JPH04258996A - Plotting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently execute the plotting of an enlarged character by consti tuting the plotting device so that the enlarged character can be divided without deriving an intersection of a borderline for the division and a character graphic. CONSTITUTION:As for a linear graphic exceeding a font size of a 1-character portion, it is plotted extending over a work area 16 and an additional area 17, only the linear graphic plotted in the work area 16 is fetched as a font, and the portion plotted in the additional area 17 is not fetched. Accordingly, if only coordinate data which becomes both ends of the linear graphic exists in the whole area consisting of the work area 16 and the additional area 17, an enlarged character being larger than a size of the work area 16 can also be plotted without deriving an intersection of a borderline and a graphic.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drawing device, and more particularly to a drawing device for drawing enlarged characters using an outline method.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, the outline method is often used as a method for storing fonts in computer systems. This outline method is a method of expressing a character shape by finding the coordinate points of the character outline and connecting them with straight or curved line shapes. This outline method has the advantage that a font of any size can be dynamically generated by enlarging/reducing one character data. When generating a font for enlarged characters, it is necessary to divide the enlarged characters into font units of one character, and then synthesize the divided fonts.

In this case, when dividing the enlarged characters into font units of one character, it is necessary to calculate the intersection of the dividing line and the character figure. This is because outline fonts are generated by drawing a line figure that connects the coordinate points of the character outline, so it is not possible to draw a line figure unless the coordinate points of the intersection points are known. . An example of a conventional divided font generation method is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.

FIG. 4 shows a case where a line figure G1 representing a part of the outline of an enlarged character exceeds the size of the work area W1. The work area W1 is a working storage area in which one character's worth of outline font is drawn, and enlarged characters are divided into units of the size of this work area W1.

When the line figure G1 is divided by the size of the work area W1, the result is as shown in FIG. In this case, the divided characters and graphics G11 and G12 are drawn on the work area W1 as follows.

First, the intersection point P11 between the boundary line and the character figure,
The coordinates of P12 are determined by calculation, and then the coordinate point P
A straight line L1 connecting coordinate points P1 and P11 and a straight line L2 connecting coordinate points P1 and P11 are respectively drawn on the work area W1. Then, the character figure G drawn on the work area W1
11 is transferred to the output bitmap memory as a font for one character, and thereafter, a character graphic G12 is drawn on the work area W1 in the same manner. Then, the characters and graphics G11 and G12 are combined on the bitmap memory to generate a font having the size of two characters.

[0007] Conventionally, when dividing an enlarged character, the intersection point between the dividing line and the character figure was calculated, and a lot of time was spent on this calculation process. There were drawbacks. In particular, in the case of a method that uses Bezier curves to smoothly connect coordinate points, calculations for finding the intersections between character figures made of Bezier curves and dividing boundaries become complicated.

[0008]

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] Conventionally, when dividing an enlarged character, it is necessary to calculate the intersection point between the dividing line and the character shape, and this calculation process requires a lot of effort. The drawback was that it was time consuming.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is possible to efficiently draw enlarged characters by making it possible to divide enlarged characters without finding the intersection between a dividing line and a character figure. The purpose is to provide a drawing device that can.

0010

[Means and effects for solving the problems] This invention has the following features:
In a drawing device that divides enlarged characters into font units of one character and synthesizes the divided fonts to generate a font of enlarged characters, a working storage area in which an outline font for one character is drawn; an additional storage area provided around the working storage area so that the storage size of the working storage area is substantially increased; and means for holding coordinate data representing a character outline of the enlarged character;
When a line figure connecting the coordinate data exceeds the font size of one character, means for drawing the line figure across both the working storage area and the additional storage area;
The present invention is characterized by comprising means for extracting line figures for one character drawn in the working storage area and synthesizing the line figures for one character.

In this drawing device, line figures exceeding the font size of one character are drawn across both the working memory area and the additional memory area, and only the line figures drawn in the working memory area are drawn. is extracted as a font, and the portion drawn in the additional storage area is not extracted. Therefore, as long as the coordinate data for both ends of a line figure exists within the area consisting of the working storage area and the additional storage area, the size of the working storage area can be adjusted even for enlarged characters that are larger than the working storage area. In the same way as normal-sized characters below, they can be drawn in the working storage area without finding the intersection between the boundary line and the figure. Therefore, it is possible to improve the font generation speed by the amount of time required for calculation processing to find the intersection between the boundary line and the figure.

0012

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

FIG. 1 shows a drawing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This drawing device creates fonts using an outline method, and has a coordinate point memory 11,
It is composed of a cutting coordinate memory 12, a coordinate point comparison section 13, a line data extraction section 14, a drawing section 15, a work area 16, an additional area 17, a data transfer section 18, and a bitmap memory 19.

The coordinate point memory 11 holds coordinate data representing the character outline of a character to be drawn, such as an enlarged character. This coordinate data includes, in addition to coordinate information indicating individual coordinate points, connection information indicating which coordinate points are to be connected to reproduce a character outline.

The cutting coordinate memory 12 stores reference coordinate data used to divide enlarged characters into font units of one standard size character. This reference coordinate data is a coordinate system in which the coordinate range of a standard-sized font for one character is arranged in a matrix of N rows and N columns.

The coordinate point comparison unit 13 extracts enlarged characters in units of fonts corresponding to one character of standard size, from the coordinate range of the first row and first column of the reference coordinate data of the cutting coordinate memory 12 to N rows and N columns. It is detected whether coordinate data of an enlarged character (or line data connecting coordinate data) is included in the coordinate range of the eye. This detection is performed by comparing the coordinate data of the enlarged character with each coordinate range of the reference coordinate data.

When it is detected that the coordinate data of the enlarged character is included in the coordinate range to be cut out, the line data extraction unit 14 stores the coordinate data in the coordinate point memory 1.
Take it out from 1. Here, the extracted data is not only coordinate information indicating the coordinate point, but also connection information indicating which coordinate point is connected to the coordinate point (hereinafter, the coordinate information and connection information are combined, (referred to as line data).

The drawing section 15 draws a line figure specified by the line data extracted by the line data extraction section 14 using the work area 16 and the additional area 17. In other words, the drawing unit 15 draws a line figure (
draw straight lines or curves).

In this case, if the drawing size of the line figure exceeds the size of the work area 16 (if the coordinate point at one end of the line figure is within the work area 16 and the coordinate point at the other end is within the additional area 17, (or the coordinates of both ends of the line figure do not belong to the work area 16, but part of the line figure belongs to the work area 16), the line figure straddles both the work area 16 and the additional area 17. is drawn. Furthermore, if the drawing size of the line figure falls within the size of the work area 16, the line figure will be drawn in the work area 1.
6 is drawn as is.

The size of the work area 16 is the same as the size of the font for one character for dividing enlarged characters, and all standard-sized characters can be accommodated within this work area 16.

Additional area 17 is a storage area allocated around work area 16 such that the storage size of work area 16 is substantially increased. The work area 16 and the additional area 17 are storage areas allocated on the same memory. The transfer unit 18 reads only the line figure drawn on the work area 18 and transfers it to the corresponding storage area in the bitmap memory 19. Next, with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, the font creation operation by the drawing device shown in FIG. 1 will be described.

FIG. 2 shows an example of enlarged characters to be created. In FIG. 2, the enlarged character "A" is a standard size character enlarged four times, and the outline of the enlarged character is given by coordinate point data P1 to P10.

In order to develop the outline font of the enlarged character "A" on the bitmap memory 19, first, the coordinate point data P1 to P10 are arranged in one row and one row of the reference coordinate data.
Regarding the coordinate range (R1, C1) of the column 4 to the coordinate range (R4, C4) of the 4th row and 4th column, whether the coordinate point data P1 to P10 of the enlarged character "A" are included in each of these coordinate ranges. is detected by the coordinate point comparing section 13.

Since the coordinate range (R1, C1) in the 1st row and 1st column does not include the coordinate point data P1 to P10 of the enlarged character "A", the coordinate range (R1, C1) of the line data is No retrieval or drawing occurs.

Since the coordinate range (R1, C2) in the 1st row and 2nd column includes the coordinate point data P5 of the enlarged character "A", the line data related to the coordinate point P5 (coordinate points P5 and P4) coordinate information, coordinate information of coordinate points P5 and P6) is extracted by the line data extraction unit 14.

Since the line figure connecting the coordinate points P5 and P4 exceeds the coordinate range of the font for one character, that is, the size of the work area 16, the line figure connecting the coordinate points P5 and P4 is
As shown in FIG. 3, the work area 1 is drawn by the drawing unit 15.
6 and the additional area 17. Similarly, since the line figure connecting the coordinate points P5 and P6 also exceeds the coordinate range of the font for one character, it is drawn across both the work area 16 and the additional area 17.

[0027] Then, only the part of the line figure connecting the coordinate points P5 and P4 that belongs to the work area 16, and the part of the line figure connecting the coordinate points P5 and P6 that belongs to the work area 16, are transferred to the transfer unit. bitmap memory 19 by 18
is transferred to the corresponding coordinate area (r1, c2).

After this, the coordinate range of the 1st row and 3rd column (R1, C
3) is selected as a new extraction target. This coordinate range (R1, C3) in the first row and third column does not include the coordinate point data of the enlarged character "A", but part of the line data connecting coordinate points P5 and P6 is in the coordinate range (R1, C3). C3), the coordinate information of coordinate points P5 and P6 is extracted by the line data extraction unit 14.

Since the line figure connecting the coordinate points P5 and P6 exceeds the coordinate range of the font for one character, that is, the size of the work area 16, the line figure connecting the coordinate points P5 and P6 is
As shown in FIG. 3, the work area 1 is drawn by the drawing unit 15.
6 and the additional area 17.

Of the line figures connecting the coordinate points P5 and P6, only the portion belonging to the work area 16 is transferred to the transfer unit 1.
8, the data is transferred to the corresponding coordinate area (r1, c3) of the bitmap memory 19.

As a result, as shown in FIG. ), (R1, C3) are expanded. Similarly, from the coordinate range (R1, C4) in the 1st row and 4th column to the coordinate range in the 4th row and 4th column (R
4 and C4), similar processing is performed sequentially.

As described above, in the drawing device of this embodiment, line figures exceeding the font size of one character are drawn across both the work area 16 and the additional area 17, and are drawn in the work area 16. Only the drawn line figure is taken out as a font, and the part drawn in the additional area 17 is not taken out.

Therefore, as long as coordinate data for both ends of a line figure exists within the entire area consisting of the work area 16 and the additional area 17, even enlarged characters larger than the size of the work area 16 can be stored in the work area 16.
As with normal size characters smaller than , it can be drawn without finding the intersection between the boundary line and the figure. Therefore, compared to the conventional method, it is possible to improve the font generation speed by the amount of time required for calculation processing to find the intersection between a boundary line and a figure.

[0034]

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention,
Enlarged characters can be divided without finding the intersection between a dividing line and a character figure, and enlarged characters can be drawn efficiently.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of enlarged characters handled in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the font generation operation of the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of enlarged characters handled by a conventional drawing device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a font generation operation of a conventional drawing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

11...Coordinate point memory, 12...Coordinate memory for cutting out, 1
3... Coordinate point comparison section, 14... Line data extraction section, 15...
Drawing section, 16...Work area, 17...Additional area, 18
...Data transfer unit, 19...Bitmap memory.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: An operation in which an outline font for one character is drawn in a drawing device that divides an enlarged character into font units of one character and synthesizes the divided fonts to generate an enlarged character font. an additional storage area provided around the working storage area so that the storage size of the working storage area is substantially increased, and coordinate data representing the character outline of the enlarged character. When a line figure connecting the coordinate data exceeds the font size of one character, means for drawing the line figure across both the working storage area and the additional storage area; A drawing device comprising means for extracting a line figure for one character drawn in a working storage area and for synthesizing the line figures for one character.