When the character set to be copied is determined to be a bitmap font by the determining means, the bitmap font is copied to create a character set of the bitmap font. Output means for outputting characters using a character set of a bitmap font. 2. The character output device according to claim 1, wherein said output means is a printing means. A determining step of determining whether a character set to be copied is a vector font based on the input copy instruction; and determining that the character set to be copied is a vector font by said determining step. In this case, the vector font is developed into a bitmap font at a specified size to create a character set of the bitmap font, and the character set to be copied is determined to be a bitmap font in the determination step. A copying step of copying the bitmap font to create a character set of the bitmap font; and an output step of outputting characters to the output unit using the character set of the bitmap font created by the creating step. Character output method characterized by having. 4. A character output method according to claim 3, wherein said output means is a printing means.