JPH01229649A - Printing method using vector font data - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify a non-PS method printing, by a method wherein, a character font represented by PS font data is disposed on the center of an imaginary character frame for determining a character feed width required for a non-PS printing, and the PS font data is converted. CONSTITUTION:On the basis of font data read in a RAM 11, a CPU 10 extracts the character width of a character font Fi (i=0) represented by the aforesaid data and obtains a shift amount DELTAx required to dispose the character font Fi on the center of a space for one character Si from the character width and a width DELTAX of a space for one character Si by a formula of DELTAx=(DELTAX -width of one character)/2. Next, the CPU 10 shifts some vectors (coordinates) represented by the font data (for the font Fi) read in the RAM 11 rightward by the amount of DELTAx. As a result, the font Fi represented by the font data converted by a shift processing is disposed on the center of the space for one character Si regardless of its intrinsic character space size.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a printing method that performs non-proportional spacing printing using vector font data for proportional spacing.

(Prior art) Recently, vector font data (hereinafter simply referred to as font data) in which the contours of character fonts are defined by vectors has become available.
Document creation devices and other devices have been developed that have a printing function that prepares fonts for various characters in advance on a floppy disk or ROM, develops patterns using these font data, and prints high-quality character patterns. There is. Now, in the field of dealing with English and European languages, proportional spacing (which applies the leading width according to the character width and shape) is used as a method for printing font patterns of various characters.
(hereinafter referred to as PS) and non-proportional spacing (hereinafter referred to as No.
(referred to as n-PS) is known. In order to perform PS and Non-PS printing using font data, considering the ease of managing the feed width, it is necessary to print two types of PS and Non-PS for each character even if the font is the same.
It is necessary to prepare the seed font data. However, in English and European languages, there are a wide variety of typefaces, and each typeface has PS font data and Non-PS font data for all characters.
It has been difficult to prepare font data for fonts because of the limited storage areas of floppy disks, ROMs, and the like. For reference, FIG. 4 shows a state in which three types of fonts FO to F2 of different sizes prepared for PS are printed using the PS method.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As mentioned above, conventionally, in order to be able to apply both PS and Non-PS methods to printing using font data, it was necessary to take into consideration the feeding width management. and N
Two types of font data for on-PS had to be prepared for each character of each typeface, which was difficult to implement.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable non-PS printing by simply preparing PS font data.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) This invention provides a method for storing font data for PS from a storage means prepared in advance for various characters of various fonts into Non-PS
A method for extracting font data necessary or predicted to be necessary for printing processing, extracting the character width of the character font indicated by the same data, and determining this character width and the feed width for Non-PS printing. Based on the width of the virtual character frame of a predetermined size, calculate the shift amount necessary to place the character font indicated by the extracted font data in the center of the virtual character frame, and extract the above by the calculated shift amount. The font data is converted so that the character font indicated by the font data is shifted to generate Non-PS font data, and the generated font data is used to develop a pattern to create the Non-PS method. This feature is characterized in that it prints.

(Operation) According to the above configuration, the data of the PS font data is arranged so that the character font indicated by the PS font data is placed in the center of the virtual character frame that determines the feed width necessary for Non-PS printing. Since conversion is performed, non-PS printing can be easily performed by using the converted font data as non-PS font data.

(Example) Fig. 1 is a flowchart showing an example of the non-PS (non-proportional spacing) font data creation processing procedure related to the present invention, and Fig. 2 is the above-mentioned non-PS font data creation process. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a document creation device for realizing a procedure; FIG.

In Figure 2, lO is a microprocessor (hereinafter referred to as C
RAM 512 accessed by the CPU 10 is a ROM.

CPU10 controls the entire device, and the RAM
By accessing II and ROM 12 and activating a program according to input instructions, processes for creating documents in Japanese and English and European languages, as well as processes for creating font data for Non-PS as shown in FIG. 1 above, are executed. RAMII has
A document area, line image area (print buffer), etc. are secured. The ROM 12 includes a program area 13 that stores programs for determining the operation of the CPU10 and input/output processing programs including a non-PS font data creation routine as shown in FIG. It has a character pattern area 14 for converting characters, a dictionary area 15 in which various dictionaries for converting readings input in kana or Roman characters into kanji are registered.

Also, 16 is the keyboard (KB), 18 is the display, 2
1 is a floppy disk device (FDD), and 23 is a printer (PRT). A keyboard (KB) 16 inputs input information necessary for document creation etc. to the CPULO via a keyboard interface (KB-IF) 17.

The keyboard 1B is provided with various function keys (none of which are shown), including character keys, cursor keys, and the like, as well as selection/execution keys used to select/execute various processes. The display device I8 is composed of, for example, a 10-line liquid crystal display device. Display controller (
The display CNT)'19 controls the display of the display 18 using the display RAM (dot memory) 20 under the control of the CPU10. The floppy disk device 21 connects to the CPU via a disk interface (FDD-IF) 22.
Under the control of l0, it is used to save created documents and to store PS (Brobotional Spacing) font data (vector font data) for each character of various typefaces. The printer 23 communicates with C through a printer interface (PRT-IF) 24.
Under the control of PU10, it is used to print documents, etc. in the font specified by the user's keyboard 1B operation.

Next, the operation of one embodiment of the present invention will be described in the flowchart shown in FIG. 1, the block diagram shown in FIG.
This will be explained with reference to the operation explanatory diagram in the figure.

In the document creation device shown in FIG. 2, PS font data that defines the font outline of each character of various fonts is stored on the floppy disk device 21 (R2M17 (Also available) are prepared in advance. In the document creation device shown in Figure 2,
Out of the various fonts (font data) prepared in the floppy disk device 21, the font (font data) requested by the user through the keyboard 16 operation is used to print a document in the PS system. Furthermore, in the document creation device shown in FIG.
When on-PS document printing is requested, the PS font data of the requested font is converted to non-PS font data as described below, and this conversion data is used to Printing is done.

Now, assume that Non-PS printing in the following font is requested by the user's keyboard 1B operation. For convenience of explanation, the first line of the document targeted for Non-PS printing consists of three characters, and the size of the character space is adjusted according to the font size (character width, etc.) to manage the tracking width. In FIG. 3(a), it is assumed that there are differences as shown by symbols FO to F2. When the CPU 10 detects the above-mentioned request from the keyboard 16 via the keyboard interface 17, it first selects the starting point of a virtual character frame (hereinafter referred to as one character space) Sl (i=0) of a predetermined size as shown in FIG. 3(b). (Here, the upper left end) X (description of horizontal and vertical coordinates is omitted) is determined (step At). Here, the starting point X (indicated as X (0) in FIG. specified). One character space S1 is N
This is a virtual rectangular frame for determining the feed width of on-PS printing, and its width (horizontal width) ΔX is constant.

Next, the CPU 10 reads PS font data corresponding to the characters to be printed (in this case, the characters of the font FO) from the floppy disk device 21 into a predetermined area of the RAM 1 via the disk interface 22 (step A2). ). This PS font data defines the outline of the corresponding font F1 as a vector, but the PS font data
In order to manage the printing feed width, the character space (rectangular character frame corresponding to one character space Sl) differs for each character as described above. Furthermore, the outline of the font Fi defined by the PS font data is defined by a vector with the upper left corner of the character space as a reference. Therefore, the font Fi indicated by the PS font data is used as it is in one character space S.
t, it will be placed on the left side of one character space S1 as shown in Figure 3(c), and the correct Non-P
S printing is not possible.

Therefore, in this embodiment, PS font data is converted into Non-PS data as follows. First, based on the font data read into RAMII, CPU10 reads the character font Fi (i
=0), and extract this character width and one character space S1
From the width ΔX, the shift amount ΔX necessary to place the character font Fi in the center of one character space St is determined by the following formula (% formula %) (Step A3). Next, CPUl0
Some vectors (coordinates) indicated by the font data (of font Fi) read into AMII are
It is shifted to the right by the shift amount ΔX determined in step A3 (step A4).

In this example, only the start point of the first vector is shown in absolute coordinates from the upper left corner of the character space, and the end point of the first vector and the end points of several subsequent vectors (the end point of one vector is indicated by the absolute coordinates from the upper left corner of the character space). (The starting point coordinates are not required for vectors other than the first vector.)
is indicated by relative coordinates from the starting point of the leading vector, so in step A4, it is sufficient to shift only the starting point of the leading vector by ΔX. The font Fi indicated by the font data converted by the shift processing in step A4 above is one character space S as shown in FIG. 3(d), regardless of the original character space size.
It will be located at the center of t. That is, the font Fi
The vertical central axis of (original character space) coincides with the vertical central axis of one character space Si.

After completing step A4, CPU10 uses the ΔX-shifted PS font data as Non-PS font data, and prints the well-known X on the row image area (print buffer) of RAMII with X as the starting point of one character space Si. Pattern development is performed (step A5). In this step A5, after the pattern is developed on the work area of RAMII, the developed pattern may be stored in one character space Sl having X as the starting point on the row image area of RAMII.

Note that the above explanation is for the case where the font indicated by the font data is expanded into a pattern at the same size, but if enlargement or reduction is involved, step A2. It should be noted that the one-character space S1 described in the process of A3 is different from the one-character space St described in the process of step A5.

That is, the former is one character space of basic size, and the latter is one character space of enlarged or reduced size.

When CPUl0 finishes step A5, it checks whether processing for all characters in one line has been completed, and if not, it adds ΔX to X (in this case, X(0)) and moves to the next character space Si (here, 1-1), the starting point X (here, X(1)) is found, and steps A2 to A5 are executed for the PS font data corresponding to the next character. By repeating the above process for each character in the line to be printed, the font pattern of each character is created as shown in Figure 3 (d
), line images arranged at equal intervals and centered in each character space S1 are generated in the line image area of RAMII. Therefore, by printing the image of this row image area using the printer 23, it is possible to
- PS printing results can be obtained.

In addition, in the above embodiment, when developing a single character pattern for printing, the corresponding PS font data is read and Δ
Although the method (first method) of creating non-PS font data by performing data conversion using the X shift operation has been described, the present invention is not limited to this method. For example, regarding PS font data for all characters of a font requested by a user, steps A2 to A4 in FIG. 1 are executed to create corresponding Non-PS font data and the corresponding - It is also possible to apply a method (second method) in which the font data is stored in a PS font data area. In this second method, during line printing, Non-PS font data corresponding to the character to be printed is extracted from the Non-PS font data area and a known pattern is developed. Therefore, in the second method, steps A2 to A2 in FIG.
Because A4 only needs to be executed once, regardless of the number of occurrences of that character (the number of times it should be printed), the area for storing font data for all characters related to the font requested by the user is available in memory such as RAM II. This is convenient if it can be secured.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, a case has been described in which the document creation device has the function of creating documents in Japanese and English/European languages, but the document creation function is not necessarily necessary, and the present invention can print various typefaces. It can be applied to all devices that can execute using font data (vector font data).

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, the character font indicated by the PS font data is placed in the center of the virtual character frame (one character space) that determines the feed width necessary for Non-PS printing. As described above, the data conversion of the PS font data is performed, and by using the converted font data as the Non-PS font data, printing in the Non-PS system can be easily performed. That is, according to this embodiment, when a wide variety of fonts are required, such as in English and European languages, PS and Non
- Since any PS can be printed, storage areas such as floppy disks and ROMs for storing font data can be saved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an example of the non-PS (non-fist proportional medium spacing) font data creation processing procedure related to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the non-PS font data creation processing procedure described above. A block configuration diagram showing an example of a document creation device for
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the non-PS font data creation processing procedure, and FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining PS (proportional spacing) printing. IO...CPU, 11...RAM, 12...RO
M, 13...Program area, 16...Keyboard (KB), 21...Floppy disk device (FDD)
), 23...Printer (PRT), FO~F2...
- Font, SO to S2...1 character space (virtual character frame). Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] Vector font data that defines the contours of character fonts for proportional spacing using vectors is stored in a vector font data storage means prepared in advance for various characters of various typefaces, and is used in non-proportional spacing printing processing from this vector font data storage means. A data extraction means for extracting the vector font data that is necessary or predicted to be necessary, extracts the character width of the character font indicated by the vector font data extracted by the data extraction means, and extracts the character width and Based on the width of a virtual character frame of a predetermined size for determining the feed width of non-proportional spacing printing, the character font indicated by the extracted vector font data is placed in the center of the virtual character frame. a shift amount calculation means for calculating a shift amount necessary for the vector font data extracted by the data extraction means; data generation means for converting font data and generating vector font data for non-proportional spacing; A printing method using vector font data characterized by proportional spacing printing.