JP3057974B2 - Data converter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data conversion apparatus for converting outline data, which defines the shape of a contour of a character such as a character or a symbol, into dot data, and more particularly to a data conversion apparatus for converting the width of a line constituting a character. It is about securing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when data representing characters such as characters and symbols are processed using a computer and displayed in some form such as printing or display, dot data is created for each pixel which is the minimum processing unit. That is widely done. At this time, if dot data is created in advance for all characters to be displayed and stored in the memory, an extremely large memory is required.
As described in JP-A-41017, a character can be stored as outline data defining the shape of its outline, and can be converted into dot data by a device having data conversion means at the time of display such as printing and display. desirable.

Here, a pixel screen is used to convert outline data into dot data.
The pixel screen defines the pixels of an output device such as a printer / display device, and the data conversion means determines that when the outline of the character is superimposed on the pixel screen, a portion of the outline that is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference is included. The dot data corresponding to the included pixels is set as data representing the presence of the character constituent line, and the outline data is converted into dot data.

However, when the outline data is converted into dot data and a character is displayed in this manner, even if a constituent line of the same character is included within a certain reference line or more depending on the position where the character is displayed, a pixel included in the line may be included. Are different, and the width of the character constituting line, that is, the number of pixels included in the width direction in the two outlines that determine the width of the character constituting line is not necessarily the same. This is one of the causes of the quality deterioration of the dot data converted from the outline data.

For this reason, the present applicant has proposed a data conversion device capable of ensuring the width of a character constituting line in the specification and drawings of Japanese Patent Application No. 1-52524 filed earlier. In this data conversion device, two outlines that store the width of the specified character component line by storing the component line for which the inside line width of the character component line is to be corrected and the line width setting data for specifying the width. The number of pixels included in the element in the width direction is corrected by moving at least one of the two outline elements so that the set number of pixels is included in the outline element.

[0006]

However, in the conventional method as described above, when a plurality of line width setting data indicate one contour element redundantly, the line width is secured as desired. It may not be possible. For example, assume that the outline data 21 shown in FIG. Line width setting data 22 includes straight lines 24, 2
The width of 5 is set to 3 and the line width setting data 23 is set so that the width of the straight lines 24 and 26 is 2. Thus, the straight line of the outline data 21 is
The instruction is duplicated in the line width setting data 22 and 23.
The outline data 21 is superimposed on the pixel screen 71 as shown in FIG. 7A, and the line width is corrected based on the line width setting data 22 and 23.

The line width is corrected, for example, by first moving, from the contour line indicated by the line width setting data, the one closer to the pixel boundary (reference line) to the pixel boundary (black circle) and moving the other. This is performed by moving to a position (white circle) away from the reference line by a desired width. In this method, first, the line width setting data 22
The processing is performed based on. Since the straight line 25 is closer to the pixel boundary between the straight lines 24 and 25, the straight line 25 is moved to the pixel boundary.
Move to a position just away. Figure 7 shows the results so far.
(B).

[0008] Similarly, processing is performed based on the line width setting data 23. Since the straight line 26 is closer to the pixel boundary between the straight lines 24 and 26, the straight line 26 is moved to the pixel boundary (black circle), and then the straight line 24 is separated from the straight line 26 by a desired width of 2 ( (White circle). The result is shown in FIG.
Shown in As is clear from FIG. 7C, although the figure is preferably formed to have a left width of 3 dots and a right width of 2 dots, the left width is 4 dots. Become.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem. Even when a plurality of line width setting data overlap and indicate one contour element, a desired line can be surely obtained. It is an object of the present invention to provide a data conversion device capable of securing a line width.

[0010]

In order to achieve this object, a data conversion apparatus according to the present invention comprises a contour storage means for storing outline data defining a shape of a contour line of a character; Line width setting storage means for designating at least one of the character constituent lines and storing line width setting data indicating the width of the constituent line;
Reading means for reading the outline data and the line width setting data from the respective storage means, and assuming that the outline data of the character is superimposed on a pixel screen defining pixels of an output device, designated by the line width setting data. 2 that defines the width of the character composition line
At least one of the elements of one contour line is corrected by a first contour line moving means for moving the pixels in a direction and an amount corresponding to the number corresponding to the line width setting data, and the first contour line moving means. Dot data conversion means for converting outline data to dot data by setting dot data corresponding to pixels included in the outline data of the character in a state satisfying a certain criterion to data representing the presence of the character constituent line; Which has
Further, it is determined whether the plurality of line width setting data specifies at least one of the two contour line elements that define the width of the constituent line of the character, and if so, the overlapping. And the outline element specified as
A duplication recognizing means for recognizing by examining and recognizing the other line width setting data or reading information stored in advance, and an element of the contour line which is repeatedly specified by the duplication recognizing means. With respect to the line width setting data recognized as being present, of the two contour elements of the line width setting data, the other contour element is referred to by the pixel based on the contour element specified by the reference recognition means. A second contour moving means for moving in a direction and an amount corresponding to the number corresponding to the line width setting data, wherein the first contour moving means is redundantly designated by the reference recognition means. Processing is performed on the line width setting data that is not recognized as having a line element, and the dot data converting means is generated by the first contour moving means or the second contour moving means. Outline data And it converts the dot data.

[0011]

In the data conversion apparatus of the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, the outline storage means stores outline data defining the shape of the outline of the character, and the line width setting storage means stores a plurality of character constituent lines constituting the character. And line width setting data indicating the width of the constituent line is stored, the readout unit reads out the outline data and the line width setting data from each storage unit, and the duplication recognizing unit reads the plurality of lines. Whether or not the width setting data specifies at least one of the two contour line elements that define the width of the constituent line of the character overlaps, and if so, specifies the overlap. The element of the outline is recognized by checking the other line width setting data or by reading information stored in advance, and the first wheel is recognized. The line moving means converts the character outline data to the line width setting data which is not recognized by the reference recognition means as having the overlappingly specified contour element, and defines the pixel of the output device as a pixel. At least one of the two outline elements that define the width of the character configuration line specified by the line width setting data assuming that the pixels are superimposed on the screen is the number of pixels corresponding to the number corresponding to the line width setting data. The second contour moving means moves in the direction and the amount of the line width setting data. Of the two contour elements, the number of the pixels is the number corresponding to the line width setting data with respect to the other contour element based on the contour element specified by the reference recognition means. And the dot data conversion means shifts the dot data corresponding to pixels included in the outline data of the character corrected by the first outline movement means or the second outline movement means and satisfying a predetermined standard. The outline data is converted to dot data by setting the data to data representing the presence of the character constituent line.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

This embodiment is an example in which the present invention is suitably applied to an outline font processing unit of a laser printer.

FIG. 1 shows a control circuit of a laser printer.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram mainly showing a portion that converts outline font data into dot data and outputs the dot data. The microcomputer unit 10, which is the main component of this control circuit,
PU12, character ROM13, program ROM1
4, a text memory 15, a working memory 16, and a dot data memory 17. These CPUs 12
Are connected by a bus 18, and an input unit 19 and a printing unit 110 are further connected to the bus 18. CP
U12 performs processing for realizing the present embodiment according to a given program.

The character ROM 13 stores character outline data and line width setting data in such a manner that the character code can be read out one character at a time. Outline data is data that defines the shape of the outline of a character. In general, outline data is often defined by a straight line element and a curve element such as a cubic Bezier curve. However, in this embodiment, to simplify the description,
Define the shape with only linear elements.

The outline data of this embodiment is stored as an array of coordinate values (x, y) and the number of data, and a contour shape can be obtained by connecting the coordinate values of this array with a straight line. or,
Line width setting data is x direction (for vertical line) and y direction (for horizontal line)
, And each is a set of position data and width data. The position data is an element of a contour line that defines a vertical line or a horizontal line that is a character constituent line for performing line width correction of outline data, and indicates two coordinate value data. In the case of the x direction, the x coordinate value is indicated. , Y direction, y coordinate values are stored. The width data is data indicating the width of the element of the contour indicated by the position data, and stores the distance in the x direction in the x direction and the distance in the y direction in the y direction. In the line width setting data of this embodiment, one set of data (coordinate value of position data 1, coordinate value of position data 2, width data) is stored as an array in xy separately, together with the number of data.

The line width setting data may be provided with an overlapping data flag in addition to the position data and the width data. When the position data of a plurality of line width setting data overlaps and indicates an element of the same contour line of the character constituent line, the overlapping data flag indicates the position of all the line width setting data which is indicated by the overlapping. This information is attached to the data. For example, it is placed in the most significant bit of the coordinate value of the position data. If it is 1, it indicates that the position data is indicated redundantly. It can be shown that it is not a layer.

For example, the characters in FIG.
Then, as shown in FIG. The character in FIG.
Line width setting data is attached to 4, 25 and horizontal lines 24, 26. Although the overlapping data flag is not shown here, if it is set, since the two line width setting data indicate the overlapping horizontal line 24, the coordinate value y0, which is the position data indicating the horizontal line 24, is set. By setting the upper bit to 1, a duplicate data flag can be set.

The program ROM 14 stores a processing program for developing desired character data into a printable form. The text memory 15 stores a character code and a character size input from the input unit 19. The working memory 16 temporarily stores data necessary for executing a program. The dot data memory 17 stores printable dot data obtained by converting outline data. The input unit 19 inputs a character code and a character size supplied from the outside to the microcomputer unit 10. The printing unit 110 is a unit that prints dot data read from the dot data memory 17 by an electrophotographic method.

The dot data conversion process for converting outline data into dot data according to the present embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, outline data and line width setting data are read from the character ROM 13 in S0. Next, in S1, the outline data is size-converted to a desired size in the pixel coordinate system of the output device, and the line width setting data is also size-converted in the same manner. The width data of the line width setting data is rounded off to the decimal point. next,
The line width correction processing is performed based on all the line width setting data set by superimposing the outline data whose size has been converted in S2 on the pixel screen. This processing will be described later.
Finally, in S3, a painting process is performed to turn on a pixel whose center is included in the outline data that has been subjected to the line width correction process and convert the pixel into dot data.

Next, the line width correction processing in S2 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. In step S21, it is determined whether or not the position data of the line width setting data to be processed instructs to overlap with the position data of the other line width setting data. This is a process for recognizing the coordinate values of the position data. In this process, when the duplicate data flag is set, the duplicate data flag is recognized by reading the duplicate data flag. If not set, other line width / line width setting data is checked to determine whether there is any overlapping position data. If the instruction is duplicated, the result is YES, and if not, the result is NO. In the case of NO, the first contour moving process of S22 is performed, and in the case of YES, the second contour moving process of S23 is performed.

In step S22, of the two contour elements indicated by the position data of the line width setting data, the one closer to the pixel boundary is moved to the pixel boundary as the reference line, and the other line is moved from the reference line to the pixel. This is processing for moving so as to obtain the distance indicated by the width data of the line width setting data. The content of this processing has been described in the section of the prior art, and therefore will not be described.

In step S23, of the two contour line elements specified by the position data of the line width setting data, the contour indicated by the position data coordinate value determined to overlap with the position data of the other line width setting data in step S21. In this process, a line element is used as a reference line, the element is moved to the boundary of the pixel closest to the element, and the other element is moved from the reference line so as to obtain the distance indicated by the width data of the line width setting data. However, if both of the two lines of the position data of the line width setting data to be processed indicate a contour element that overlaps with the position data of the other line width setting data, the two contour lines Is moved to the pixel boundary closest to each line.

This procedure is performed on the data shown in FIG.
At S0, outline data and line width setting data are read, and at S1, the outline 21 is converted in size. At this time, it is assumed that the width data w1 of the line width setting data 22 is 3 and the width data w2 of the line width setting data 23 is 2. The outline data 61 whose size has been converted is superimposed on the pixel screen (FIG. 6A), and the line width processing of S2 is performed.

First, processing is performed on the line width setting data 22. Since the position data of the line width setting data added to the line width setting data 22 indicates a portion (line 64) overlapping with the position data of the line width setting data 23, the determination in S21 is YES. Accordingly, in S23, the straight line 64 is moved to the pixel boundary (black circle) to be a reference line, and then the straight line 65 is changed to the straight line 6
Move to a position (white circle) 3 dots wide from 4 (see FIG. 6)
(B)). Next, processing is performed on the line width setting data 23. Since the position data of the line width setting data added to the line width setting data 23 indicates a portion (line 64) overlapping with the position data of the line width setting data 22, the determination in S21 is Y.
ES. Accordingly, in S23, the straight line 64 is moved to the pixel boundary (black circle) to be a reference line, and then the straight line 66 is changed to the straight line 6
4 is moved to a position (white circle) two dots wide from FIG.
(C)). Although the desired number of dots could not be obtained in the example shown in the subject, as is apparent from the figure, dot data having a desired width of 3 dots on the left and 2 dots on the right is obtained.

The line width setting data 22 and 23 may be provided with a duplicate data flag, and the determination in S21 may be made by checking the flag.

In this embodiment, an example in which the data converter of the present invention is applied to a laser printer has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and outline data is converted into dot data as well as other types of printers and display devices. It can be applied to anything that needs to be converted.

In this embodiment, the character ROM 13
Although both the outline data and the line width setting data are stored therein, they may be stored separately.

[0030]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the data conversion apparatus of the present invention, even if a plurality of line width setting data overlap and indicate one contour element, the data conversion device of the present invention can be used. Thus, a desired line width can be secured.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an outline data processing unit according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of outline data.

FIG. 3 shows the outline data shown in FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state stored in the OM 13.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a dot data conversion process according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a line width correction process according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of outline data that has been processed according to the embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of outline data subjected to conventional processing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 13 Character ROM S3 Painting process S52 First contour moving process S53 Second contour moving process

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G09G 5/24 B41J 2/485 G06F 3/12 G06F 3/153 G06T 11/20

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A contour storage means for storing outline data defining the shape of a contour line of a character, and at least one of a plurality of character constituent lines constituting the character is designated and the width of the constituent line is indicated. A line width setting storage unit that stores line width setting data; a reading unit that reads out the outline data and the line width setting data from each of the storage units; and superimposing the outline data of the character on a pixel screen that defines a pixel of an output device. Assuming that they match,
At least one of the two outline elements defining the width of the character configuration line specified by the line width setting data is moved in the direction and amount such that the number of pixels corresponds to the line width setting data. First outline moving means; and dot data corresponding to pixels included in the outline data of the character corrected by the first outline moving means in a state satisfying a predetermined criterion, the data representing the existence of the character constituent line. And a dot data conversion means for converting outline data into dot data by setting the outline data to dot data. Whether at least one of them has been specified redundantly, and if so, the required Is recognized by examining the other line width setting data or by reading information stored in advance, and the contour line specified by the duplication recognizing means. Regarding the line width setting data recognized as having an element of
Of the two contour line elements of the line width setting data, the number of the pixels corresponds to the other contour line element based on the contour line element specified by the reference recognition means. A second contour moving means for moving in a number of directions and an amount; and further, the first contour moving means recognizes that there is an overlapping contour element specified by the reference recognition means. Wherein the dot data converting means converts the outline data generated by the first contour moving means or the second contour moving means into dot data. A data conversion device characterized in that: