JP3055187B2 - Contour data processing device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an outline data processing apparatus, and more particularly to a method for dividing an outline of a character into a unique outline segment and a specific outline segment, and storing segment data relating to the specific outline segment separately from character storage means. It is related to what is stored in the contour storage means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, in order to print characters and symbols on printing paper or to display them on a display, outlines of many characters such as characters and symbols are stored in a non-volatile memory as digitized outline font data. Every
The outline font data is enlarged / reduced to a desired size, subjected to conversion processing such as rotation and italics, etc., and the converted outline font data is converted into dot data, which is then converted by a laser printer or the like. It prints in the system.

When outline font data of a large number of characters is created, a character of a predetermined size designed by a designer is read by an electronic scanner for each character, and an outline is extracted and digitized.

[0004]

Therefore, the outline font data of the character stored in the non-volatile memory is based on the character designed by the designer as the original character. And a specific contour line portion that should be originally the same shape or an approximate shape, for example, FIG.
3A shows an accent indicated by a sign pA, FIG. 3B illustrates a scale indicated by a sign pU, FIG. 3C illustrates a brush pen indicated by a sign pO, FIG. 3D illustrates a tome indicated by a sign pT, and FIG. There is a problem that the shape of a specific contour segment such as a square scale indicated by a symbol pK in FIG. 3E and a splash indicated by a symbol pH in FIG.

Further, as described above, although a large number of characters include a common specific contour segment, outline font data is created for each character, and the outline font data is converted to the outline font data. Since the data is stored in the memory, there is a problem that a large-capacity outline font memory is required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to reduce the memory capacity of a character storage means and to specify a character common to a part of the contours of many characters. An object of the present invention is to provide a contour line data processing device capable of forming a contour segment into a uniform shape.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, an outline data processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises, as shown in a functional block diagram of FIG. 1, characters / symbols each consisting of one or a plurality of contour lines. A plurality of types of specific contour segments that are commonly included as a part of a plurality of contour lines in a large number of characters, and store specific contour segment data that defines the shape of each specific contour segment and its type data in association with each other Specific contour line storing means, and for each of a large number of characters, one or more specific contour segments and one or more other unique contour segments. Dimension data defining the dimensions and type data are stored. For the unique contour segment, a unique contour segment representing the shape is stored. And character storing means for storing Todeta, and reading means for reading the is the character specified by a command from the outside from the character storage means the size data and the classification data and the unique contour segment data,
Based on the type data read by the reading means, the corresponding specific contour segment data is read from the specific contour storage means, and based on the specific contour segment data and the dimension data, the main data of the specific contour segment is the dimension data. First data correction means for performing first or second enlargement or reduction arithmetic processing so as to have a size specified by the formula (1) to create first modified specific contour segment data representing the shape of the specific contour segment; Second data correction means for correcting the first corrected specific contour segment data to form second corrected specific contour segment data so that the specified specific contour segment is formed by a smooth contour line; Unique segment segment data and a second correction specification created by the second data correction means By using the Guo segment data, and a data synthesizing means for synthesizing the contour line data of the entire outline of the specified character.

[0008]

According to the outline data processing apparatus of the present invention having the above-mentioned configuration, the specific outline storage means stores one or more outlines of a plurality of outlines in a plurality of characters such as characters or symbols. A plurality of types of specific contour segments that are commonly included as a part are classified, and specific contour segment data that defines the shape of each specific contour segment and its type data are stored in association with each other.

The character storage means divides each of a large number of characters into one or a plurality of specific contour segments and one or a plurality of other unique contour segments. Dimension data and type data that define the original dimensions are stored, and specific contour segment data representing the shape of the specific contour segment is stored.

[0010] The reading means reads the dimension data, the type data, and the unique contour segment data from the character storage means for the character designated by an external command.

On the other hand, the first data correction means reads the corresponding specific contour segment data from the specific contour storage means based on the type data read by the reading means, and the main data of the specific contour segment is dimensional data. Enlargement or reduction arithmetic processing is performed so as to have a specified size, and first modified specific contour segment data representing the shape of the specific contour segment is created.

[0012] The second data correction means includes a first correction specific contour segment so that a specific contour segment defined by the first correction specific contour segment data created by the first data correction means is formed by a smooth contour line. The data is modified to create second modified specific contour segment data.

The data synthesizing means uses the unique contour segment data read by the reading means and the second modified specific contour segment data created by the second data modifying means to generate an entire contour line of the designated character. Are synthesized.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, the present invention is applied to an apparatus for converting outline data (contour line data) stored in a laser printer to generate Mincho Chinese characters into dot data.

FIG. 2 shows a control system of a data conversion device for controlling data conversion for converting outline data into dot data.

The data conversion control device 14, which is the main component of the control system of the data conversion device, basically includes a CPU 16
ROM (program memory) 18, ROM (outline font memory) 20, ROM (parts font memory) 22, RAM (text memory) 24, connected to the CPU 16 via a bus 30 such as a data bus.
It comprises an AM (working memory) 26 and a RAM (dot data memory) 28.

An input device 10 and a printing device 12 are connected to the bus 30. The input device 10 inputs various data required for data processing, such as a character code and character size data supplied from the outside. The printing device 12 prints the bitmap data output from the dot data memory 28 by a laser printing method.

The program memory 18 stores a control program for data conversion control to be described later and various control programs. The data conversion control program includes a subroutine for reading out outline font data relating to the input character code from the outline font memory 20, a scaling processing control subroutine for enlarging / reducing (scaling) the outline font data, and an outline font which has been scaled. A short vector processing subroutine for expanding data into short vectors, a Bezier curve function subroutine for generating a Bezier curve function, a conversion processing subroutine for converting outline font data subjected to short vector processing into dot data, and the like are stored.

By the way, many characters such as Mincho-style kanji and hiragana characters and various symbols are shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 (a) shows an "accent" indicated by a symbol pA, FIG. 3 (b) an "scale" indicated by a symbol pU, FIG. 3 (c) an "acoustic brush" indicated by a symbol pO, and FIG. "Tome" shown in FIG. 3, "Kan scale" shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3F, there are specific outlines that are included as a part of a plurality of outlines of many characters and have the same or approximate shape, such as “splash” indicated by the reference symbol pH.

Therefore, for these six types of specific contour lines (hereinafter, referred to as specific contour segments), specific contour segment data defining the shapes of the basic specific contour segments is separately stored, and the specific contour segment data is stored in the specific contour segment data. Based on this, it is possible to obtain the modified specific contour segment data having a desired size, and to synthesize the modified specific contour segment data with the specific contour segment data representing the shape of the specific contour segment other than the specific contour segment.

Therefore, the parts font memory 22 stores
The accent shown in FIG. 4 (a), the scale shown in FIG. 5 (a), the brush stroke shown in FIG. 6 (a), the tome shown in FIG. 4 (b), the square scale shown in FIG. 5 (b), and FIG. For each of the six basic specific contour segments of the fly shown in b),
A type flag, basic specific contour segment data representing the shape of the basic specific contour segment, and dimension data representing the basic size are stored. This part font memory 22 constitutes a specific contour line storage means of the present invention.

The type flags include a flag A for accent, a flag U for scale, a flag O for brush stroke, a flag T for tome, a flag K for square scale,
A flag H is stored in the splash in association with the basic specific contour segment data.

As the basic specific contour segment data,
A plurality of coordinate data defining a basic specific contour segment is stored.

The dimension data stores a width (W), a height (H) and a length (L). However, FIG.
As shown in (b), only W and H are stored in Tome,
As shown in FIG. 5B, only H and L are stored in the square scale.

The start coordinate data of the basic specific contour segment is the origin (0, 0) of the xy coordinate, and each of a plurality of coordinate data following the start coordinate data is relative coordinates of the local coordinate system having the start coordinate point as the origin. Data.

The flags A, U, O, T, K, and H are referred to as type flags.

On the other hand, the outline font memory 20 divides each of a large number of characters into one or a plurality of specific contour segments and one or a plurality of other unique contour segments in association with the character code numbers. For the specific contour segment, the type flag and dimension data for defining the dimensions of the main specifications (W, H, L, etc.) are stored. For the specific contour segment, the specific contour segment data representing the shape is globally stored. It is stored as absolute coordinate data in the coordinate system. This outline font memory 20 constitutes the character storage means of the present invention.

As shown in the following Table 1, the unique contour segment data includes start data, straight line data, Bezier curve (hereinafter simply referred to as curve) data, outline end data, and character end data for the unique contour segment. Are stored respectively.

[0029]

[Table 1]

The start data comprises a start flag S and coordinate data of XY coordinates defining a start point, the straight line data comprises a straight line flag L and coordinate data defining an end point of the straight line, and the curve data represents a curve flag. B and first control point Q
1, the coordinate data of the second control point Q2, and the coordinate data of the end point. The outline end data stores an outline end flag * for instructing the end of each outline. Character end flag to indicate end! Is stored.

As for the specific contour segment, the flag A: accent, the flag U: scale, the flag O: brush pen, the flag T: tome, the flag K: square scale, the flag H: a splash type flag, and the specific contour segment And dimensional data (wlh) defining the size of.

That is, regarding the accent, the flags A and 3
One dimension data (wlh) is stored in this order (see FIG. 7 (a)), and for the scale, a flag U and three dimension data (wlh) are stored in this order. (Refer to FIG. 8A).
The two dimension data (w · l · h) are stored in this order (see FIG. 9A), and for the tome, the flag T and the two dimension data (w · h) are stored in this order (see FIG. 9). 7
(See FIG. 8B.) Regarding the square scale, the flag K and two dimension data (l · h) are stored in this order (FIG. 8).
(Refer to FIG. 9B). Regarding the splash, the flag H and three dimension data (w · l · h) are stored in this order (see FIG. 9B).

For example, the outline data of the Mincho kanji “iku” shown in FIG. 10 is composed of specific contour segment data and six types of specific contour segments such as scale, brush pen, and accent, as shown in Tables 2a and 2b below. The data is stored in the outline font memory 20 together with the data.

[0034]

[Table 2a]

[0035]

[Table 2b]

The text memory 24 stores text data (code strings) supplied from the input device 10. The working memory 26 stores various calculation results obtained by the CPU 16. Dot data memory 2
8 stores the converted dot data.

Next, a data conversion control routine performed by the data conversion control device 14 will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the figure, reference symbol Si
(I = 10, 11, 12,...) Are each step.

When the code data stored in the text memory 24 is read and the outline data of the code data is read from the outline font memory 20 and stored in the working memory 26, this control (FIG. 11)
Is started, the first flag stored in the working memory 26 is read (S10). If this flag is a flag included in the unique contour segment data (S11, S12, S13: No), the segment Data expansion processing control (see FIG. 12) is executed.

When this control is started and the currently read flag is "S" (S20: Yes), the start coordinate data is read (S21) and enlarged to the designated size.
Deformation processing (scaling processing) for reduction, rotation, or italic transformation is executed (S22), and the starting coordinate data after the scaling processing is stored in the working memory 26 (S2).
3) Return to S10.

When the read flag is "B" (S20: No, S24: Yes), curve data, that is, three sets of coordinate data of the first control point, the second control point, and the end point are read (S25). ), A scaling process is executed (S26), the curve data after the scaling process is developed into a plurality of short vectors (S27), and the corrected outline data subjected to the short vector process is stored in the working memory 26 (S23).

When the read flag is "L" (S20 / S24: No, S28: Yes), the coordinate data of the straight line is read (S29), and the scaling process is executed (S30). Is stored in the working memory 26 (S2).
3).

When the read flag is "S", "B",
If it is not any of "L" (S28: No), error processing is executed (S31), and this control ends.

On the other hand, when the read flag is a type flag indicating a specific contour segment (S11 / S1)
2: No, S13: Yes), the specific contour segment data conversion processing control (see FIGS. 13 to 15) is executed.

When this control is started and the currently read flag is "A" (S40: Yes), the dimension data (w, l, h) subsequent to the flag A is sequentially read (S40).
41) Based on the flag A, basic specific outline segment data of accents, that is, a plurality of coordinate data and three basic dimension data of W / L / H are read out from the part font memory 22 (S42), as follows. The enlargement / reduction processing is executed, and the accent-corrected specific contour segment data created by this processing is stored in the parts buffer of the working memory 26 (S43).

Accordingly, the flag 0 ← B p0x ← P0X × l / L p0y ← P0Y × h / H p1x ← P1X × l / L p1y ← P1Y × h / H p2x ← P2X × l / L p2y ← P2Y × h / H flag 1 ← L p3x ← P3X × l / L p3y ← P3Y × h / H Here, a point (hereinafter, referred to as a smooth point) that should be smoothly connected to another contour line in the calculation in the enlargement / reduction processing is described. May shift. The process of correcting the shift of the smooth point due to the calculation error is performed as follows.

In the case of an accent, since the starting point is a smooth point, the coordinate values (p0x, p0) indicating the starting point of the Bezier curve are used.
Correct y).

Generally, in order to smoothly connect a Bezier curve to a straight line connecting to the Bezier curve, a control point closer to the curve (a first control point if the start point is connected, a second control point if the end point is connected).
May be placed on the extension of the straight line connecting the points, and the Bezier curves may be connected smoothly if adjacent control points are on a straight line.

The smooth point is corrected using this property. Since the accent is always connected to the horizontal line, it is sufficient that the coordinate value p0y is equal to the y coordinate of the starting point. Since this coordinate system is a relative coordinate system with the starting point of the specific contour segment as the origin, the coordinate data p0y of the modified specific contour segment data stored in the parts buffer is changed to p0y ← 0 (S44).

Next, since the accent is composed of one piece of curve data containing the flag B and one piece of straight line data containing the flag L, "2" is set as the number of data in the counter C (S45), and the unique contour is set. In order to synthesize the specific contour segment data of the accent with the segment data, each coordinate data of the specific contour segment data of the relative coordinate system is converted into absolute coordinate data of the absolute coordinate system (S46).

That is, the accent start coordinate data is replaced by the final coordinate data of the outline data stored immediately before in the working memory 26, and the start coordinate data is replaced by the coordinate data changed by the conversion. Is performed by adding

Next, the segment data expanding process is repeated by the number of times of the counter C for the enlarged / reduced modified specific contour segment data (S47 to S4).
9) Return.

When the read flag is "U" (S50: Yes), the dimension data (w, l, h) subsequent to the flag U is sequentially read (S51).
Then, the basic specified outline segment data of the scale and the three basic dimension data of W / L / H are read out from the part font memory 22 (S52), and the scale specified by the next enlargement / reduction processing is specified. The contour segment data is stored in the parts buffer of the working memory 26 (S53).

Accordingly, the flag 0 ← B p0x ← P0X × l / L p0y ← P0Y × h / H p1x ← P1X × l / L p1y ← P1Y × h / H p2x ← P2X × l / L p2y ← P2Y × h / H flag 1 ← B p3x ← P3X × l / L p3y ← P3Y × h / H p4x ← P4X × l / L p4y ← P4Y × h / H p5x ← P5X × l / L p5y ← P5Y × h / H Flag 2 ← Lp6x ← P6X × l / L p6y ← P6Y × h / H Flag 3 ← Lp7x ← P7X × l / L p7y ← P7Y × h / H

The smooth point of the scale is a starting point and coordinates (p2
x, p2y) and (p5x, p5y). These points are referred to as p2 and p5, respectively. Since both are points on the Bezier curve, correction is performed using the property of the Bezier curve.

Since the scale is always connected to the horizontal line, p0y ← 0 is corrected (S54).

At the point p2, the point p2 and the coordinates (p1x,
By placing the three points p1 represented by p1y) and p3 represented by (p3x, p3y) on a vertical line, the contour lines can be smoothly connected. Therefore, it is corrected to p2x ← p1x p3x ← 0 (S54).

A point p5 is a point represented by coordinates (p4x, p4y) (hereinafter, this point is referred to as point p4), and a point represented by point p5 and coordinates (p6x, p6y) (hereinafter, this point is represented by point p6).
) May be placed on an extension of a straight line connecting the two lines, but also in this case, a calculation error may occur. Also, if the point p4 protrudes slightly from the straight line connecting the points p5 and p6 to the opposite side to the side where the contour is located, that is, to the right of the straight line in FIG. The steps tend to be noticeable.

Correction of a smooth point connected to an oblique contour line for the above two reasons is performed so that at least the control point does not go outside. Therefore, p4y is corrected so that (p6y−p5y) / (p6x−p5x) ≧ (p5y−p4y) / (p5x−p4x) holds (S54).

As described above, each data of p0y, p2x, p3x, and p4y stored in the parts buffer is corrected. Since the scale is composed of two curve data and two straight line data, "4" is set in the counter C as the number of data (S55), and the data is enlarged /
With respect to the reduced modified specific contour segment data, the segment data expanding process is repeated the number of times of the counter C (S47 to S49).

If the read flag is "O" (S56: Yes), the dimension data (w, l, h) subsequent to the flag O is sequentially read (S57).
Then, the basic specific contour segment data of the brush pen and the three basic dimension data of WLH are read from the part font memory 22 (S58), and the brush pen created by the next enlargement / reduction processing is read out. The corrected specific contour segment data is stored in the parts buffer of the working memory 26 (S59).

Therefore, the flag 0 ← B p0x ← P0X × l / (L−W) p0y ← P0Y × h / H p1x ← P1X × l / (L−W) p1y ← P1Y × h / H p2x ← P2X × l / (L−W) p2y ← P2Y × h / H Flag 1 ← B p3x ← P3X × l / L p3y ← P3Y × h / H p4x ← P4X × l / L p4y ← P4Y × h / H p5x ← P5X × l / L p5y ← P5Y × h / H Flag 2 ← L p6x ← P6X × l / L p6y ← P6Y × h / H Next, the smooth points of the brush pen are the points p2 and p5,
Since both are points on the Bezier curve, correction is performed using the property of the Bezier curve. At the point p2, the point p
2. By placing the three points p1 and p3 on the vertical line, the contour lines can be connected smoothly. Therefore, it is corrected to p2x ← p1x p3x ← 0 (S60).

In the correction of the point p5, similarly to the scale, p4y is corrected so that (p6y−p5y) / (p6x−p5x) ≧ (p5y−p4y) / (p5x−p4x) holds (S54).

As described above, the data of p2x, p3x, and p4y stored in the parts buffer are corrected. Since the brush pen is composed of two curve data and one straight line data, "3" is set as the number of data in the counter C (S61), and through S46, the modified specific contour segment data enlarged and reduced is obtained. , The segment data development process is repeated the number of times of the counter C (S47 to S49).

When the read flag is "T" (S62: Yes), the dimension data (w, h) following the flag T is sequentially read (S63), and is read from the part font memory 22 based on the flag T. The basic specific contour segment data of the tome and the two basic dimension data of W / H are read out (S64), and the modified specific contour segment data of the tome created by the subsequent enlargement / reduction processing is stored in the parts buffer (S64). S65).

Therefore, the flag 0 ← B p0x ← P0x × l / L p0y ← P0Y × h / W p1x ← P1X × l / L p1y ← P1Y × h / W p2x ← P2X × l / L p2y ← P2Y × h / W flag 1 ← B p3x ← P3X × l / L p3y ← P3Y × h / W p4x ← P4X × l / L p4y ← P4Y × h / W p5x ← P5X × l / L p5y ← P5Y × h / W The smooth point of Tome is also the starting point, point p, like the scale.
2. Point p5.

Since the starting point and the point p5 are always connected to the contour in the vertical direction, they are corrected to p0x ← 0 p5x ← p4x (where p4x = w) (S66).

At the point p2, the points p2 and p1
By placing the three points p and p3 on a horizontal line, the contour lines can be connected smoothly. Therefore, it is corrected to p2y ← p1y p3y ← 0 (S66).

Since the tome is composed of two pieces of curve data, "2" is set as the number of data in the counter C (S67), and after S46, the segment data development is performed on the enlarged / reduced modified specific contour segment data. The processing is repeated the number of times of the counter C (S47 to S47).
49).

When the read flag is "K" (S68: Yes), the dimension data (l, h) following the flag K is sequentially read (S69), and based on the flag K, the part font memory 22 is read. Then, the basic specific outline segment data of the square scale and the two basic dimension data of L and H are read out (S70), and the corrected specific outline segment data of the square scale created by the next enlargement / reduction processing is stored in the parts buffer. Is performed (S71).

Therefore, the flag 0 ← B p0x ← P0X × l / L p0y ← P0Y × h / H p1x ← P1X × l / L p1y ← P1Y × h / H p2x ← P2X × l / L p2y ← P2Y × h / H flag 1 ← B p3x ← P3X × l / L p3y ← P3Y × h / H p4x ← P4X × l / L p4y ← P4Y × h / H p5x ← P5X × l / L p5y ← P5Y × h / H Flag 2 ← L p6x ← P6X × l / L p6y ← P6Y × h / H Flag 3 ← L p7x ← P7X × l / L p7y ← P7Y × h / H Next, the smooth point of the square scale is the point p as in the case of the brush pen.
2. Since the point is p5, p2x, p
Each data of 3x and p4y is corrected (S72).

Since the square scale is composed of two curve data and two straight line data, "4" is set as the number of data in the counter C (S73), and the modified specific contour segment enlarged / reduced through S46. About the data
The segment data development process is repeated the number of times of the counter C (S47 to S49).

When the read flag is "H" (S74: Yes), the dimension data (w, l, h) subsequent to the flag H is sequentially read (S75).
The basic specific contour segment data of the splash and the three basic dimension data of W / L / H are read out from the part font memory 22 (S76), and the modified specific contour of the splash created by the next enlarging / reducing process. The data is stored in the segment data parts buffer (S77).

Accordingly, the flag 0 ← B p0x ← P0X × l / L p0y ← P0Y × h / H p1x ← P1X × l / L p1y ← P1Y × h / H p2x ← P2X × l / L p2y ← P2Y × h / H flag 1 ← L p3x ← P3X × l / L p3y ← P3Y × h / H Flag 2 ← L p4x ← P4X × l / L p4y ← P4Y × h / H Flag 3 ← B p5x ← P5X × l / L p5y ← P5Y × h / H p6x ← P6X × l / L p6y ← P6Y × h / H p7x ← P7X × l / L p7y ← P7Y × h / H Flag 4 ← B p8x ← P8X × l / L p8y ← P8Y × h / H p9x ← P9X × l / L p9y ← P9Y × h / H p10x ← P10X × l / L p10y ← P10Y × h / H The smooth point of the splash is the starting point, the point p2, and the coordinates (p10x, p
10p).

Since the start point and the point p10 are always connected to the contour in the vertical direction, p0x ← 0 p10x ← p9x (where p9x = w− (p2x + p3
x + p4x + p7x)) (S78).

The point p2 is corrected to p2y ← p1y p3y ← 0 since the straight line connecting the points p2 and p3 is a horizontal contour line (S78).

Next, since the splash consists of three curve data and two straight line data, the number of data is "5".
Is set in the counter C (S79), and through S46,
With respect to the enlarged / reduced modified specific contour segment data, the segment data expanding process is repeated the number of times of the counter C (S47 to S49). Note that when No is determined in S74, an error process is executed (S80),
This control ends.

When the read flag is "*" (S11: Yes), since a series of outline data ends, the process returns to S10 to read the next outline data.

On the other hand, when the read flag is "!" (S11: No, S12: Yes), all the outline data has been completed, so that the combined outline stored in the working memory 26 for the input character has been processed. The corrected outline data forming the entire line is converted into dot data, and the dot data is stored in the dot data memory 28 (S16), and this control ends.

In the printing result of the laser printer using the above-described method, the shape of the specific contour segment, that is, the portion common to each character is unified, and the data amount of the outline font memory can be reduced.

In the above embodiment, Mincho-style kanji is taken as an example, and an example is shown in which accents, scales, brush strokes, tomes, square scales and splashes are used as specific contour segments. However, the present invention is not limited to this. It is also conceivable to perform specific contour segmentation on other parts of the body, characteristic parts of other typefaces, and Western lines.

In the above embodiment, the specific outline of the Mincho type kanji to be segmented into the specific outline is shown in FIG. 3, but is not limited thereto. It is conceivable that a specific portion is also segmented into a specific contour.

In the above embodiment, the part font memory as the specific contour storage means and the outline font memory as the character storage means are provided separately. However, both memories can be provided in one ROM. .

The present invention can be applied not only to laser printers but also to other printers. Of course, the present invention is applicable not only to printers but also to apparatuses which need to restore outline data of characters such as characters and symbols to outlines. Generally applicable.

Various other applications are possible without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0085]

As is clear from the above description,
According to the present invention, even when using outline data generated from an original character having a variation in the shape of a specific contour portion manually created by a designer, a high-quality uniform shape of the specific contour portion is used. It is possible to generate character shapes such as characters and symbols.

Further, by storing the data of the specific contour line only with the type data and the dimension data, there is an advantage that the contour line can be restored using the outline font data whose capacity is reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control system of the data conversion device of the laser printer.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a specific outline segment of a Mincho kanji.

FIG. 4A is a diagram showing basic specific outline segment data and basic dimension data of an accent stored in a part font memory. (B) is a diagram showing basic specific outline segment data and basic dimension data of a tome stored in a part font memory.

FIG. 5A is a diagram showing basic specific outline segment data and basic dimension data of scales stored in a part font memory. (B) is a diagram showing basic specific outline segment data and basic dimension data of square scales stored in a part font memory.

FIG. 6A is a diagram showing basic specific contour segment data and basic dimension data of a brush pen stored in a part font memory. FIG. 3B is a diagram showing basic specific contour segment data and basic dimension data of the splash stored in the part font memory.

FIG. 7A is a diagram showing modified specific contour segment data created based on dimension data for which an accent has been designated; (B) is a diagram showing modified specific contour segment data created based on the dimension data designated as the tome.

FIG. 8A is a diagram showing modified specific contour segment data created based on scale data designated by a scale. FIG. 9B is a diagram showing modified specific contour segment data created based on dimension data in which a square scale is designated.

FIG. 9A is a diagram showing modified specific contour segment data created based on dimension data designated for a brush stroke. (B) is a diagram showing modified specific contour segment data created based on dimension data for which splashes are specified.

FIG. 10 is a contour diagram of Mincho kanji “iku”.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a data conversion control routine.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a routine for controlling segment data development processing.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a routine for controlling a specific contour segment data conversion process.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a specific contour segment data conversion processing control routine.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a specific contour segment data conversion processing control routine.

[Explanation of symbols]

16 CPU 18 Program memory 20 Outline font memory (character storage means) 22 Parts font memory (specific outline storage means)

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-2-188789 (JP, A) JP-A-63-143591 (JP, A) JP-A-63-74089 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int .Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G09G 5/24 B41J 2/485 G06T 5/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of specific contour segments which are commonly included as a part of a plurality of contour lines in a plurality of characters of characters / symbols each including one or a plurality of contour lines, and these specific contour segments are classified. Specific contour segment data defining the shape of each character and its specific data are stored in association with each other; one or more specific contour segments and one or more other specific contour segments for each of a large number of characters. The specific contour segment is stored with dimension data and type data defining the dimensions of its main specifications, and the specific contour segment is stored with specific contour segment data representing its shape. Character storage means and the size specified from the character storage means Reading means for reading data, type data, and specific contour segment data; reading corresponding corresponding specific contour segment data from specific contour storage means based on the type data read by the reading means; On the basis of the dimension data, an enlargement or reduction operation is performed so that the main specifications of the specific contour segment have the dimensions specified by the dimension data, and first modified specific contour segment data representing the shape of the specific contour segment is created. A first data correction unit that corrects the first modified specific contour segment data so that the specific contour segment defined by the first modified specific contour segment data is formed by a smooth contour line; Second data correcting means for creating Data synthesizing means for synthesizing the outline data of the entire outline of the specified character using the segment data and the second modified specific outline segment data created by the second data correcting means. Contour data processing device.