JP2960889B2 - Method and apparatus for creating shadow font with contour - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing a shadow font with a contour line which is given to give a strong impression to readers in newspapers, especially sports magazines and weekly magazines. The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for creating a contoured shadow font, which can obtain a contoured shadow font by simple predetermined processing only by having outline font data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, shadow fonts with contour lines are:
By hand, outlines and shadows were added around the characters to be printed. In addition, the above-described shadow font with outlines is generally created as bitmap data. For example, a black portion of a character is set as dot data, and after moving each data point by a predetermined shadow angle and width, the character is inverted to white. Only the outermost portion of the white character inverted to white is drawn with a predetermined number of dots to draw a contour line in black. The first black character is inserted in the outline drawn in black. In addition, the contoured shadow font can be held as a dial for a typesetting machine, for example, a designed typeface.

FIGS. 30A and 30B are diagrams for explaining commonly used characters with shadows. FIG. 30 (a) shows white characters with black shading, and FIG. 30 (b) shows black characters with white shading. The “this is a common shadow character” shown in FIGS. 30A and 30B is different from the original character in that the positions of the respective elements of the character are shifted obliquely downward to add shadow to the character. I'm painting a color.

[0004]

The method of adding a shadow on a bitmap around a character requires a large amount of work because it is manually created for each character. In addition, even if the characters with shadows created on the bitmap are automatically created as bitmap data, the amount of data becomes very large, so that not only consumes a lot of memory, but also There is a problem that much time is consumed for display and printing.

[0005] Also, shadow fonts with outlines composed of bitmap data are often generated as title characters. Such title characters are often reduced or enlarged due to space limitations. For example, if the title character does not fit in the paper in horizontal composition, it will be necessary to perform long body processing to make it vertical, and if the character does not fit in the paper in vertical composition, it will be necessary to perform horizontal processing to make it horizontal. There is also. When a character composed of bitmap data is subjected to processing for reduction or enlargement as described above to be a long character or a flat character, it may be deformed due to a calculation error. Characters transformed in this way are:
Very difficult to see. In the case of shadow letters for typesetting machines, since they are designed by hand, it is difficult to develop them as typefaces, and many types cannot be expected.

The shadow characters shown in FIGS. 30 (a) and 30 (b) merely draw the original character in an oblique direction, and thus have a poor stereoscopic effect on the character.
Can't impress readers. FIG.
The characters shown in (a) and (b) have the advantage that they can be easily created by a personal computer or word processor, but they also have poor three-dimensional appearance, and the corners of the characters are noticeable, making the characters easier to read. It was inferior in point. In the characters shown in FIGS. 30A and 30B, at the corners, the sunlit portion and the shaded portion have a stepped shape, and are difficult to read as characters. In particular, when a plurality of the step-like portions are close to each other, the bleeding appears, which is not desirable as a character design.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for creating a contoured shadow font using outline font data that have been already developed. The present invention
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for creating a contoured shadow font in which the amount of data is small and the quality of characters is not impaired even if deformation processing such as enlargement, reduction, lengthening, and flattening is performed after generation. I do.

[0008]

How to create a contour with shadow font SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION (first invention) The present invention is based on the outline font data, in preparing a contour with shadow font outline
Create shadow with outline from font data storage
That reads the outline font data, performs a reduction shift processing for generating the primary contour underlying shadow in the outline <br/> in font data, the
In reduced / shifted outline font data
That with each data point is moved at a predetermined shadow angle and the shadow width, to produce a primary contour, raw said primary contours
After erasing the hidden lines generated by the generation, the outline font data and the generated primary outline are combined, white is set in each data point of the outline font, and the outside and the primary outline are set. Is characterized by performing a process of filling black with black.

[0009] How to create a (second invention) contour with shadow font of the present invention, based on the outline font data, in preparing a contour with shadow font outline
Create shadow with outline from font data storage
Read out outline font data, and reduce / shift the image data to generate a primary outline and a secondary outline based on the outline font data.
The outline process that has been reduced and shifted
At least one of the data points in the first wheel is moved at a predetermined shadow angle and a predetermined shadow width.
A contour line and a secondary contour line are generated, and the primary contour line and the secondary contour line are generated.
After eliminating the hidden lines generated by the generation of the secondary outline and the outline font data, the outline font data is synthesized with the generated primary outline and the secondary outline, the outline font, It is characterized in that processing is performed to fill the area between the primary outline and the secondary outline and between the outline font and the primary outline with white or black.

(Third Invention) A method for producing a shadow font with a contour according to the present invention comprises the steps of: forming a first contour of the first invention, or corners of the first contour and the second contour of the second invention; The method is characterized in that hidden lines generated after the rounding process for a part are eliminated. (Fourth invention) A method of producing a shadow font with a contour line according to the present invention.
Is the primary contour of the first invention or the primary contour of the second invention
Shadow creation processing for contour lines and secondary contour lines
The method is characterized in that hidden lines generated later are deleted.

( Fifth Invention) In the method for producing a shadow font with a contour according to the present invention, the primary contour of the second invention is an inner contour generated outside the outline font data, and The secondary contour is an outer contour of the primary contour outside the outline font data.

( Sixth invention) In the method of producing a shadow font with an outline according to the present invention, a method for producing a shadow for a primary outline according to the second invention based on the outline font data is performed. Based on the above, a shadow for a secondary contour line according to the second invention is created.

( Seventh Invention) A method of producing a shadow font with an outline according to the present invention is a method of producing a shadow for a primary outline according to the second invention, based on the outline font data. Based on the above, a shadow for a secondary contour line according to the second invention is created.

( Eighth Invention) In the method of producing a shadow font with a contour according to the present invention, the first contour of the first invention or the first contour and the second contour of the second invention are outlines. After moving each data point in the font data in the tangential direction to the line, determine the point at which the lines generated by the moved data point intersect with each other, and set the intersection as the data point of the new contour line. Features.

( Ninth Invention) In the method for producing a shadow font with a contour line according to the present invention, an arc having a radius of an offset width, an arc using a cubic Bezier curve, and a cubic spline curve are provided around an intersection of straight lines. The first contour of the first invention, the first contour of the second invention, and the first contour of the second invention by at least one processing method of an arc having a center point as a curved point and a predetermined roundness. The corner of the secondary contour is rounded.

( 10th Invention) In the shadow font of a straight line portion in the method of producing a shadow font with a contour line according to the present invention, a data point is moved at a desired shadow angle and shadow width, and a shadow of a curved portion partially having a shadow is obtained. After the curve is divided into two to create an edge point, the curve is moved from the edge point and the connection is made smooth to create a shadow.

( Eleventh invention) A shadow font creation device with an outline of the present invention creates a shadow font with an outline based on outline font data, and a reading means 13 for reading out the outline font data; Reduction / shift processing means 141 for arranging the read outline font data at a predetermined size and position, and contour generation for generating a primary contour and / or a secondary contour attached to the entire outline font Means 142, a contour hidden line erasing means 143 for eliminating hidden lines generated when the primary contour and / or the secondary contour are generated,
Rounding processing means 1 for rounding the corners of the generated contour line
44, and shadow creation for moving each data point of each contour line by a predetermined shadow angle and shadow width based on the primary contour line and / or the secondary contour line generated by each of the means. Means 145, shadow hidden line erasing means 146 for eliminating hidden lines generated when shadows are created by the shadow creating means 145, primary outlines and / or secondary outlines with outline font data and shadows. And synthesizing means 16 for synthesizing the contour data.

The characters created by (twelfth aspect) contour with shadow font creation system of the present invention is characterized in that the black shadow is attached to the outline font outline.

( Thirteenth Invention) A character created by the outline-line-shadow font creating apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that a black solid outline font is provided with a white shadow.

( 14th Invention) The character created by the shadow font creating apparatus with contour lines of the present invention is characterized in that a black solid outline font is provided with a black shadow.

[0021]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present applicant has developed a contoured shadow font which can be used in a simple and real-time manner by a predetermined process based on many outline font data already on the market. did. The present applicant determines the original outline font by creating a primary contour and a secondary contour, rounding off a corner, or deciding a method for erasing a hidden line as a simple rule in advance. Character quality from data
It has been found that shadow fonts with intact outlines can be obtained.

According to the present invention, a shadow font with an outline is created by arithmetic processing based on outline font data, so that it is not necessary to newly develop a shadow font with an outline, and a large number of outline fonts are commercially available. Can be easily obtained. Therefore, no special memory is required for contoured shadow fonts. Also, shadow fonts with outlines are
Since the data is simple two-dimensional outline font data, for example, one character is composed of 300 data points, and the total data amount is 1.8 KB even if one data point requires 4 bytes. For this reason, shadow fonts with outlines are used for shadows and texts created on bitmaps.
The data amount can be reduced as compared with the outline attached to the periphery of the Loke font, and the data can be always stored in the memory. In addition, even if the shadow font with outline is subjected to reduction and enlargement processing after generation, since the outline font data is used, the quality of characters is not impaired.

(First Invention) A first invention is a method for creating a shadow font with a contour line based on ordinary commercially available outline font data. Then, the character created by the method can attract the reader's attention as a title character of a newspaper or a magazine. Contour with shadow font of the first aspect of the invention, prior to creating a shadow, outline
Create shadow with outline from font data storage
Is read out. The out
Trim font data with shadow with outline
Primary outline that does not overlap with adjacent characters when
Is performed to reduce the image. Reduction /
Each data point in the shifted outline font is a predetermined amount outward , that is, a shadow angle and
By moving in the shadow width, processing for generating a primary contour underlying shadow cracking line. Up
If the line is looped by moving each data point
In this case, the loop-shaped hidden line is deleted. On the other hand, the outline font data is inverted as necessary to make white characters. Thereafter, the original outline font data and the generated shadow of the primary contour are combined. Then, a process is performed in which each data point of the original outline font is white, and the outside thereof and the inside of the shadow of the primary outline are painted black. The black portion created around the outline character becomes a shade, giving the character a three-dimensional appearance and obtaining a character which is easy to read.

(Second Invention) In a second invention, first, an outline font data storage unit is provided.
Outline phone to create contoured shadows from
Data is read. On the basis of the outline font data, a reduction / shift process for generating a primary outline and a secondary outline for forming a shadow is performed. Next, the primary outline and the secondary outline are generated by moving each data point of the outline font data at a predetermined shadow angle and shadow width. When the line is looped due to the movement of each data point, the looped hidden line is deleted. The outline font data of the primary contour line with shadow is inverted as necessary. Thereafter, the outline font data and the generated primary and secondary outlines are combined. The interior of the outline font, and between the primary outline and the secondary outline are painted black, and between the outline font and the primary outline are white, so that black characters have white shadows. Characters can be created. Further, only the reversal process of reversing the appearance order of the outline data points without performing the shadow process on the primary contour line. And
By synthesizing the primary outline, the secondary outline, and the original outline font data, a character in which a black-colored character is added with a black shadow is formed.

(Third Invention and Fourth Invention ) The third invention and the fourth invention are directed to the first or second invention according to a specified offset value in a tangential direction at each data point constituting the outline font data. Find the data points of the primary contour. Next, the intersection of the curve and the straight line drawn by the new data points created by this processing is obtained. Further, the secondary contour of the second invention is similarly created by merely changing the offset value. If the rounding of the outline is not performed, the sharp portion of the newly created outline may touch adjacent characters. To avoid this, rounding is indispensable. However, in order to generate the outline, create the shadow, and perform the rounding process, if the data points where the vertical bars, horizontal bars, etc. of the characters are intricately moved by a predetermined value, the intersection and the loop of the outline font data cause a loop. Occur. Since this loop becomes an unnecessary hidden line, the hidden line is deleted.
This removal of hidden lines can be performed during or after contour generation, shadow creation, or rounding.

( Fifth invention) The primary contour (referred to as the second invention) in the fifth invention is:
This is an inner outline generated outside the outline font data. Also, a secondary contour (referred to as the second invention)
Is an outer contour line of the primary contour line outside the outline font data.

( Sixth Invention) The shadow for the primary outline (referred to as the second invention) in the sixth invention is based on outline font data.
Move each data point by a predetermined shadow angle and shadow width. For the secondary outline (referred to as the second invention), after the primary outline is created, a shadow is created based on the outline font data.

( Seventh Invention) The seventh invention is different from the second invention in the method of creating the secondary contour (referred to as the second invention). That is, after creating a shadow for the primary contour (referred to in the first or second invention),
Based on the shadow for the primary contour, a shadow for the secondary contour (in the second invention) is created. Therefore, it is possible to omit the rounding process and the process of erasing hidden lines generated when creating a shadow.

( Eighth Invention) In the eighth invention, the first contour (referred to as the first invention or the second invention) or the second contour (referred to as the second invention) is
Each data in the original outline font data is moved outward in a tangential direction to the line. Connect each moved data point to generate a new contour line,
The outline is extended, and an intersection of the extended lines is obtained. For the primary contour or the secondary contour, a new intersection point of the outer line formed by the above processing is used as a data point. The loop generated by the generation of the contour is deleted as a hidden line.

( Ninth Invention) In the rounding processing according to the ninth invention, there is a method of drawing an arc having a predetermined offset value as a radius around an intersection of straight lines in outline font data. As the rounding process, there is a method of drawing an arc-shaped curve using a cubic Bezier curve. Further, in the rounding processing, there is a method in which an arc is drawn by a cubic spline curve, and an arc whose center point is a curved point is drawn. Further, in the rounding process, a predetermined roundness may be provided at the corner. The rounding process is performed only when a straight line and a straight line, a straight line and a curved line, or a curved line is bent so as to protrude outward, and is unnecessary when the curved line is bent inward. Further, when the state of being bent so as to protrude outward is loose, the rounding process can be omitted. The angle for determining whether or not to perform the rounding process is set in advance, and a beautiful shadow suitable for the outline font can be obtained.

( Tenth Invention) In the shadow of the straight portion in the tenth invention, a straight data point is moved at a desired shadow angle. The shadow of a curved part having a shade in part is created by dividing a curve into a point at which the sun changes from a shade to an edge as an edge point. The shadow of this portion moves the shadow angle and a predetermined distance curve from the edge point, and makes the connection portion a smooth connection portion.

( Eleventh Invention) The reading means of the shadow font creating apparatus with contour lines according to the eleventh invention reads out the outline font data on which it is based. Since the read outline font data is enlarged by adding the shadow, it is reduced in advance. In addition, the outline font data needs to be shifted by a certain amount because it approaches the character frame when it is reduced. The contour generating means generates a primary contour and / or a secondary contour attached to the entire outline font by taking a tangent of the contour. The outline hidden line erasing means erases a hidden line generated when the primary outline and / or the secondary outline is generated. The rounding processing means performs a process for rounding the corners of the generated contour line in order to make the character easier to read. The shadow creating means creates a shadow by moving each data point of the outline by a predetermined shadow angle and shadow width based on the generated primary outline and / or secondary outline. I do. The shadow hidden line erasing unit erases a hidden line generated when the shadow is created by the shadow creating unit. The outline font data and the shadow-added primary outline and / or secondary outline are synthesized by the synthesis processing means.

[0033] (Twelfth invention) 11 shadow font with contour lines created by invention, the interior of the original outline font and white, paint between the primary contour lines and the outline font in black, this part Is a black shadow.

( Thirteenth Invention) In the shadow font with outlines created by the eleventh invention, the inside of the original outline font is painted black,
The outline font painted in black is obtained by adding a white shadow.

( 14th Invention) In the shadow font with outlines created by the 11th invention, the inside of the original outline font is painted black,
The space between the primary contour and the secondary contour is painted black to provide a black shadow.

[0036]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention for creating a shadow font with an outline. In FIG. 1, a shadow font creation device with outlines includes an outline font data storage unit 11 for storing outline font data, a keyboard 12 for inputting characters, symbols, and the like, and a character input by the keyboard 12 for storing outline font data. A reading unit 13 for reading outline font data from the unit 11, a shadow processing unit 14 for performing a process for adding a shadow to the outline, an inversion processing unit 15 for inverting the outline, and an outline with the shadow A synthesizing processing unit 16 for synthesizing the outline with inverted outline font data, an output device 17 for adding a predetermined shadow to the synthesized outline, and a control circuit 18 for controlling the processing units and the like; Be composed.

The shadow processing unit 14 performs a process such as reduction and shift so that there is no part that jumps out of the character frame in order to add a shadow, and then temporarily stores a reduction / shift process / storage unit 141; An element-specific contour generation unit 142 that generates an element-specific contour necessary for creation, and a contour line hidden line elimination unit 143 that deletes an overlapping portion of lines generated when the element-specific contour is generated.
A rounding processing unit 144 for rounding a protruding corner of the contour, a shadow creating unit 145 for creating a shadow around the contour by a predetermined shadow angle and a shadow width, and a shadow creating unit 145 Shadow elimination unit 146 for erasing unnecessary lines generated in the shadow created by the shadow, and element-specific contour storage unit 14 for temporarily storing shadow-added element-specific contours
7 is comprised.

The inversion processing unit 15 includes an element-specific outline reversing unit 151 for inverting the outline of the original element-specific outline font to obtain a white character.
And an inverted element-specific contour storage unit 152 that stores the element-specific contours inverted by the element-specific contour reversing unit 151.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart when shadow characters are created by the shadow font creating apparatus with contour lines according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a flowchart when shadow characters are created by the contoured shadow font creating apparatus of the first embodiment, which is connected to FIGS. By keyboard 12, for example, "long"
Is input (step 211). When the character "Length" is input from the keyboard 12, an address corresponding to the character, for example, JIS code "020"
8 "occurs (step 212). Readout unit 13
Reads out the outline font data from the outline font data storage unit 11 using the JIS code "0208" as a key (step 213).

The control circuit 18 checks whether the creation of shadow characters is set (step 214). If the control circuit 18 determines that the creation of shadow characters is not set, it sends outline font data to the output device 17 and outputs normal characters (step 21).
5, step 216). If the control circuit 18 determines that the creation of shadow characters is set, the control unit 18 causes the reduction / shift processing / storage unit 141 to perform the reduction / shift processing as described later, and stores the result (step 21).
7). Next, the control circuit 18 causes the contour generation unit 142 to perform a process described below for generating a contour (step 218). When the control circuit 18 generates the contour,
It is checked whether or not a hidden line has occurred in the outline (step 21).
9). When the control circuit 18 determines that a hidden line is generated in the outline, the control circuit 18 causes the outline hidden line erasing unit 143 to perform processing for deleting the hidden line (step 220).

When the control circuit 18 determines that no hidden line is generated in the contour line, it proceeds to the next rounding process. The control circuit 18 causes the rounding processing section 144 to perform rounding processing described later (step 221). After performing the rounding process, the control circuit 1
8 causes the shadow creation unit 145 to perform shadow processing described later (step 222). The control circuit 18 checks whether or not there is an unnecessary hidden line in the shadow processing (step 223). If the control circuit 18 determines that there is a hidden line during the shadow processing, the control circuit 18 performs processing for eliminating the hidden line (step 224). When the control circuit 18 determines that there is no unnecessary hidden line, and when the elimination of the hidden line is completed, the control unit 18 stores the outline in the outline storage unit 147 (step 225).

On the other hand, the control circuit 18 reads the original outline font data from the outline font data storage section 11 (step 311). The control circuit 18
The outline font reversing unit 151 performs a process so that the outline font data is reversed to become a white background (step 312). The control circuit 18 stores the inverted outline in the inverted outline storage unit 152 (step 313).
The control circuit 18 stores the outline processing unit 14
7 and a reversed contour stored in the reversed contour storage unit 152 are synthesized (step 314). As a result, the output device 17 outputs the characters as white characters with black shadows (step 315). For details of each process,
It will be described later.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an outline font "long" in a character frame. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between a character frame, an outline font “long”, and a shadow. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a state in which the outline font “long” is approached to the character frame when the outline font is reduced. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example in which a character obtained by shifting the outline font “long” is assumed to be shadowed. The character “LONG” 41 shown in FIG. 4 read by the reading unit 13 has outline font data arranged in the center of the character frame 42. As shown in FIG. 5, the character 41 composed of the outline font data becomes larger than the character frame 42 when the shadow 51 is added. After the shadow processing, such a character 41 does not match, for example, a point of contact between characters or a point for designating the character size.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, it is necessary to reduce the character 41 so that the character 41 can be accommodated in the character frame 42 even if a shadow is added. First, the reduction / shift processing / storage unit 141 reduces the read outline font data with the origin at the upper left of the character frame 42, for example. FIG. 6 shows an example of the reduction. However, since the character 41 shown in FIG. 6 is too close to the character frame 42, shadows cannot be provided around the upper side and the left side. Therefore, after the reduction processing, the reduction / shift processing / storage section 141 shifts the position of the outline font data by a predetermined amount in the direction opposite to the direction in which the entire outline font data is reduced, and stores the data. FIG. 7 shows an example in which the character 41 is shifted assuming that a shadow is provided in the lower right direction of 45 degrees. Therefore, the margin of the character frame 42 in FIG. 7 is larger below and to the right of the character frame 42 by the amount of the shadow. In addition, the shadow angle can be changed to an arbitrary angle other than the above-mentioned 45 degrees in consideration of the character design. When creating a special shadow character in design, the shadow can be, for example, right above, right below, right, or left. In this case, the character 41 needs to be flattened in each direction instead of being reduced.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart for explaining an example of generating an outline in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram when an outline of a character “long” is created in one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining the creation of the outline by enlarging a part of the outline "length" in FIG. In FIG. 8, under the control of the control circuit 18, the contour generation unit 142
The outline font data reduced / shifted from 1 is read (step 811). The control circuit 18 checks whether or not to create a contour (step 812). If the control circuit 18 determines that the process is not a process for generating a contour line, it stops the process (step 813). The outline generation unit 142 obtains the tangent direction of each data point in the outline font data that has been reduced and shifted (step 814).

For example, in FIG. 10, a new data point 93 is obtained by moving the data point by an offset value in the direction tangent to the data point 91 in the vertical line. Similarly, a new data point 96 is obtained by moving the data point on the horizontal line by the offset value in the tangential direction. The contour generation unit 142 moves each data point in the outward direction of the tangent according to the offset value specified by, for example, the keyboard 12 (step 815). That is,
The data point 91 in FIG. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, data points 91 and 92 are moved outward to become new data points 93 and 94. Similarly, the data points 91 and 95 become new data points 96 and 97. The contour generation unit 142 controls the control circuit 18
An intersection 98 connecting the above data points is obtained based on the control of (step 816). The outline generation unit 142 connects the intersections 98, 99,... With a line (step 81).
7). FIG. 9 shows a state where all the above intersections are connected.

As can be seen from FIG. 9, the lines connecting the intersections are generated by moving each data point outward by a predetermined distance, so that vertical bars, horizontal bars, points, and the like of characters are intricate. In some places, intersection of outline font data and a loop 100 occur. Even with the loop 100, the inside of the outline font data can be filled by a known outline font data filling method. However, the loop 100 described above (hereinafter, referred to as a hidden line in the present specification) frequently extracts outline font data and processes them in recent graphic software. It is desirable to erase. The removal of the hidden line will be described later.

Therefore, the control circuit 18 checks whether or not there is a part of the loop 100 which is generated crossing (step 818). If the control circuit 18 determines that there is a loop 100 (hidden line), the contour hidden line erasing unit 1
43 performs a process for deleting the hidden line and leaving only the outermost line of the outline font data (step 819). If the control circuit 18 determines that there is no hidden line, it ends the generation of the outline without deleting the hidden line (step 820).

FIG. 11 is a flow chart for explaining a process for rounding the corners of the outer contour line according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining a contour line from which the hidden line of the character “long” has been deleted. FIG. 12 shows a contour line 101 corresponding to the character 41 “LONG”. FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining the rounding processing of a corner formed by a right angle. FIG. 14A is a diagram for explaining the rounding processing of the protruding corners of the outer contour line and the inner contour line. (B) is "Length" after rounding
It is a figure for explaining the character which is. Many kanji have sharp angles, such as harais, splashes, and dots. Therefore, when a contour line is generated, even if the acute angle portion does not protrude to the next character, the character string becomes too close and unsightly. Although it is the title character that is intended to give a strong impression to the reader, it may have the opposite effect. Therefore,
A contour line having a corner as shown in FIG. 10 needs to be rounded.

The rounding processing of the corners of the outer contour line will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Corner round processing unit 1
44 starts rounded corner processing under the control of the control circuit 18 (step 1111). The rounding processing unit 144 checks whether or not the contour is an outer contour (step 111).
2). When determining that the contour is an outer contour, the corner rounding processor 144 checks whether or not the corner protrudes outward (step 1113). If the corner processing unit 144 determines that the corner protrudes outward, it checks whether there is an intersection of a straight line or a curved part (step 111).
4). When determining that there is an intersection of a straight line or a curve, the corner round processing unit 144 draws an arc with a predetermined offset value, for example, a radius around the intersection, performs all the same processing, and then performs the same processing. The process ends (step 111).
5, step 1116). Further, in the rounding process, an acute angle portion can be eliminated by connecting with an arc other than a circular arc or at least one straight line.

In step 1112, the rounded corner processing unit 1
When it is determined that the contour is not the outer contour, that is, the inner contour is an inner contour, it is checked whether or not there is a corner protruding inward (step 1117). Corner round processing unit 14
No. 4 does not require rounding if it is determined in step 1113 that there is no outwardly protruding corner, and if it is determined in step 1117 that there is no inward protruding corner (step 1118). Corner round processing unit 14
In step 1117, if it is determined in step 1117 that there is a corner protruding inward, the same processing as steps 1114 and 1115 is performed (steps 1119, 1115
120).

FIG. 13 shows a rounding process at a right-angled corner. Also, as shown in FIG.
The corner 1424 protruding outside the outer contour line 1421 is
The rounding is performed, and the corner 1425 protruding inward is not rounded. In the rounding of the inner contour line 1423, the rounding process is performed on the inwardly protruding corner 1427 without performing the rounding on the outwardly protruding corner 1426, as opposed to the outer contour 1421. ing. The rounding process is
For example, as shown in FIG. 13, using an offset width as a radius, in addition to a method of drawing an arc around the corner of the outline font data before offset, a method of drawing an arc-shaped curve using a cubic Bezier curve, In the case of the next spline curve, a well-known method such as drawing an arc once by the above-described method and using the middle point as a curve point to smooth both ends can be adopted.

The purpose of the rounding process is to determine the direction in which the corners protrude as described above so as not to touch adjacent characters and not to protrude from the character frame. It is possible to select whether or not to perform the rounding process. That is, in the rounding process of the corner, the angle of the corner can be controlled as a parameter. Corner rounding is performed from the viewpoint that it is possible to approach adjacent characters.
In addition, if a sharp point can give a strong impression on the character design, it can be omitted. The outline 4131 after the rounding is completed is shown in FIG.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart for explaining the creation of a shadow according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
(A) is a diagram for explaining a shadow when an incident light beam of 45 degrees is applied to an outline font data point, and (B) is a diagram for
FIG. 3C is a diagram for explaining a case where two data points are provided along the incident light beam of 5 degrees, and FIG. 3C is a diagram for explaining a shadow when the outline font data point is irradiated with the incident light beam of 30 degrees. . FIGS. 17A and 17B are diagrams for explaining a case where shade and sun occur between outline font data points. FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram for generating a shadow of the outer contour line. FIG. 19 is a diagram for explaining the shadow of the outer contour line. FIGS. 20A and 20B are diagrams for explaining shadows in the case of an inner contour line.

Prior to the creation of a shadow based on a contour line, the processing is started after determining a shadow angle (direction) and a shadow width (step 1511). The shadow creator 145 checks whether or not there is any data point to be shaded under the control of the control circuit 18 (step 1512). That is, when the shadow angle is within the tangential direction and the shadow angle, the shadow is shaded, and a data point is obtained as a new shadow.

If the shadow creator 145 determines that there is a data point that becomes shade, the shadow creator 145 checks whether there is a data point at a position where the sun changes from shade to shade (step 151).
3). When determining that there is a data point at a position where the sun changes from the sun to the shade, the shadow creator 145 checks whether there are two or more data points at the same shadow angle (step 1514). If the shadow creator 145 determines that there are two or more data points at the same shadow angle, the shadow creator 145 adopts the last data point as viewed from the side where light hits (step 1515). The shadow creator 145 moves the last data point at a predetermined shadow angle and shadow width (step 1516). The shadow creation unit 145
Check whether there is a hidden line in the shadow. If the shadow creating unit 145 determines that there is no hidden line in the shadow, the shadow creating process ends (step 1517).
When determining that the shadow has a hidden line, the shadow creating unit 145 performs a process of deleting the hidden line (step 151).
8).

In step 1514, if the shadow creator 145 determines that there are no more than two data points at the same shadow angle, the shadow creator 145 shifts the data points by the shadow width to form a new shadow. (Step 1521). The shadow creator 145 repeats this as long as each data point has a shade, and does not move the data point as long as the straight line and the curve of the outline font data are sunny. The shadow creating unit 145 checks whether or not a hidden line is generated as each data point moves (step 1522). The shadow creating unit 145 performs a process for eliminating hidden lines (step 1523).

When there is no shadow line in the shadow, and when the shadow line erasure process ends, the shadow creation ends (step 1517). If it is determined in step 1512 that there is no data point to be shaded, the shadow creating unit 145 stops creating the shadow (step 1520). In step 1513, if the shadow creating unit 145 determines that there is no data point at the position where the sun changes to the shade, the shadow creating unit 145 sets the position where the sun changes to the shade as an edge point (step 1524). Shadow creator 14
In step 5, a data point is moved at a predetermined shadow angle and shadow width based on the edge point to create a shadow, and if a hidden line occurs, it is deleted as necessary (step 1525). The shadow creating unit 145 performs a process for smoothing the connection between the edge point and the curve and the straight line (step 1526).

FIG. 16A shows the creation of a 45-degree shadow. The data point 1611 is moved to the data point 1612 with a predetermined shadow width, and the data point 1613 is moved to the data point 1614. Similarly, all shaded data points are moved. FIG. 16B shows a case where there are two data points at a shadow angle of 45 degrees. FIG.
At 6 (b), there are two data points 1615 and 1616 for the incident light beam of 45 degrees. In this case, the last data point 1616 as viewed from the
Only decide to adopt. And data point 1
616 is moved to data point 1617 with a predetermined shadow width. FIG. 16C explains the shadow of the incident light beam at a shadow angle of 30 degrees, and is created in the same manner as described above, except that the shadow angle is different.

FIG. 17A shows all data points 1711,
, 1712,... Are moved at a shadow angle of 45 degrees and a predetermined shadow width, and data points 1713, 1714,.
... However, in FIG. 17B, there is no data point between the data point 1715 and the data point 1716, and the direction changes from sunny to shade in the middle of these data points. Therefore, a new data point 1717 is provided as an edge point at a position where the sun changes from shade to shade, and this edge point is set to 4
The data point 1718 is created by moving at a shadow angle of 5 degrees and a predetermined shadow width.

The outer contour shown in FIG. 18 is composed of a sun 1811 and a shade 1812.
Each data point in the shade 1812 is moved by the shadow angle and shadow width. FIG. 19 depicts a shadow consisting of an outer contour. Shadows of the outer contour and the inner contour have opposite relationships between the sun and the shade. That is, in the inner contour lines 2011 and 2012 shown in FIG. 20A, the data points in the sun 2011 portion are moved by the shadow angle and the shadow width, and the shadow 2013
Is created. FIG. 20B shows the shadow of the inside contour.

FIGS. 21A to 21D are views for explaining an example of hidden line elimination in the present invention. FIG.
(A) shows a loop-shaped hidden line (hereinafter simply referred to as a hidden line) which is generated at the time of contour generation, rounding, or shadow creation. For example, in FIG. 21A, data points A to I are drawn. Then, in FIG. 21B, a loop is formed by the data points C, D, and E. Therefore, in order to eliminate the hidden lines shown in FIGS. 21 (a) to 21 (c), the hidden line eliminating means (not shown) first determines whether or not there is an intersecting point between the data points. Find out. For example, FIG.
At 1, the data points C and D intersect, and the data points E and F intersect. Next, as shown in FIG. 21C, the hidden line erasing means sets the intersection point as an edge point J. Thereafter, the hidden line erasing means erases data points inside the edge point J. That is, the hidden line elimination means
As shown in FIG. 21D, the data points E and D are erased.

FIG. 22 is a diagram for explaining a state obtained by the processing up to FIG. 21 for obtaining a white character black shadow according to the present invention. FIG. 23 is a diagram for explaining a white character black shadow obtained by inverting a contour line. FIG. 22 shows a combination of the original outline font data 2211 and the contour line 2212 with shadow. However, in FIG. 22, white characters and black shadows do not appear, so it is necessary to paint the inside of the original outline font data white. Therefore, the contour inversion unit 151 in FIG.
Reverses the appearance order of all outline font data. If the appearance order of the outline font data is all reversed as described above, black characters are added to white characters as shown in FIG. 23, and the characters become very impressive to the reader.

The filling method is, for example, a method in which the applicant has already obtained a patent right. At the intersection of the scanning line and the contour, whether the rotation direction of the contour is “positive”
Judge whether it is "negative", and if "positive", "+1"
If the value is "negative", "-1" is added, and the dot on the scanning line is filled unless the value becomes "0". In another filling method, information on the outer contour and the inner contour is given to the contour in advance. Then, the above method determines whether the outline is an outer outline or an inner outline at a portion where the scanning line and the outline intersect. If it is a line, "-
As long as “1” is not added and becomes “0”, dots on the scanning line are painted out.

FIG. 24 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention for creating a character in which a black character is provided with a white shadow. FIG. 25 is a block diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention for creating a character with a black shadow added to a black character. FIG. 26 is a flowchart after the secondary contour is generated. FIG. 27 is a diagram for explaining a process of creating a character in which a white shadow is added to a black character. FIG. 28 is a diagram for explaining a character obtained by adding a white shadow to a black character. FIG. 29 is a diagram for explaining a character obtained by adding a black shadow to a black character. The difference between the first embodiment and the second embodiment is that the second embodiment combines outline font data with a primary outline and a secondary outline. To add white shadows, a primary contour and a secondary contour are required. That is, in FIG. 24, the primary contour generation unit 41 is generated in substantially the same manner as in the flowchart of FIG. In different places, the outline font data of the primary outline is inverted to make white shadows.

The secondary outline is created in the same manner as the primary outline after the reduction / shift processing for shadows. Then, as shown in FIG. 27, the first outline 2711 and the second outline 2712 obtained by inverting the outline font data, and the original outline font data 2
713 are synthesized by the synthesis processing unit 16. afterwards,
The output device 17 outputs a character obtained by adding a white shadow to a black character.

The difference between the second embodiment and the third embodiment is that
The third embodiment is that the outline font data of the primary outline is not shadowed. That is,
As shown in FIG. 29, a primary contour line 2911 that has not been shadowed, and a secondary contour line 29 that has been shadowed.
12, and the original outline font data 2913
Are synthesized by the synthesis processing unit 16. Thereafter, a character obtained by adding a black shadow to a black character is output by the output device 17. The filling method in each embodiment uses the method proposed by the present applicant. However, other known methods can be used. For example, Japanese Patent Application No. 50-14
When the filling is performed by the even-odd method described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 230, the inversion of the outline font data becomes unnecessary.

As described above, the present embodiment has been described in detail.
It is not limited to the above embodiment. Various design changes can be made without departing from the present invention described in the appended claims. For example, each block shown in FIGS. 1 and 24 and 25 has no novelty and is achieved by a known or known technique, and thus will not be described in detail. However, various design changes are possible as long as they conform to the gist of the present invention. In particular, the rounding and shadow creation of the present invention are novel, but each one can be accomplished using well-known techniques.

The technique of inverting the outline font data, erasing the hidden line, or painting the color can be any known technique, and thus is merely an example. The hidden line removal method is
For example, it can be performed by “Illustrator” of Adobe in the United States and “Icarus” of URW in Germany.
In addition, the technique of painting a color can be achieved by having an attribute indicating the inside or outside in addition to the rotation direction of the outline. Instead of reading and generating the original outline font data, the secondary outline can be generated by reading any of the outlines after the generation of the outline, rounding, or shadow creation.

[0070]

According to the present invention, a shadow font with contour lines can be obtained simply and in real time by using outline font data already sold in large quantities as it is. According to the present invention, responsibility
You can easily attach a shadow with a desired angle and width
Therefore, despite being able to express the depth direction of characters ,
The data amount can be significantly reduced as compared with the character generated by the bitmap . According to the present invention,
Since the contoured shadow font is composed only of the outline font data, the quality of the character is not impaired even if deformation processing such as reduction is performed after generation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention for creating a shadow font with an outline.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart when a shadow character is created by the shadow font creating apparatus with contour lines according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart when a shadow character is created by the contoured shadow font creating apparatus according to the first embodiment, which is connected to FIGS.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an outline font “long” in a character frame.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a character frame, an outline font called “long”, and a shadow.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a state in which a character frame is approached when an outline font “long” is reduced.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a character obtained by shifting an outline font “long” is placed at a position where a shadow is assumed to be added.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of generating a contour line according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram when an outline of a character “long” is created in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining creation of a contour line by enlarging a part of the contour line “length” in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process for rounding a corner of an outer contour line according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining a contour line from which a hidden line of a character “long” has been deleted;

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining a rounding process of a corner formed by a right angle.

FIG. 14A is a diagram for explaining rounding processing of protruding corners in an outer contour line and an inner contour line.
(B) is a diagram for explaining the character “long” after the rounding processing.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating the creation of a shadow according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16A is a diagram for explaining a shadow when a 45-degree incident light beam is applied to an outline font data point;
(B) is a diagram for explaining a case having two data points along a 45-degree incident light beam, and (c) is a diagram for explaining a shadow when an outline font data point is irradiated with a 30-degree incident light beam. FIG.

FIGS. 17A and 17B are diagrams for explaining a case where a shade and a sun occur between outline font data points. FIGS.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram for generating a shadow of an outer contour line.

FIG. 19 is a diagram for explaining shadow of an outer contour line.

FIGS. 20A and 20B are diagrams for explaining shadows in the case of an inner contour line.

FIGS. 21A to 21D are views for explaining an example of hidden line elimination in the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a view for obtaining a white character black shadow of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a state obtained by processing up to 1.

FIG. 23 is a diagram for explaining a white character black shadow obtained by inverting a contour line.

FIG. 24 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention for creating characters in which black characters are added with white shadows.

FIG. 25 is a block diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention for creating a black character with a black shadow.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart after a secondary contour is generated.

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating a process of creating a character in which a white shadow is added to a black character.

FIG. 28 is a diagram for explaining a character obtained by adding a white shadow to a black character.

FIG. 29 is a diagram for explaining a character obtained by adding a black shadow to a black character.

FIGS. 30A and 30B are views for explaining commonly used characters with shadows. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 outline font data storage unit 12 keyboard 13 reading unit 14 shadow processing unit 15 inversion processing unit 16 synthesis processing unit 17 output device 18 ... Control circuit 141, reduction, shift processing, storage section 142, contour generation section 143, contour hidden line elimination section 144, rounded corner processing section 145, shadow creation section 146, shadow hidden line elimination section 147... Outline storage unit 151... Outline inversion unit 152... Inverted outline storage unit

Claims (14)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for creating a shadow font with an outline based on outline font data, comprising: reading outline font data for creating a shadow with an outline from an outline font data storage unit; Performing reduction / shift processing for generating a primary primary contour line as a basis, moving each data point in the reduced / shifted outline font data at a predetermined shadow angle and shadow width, After generating a contour line and eliminating hidden lines generated by the generation of the primary contour line, the outline font data and the generated primary contour line are combined, and each data point of the outline font is generated. Is set to white and the outside and the inside of the primary contour are painted black. How to create contour with shadow font, characterized in that. 2. A method for creating a shadow font with an outline based on outline font data, comprising: reading outline font data for creating a shadow with an outline from an outline font data storage unit; Performing a reduction / shift process for generating a primary primary contour line and a secondary contour line as a basis, and converting at least one of the data points in the reduced / shifted outline font data into a predetermined shadow angle and a predetermined shadow angle; By moving the width, to generate a primary outline and a secondary outline, after eliminating the hidden line generated by the generation of the primary outline and the secondary outline, the outline font data, Combining the generated primary contour and the secondary contour, Outline font, a shadow font with a contour line characterized by performing a process of filling between a primary contour line and a secondary contour line and between an outline font and a primary contour line with white or black. How to make. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein a hidden line generated after rounding a corner of the primary contour or the primary contour and the secondary contour according to claim 2 is eliminated. How to create a shadow font with an outline. 4. The primary contour line according to claim 1,
In the primary contour and the secondary contour according to claim 2,
Remove hidden lines after shadow creation process
How to create a featured shadow font with outlines. 5. The primary contour according to claim 2, wherein the primary contour is an inner contour generated outside the outline font data, and the secondary contour according to claim 2 is a contour outside the outline font data. A method for creating a shadow font with a contour, wherein the contour font is an outer contour of the primary contour. 6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the shadow for the primary contour according to claim 2 is created based on the outline font data, and then the shadow for the secondary contour according to claim 2 is created based on the outline font data. A method for creating a shadow font with an outline, characterized by creating a shadow. 7. The method according to claim 2, wherein a shadow for the primary contour according to claim 2 is created based on the outline font data, and the shadow for the primary contour is created based on the shadow for the primary contour. A method for creating a shadow font with an outline, comprising creating a shadow for a secondary outline. 8. The primary contour according to claim 1, or the primary contour and the secondary contour according to claim 2, by moving each data point in the outline font data in a tangential direction to the line. After that, a point at which lines generated by the moved data points intersect is determined, and the intersection is used as a data point of a new outline. 9. An arc centered on the intersection of straight lines and having an offset width as a radius, an arc using a cubic Bezier curve, an arc drawn by a cubic spline curve, and an arc having a center point as a curve point, which is determined in advance. Wherein the corners of the primary contour line according to claim 1 or the primary contour line and the secondary contour line according to claim 2 are rounded by at least one of the rounding methods. To create shadow fonts with contour lines. 10. The shadow of a straight line portion moves data points at a desired shadow angle and shadow width, and the shadow of a curved portion having a partly shade forms an edge point by dividing a curve into two parts. Move the curve from the edge point,
3. The method for producing a shadow font with an outline according to claim 2, wherein the connection is made smoothly to produce a shadow. 11. A contour font creating apparatus based on outline font data, comprising: reading means for reading outline font data; reduction / shift for arranging the read outline font data at a predetermined size and position; Processing means; contour generating means for generating a primary contour and / or a secondary contour attached to the entire outline font; and generating the primary contour and / or the secondary contour. Contour line erasing means for erasing hidden lines generated in the above, a rounding processing means for rounding corners of the generated contour lines, a primary contour line and / or a second contour line generated by each of the means. Based on the next contour, create a shadow by moving each data point of each of the above contours at a predetermined shadow angle and shadow width. Means, shadow shadow erasing means for erasing shadow lines generated when shadows are created by the shadow creating means, primary outline lines and / or secondary outline line data with outline font data and shadows And a synthesizing processing means for synthesizing a shadow font. 12. The character created by the above device,
12. The shadow font creation device with contour lines according to claim 11 , wherein a black outline is attached to the outline font. 13. The character created by the above device,
13. The shadow font creating apparatus with contour lines according to claim 11 , wherein a white solid shadow is added to a black solid outline font. 14. The character created by the above device,
12. The shadow font creating apparatus with contour lines according to claim 11 , wherein a black solid outline font is provided with a black shadow.