JPH03132696A - Character processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the capacity of cache memory and to contrive the acceleration of character generating processing by reading out a dot pattern font in accordance with the compared result between a 1st information part relating to an input character and the 1st information part of a storage means or forming the dot pattern font from an outline font. CONSTITUTION:The 1st information part relating to an inputted character is compared with the 1st information part of the storage means 4, and when both the information parts coincide with each other, its corresponding dot pattern font is read out from a storage means 5. At the time of discordance, the corresponding dot pattern font is formed from the outline font 4 in accordance with the inputted 1st information part. The dot pattern font outputted from the forming means is converted into a corresponding dot pattern font in accordance with the 2nd information part relating to the inputted character. Consequently the processing speed of the whole system can be improved and the capacity of the cache memory 5 can be reduced.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a character processing device, and in particular, to a character processing device, and particularly to a character processing device that processes information regarding characters (
The present invention relates to a character processing device that generates a corresponding dot pattern font from an outline font according to information such as character set, character code, character form, etc.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, this type of device searches for a corresponding outline font based on an input character code, and then searches for form information (such as vertical characters, horizontal characters, vertically reversed characters, character size, font, etc.) associated with the character code. information) to generate the final dot pattern font. Furthermore, the dot pattern font once generated is registered in the cache memory so that it does not need to be generated again when it is reused as necessary.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, in the past, a dot pattern font that satisfies all information about a certain character was read from a cache memory or generated from an outline font, so the font generation process was frequently required. This caused the overall processing speed to decrease. Also, a considerable amount of cache memory was required.

The present invention eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and its purpose is to provide a character processing device that can process quickly as a whole and has a small cache memory capacity.

[Means and effects for solving the problem] In order to achieve the above object, the character processing device of the present invention includes a memory that stores a first information portion regarding a character and a corresponding dot pattern font in association with each other. By comparing the first information part regarding the manually inputted character with the first information part of the storage means, if they match, the corresponding dot pattern font of the storage means is read out, and if they do not match, the corresponding dot pattern font is read out. generating means for generating a corresponding dot pattern font from an outline font according to an inputted first information part; and generating a dot pattern font output from the generating means into a corresponding dot pattern font according to a second information part about the inputted character. The outline thereof is to include a conversion means for conversion.

As a result, a basic dot pattern font is generated and registered in the storage means, and when a modified dot pattern font is desired, the basic dot pattern font is generated from the outline font. To quickly obtain a target modified dot pattern font by exclusively using a converting means by omitting the steps up to the step of converting the font.

[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 configuration diagram in which an embodiment of the present invention is applied to a printing device. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an external host computer, which transfers data (character set, character code, vertical characters, horizontal characters, upside down characters, character size, etc.) regarding characters (including symbols, etc.) to be printed. A receiving buffer 2 temporarily stores data regarding characters received from the host computer 1. 3 is a CPU, which executes, for example, the print control process of the embodiment shown in FIG. Reference numeral 4 denotes a font memory, which stores fonts in outline format in this embodiment. A cache memory 5 stores a basic dot pattern font generated from an outline font according to first information regarding characters. 6 is a page buffer memory,
The received character data for one page (data related to characters) is stored. Reference numeral 7 denotes a bitmap memory, which stores one page's worth of dot pattern font (bitmap data for printing) generated and developed according to each character data in the page buffer memory 6. A rotation processor 8 rotates a reference dot pattern font read from the cache memory 5 or generated from an outline font according to second information regarding characters (rotation information in the embodiment). A printer engine 9 prints the bitmap data for printing in the bitmap memory 7 onto paper.

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

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of the information section storage area 5-2 in FIG. 2. In the figure, the information storage area 5-2 stores first information regarding characters, ie, "character set identifier", "
Stores information such as ``character code'' and ``character size.'' Therefore, in this embodiment, a basic dot pattern font is generated for each character specified by the font, character code, and character size, and is registered in the cache memory 5 if necessary. On the other hand, in this embodiment, a corresponding basic dot pattern font is not generated depending on the second information regarding characters, that is, information on vertical characters, horizontal characters, and vertically reversed characters.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of print control processing according to the embodiment. In the figure, character data is input from the page buffer memory 6 in step S1.

In step S2, the information section storage area 5-2 of the cache memory 5 is searched to see if the same character set has already been registered. If the characters have been registered, it is further checked in step S3 whether they are the same character code. If the character codes are the same, it is further checked in step S4 whether the characters are of the same size. If the character sizes are the same, the process advances to step S5 and the dot pattern font is read out.

Incidentally, if it is determined in step S4 that the character sizes are not the same, the process returns to step S3, and it is checked whether or not there is another character code with the same character code, and if there is, the character sizes are compared. Repeat this until there are no other identical character codes.

On the other hand, if the determination in step S2 or S3 is No, the process advances to step S6 and the corresponding outline font is read out. In step S7, a new basic dot pattern font as shown in FIG. 5 is generated from the read outline font and character size information. In step S8, the generated dot pattern font and its information part are registered in the empty area of the cache memory 5.

At the next time, in any of the above cases, the desired basic dot pattern font will exist in the cache memory 5. Furthermore, in step S9, it is checked whether the character is a rotated character or not. If it is a rotated character, the process proceeds to step Sll, 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. Further, if the character is not a rotated character, the process of step Sll is skipped.

In step Sho, the finally obtained dot pattern font is developed at a corresponding position in the bitmap memory 7.

In step S12, it is checked whether bitmap development of one page's worth of character data has been completed. If not completed, the process returns to step S1 and the next character data is input. If the printing has been completed, bitmap data for one page is printed in step 313.

In the above embodiment, the first information regarding characters is the character set, the character code, and the character size, and the second information regarding the characters is rotation, but the present invention is not limited to this. There are other types of information regarding characters (distorted characters, modified characters, etc.)
Furthermore, they may be combined in any way to form the first and second information.

In addition, information on the form in which characters are created is further stored in the information section of Fig. 3, and on the other hand, instead of storing only basic character patterns in the pattern storage area, for example, distorted characters (
For characters such as italic (such as italics), add additional information that can be used to identify distorted characters, and for characters that are not basic character patterns (such as distorted characters), when the format information of the input matches the format information of the stored character pattern. It is also possible to allow only basic character patterns to be used as they are, and to transform only those that are basically basic character patterns.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the capacity of the cache memory can be reduced and the overall character generation process can be speeded up.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram in which an embodiment of the present invention is applied to a printing device, FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating the storage structure of the cache memory 5 of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is the information section memory of FIG. 2. A diagram showing details of area 5-2, Figure 4 is a flowchart of print control processing in the embodiment, Figure 5 is a diagram showing an example of a dot pattern font that is the basis of the embodiment, and Figure 6 is rotation in the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a 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 . . . bitmap memory, 8 . . . rotary processor, 9 . . . printer engine. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a character processing device that generates a corresponding dot pattern font from an outline font according to information regarding characters, a first information portion regarding characters and a corresponding dot pattern font are stored in association with each other. a storage means, and by comparing a first information part regarding the inputted character with the first information part of the storage means, if they match, read out the corresponding dot pattern font of the storage means, and if they do not match, read out the corresponding dot pattern font of the storage means; generating means for generating a corresponding dot pattern font from an outline font according to the inputted first information part; and corresponding to the dot pattern font output from the generating means according to a second information part about the input character. A character processing device comprising a conversion means for converting into a dot pattern font.