JPH03168694A - Outline font development system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the time for development and to allow high-speed drawing by scanning only the memory region enclosed by the max. value and the min. value and executing face painting at the time of developing the dot data of contour lines in a constituting element unit from an outline font. CONSTITUTION:A CPU 18 erases the contents of a work memory 12 by the plotting command for characters and a vector developing section 10 plots the constituting element in the contour memory 12-1 of a memory 12 while referencing the contour line data of the outline font of the characters in a main memory 20. The address of the contour lines which an address monitoring circuit 28 draws in a max. and min. value detecting section 14 is simultaneously monitored and the max. value and min. value of X-, Y-coordinates are stored. A face painting circuit 16 scans the memory 12-1 in the scanning range determined by the max. value and min. value of the X-, Y-coordinates stored at the time of plotting of the contour lines and paints out the corresponding region of the development memory 12-1 in conformity with the region enclosed by the contour lines. The character font developed to the dot data is thus obtd.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] The present invention relates to an outline font development method in which outline font data, in which contour coordinates are divided into a plurality of constituent elements and held, is developed into dot data and drawn, and the present invention aims to shorten the development time. The purpose is to detect the maximum and minimum values of coordinates when expanding each component from font data into outline dot data in memory, and to extract only the memory area surrounded by the detected maximum and minimum values after expansion. Configure it so that it can be operated and painted. Also, in parallel with the surface painting, the next +tlIcE WM Shina-J=1=
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TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an outline font development method for developing an outline font in which outline coordinates of character symbols, etc. are divided into a plurality of constituent elements and retained, into dot data.

In recent years, with the spread of word processors and desktop publishing (DTP) systems, there has been a demand for further improvements in print quality, and among these demands, there is a particularly high demand for improvements in character quality.

Specifically, there is a need for the ability to display various types of fonts (Mincho, Gothic, etc.) in any size on a display or output them to a printer.

In such a system, when displaying or printing, it is necessary to develop the outline font, which is prepared as outline coordinate data, into dot data, which takes time to draw, and it takes time to develop the outline font. It is desirable to shorten the time required.

[Prior art] Conventionally, high-quality characters can be obtained using dot fonts by increasing the number of dots that make up the characters, but as the number of dots increases, a huge amount of memory is required. It was not realistic.

In order to solve this problem, an outline font was devised that stores the outline coordinates of characters divided into multiple constituent elements, and by adopting Outlife Ont, character font information can be compressed and stored. It is now possible to obtain high quality characters with an inexpensive device without increasing memory capacity.

Outline fonts, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, have only information regarding the outlines of characters. For this reason,
In order to actually draw outline fonts as characters, it is necessary to develop the outline data into the original dot font.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of a conventional outline font development method.

In FIG. 5, 18 is a CPU, 20 is a memory that compresses and stores outline fonts, 10 is a vector expansion section, 12 is a working memory, 16 is a surface painting circuit, 22 is a display memory, 24 is a display controller, and 26 is a It's a display.

The development of Outlife Ont using the conventional method shown in Figure 5 is as follows:
First, after erasing the working memory 12 as shown in FIG. 7(a), the vector development unit 10, according to instructions from the CPU 8, erases the outline data of the outline font shown in FIG. 6 stored in the memory 16. While referring to it, outlines of characters are drawn one by one on the working memory 12 as shown in FIG. 7(b). After drawing all the outlines,
Next, the area painting circuit 16 sequentially scans the entire working memory 12 row by row, and fills in the area surrounded by the outline as shown in FIG. 6(C). After the filling is completed by the surface painting circuit 16, the data of the character font shown in FIG. 7(d) developed on the working memory 12 is transferred to the display memory 22, so that the developed characters are displayed on the display 26.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, compared to dot fonts where the font data can be drawn as is, outline fonts require a development process in which the font data is developed into outline data and then filled with dot data. Therefore, there was a problem that the character drawing speed decreased.

The present invention has been made in view of these conventional problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an outline font development method that can shorten the development time and perform high-speed drawing.

[Means to solve the problem] FIG. 1 is a diagram explaining the principle of the present invention.

First, the present invention is directed to an outline font development method in which outline font data, in which outline coordinates of characters and symbols etc. are divided and held for each of a plurality of constituent elements, is developed into dot data.

Regarding such an outline font development method, the present invention includes a vector development section 10 that develops outline font data as outline dot data on the memory 12 in units of constituent elements; and a component developed by the vector development section 10. Maximum value of coordinates (Xmax, Yma
x ) and the minimum value (Xmin, Ymin); and a maximum/minimum value detection unit 14 that detects the maximum and minimum values (Xmin, Ymin); It is configured to provide a surface coating section 16 for performing the coating.

Here, in parallel with the surface painting by the surface painting section 16, the vector development section 10 is configured to develop the next component on the memory as outline dot data.

[Operation] According to the outline font development method of the present invention, when the outline dot data is developed from the outline font in units of constituent elements, a rectangular memory area containing the outline of one constituent element is is detected from the maximum and minimum values of the coordinates, and only the minimum value and the memory area surrounded by the minimum value are scanned and painted, compared to the conventional method that scans the entire memory and paints the area. The processing time for surface painting can be shortened and drawing speed can be increased.

Furthermore, since the next component is developed into outline dot data in parallel with the surface painting of the already developed component, the time required to develop it into dot data can be further shortened.

[Embodiment] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 18 denotes a CPU, which controls the overall processing of the apparatus for developing outline font data into dot data. A main memory 20 stores outline font data in which the outline coordinates of a character are divided into a plurality of constituent elements.

The main memory 20 stores, for example, the outline font data for "small" shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3(b), the outline font data is stored in the form of a coordinate string of component 1, a coordinate string of component 2, and a coordinate string of component 3.

Referring again to FIG. 2, in order to develop the outline font data in the main memory 20 into dot data, a vector development section 10, a working memory 12, a surface painting circuit 16,
As the maximum/minimum value detection section 14, an address monitoring circuit 28 and a maximum/minimum value storage circuit 30 are provided.

Further, the working memory 12 includes two contour memories 12-1.1.
2-2 and a development memory 12-3, and during the filling process of the contour dot data developed in the contour memory 12-1, the next component is developed in the contour memory 12-2, and the final The expanded dot data is created in the expanded memory 12-3.

Furthermore, in order to display the dot data expanded from the outline font to the CPU 18, the display memory 2
2. Display controller 24 and display 2
6 is provided.

Next, the outline font development process of the present invention according to the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 will be explained with reference to the process explanatory diagram shown in FIG. 4.

Now, if the CPU 18 is instructed to draw the character "small" shown in FIG. 3(a), the CPU 18 first erases the contents of the working memory 12, and then instructs the vector development section 10 to start processing. The vector development unit 1o that received the instruction from the CPU 18 stores the outline data of the outline font of the character "small" stored in the main memory 20 in the outline memory 12-1 of the working memory 12. Draw the first component as shown in Figure 7 ■.

At the same time as the vector development unit 10 draws the outline of the component in the outline memory 12-1 in the work memory 12, the maximum/minimum value detection unit 14 is provided with an address of 9 times. I am monitoring Bo's 7K responses, and
, Y-like maximum and minimum values are stored in the maximum and minimum value storage circuit 30, respectively.

As shown in FIG. 4, when the outline drawing of the first component is completed, the maximum value (Xll
llll, Y111111) and the minimum value (Xminl
, Yminl) are stored.

Next, when drawing of one contour line is completed, the surface painting circuit 16 is activated, and at this time, the maximum value (Xma!l, Ymaxl) and minimum value (Xmi
Only the area of the contour line memory 12-1 in the working memory 12, which is the scanning range 32 shown by the broken line in FIG. A surface painting process is performed to fill in the corresponding area of the expanded memory 12-3 in FIG. 4 as shown in FIG. During the filling process by the filling circuit 16, the vector development unit 10 refers to the outline data of the next constituent element of the outline font for the character "small" stored in the main memory 20 according to instructions from the CPU 18. As shown in FIG. 4, the process of drawing the contour lines of the next component one by one in another contour memory 12-2 in the working memory 12 is performed in parallel. Simultaneously with this second contour drawing process, the address monitoring circuit 28 monitors the address of the contour to be drawn and determines the maximum value of the X, Y coordinates (Xmax2
, Ymax2) and the minimum value (Xmin2, Ymin
2) is detected and stored in the maximum/minimum value storage circuit 30.

In this way, when the filling of the first component shown in FIG. Based on the maximum and minimum values stored in the memory circuit 30, the contour memory 12-2 in the working memory 12 is scanned in the range shown by the broken line in FIG. Then, the corresponding area of the expanded memory 12-3 is filled in as shown in FIG.

In parallel with the filling process of the second component shown in FIG.
The outline of the third component is drawn in the outline memory 12-1 in the working memory 12, as shown in FIG.

Then, when the outline drawing of the last component shown in FIG.
The maximum value of the X, Y coordinates stored in (Xmax3, Ym
The contour memory 12-1 is scanned within the scanning range 32 determined by the minimum values (Xmin3, Ymin3) and the corresponding area of the expansion memory 12-3 is set as shown in Fig. 4 (■) according to the area surrounded by the contour line. By filling in as shown, a character font developed into dot data can be obtained.

The fourth data expanded in the expansion memory 12-3 of the working memory 12
The dot font data shown in FIG.

In the above embodiment, the outline font is developed into dot data and then displayed on the display, but the same applies to the case of printing on a printer. In addition, the working memory 12 is divided into two areas, an outline memory 12-1, 12-2 area and an expanded memory 12-3 area, and in parallel with the filling of the outline of the character component drawn in one outline memory. Then, the outline drawing of the next component is performed in the other outline memory to speed up the process, but it is also possible to use one memory area in the working memory 12 and repeat the outline development and area painting sequentially. Of course.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, when expanding and drawing constituent elements of an outline font on memory, the maximum and minimum coordinate values are detected and the maximum and minimum values are calculated. Since only the memory area surrounded by the outline font is scanned and filled, the time required for the filling process can be significantly reduced compared to the conventional method of scanning the entire memory area and filling the area.As a result, the outline font The processing time required to develop and draw a dot font can be significantly reduced.

Further, since the next contour line is drawn and developed on the memory in parallel with the filling of the contour line drawn on the memory, the development processing time can be further shortened and high-speed drawing can be performed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the principle of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of coordinate data of an outline font of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of processing of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional system; FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of outline font data; and FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional outline font. In the figure, 10: Vector expansion section 12 memory (work memory) 12-1.12-2: Contour memory 12-3: Expansion memory 14: Maximum/minimum value detection section 16 double-sided painting section (circuit) 18: CPU 20: Main memory 22: Display memory 24: Display controller 26: Display 28: Address monitoring circuit 30: Maximum/minimum value storage circuit 32: Covering scanning range

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In the outline font development method, which stores outline font data by dividing the outline coordinates of character symbols etc. into multiple constituent elements and develops them into dot data, the outline font data is stored in memory (in units of constituent elements).
12) A vector development unit (10) that develops contour line dot data on the vector development unit (10); maximum values (Xmax, Ymax) and minimum values (X
A maximum/minimum value detection unit (14
); and a surface painting section (16) that performs surface painting only on the area of the memory (12) surrounded by the maximum and minimum values detected by the maximum and minimum value detection section (14). An outline font development method characterized by: (2) In parallel with the surface painting by the surface painting section (16), the vector development section (10) develops the next component as outline dot data on the memory (12). Outline font development method described in 1.