JP3054157B2 - Character processing device and character processing method - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a character processing apparatus and method for generating a basic dot pattern from an outline font and reusing the same.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of apparatus, a corresponding outline font is searched by an input character code, and morphological information (vertical character, horizontal character, vertically inverted character, character size, font type) attached to the character code is searched. , Etc.) to generate a dot pattern font of the final form. The dot pattern font once generated is registered in the cache memory so that it is not necessary to generate the dot pattern font again when necessary.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, conventionally, a dot pattern font that satisfies all information on a certain character is read from the cache memory or generated from an outline font, so that font generation processing is frequently performed. And the overall processing speed was reduced. The cache memory also required a considerable amount of memory.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a character processing apparatus and method capable of increasing the cache hit rate when outputting characters.

[Means and Actions for Solving the Problems] A character processing apparatus and a character processing method according to the present invention have the following configurations to achieve the above object.

That is, the character processing device according to the present invention includes: a determination unit configured to determine whether a basic dot pattern generated from an outline font corresponding to a modified dot pattern to be output is stored in a memory; If it is determined that the basic dot pattern generated from the outline font corresponding to the modified dot pattern to be output is not stored in the memory, the basic dot is generated from the outline font corresponding to the modified dot pattern to be output. Generating means for generating a pattern; means for storing a basic dot pattern generated from the outline font by the generating means in a memory; and performing a transformation process on the basic dot pattern generated from the outline font by the generating means. Performing deformed dot pattern Creating means for creating a basic dot pattern generated from an outline font corresponding to the deformed dot pattern to be output by the determining means. In this case, a modified dot pattern is created by performing a modification process on a basic dot pattern generated from the outline font stored in the memory.

The character processing method according to the present invention further includes a determining step of determining whether a basic dot pattern generated from an outline font corresponding to the modified dot pattern to be output is stored in a memory; If it is determined that the basic dot pattern generated from the outline font corresponding to the modified dot pattern to be output is not stored in the memory, the basic dot is generated from the outline font corresponding to the modified dot pattern to be output. A generating step of generating a pattern; a step of storing, in a memory, a basic dot pattern generated from the outline font by the generating step; a process of transforming the image into a basic dot pattern generated from the outline font by the generating step; And a creating step of creating a modified dot pattern.The creating step stores a basic dot pattern generated from an outline font corresponding to the modified dot pattern to be output in the determining step in a memory. When it is determined that there is a modified dot pattern, a basic dot pattern generated from the outline font stored in the memory is subjected to a modification process to create a modified dot pattern.

Thereby, a dot pattern font having a basic form is generated and registered in the storage means, and when a modified dot pattern font is desired to be obtained, the basic dot pattern font is generated from an outline font. The process up to this step is omitted, and the desired deformed dot pattern font is obtained at high speed exclusively by the conversion means.

[Description of Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention applied to a printing apparatus. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an external host computer which transfers data (character set, character code, vertical character, horizontal character, upside down character, character size, etc.) relating to characters to be printed (including symbols and the like). Reference numeral 2 denotes a reception buffer for temporarily storing data relating to characters received from the host computer 1. Reference numeral 3 denotes a CPU which executes, for example, the printing process of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4
Is a font memory, which stores fonts in outline form in this embodiment. Reference numeral 5 denotes a cache memory for storing a basic dot pattern font generated from the outline font in accordance with the first information relating to the character. Reference numeral 6 denotes a page buffer memory for storing received character data (data relating to characters) for one page. Reference numeral 7 denotes a bit map memory, which stores a dot pattern font (bit map data for printing) generated according to each character data of the page buffer memory 6 and expanded for one page. Reference numeral 8 denotes a rotation processor which rotates a reference dot pattern font read from the cache memory 5 or generated from an outline font in accordance with second information (rotation information in the embodiment) relating to characters. A printer engine 9 prints bit map data for printing in the bit map memory 7 on paper.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating the storage structure of the cache memory 5 of the embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 5-1 denotes a dot pattern storage area for storing basic dot pattern fonts ("A", "B", etc.) generated from outline fonts, and 5-2 stores first information relating to characters. This is an information storage area that is stored in association with the dot pattern font.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of the information section storage area 5-2 of FIG. In the figure, the information section storage area 5-2 stores first information on characters, that is, "character set identifier",
Stores information on “character code” and “character size”. Therefore, in this embodiment, a basic dot pattern font corresponding to each character specified by the font, character code and character size is generated and registered in the necessary cache memory 5. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the corresponding basic dot pattern font is not generated based on the second information on characters, that is, information on vertical characters, horizontal characters, and vertically inverted characters.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the print control process according to the embodiment. In the figure, in step S1, character data is input from the page buffer memory 6. In step S2, the information storage area 5-2 of the cache memory 5 is searched to determine whether the same character set has been registered. If it has been registered, it is checked in step S3 whether the character code is the same. If the character code is the same, it is further checked in step S4 whether or not the character size is the same. If the character size is the same, proceed to step S5,
The dot pattern font is read.

If it is determined in step S4 that the character sizes are not the same, the process returns to step S3 to check whether there is another identical character code. If there is, the character sizes are compared. This is repeated until there is no other identical character code.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S2 or S3 that the result is NO, the process proceeds to step S6, and the corresponding outline font is read. In step S7, a new basic dot pattern font as shown in FIG. 5 is generated from the read outline font and the character size information. Step S8
Then, the generated dot pattern font and its information part are registered in an empty area of the cache memory 5.

At the next point in time, in any of the above cases, the desired basic dot pattern font exists in the cache memory 5. Further, in step S9, it is checked whether or not the character is a rotated character. If it is a rotated character, the process proceeds to step S11, where the rotation processor 8 converts the basic dot pattern font as shown in FIG. 5 into a rotated dot pattern font as shown in FIG. If it is not a rotated character, the process of step S11 is skipped. In step S10, the dot pattern font finally obtained is developed at a corresponding position in the bit map memory 7. In step S12, 1
It is checked whether bit map development of character data for a page has been completed. If not, the process returns to step S1 to input the next character data. If it has been completed, step S1
In step 3, the bit map data for one page is printed.

In the above-described embodiment, the first information about the character is a character set, a character code, and a character size, and the second information about the character is
Although the information of (1) is rotated, it is not limited to this. There are other types of information related to characters (distorted characters, modified characters, etc.), and how they are combined in the first
And the second information.

In addition, information in a form in which a character is further created is put in the information section of FIG. 3, while, in the pattern storage area, not only the basic character pattern is put, but for example, a distorted character (Italic, etc.) Additional information that can be determined as a distorted character is inserted, and a character that is not a basic character pattern (distorted character or the like) can be used as it is only when the input form information matches the stored character input pattern form information. Then, basically, only the basic character pattern may be transformed.

[Effect of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to increase the cache hit rate when outputting characters.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention applied to a printing apparatus, FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a storage structure of a cache memory 5 of the embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing details of an area 5-2, FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a print control process of the embodiment, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a dot pattern font which is a basis of the embodiment, and FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the rotated dot pattern font. In the figure, 1 ... host computer, 2 ... reception buffer, 3 ... CPU, 4 ... font memory, 5 ... cache memory, 6 ... page buffer memory, 7 ... bit map memory, 8 ... ... Rotating processor, 9 ... Printer engine.

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] A determining means for determining whether or not a basic dot pattern generated from an outline font corresponding to a modified dot pattern to be output is stored in a memory; and a modified dot to be output by the determining means. Generating means for generating a basic dot pattern from the outline font corresponding to the modified dot pattern to be output, when it is determined that the basic dot pattern generated from the outline font corresponding to the pattern is not stored in the memory; Means for storing, in a memory, a basic dot pattern generated from the outline font by the generating means; and forming a deformed dot pattern by performing a deformation process on the basic dot pattern generated from the outline font by the generating means. Creation means The creating means determines that the basic dot pattern generated from the outline font corresponding to the modified dot pattern to be output by the determining means is stored in the memory; A character processing apparatus for performing a transformation process on a basic dot pattern generated from a font to create a transformed dot pattern. 2. The character processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising output means for outputting a modified character based on the modified dot pattern created by said creating means. 3. The character processing device according to claim 1, wherein said deformation is rotation or italic. 4. The character processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said output means includes a printer engine. 5. A discriminating step of discriminating whether or not a basic dot pattern generated from an outline font corresponding to a deformed dot pattern to be output is stored in a memory; A generating step of generating a basic dot pattern from the outline font corresponding to the modified dot pattern to be output, when it is determined that the basic dot pattern generated from the outline font corresponding to the pattern is not stored in the memory; Storing the basic dot pattern generated from the outline font in the memory in the generation step in a memory; and performing a deformation process on the basic dot pattern generated from the outline font in the generation step to perform a modified dot pattern. A creating step of creating a basic dot pattern generated from an outline font corresponding to the deformed dot pattern to be output in the determining step is determined to be stored in the memory. In a case, a character processing method is characterized in that a modification process is performed on a basic dot pattern generated from an outline font stored in a memory to generate a modified dot pattern. 6. A character processing method according to claim 5, further comprising an output step of outputting a deformed character based on the deformed dot pattern created by said creating step. 7. The character processing method according to claim 5, wherein said deformation is rotation or italic. 8. The character processing method according to claim 6, wherein said output step prints out a transformed character.