JPH03153298A - Document output device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To output a specified character output in a specified area by determining the size of a character pattern generated from a character string which is inputted in an output area indicated by a host device and controlling the generation of the character pattern of the character string of determined size according to character font information. CONSTITUTION:A character generator 105 refers to a font name 701 and scale factors (SH)702 and (SW)703 in a font control register 111 and reads print positions 603 and character codes 604 out of a character string memory 116 by the number of characters, i.e. 601 in order to generate the character pattern at the positions corresponding to the values of the print positions 603 of respective characters. At this time, the character generator 105 reads out normally encoded contour information in order from the head address of a character code C1 in a font memory 109 and performs arithmetic based upon the scale factors SH and SW and contour information to develop a dot pattern of specified size. Consequently, a document is displayed and outputted in the area.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a document output device that can generate characters of arbitrary size in a predetermined area.

[Prior Art] The size of characters displayed and output on conventional document output devices, such as CRT display devices and printing devices, was a fixed size. The main reason for this was that the storage capacity for storing character fonts was limited. This is because in the case of kanji in particular, since the number of characters is large, it is not possible to store character pattern data of various sizes, and only pattern information of a certain specific size can be stored. On the other hand, in the 1970s, high-end digital typesetting machines encoded characters in a normalized format independent of resolution and character size, stored them in a storage device, and retrieved them from the storage device as needed. In consideration of this, a method was proposed to reproduce characters by converting them to a specified character size. However, these were expensive and were not used as peripheral devices for relatively low-cost computers.

However, recently, with the development of computer technology and device technology, the speed of CPU devices has become faster, the price of memory, etc. has decreased, and word processing has become popular, so the above method is also being applied to document output devices connected to personal computers etc. came into use.

These methods memorize the contours and skeletons of characters as curves or straight lines, and generate characters by calculating the pattern depending on the output size and resolution, or store character patterns as dot information. Then, the character pattern size was changed by performing thinning and interpolation according to the output character size. In either case, the shape information of each character is encoded as information that does not depend on the character size or resolution, so it can be said that regular encoding is performed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above conventional example, the host computer first specifies the type of font (font, etc.) to be used for the document output device, and then specifies the character size, print position, and character code. to form an image. In that case, whether or not all the characters will fit on the recording medium on which the image is formed depends entirely on the host computer's instructions to output the characters. That is, on the document output device side, image formation cannot be performed on the image data portion that protrudes from the recording medium.

In this case, if all the character sizes are constant (called fixed spacing characters), the host computer can determine the printing position of each character by simple calculation, but if the characters are displayed in various sizes, Calculations for determining character positions become complicated. In particular, when each character has a different size (this is called a proportional spacing character), the width of all characters (called a set width)
This is not possible unless the host computer stores it. In addition, if you use a font that is built in to the document output device, the host computer also remembers its size etc. (However, if you use characters added as an option, the host computer The width of each character set of the optional font must also be stored in the storage device, and this task becomes enormous.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and the size of the characters is changed to match the specified area so that the specified character string can be outputted within the specified area, and the document is output. The purpose is to provide processing equipment.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the document output device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a document output device that has character font information, inputs document information as code information, develops a pattern, and outputs it,
an output area instructed by a host device; a character size determining means for determining the size of a character pattern to be generated from a character string input to the output area; and a size determined by the character size determining means. and control means for controlling the generation of a character pattern of the character string based on character font information.

[Operation] In the above configuration, when an output area and a character string to be included in the output area are input from the host device, the size of the character pattern to be generated is determined based on these areas and the character string.

It operates to generate a character pattern for the character string based on the character font information using the character size determined in this way.

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

[Description of Printer Control Unit (Fig. 1)] Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the printer control unit of this embodiment.

In FIG. 1, 100 is a controller that performs the main control, and 101 is an output signal 12 output from the controller 100.
This is a printing mechanism section that receives 0 and prints on a recording medium, and corresponds to this, for example, the printer section of a wire dot printer or the printer engine section of a laser beam printer.

Reference numeral 102 denotes an input command from a host computer (not shown), which is input to an input interface unit that receives input commands from the host computer.

104 is a CPU that performs control to be described in detail later;
Various controls are performed according to control programs stored in M141. 142 is a RAM used as a work area for the CPU 104. 105 is CPU10
This is a character generator that inputs instructions from 4 and generates a character pattern of a desired size. 106 is an image memory;
The character pattern generated by the character generator 105 is stored at - time.

107 is an output interface section, and an image memory 106
The image data is read out from the print mechanism section 101, and an output signal 120 is outputted to the printing mechanism section 101. A character string buffer 108 stores document information input from the host computer as code information. A font memory 109 stores a plurality of normalized character patterns, and a font selection circuit 110 selects and reads a desired font from the font memory 109 in response to instructions from the CPU 104 or the character generator 105.

111 is a font control register used by the character generator 105; 112 is a current print position register that stores the current print position; 113 is an area register;
Memorize the height and width of the area specified in step 2. Reference numeral 115 denotes an allocation process register for storing the allocation process designated by the input command 102. A character string memory 116 stores characters calculated by the CPU 104 and the positions where the characters are to be printed. 120 is an output interface section 107
This is an output signal (image signal) output via the .

FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams showing examples of character patterns.

In FIG. 2, FIG. 2(A) shows an example of a pattern 201 of kanji "characters" generated by the character generator 105, and
The figure shows an example of the pattern 202 of the Roman letter "T". The size of the 0 character is generally determined by the character height 203, and the size of the 0 character is generally determined by the character height 203, and the unit is a point (approximately 1/72 inch), such as a 10 point character or a 12 point character. The font size is specified in points. In the case of type, the type frame is determined by this size. Characters are placed within this character frame, but the actual size of the characters varies depending on the character design.

In Figure 2, in the case of kanji 201, the character height 203 and the character center (set width) 204 are the same size,
In the case of Roman letters 202, the character height is 203 and the character middle is 205.
is different. In this way, in the case of Kanji fonts, all characters have the same set width, but in the case of Roman fonts, there are fonts that all have the same set width (fixed spacing fonts), and different set widths for each character. There is a proportional spacing font. However, in either case, the character size is based on the character height 203 (specified in points).

However, the object of this embodiment is to propose a document output device that includes a method for specifying character size in a format different from the conventional method of designation described above, and a method for determining character size.

[Explanation of character output operation (Figures 3 to 9) 1 Figure 3 shows image 3 which is an example of image data formed by this device.
01, this image data corresponds to one screen when displayed on a CRT display, and corresponds to one sheet of paper when printed out by a printing device. Alternatively, it may be considered as the image memory 106 and image data.

Here, the host computer specifies the area height 303 and area middle 304 of the area 302 to be printed, and then
By simply specifying the character string 306 to be printed in 02, an image can be formed in a size and position suitable for that area. At this time, the area 302 is placed on the image 301 at a position based on the current print position 305 stored in the current position register 112 such that the center of the area height 303 forms the boundary between the upper and lower areas. This printing start position 305 can be designated by a command from the host computer.

In the above configuration, the host computer first specifies the position 305 at which printing is to start. This command is input command 10
2 and the CPU 1 via the input interface unit 103.
Input by 04. The CPU 104 stores this value in the current position register 112. Next, the host computer specifies the area 302 to be printed and the character string to be printed therein.

FIG. 4 shows the instruction codes from the host computer that specify this character string, including area height processing codes 402 to 402.
It is designated by a character code string 406. These data 4
It is surrounded by an instruction start code 4011 and an end code 407 around 02 to 406. In this way, a series of continuous code strings becomes an input command 102 and is sent to the input interface section 10.
3.

In FIG. 4, 401 is a command start code, and CP
This is a code that instructs U104 to start a series of these commands. 402 is a parameter representing the area height 303;
3 is a parameter representing the area 304, and 404 is a parameter instructing various processes to be explained in detail later. 4
05 is a font name specifying the type of font, which is stored in 701 in the font control register 111 and is used to determine the character generator 105 to be accessed by the CPU 104 when generating a font. 406 is a character code string specifying a character string to be printed (displayed) in the specified area 302. In the case of kanji, these codes are specified by 2-byte codes (JISXO208 codes, etc.). Since the end code 407 is composed of a code different from the character code, the end of the character string 406 is identified by the end code 407.

When the CPU 104 inputs the character code string 406, the CPU 104 stores the input code string in the character string buffer 108 until the end code 407 is reached, and when the CPU 104 recognizes the end code 407, it assumes that this command has ended and proceeds to the next step.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of code data stored in the character string buffer 108.

501 is the number of characters input to the character string buffer 108 (n)
It shows. After this number of characters 501, character codes C0 to C+'l-1 input from the host computer are stored in the order of input.

Next, the scale factor (enlargement/reduction ratio) will be explained. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the data structure of the font control register 111.

The scale factor in the height direction is S8%, and the scale factor in the width direction is Sw. Then, the value of the area height 303 stored in the area register 113 is set to A8, and the area middle 3
Let the value of 04 be Ay.

Here, the following rules are adopted.

The character height 203 (H) is made equal to the area height 303 (A, ) (Rule 1).

Next, the process of determining the width of the character at this time will be explained.

■In the case of kanji, the height and width are the same, so the set width is 204 (W)
) is equal to the character height (H), that is, (A, ).Currently, the font memory 109 has information about the entire font in addition to the information about the shape of each character, which is the normalized coordinate size. or font name, etc. Therefore, when the normalized coordinate size is defined as height MH and width M, all characters included in the font are normalized with the coordinates defined by M□ and My.

As a result, the scale factor SH can be obtained using the following formula.

Here, S-"SN is used, and R6 is the resolution.

In order to calculate equation (1), the CPU 104 inputs the font name 701 (FIG. 7) in the font selection register 111 via the font selection circuit 110, and the font selection circuit 110 selects the starting address of the font from the CPU 104.
Returning to step 4, the CPU 104 reads M H and M w in the font memory 109 from the start address. 1) Calculates the equation to find the scale factor SN.

S, S, obtained in this way are scale factors SH702 and S in the font control register 111, respectively.
v 703.

Next, in the area 304 (A,), the character code string C0 to C
When the character specified by n-1 is output in the character size determined by rule 1, it is checked whether it fits within the area Aw. In the case of a kanji font, H=W as described above, so it can be determined using the above equation (2). i is rounded down to the nearest whole number, that is, if i is greater than or equal to n, the specified character string will be placed in the area 302. At this time, the value of n is written into the character number 601 (FIG. 6) of the character string memory 116. Furthermore, if i is smaller than n, it indicates that the specified character string cannot be placed in the area 302, and since only i characters can be accommodated in this case, the value of i is Write to the number of characters 601 in the column memory 116.

■In the case of a European fixed spacing font, unlike the above-mentioned case of Kanji characters, the height and width of the characters are not equal, so the inside of each character is determined at the same ratio as . After that, the sizes of i and n are compared in the same way as in the case of Kanji fonts.

Further, the method of writing to the number of characters 601 in the character string memory 116 is the same.

■In the case of a European proportional spacing font In the case of a proportional font, the set width differs for each character, so it cannot be determined by a simple calculation of the width M of the normalized coordinate size.In this case, the CPU 104 The process is carried out according to the diagram, and the control program for executing this process is stored in the ROM 141.

In step S1, the counter i and the counter W□ in the general character are initialized to "0". In step S2, the character code string C0 to C stored in the character string buffer 108 is
t+++ is read out for one character code according to the value of the counter l.Next, from the character code C6 read in step S3, 1 is stored in the font memory via the font selection circuit 110.
The starting address of the code in 09 is read out. Next, in step S4, the set width Wl corresponding to the character code C0 is read out from that address.

Next, in step S5, A.

The width of each character is calculated by W mp = W mp + W i X y- and added to Wl in the overall character.

Next, in step S6, the size of W*P and the area width A are compared, and if A is equal or larger, the process proceeds to step S8, and if smaller, the process proceeds to step S7.
In this case, since the area width Aw is exceeded, i is subtracted by 1, and A.

As W mp= W sp-W i X -wr-,
Return Wl in the general character to the previous value.

On the other hand, in step S8, since the area width A has not yet been exceeded, l is increased by 1.

In step S9, it is determined whether or not it has ended. If not, the process returns to step S2 and the same process is repeated. If it has ended, the process advances to step SIO, and stores i and Wmp in the character string memory shown in FIG. 116 characters 60
1 and is written in 602 in the general setting.

If the specified character string 406 (Fig. 4) does not fit into the specified area 302, count up to the number of character strings that will fit, and create values to be set in the number of characters 601 and the total middle 602. .

On the other hand, if the size is determined using the area height 303 as the character height, and the size does not fit within the area 302, Rule 2, which will be described later, may be adopted so that the character can be accommodated within the area 302. explain.

First, as rule 2, the size of the character is determined from the character width.

■For fixed spacing fonts.

Note that here, S'□=S'.

■Proportional spacing font bottle entrance... (5) That is, the process is performed by removing step S6 from the flowchart of FIG.

Furthermore, from equation (4), by changing Sw, W mp
can be changed.

Here, S'w=S w xβ and S', is the new Sw. Similarly, it is assumed that S"s"S'-.

Thus obtained S'H and S'- are each 702.7
03, and n is the number of characters in the string memory 116, 60.
1, and A is set to 602 in total.

Next, the process for determining the print position will be explained. Note that here, when all of the character strings 00 to C7- stored in the character string buffer 108 are stored within the designated area 302, each character is allocated within the area.

The parameters of process 404 shown in FIG. 4 determine the location of this layout. FIG. 9 shows an example.

In FIG. 9, 901 indicates the case where the value of the parameter in process 404 is "0", and printing (
displayed). On the other hand, 902 indicates the case where the value of the parameter in the process 404 is 1'', and here the right-aligned printing (
displayed). Note that the parameters of this process 404 are stored in the process register 115.

[Description of Print Position Determination Process (Figure 1O)] Each step of the process of arranging characters within an area will be described below with reference to the flowchart of Figure 1O.

Note that the control program that executes this process is stored in the ROM 14.
1 is stored.

First, in step S11, the current printing position information 305 (FIG. 3) is read from the current position register 112, and the X coordinate value of this value is set to Px, and the Y coordinate value of this value is set to Pl.Next, the process advances to step S12. The position is a position lower than the current print position 305 by (character height)/2.

In step S13, the allocation reads the processing register 115,
Check whether the value is "O" (left justified). “0”
If not (that is, when it is 1), since right-justified printing is performed, the process proceeds to step S14, and the value Aw in the area stored in the area register 113 and the total value 602 in the character string memory 116 are
Read out (W-p) and find R from R=A-Wmp. Then, the X coordinate Px of the current position register is advanced by R.

The position thus determined is shown at 308 in FIG.

On the other hand, if the value of the allocation processing register 115 is "O" in step S13, step S14 is skipped and the process proceeds to the next step S15.

Since the starting position of the first character is indicated by Px and Py, the printing position is then determined for each character and the character code 604 corresponding to the printing position 603 is written in the character string memory 116. In step S15, loop counter i is initialized, in step S16, Px and Pl are written, and in step S17, character code CI is input from character string buffer 108.
The character code area 60 of the character string memory 116 is read out.
Write in 4.

In step 318, position register Px is set to character code C.
Update the font width to correspond to the current font size of I. At this time, in the case of fixed spacing characters, the character width is a constant value, which is M w x S w /Ra. On the other hand, in the case of proportional spacing, the set width W1 corresponding to character code C6 is read out from the font memory 109 via the font selection circuit 110, and
+ Proceed with X S w / Ra.

In step S19, the address of the character string memory 116 indicating the print position 603 and character code 604 is advanced by one. Next, in step S20, the counter l is incremented by 1, and in step S21, the counter l is compared with the value of the number of characters 601 stored at the beginning of the character string memory 116.
It is determined whether all character codes in the character string memory 116 have been processed. If the value of the counter i is smaller than the value of the number of characters 601, the process is not finished, so the process returns to step S16 and the above-described process is repeated.

When the creation of the character string memory 116 is completed in this way, the CP
U104 instructs the character generator 105 to start character expansion.0 The character generator 105 inputs the font control register i.
Font name 701 and scale factor (
With reference to SN) 702 and (S,) 703, the print position 603 and character code 604 of the character string memory 116 are sequentially read for 601 characters. Then, a character pattern is generated at a position corresponding to the value of the print position 603 of each character in the image memory 106.

At this time, the character generator 105 is connected to the font selection circuit 110.
The character code C in the font memory 109 is
Find out the start address of the font data of I. The normally encoded contour information is sequentially read from this first address,
The scale factors S, , S and their contour information are calculated and developed into a dot pattern of a specified size. When the character development for one character is completed, the print position 6039 character code 604 corresponding to the next character code is read out, and the same processing as described above is performed for the number of characters 601. When processing for all characters is completed in this way, the area 30 of the image memory 106
2, the specified character pattern has been created.

[Other Examples] In the above example, Rule 2 is adopted to calculate equation (4) or (6).
), and then set S'H equal to S'. This is because in the case of kanji, the height and width of characters are equal. However, without changing S'H, It is also possible to change only ``w, that is, the character height is the same as the area height, and the character width is adjusted to fit it into the area.As a result, in the case of kanji, the height direction is smaller than the character width. It becomes an elongated shape.

The output example when S,=S is closed is shown in 1101 in Fig. 11, and the output example when SH#SW is set is shown in 1102 in Fig. 11.
In addition, although this embodiment shows an example of horizontal writing, vertical writing is also possible. In the case of vertical writing, the left side of the characters is rotated by 90 degrees, and S and 4 become Sw and Sw becomes SN. Therefore, in the case of SH≠SW, if the text is written vertically, it becomes horizontally extended. This example is shown at 1103 in FIG.

Further, in this embodiment, it is assumed that the input command is input from an external device such as a host computer, but the input data may be stored in an external storage device such as a floppy disk or a hard disk.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the character size is determined using the area height as the character height, but this means that if the character size is the same, the height is constant for all characters regardless of whether they are Kanji or Roman characters. That's why.

For this reason, the size may be determined by character width first, but since there is a risk that there will be too much space between characters, it is preferable to match character height to area height first.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, the host computer that outputs print or display data can adjust the character size to fit the area by simply specifying the area and the character string to be displayed/output within that area. etc., and that string is output.

This eliminates the need for the host computer to remember the width of each character (it can also handle the addition of new fonts as an option).

[Other Embodiments (Figs. 12 and 13)] In Fig. 9 of the above-mentioned embodiment, left-aligned,
Although the case of right alignment has been shown, here, an example is shown in which the processing parameter 404 of FIG. 4 is added, especially in the case of Kanji characters.

FIG. 12(A) is a diagram showing an example of these parameters,
FIG. 12(B) shows an example of displaying character strings specified by these parameters.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a process with such layout, and since this process is a slightly modified version of the flowchart in FIG. 10, parts that are the same as those in FIG. Omitted.

In step S31, the contents of the allocation processing register 115 in which the parameters of the process 404 are temporarily stored are read out, and the contents of the parameters are determined. The case where the parameter value is "O" and "1" is the same as the tenth case, so the case where it is "2" or more will be explained.

When the value of the parameter is "2" or more, calculate R=Aw-Wsp in the same way as when it is "1" (step 532).
, the difference between the specified area width and all characters is determined. Next, in step S35, P is advanced by R/2. This position shows position 1210 in FIG. 12(B). and,
In this case, in step S17, P is updated by adding the set width of 01.

Next, a case where the parameter value is "3" will be explained. In this case, uniform allocation l is shown, and character strings are evenly allocated within the area as shown by 1208 in FIG. 12(B). At this time, from step S31 to step S36
, the process advances to S37 and the spacing amount (S) is determined. The value of S at this time is larger than the set width (W) of the size. The value of S is determined by S = (A w - W ) / (n - 1), where Ay is the area width and W is the character set width (
Since they are Chinese characters, they all have the same value). Thus, in step S42, the value of P is updated by adding the value of S (S>W).

Next, the case where the parameter value is "4" will be explained. In this case, as shown at 1209 in Figure 12 (B), spaces are added before and after the character string within the area, and the character string is evenly distributed. It is to be assigned. In this case, the process proceeds from step S36 to step S38, and the spacing amount S is determined by S=A w /n. Next, in step S39, the pH is adjusted to (S-
W)/2 to set the printing start position 1211 (FIG. 12(B)). From then on, in step S42, P is updated by advancing by S.

In this way, document layouts such as centering and even layout as well as right-justification and left-justification are possible within the specified area.

Note that these allocation processing instructions are not only specified in the processing 404 in the input command as in this embodiment, but also
For example, the designation may be made by pressing a switch or the like, or the document may be output not only in horizontal writing but also in vertical writing as in this embodiment.

Furthermore, if you want to give priority to centering or equal allocation, you can subtract the length of the margin part from the area width in advance using (Ay-R)/n, and then determine the width (W) of each character. . By doing so, it can be distinguished from the case in the above-described embodiment, where the inside of a character is determined based on the area width and the number of characters, and the characters are evenly distributed within that area.

As described above, according to the other embodiments, document information can be displayed and outputted within a designated area with desired layout.

In the above description, the case of outputting to the printing mechanism section 101 has been explained, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can be used, for example, for displaying output to a CRT or the like, or outputting a document to a communication terminal such as a facsimile machine. It can also be applied when outputting images.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, in order to output a specified character string within a specified area, the font size is changed and output according to the specified area. effective. Therefore, the host device can display and output a document within that area by simply specifying the area and outputting the character string to be inserted there.

Furthermore, this character string can be displayed/outputted in a desired layout within that area.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the schematic configuration of the print control unit of this embodiment, Fig. 2 (A) and (B) are diagrams showing examples of the output pattern of kanji and alphabet characters, respectively, and Fig. Figure 4 is a diagram showing an example of command data from the host computer; Figure 5 is a diagram showing the data structure of the character string buffer. , FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the data structure of the character string memory, FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the data structure of the font control register, FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the process of calculating the width of a character in proportional spacing, and FIG. The figure shows an example of the layout of character strings within the area, Figure 10 is a flowchart showing the data creation process of the character string memory, Figure 11 is a diagram showing an example of data output in another embodiment, Figure 12 ( A) is a diagram showing an example of parameters for the layout of another embodiment, FIG. 12 (B) is a diagram showing an example of character string output corresponding to those parameters, and FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of the layout of other embodiments It is a flowchart which shows. In the figure, 103...input interface section, 10.4.
...CPU, 105...Character generator, 106...Image memory, 107...Output interface section, 108
...Character string buffer, 109... Font memory, 110... Font selection circuit, 111... Font control register, 112... Current print position register,
113...Area register, 115...Assignment is register, 116...Character string memory, 141...ROM,
142...RAM.

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) A document output device that has character font information, inputs document information as code information, develops a pattern, and outputs it, which includes an output area instructed by a host device and characters input into the output area. character size determining means for determining the size of a character pattern to be generated from the string; and generating a character pattern of the character string based on the character font information at the size determined by the character size determining means. A document output device comprising: a control means for controlling; and a document output device. (2) The apparatus further comprises an allocation means for allocating the character string input to the output area, and outputs a character pattern of the size generated by the control means at the position allocated by the allocation means. The document output device according to item 1. (3) A document output device that has character font information and inputs document information as code information, develops a pattern, and outputs it, comprising a document storage means for storing document information input from a host device; and the host device a storage means for storing area information for displaying/outputting the document information instructed by; a determining means for determining the size of each character pattern and the output position of each character of the document information based on the area information; A document output device comprising: control means for controlling the document information to be displayed and output in accordance with the size and position information determined by the determination means. (4) further comprising an allocation instruction means for instructing the allocation of the document information within the area specified by the area information;
5. The document output device according to claim 4, wherein said determining means determines the output position of each character based on layout information in addition to said area information and each character pattern size. (5) Claims 1 to 4, wherein the character font information is normally encoded font information.
A document output device according to any of the above.