JPH04217297A - Vector font drawing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform operation, from writing a contour data and a paint out data in a memory to piling together the respective data to create a character, at a high speed by reducing a number of times of writing in the memory. CONSTITUTION:By a circuit 2 for detecting a 1-dot sharp end and an intermediate point, whether an objective dot of the present drawing is an inconvenient dot or not for painting out is decided. Based on a dot write permission signal 14 output in accordance with a decision result from the circuit 2 for detecting the 1-dot sharp end and the intermediate point, a selecting circuit 5 selects any one of a paint out address 15 and a paint out data 16, output from a paint out memory control circuit 3 for controlling writing in a paint out memory region 6A, and a contour address 17 and a contour data 18 output from a contour memory control circuit 4 for controlling writing in a contour memory region 16. The selecting circuit 5 outputs an address 19 and a data 20 to a memory 6.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides a vector font drawing device (
The present invention relates to a vector font drawing device (character pattern generation device), and particularly to a vector font drawing device that writes outline data and fill data into a memory and overlays the respective data to generate a character.

0002

[Prior Art] A vector font drawing device (character pattern generation device) is known that generates a high-quality character pattern by drawing the outline of a character (vector font) defined by a plurality of vectors and filling the inside of the outline. There is. In this type of device, an outline memory area is provided in the memory for drawing the entire outline of a character, and a filling memory area is provided for filling in the inside of the outline. The characters are generated by In the memory area for contours, contour data is written sequentially, but in the memory area for filling,
Specially processed filling data is written to the current drawing target dot. Filling inside the outline in the filling memory area is done by scanning the drawing pattern in one direction and converting all dots from the appearance of a black dot to the appearance of the next black dot to fill the inside of the outline. is applied.

However, in this method, when the number of dots in the filling direction at the sharp edge of a character (character pattern) is 1 dot (this sharp edge is defined as a 1-dot sharp edge),
There is an inconvenience that not only the dot at the sharp end but also the dot row after that dot position is filled in. In order to eliminate this inconvenience, it is necessary to avoid the occurrence of 1-dot sharp edges (character sharp edges with 1 dot in the direction orthogonal to the filling direction are not called 1-dot sharp edges) when designing character patterns. I have to devise something. A one-dot sharp edge occurs at a connection point between vectors as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, A1 to A8 are dots to be drawn, and dot A6 to be drawn is the sharp edge of one dot. Further, arrows B1 to B7 connecting the drawing target dots A1 to A8 indicate displacement amounts. Further, arrow C indicates the filling direction. Furthermore, if there is a midpoint (a point that is neither the start point nor the end point of filling) in the character outline in the filling direction, there is also the disadvantage that the dot rows after the midpoint position are not filled in with the above filling method. Similar measures must be taken to prevent this dot from occurring in the same manner as the one-dot sharp edge described above. Intermediate points are dots generated by the straight line drawing algorithm (see Figure 3) and connection points between vectors (
(see Figure 4).

In FIG. 3, D1 to D8 are dots to be drawn, and the dot D1 to be drawn has x,y coordinates (X0
, Y0 ), and is the drawing target dot D8
is the dot at the end of the x,y coordinates (X1, Y1), and the drawing target dots D3, D5, D7 are the dots at the midpoint. Further, arrows E1 to E7 connecting the drawing target dots D1 to D8 indicate displacement amounts. Also, arrow F
indicates the filling direction.

In FIG. 4, G1 to G3 are dots to be drawn, and the dot G2 to be drawn is a connection point between vectors, that is, a dot at an intermediate point. In addition, arrows H1 to H4 connect the drawing target dots G1 to G3.
indicates the amount of displacement. Further, arrow I indicates the filling direction. Conventionally, contour data that outputs the drawing target dot as it is and fill data that processes the drawing target dot for one-dot sharp edges and midpoints are alternately time-shared and are stored in the memory area for contour and the memory area for filling, respectively. If the dot to be drawn is not the point between the one-dot sharp edge and the midpoint, even though it is written in the memory area and will be overlapped in the end, the outline data and fill data located at the same x and y coordinates are respectively The process was to write to the area. In other words, assuming that FIG. 5 is the drawing data generated from the displacement amounts in the x and y directions, FIG. 6 is the data written in the fill memory area after processing the one-dot sharp edge and midpoint, The data shown in FIG. 5 is directly written in the contour memory area. Therefore, the number of memory writes was large, and character generation took a long time.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a conventional example, and the conventional example will be explained below. Reference numeral 21 denotes a straight line generation circuit, which calculates the x, y coordinates (X0, Y0) of the starting point 31 and the x, y coordinates (X1) of the ending point 32 of a vector input from the outside.
, Y1), and outputs the displacement amount 33 of the current drawing target dot in the x and y directions according to the straight line drawing algorithm. Reference numeral 22 denotes a 1-dot sharp edge and intermediate point detection circuit for detecting the 1-dot sharp edge and intermediate point, which detects the x, y coordinates (X0
, Y0 ) and the x,y coordinates of the end point 32 (X1 , Y1
) and the displacement amount 33 in the x and y directions of the current drawing target dot output from the straight line generation circuit 21, and the current drawing target dot is a dot that is inconvenient for filling (1 dot sharp edge and intermediate dot). Dot write permission signal 34
Output. Reference numeral 23 denotes a memory control circuit for filling, which outputs a displacement amount 33 in the x and y directions outputted from the straight line generation circuit 21 and a dot writing permission signal 34 outputted from the 1-dot sharp edge and intermediate point detection circuit 22. is input, controls writing to the memory area for filling, and outputs a filling address 35 and filling data 36. 2
Reference numeral 4 denotes a contour memory control circuit which inputs the displacement amount 33 in the x and y directions outputted from the straight line generation circuit 21, controls writing to the contour memory area, and stores the contour address 37 and the contour memory area. Data 38 is output. 25 is a time division selection circuit, which is connected to the filling memory control circuit 23;
The filling address 35 and the filling data 36 outputted from the contour memory control circuit 24 and the contour address 37 and contour data 38 are input, and are selected in an alternating time-sharing manner, and the contours of the memory 26 are respectively output. The address 39 and data 40 are output to the memory area 26B and the memory area 26A for filling. memory 2
6 is the address 39 output from the time division selection circuit 25.
and data 40 are input, and drawing data is stored.

In the above configuration, the straight line generation circuit 21 uses the x, y coordinates (X0, Y0) of the starting point 31 of the vector and the x, y coordinates (X1, Y1) of the ending point 32 of the vector to perform a straight line drawing algorithm. Accordingly, first, the displacement amount 33 of the dot to be drawn next to the starting point 31 is calculated. The x, y coordinates of the starting point 31 of the vector (X0, Y0
) and the x, y coordinates of the end point 32 of the vector (X1 , Y1
) and the displacement amount 33 of the dot, the 1-dot sharp edge and midpoint detection circuit 22 determines whether the current drawing target dot is the 1-dot sharp edge and the midpoint of the character outline in the filling direction. If the dot is not at the sharp edge or at the midpoint, a dot writing permission signal 34 is output. Based on the dot writing permission signal 34, the filling memory control circuit 23 prevents writing of one dot when a sharp edge or midpoint exists, thereby preventing an incorrect character pattern from being filled in inside the outline. prevent this from occurring. Further, the contour memory control circuit 24 calculates an address from the dot displacement amount 33 calculated by the straight line generation circuit 21 according to the straight line drawing algorithm, and sequentially calculates the contour address 37 and the contour data 3.
Outputs 8. The time division selection circuit 25 selects the filling address 35 and outline address 37 whose x and y coordinate positions are always the same, and the respective filling data 36,
The contour data 38 is written into the memory area 26A for filling and the memory area 26B for contours of the memory 26 in a time-division manner alternately. At that time, the filling data 3
6 and outline data 38 are the dot writing permission signal 3.
If the dot write enable signal 34 is not output, only the outline data 38 is written. Finally, a character is generated by calculating the logical sum of the data in the two memory areas 26A and 26B.

[0009]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As described above, conventionally, the memory area for filling 26A and the memory area for outline 2
When writing each data to 6B, each data was written alternately in time division. Thereby,
Even though characters are finally generated by overlapping the data in the two memory areas 26A and 26B, if the current dot to be drawn is not at the sharp end or the midpoint, the x, y coordinates The process is to write the same data to the same address,
This increases the number of times the data is written to the memory, and it takes time from writing the outline data 38 and the filling data 36 to the memory 26 to overlapping each data to generate a character.

[0010] An object of the present invention is to reduce the number of times of writing to memory, and to create a vector that can perform the process from writing outline data and filling data to memory to overlapping each data to generate characters at high speed. An object of the present invention is to provide a font drawing device.

[0011]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A vector font drawing device of the present invention is a vector font drawing device that draws the outline of a character defined by several vectors and fills in the inside of the character. Input the x and y coordinates of the starting point and ending point of the vector, respectively,
A straight line generating circuit that generates a straight line according to a straight line drawing algorithm, x and y coordinates of the starting point and ending point of the vector input from the outside, and displacement amounts in the x and y directions output from the straight line generating circuit are input. , 1-dot sharp edge and intermediate inspection that determines whether the dot currently being drawn is a 1-dot sharp edge or an intermediate point dot that is inconvenient for filling, and outputs a dot write permission signal based on the determination result. a fill memory that takes as input the amount of displacement in the x and y directions outputted from the output circuit and the straight line generation circuit, controls writing to the fill memory area of the memory, and outputs a fill address and fill data; A control circuit and a contour controller that receives displacement amounts in the x and y directions outputted from the straight line generation circuit, controls writing to the contour memory area of the memory, and outputs contour addresses and contour data. The memory control circuit, the fill address and fill data, and the contour address and contour data output from the memory control circuit for fill and the memory control circuit for contour are output from the one dot sharp edge and midpoint detection circuit. When the current dot to be drawn is a dot at the sharp end or a dot at the midpoint, the outline data is written to the outline address in the outline memory area, and the current drawing is executed. When the target dot is a dot other than one dot sharp edge or midpoint, the selection circuit writes fill data to the fill address of the fill memory area.

0012

[Operation] In this invention, even though characters are ultimately generated by overlapping data in two memory areas, one for outline and one for filling, the current dot to be drawn is one dot at the sharp edge and one dot in the middle. This was done by focusing on the fact that if the data is not a point, the same data is written to the same address in terms of x and y coordinates.

The 1-dot sharp edge and intermediate point detection circuit determines whether or not the current drawing target dot is a dot that is inconvenient for filling, and the 1-dot sharp edge and intermediate point detection circuit outputs the result. Based on the dot write enable signal, the selection circuit controls writing to the memory area for filling.The address for filling and data output from the memory control circuit for filling, and the outline data that controls writing to the memory area for outline. Either the contour address or the contour data output from the memory control circuit is selected, and the address and data are output to the memory.

In this way, by writing data only into either the fill memory area or the outline memory area based on the dot write permission signal,
It is possible to eliminate the process of writing the same data to the same address in terms of x and y coordinate positions. In other words,
Assuming that FIG. 5 is the drawing data generated from the displacement amounts in the x and y directions, FIG. 7 becomes the data (black dots in FIG. 5) written in the contour memory area.

[0015] In this way, by writing only to either the fill memory area or the outline memory area, the number of times data is written to the memory can be reduced.
It is possible to speed up the process from writing outline data and fill data to memory to overlapping each data to generate characters.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a vector font drawing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a straight line generation circuit, which inputs the x, y coordinates (X0, Y0) of the starting point 11 and the x, y coordinates (X1, Y1) of the ending point 12 of a vector input from the outside.
x of the current drawing target dot according to the straight line drawing algorithm,
A displacement amount 13 in the y direction is output. Reference numeral 2 denotes a 1-dot sharp edge and intermediate point detection circuit for detecting the 1-dot sharp edge and intermediate point, which detects the starting point 11 of a vector input from the outside.
x, y coordinates (X0, Y0) of and the x, y coordinates of end point 12,
The y coordinates (X1, Y1) and the displacement amount 13 in the x and y directions of the current drawing target dot output from the straight line generation circuit 1 are input, and the current drawing target dot is a dot that is inconvenient for filling (1 dot). A dot writing permission signal 14 is output based on the determination whether the dot is at a sharp end or an intermediate point. Reference numeral 3 denotes a memory control circuit for filling, which inputs the amount of displacement 13 in the x and y directions outputted from the straight line generation circuit 1, controls writing to the memory area 6A for filling in the memory 6, and controls writing to the memory area 6A for filling in the memory 6. 15
and output data 16 for filling. Reference numeral 4 denotes a contour memory control circuit, which inputs the displacement amount 13 in the x and y directions outputted from the straight line generation circuit 1, controls writing to the contour memory area 6B, and stores the contour address 17 and the contour. output data 18. Reference numeral 5 denotes a selection circuit which selects the filling address 15 outputted from the filling memory control circuit 3 and the contour memory control circuit 4, respectively.
The data for filling 16, the address for outline 17, and the data for outline 18 are input, and the address and data are selected according to the dot write permission signal 14, and address 19 and data 20 are output. The memory 6 stores the address 19 output from the selection circuit 5.
and data 20 are input, and the data is stored.

In the above configuration, the straight line generating circuit 1 uses the x, y coordinates (X0, Y0) of the starting point 11 of the vector and the x, y coordinates (X1, Y1) of the ending point 12 of the vector to perform a straight line drawing algorithm. Accordingly, first, the displacement amount 13 of the dot to be drawn next to the starting point 11 is calculated. x, y coordinates of the starting point 11 of the vector (X0, Y0)
and the x, y coordinates of the end point 12 of the vector (X1, Y1
) and the dot displacement amount 13, the 1-dot sharp edge and midpoint detection circuit 2 determines whether the current drawing target dot is the 1-dot sharp edge in the filling direction or the midpoint of the character outline, and detects the 1-dot sharp edge. If it is not an end or a midpoint, a dot write permission signal 14 is output. The memory control circuit 3 for filling and the memory control circuit 4 for contouring are as follows.
The straight line generation circuit 1 calculates each address from the dot displacement amount 13 calculated according to a straight line drawing algorithm, and sequentially outputs a fill-in address 15, fill-in data 16, outline address 17, and outline data 18.

[0018] The filling address 15 and the outline address 1
7 is always the same as the x and y coordinate position, and the selection circuit 5 selects the fill address 15 and the fill data 1 if the dot write permission signal 14 is output.
6 is selected, and the filling data 16 is written in the filling memory area 6A of the memory 6. If the dot writing permission signal 14 is not output, the outline address 17 and the outline data 18 are selected, and the outline data 16 in the memory 6 is selected. The contour data 18 is written in the memory area 6B. Finally, a character is generated by calculating the logical OR of the data in the two memory areas 6A and 6B.

This vector font drawing device uses a 1-dot sharp edge and intermediate point detection circuit 2 to determine whether the dot currently being drawn is a dot that is inconvenient for filling, and performs 1-dot sharp edge and intermediate point detection. Based on the dot write permission signal 14 output from the output circuit 2,
A fill address 15 and fill data 16 output from the fill memory control circuit 3 which controls writing to the fill memory area 6A by the selection circuit 5 and an outline address 17 which controls writing to the contour memory area 6B. and contour data 18, output address 19 and data 20 to memory 6, and write data 20 only in either memory area 6A or 6B, as the x, y coordinate position. eliminates the process of writing the same data 20 to the same address, thereby reducing the number of writes to the memory 6. ,18
It is possible to speed up the process up to superimposing the characters to generate characters.

[0020]

According to the vector font drawing device of the present invention, the 1-dot sharp edge and midpoint detection circuit determines whether or not the dot currently being drawn is a dot that is inconvenient for filling. The selection circuit controls writing to the fill memory area based on the dot write enable signal output from the sharp edge and midpoint detection circuit.The fill address, fill data, and outline are output from the fill memory control circuit. By selecting either the contour address or the contour data to control writing to the memory area for x, y, and outputting the address and data to memory and writing data only to either memory area, By eliminating the process of writing the same data to the same address as the coordinate position, it is possible to reduce the number of writes to memory. In addition, the process up to character generation can be sped up.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a vector font drawing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a sharp edge of one dot.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an intermediate point.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an intermediate point.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of data written to a contour memory area.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of data written to a memory area for filling.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of data written to a contour memory area.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional vector font drawing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Straight line generation circuit 2 1 dot sharp edge and intermediate point detection circuit 3 Memory control circuit for filling 4 Memory control circuit for contour 5 Selection circuit 6 Memory 6A Memory area for filling 6B Memory area for contour 11 Starting point 12 Ending point 13 X, Y Displacement amount 14 Dot writing permission signal 15 Filling address 16 Filling data 17 Outline address 18 Outline data 19 Address 20 Data

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A vector font drawing device that draws the outline of a character defined by several vectors and fills the inside thereof, the x and y coordinates of the start and end points of vectors input from the outside being respectively input. year,
A straight line generating circuit that generates a straight line according to a straight line drawing algorithm, x and y coordinates of the starting point and ending point of the vector input from the outside, and displacement amounts in the x and y directions output from the straight line generating circuit are input. , 1-dot sharp edge and intermediate inspection that determines whether the dot currently being drawn is a 1-dot sharp edge or an intermediate point dot that is inconvenient for filling, and outputs a dot write permission signal based on the determination result. a fill memory that takes as input the amount of displacement in the x and y directions outputted from the output circuit and the straight line generation circuit, controls writing to the fill memory area of the memory, and outputs a fill address and fill data; A control circuit and a contour controller that receives displacement amounts in the x and y directions outputted from the straight line generation circuit, controls writing to the contour memory area of the memory, and outputs contour addresses and contour data. The memory control circuit, the fill address and fill data, and the contour address and contour data output from the memory control circuit for fill and the memory control circuit for contour are output from the one dot sharp edge and midpoint detection circuit. When the current dot to be drawn is a dot at the sharp end or a dot at the midpoint, the outline data is written to the outline address in the outline memory area, and the current drawing is executed. This vector font drawing device is equipped with a selection circuit for writing filling data to a filling address in a filling memory area when a target dot is a dot other than one dot sharp edge or midpoint.