JPH04160479A - Setting system for character string display position - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To set a proper display position by reducing the overlap of respective character strings by the mutual relation between the display positions of character strings displayed on the same screen. CONSTITUTION:A character string occupation rectangular area calculating means 1 calculates the coordinates of a character string occupation rectangular area that a character string 6 occupies from the display position, size, inclination, etc., of a character string which is converted to a screen coordinate system, and finds the addresses of corresponding pixels. A character string overlap area retrieval means 2 retrieves a character overlap area where the calculated addresses of the pixels overlap with the address of other character string occupation rectangular areas which are already stored in a character string occupation rectangular area control memory in pixel units. When the number of pixels in the character string overlap area is not 0, a character string overlap area minimizing means 3 moves the character string occupation rectangular area to find the minimum number of pixels constituting the character string overlap area. Consequently, the extent of the overlap of character strings is reduced to optimize display positions.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a character string display setting method, particularly in a map information processing system, etc., for displaying character strings on the same screen while avoiding overlapping. Regarding display setting method.

[Conventional technology]

In general, graphic processing systems, which are one type of CAD system, handle various two-dimensional or three-dimensional figures and character strings that supplement the figures. These systems include those that mainly use figures, such as mechanical design CAD systems or computer graphics systems, and those in the field of map information processing, such as power distribution equipment design CAD systems or water supply and sewage equipment design CAD systems. In addition to figures, character strings also play an important role. In the latter case, place names related to maps.

It is common for a large number of character strings, such as various equipment codes and dimensions, which are attribute information of each application system, to be displayed on the same screen together with the building name, etc., along with graphics.

In this case, for graphics, accurate display positions are often required because the display position itself has important meaning, but for character strings, display content is often more important than display position. Furthermore, the display positions of figures and character strings are generally set and managed separately by each application system.

Furthermore, the display position of a character string is uniquely set individually based on a certain rule, regardless of other character strings, and the visibility of the displayed content is not taken into account. A certain rule here is that the display position of the character string 6 is set horizontally or vertically in the X or Y direction from the display position of the corresponding figure 12, as shown in FIG. In many cases, a method of setting a certain distance is used.

On the other hand, these systems use a frame buffer display as an image display device.
display) is common. As shown in the block diagram in Fig. 6, this consists of a display memory 13 called a frame buffer that holds luminance information corresponding to each pixel for one screen, and a display memory 13 called a frame buffer that stores luminance information corresponding to each pixel in the frame buffer. The display controller 14 includes a CRT 15 and a display controller 14 which generates a video signal corresponding to the read value and supplies it to the CRT.

Figures are generally displayed on the above image display devices after converting the figure defined in the world coordinate system arbitrarily set in each application system to a fixed screen coordinate system compatible with the image display device. This is performed by expanding and storing data in a buffer and scanning the frame buffer in units of scan lines (scan I 1ne), which are sets of pixels in the horizontal direction of the screen.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional character string display position setting method described above, the display position is set without considering the mutual relationship between the display positions of each character string, so character strings often overlap each other, making it difficult to visually It has the disadvantage of hindering confirmation of the displayed contents.

An object of the present invention is to set the optimum display position for character strings to be displayed on the same screen by reducing the degree to which each character string is displayed in an overlapping manner based on the relationship between the display positions of each character string. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for setting the character string display position.

[Means to solve the problem]

The character string display position setting method of the present invention includes a rectangular area calculation means that calculates the address of a pixel within a rectangular area occupied by the character string, and overlapping area detection means for detecting overlapping pixels between the address of the pixel and the address of the pixel of another character string for which the address of the pixel of the character string has already been determined and stored in the management memory;
Overlapping area minimizing means for minimizing the number of overlapping pixels by moving at least one of the rectangular areas of two character strings in which overlapping pixels have been detected by the overlapping area detecting means pixel by pixel within a separately provided range. a management memory storage means for storing the rectangular area of the character string determined by the overlap area minimization means in the management memory; and a display memory for displaying pixels of the character string in the rectangular area stored by the management memory storage means. and display memory storage means for storing data in the display memory.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and also shows the flow of processing. The embodiment shown in FIG. 1 includes a character string occupied rectangular area calculating means 1, a character string overlapping area searching means 2, a character string overlapping area minimizing means 3, a character string occupied rectangular area management memory storage means 4, and a displaying It is composed of a memory storage means 5.

The character string occupied rectangular area calculation means 1 calculates the display position, size, inclination, etc. of a character string 6 defined in the world coordinate system of each application system and converted to the screen coordinate system, as shown in FIG. 2, for example. The coordinates of the character string occupied rectangular area 7 occupied by the target character string 6 are calculated, and the address of the corresponding pixel is determined.

The character string overlapping area search means 2 searches for a character string overlapping area which is an area where the address of the calculated pixel overlaps with the address of another character string occupied rectangular area already stored in the character string occupied rectangular area management memory. Search by pixel.

FIG. 3(a) is a diagram showing an example of a rectangular area occupied by character strings where addresses overlap, and FIG. 3(b) is a diagram showing FIG. 3(a) in pixel units. 7 and another character string occupied rectangular area 8 correspond to pixels 9 and 10 and pixels 10 and 11, respectively, and indicate pixels where pixel 10 overlaps. Here, if the number of pixels in the character string overlapping area is 0, that position is the optimal display position, and control is directly transferred to the character string occupied rectangular area management memory storage means 4. If the number of pixels in the character string overlap area is not 0, control is transferred to the character string overlap area minimization means 3.

The character string overlapping area minimization means 3 finds the minimum value of the number of pixels constituting the character string overlapping area by sequentially moving the target character string occupied rectangular area in four directions (up, down, left and right) pixel by pixel. FIGS. 4(a) and <b> are diagrams corresponding to FIGS. 3(a) and (b), respectively, showing the state after movement. At this time, during the search, the number of pixels in the character string duplication area If becomes 0, control is transferred to the character string occupied rectangular area management memory storage means 4.Also, if the distance from the target character string to the figure is too far, the original property of the character string to supplement the figure Since this becomes meaningless, the number of pixels moved for search is limited to a certain value.This reduces the degree to which character strings overlap and optimizes the display position.

The character string occupied rectangular area management memory storage means 4 stores the character string occupied rectangular area in the character string occupied rectangular area management memory in pixel units. Therefore, the address information of the character string occupied rectangular area stored here is used by the character string overlapping area search means 2. That is, the character string display position is centrally managed by the character string occupied rectangular area management memory.

The display memory storage means 5 allocates the target character string in the display memory of the image display device pixel by pixel at the position determined by minimizing the character string overlap area. Thereby, the character string is displayed on the image display device.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention can display a character string on an image display device while minimizing the degree of overlapping of display positions with other character strings, and is not dependent on each conventional application system. Unlike fixed and unique display position setting methods,
This has the effect of providing an image that is easy for the user to understand.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the character string occupied rectangular area calculation means in FIG. 1, and FIG. Diagrams for explaining the character string overlap area search means in the diagram, FIGS. 4(a) and (b)
is a diagram for explaining the character string overlapping area minimization means in Figure 1, Figure 5 is a diagram for explaining the conventional character string display setting method, and Figure 6 is a block diagram of the frame buffer display. be. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Character string occupied rectangular area calculating means, 2... Character string overlapping area searching means, 3... Character string overlapping area minimizing means, 4... Character string occupied rectangular area management memory storage means, 5
... Display memory storage means, 6... Character string, 7... Character string occupied rectangular area, 8... Other character string occupied rectangular area,
9.10.11... Pixel, 12... Figure, 13
...Display memory, 14...Display controller, 15...CRT.

Claims (1)

[Claims] When displaying a character string on an image display device, there is a rectangular area calculation means that calculates the address of a pixel within a rectangular area occupied by the character string, and a method that calculates the address of the pixel calculated by this rectangular area calculation means and the address of the pixel already in the character string. Overlapping area detection means for detecting pixels whose addresses overlap with the addresses of pixels of other character strings whose addresses are determined and stored in the management memory, and two character strings in which overlapping pixels are detected by the overlapping area detection means. an overlapping area minimizing means for minimizing the number of overlapping pixels by moving at least one of the rectangular areas within a separately provided range pixel by pixel; and a rectangular area of the character string determined by the overlapping area minimizing means. management memory storage means for storing in the management memory;
A character string display position setting method comprising display memory storage means for storing pixels of a character string in a rectangular area stored in the management memory storage means in a display memory.