JPH04351564A - Pattern processing method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To output a high quality character by a method wherein algorithm for development of a font is used by following a basic sampling point if the size of a specified character is less than a specific size, and an interpolating sampling point is used for development between basic sampling points if it is the specific size or over. CONSTITUTION:A character size identification routine is actuated, and an outline font data of a character to be developed is loaded. Where it is less than a threshold N point, a bit map font generation routine is actuated, and a bit map font containing no interpolating data is developed in a font developing memory. Where it is larger than the threshold N point the bit map font generation routine is actuated, and a bit map font containing interpolating data is developed in the font developing memory.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pattern processing method and apparatus that make it possible to arbitrarily generate and arrange patterns such as characters using outline fonts.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Hitherto, patterns of characters and the like have been generated using outline fonts in order to smoothly reproduce the outlines of characters of any size on a screen or paper using a computer, word processor, printer, or the like.

[0003] A method for defining an outline font is to extract an arbitrary number of basic sampling points that form one character, number the extracted sampling points in order, and connect the sampling points in that order. A common method is to form character outlines using

Widely known methods for connecting sampling points include a stroke method in which sampling points are simply connected by a straight line, a spline method in which vector components of sampling points before and after the connection are taken into account, and a Bezier method.

[0005]

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, when a character outline is generated using the stroke method according to the method according to the prior art, when a large-sized character is developed, the interval between sampling points becomes wide and the character outline becomes Problems such as lack of smoothness may occur, and on the other hand, if the spacing between sampling points is made finer, the smoothness of the outline can be maintained, but on the other hand, the amount of processing will increase. A similar algorithm is used even when processing data, which has the disadvantage of reducing overall throughput.

[0006] If the spline method or the Bezier method is followed, even when large-sized characters are developed, smooth character contours can be generated because vector information for connecting sampling points is taken into account. However, due to the complexity of its processing formula, it was considered unsuitable for small-scale systems.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problem] In order to solve the above problem, the present invention provides an arbitrary font set for each character when the minimum sampling points and size necessary to form the outline of each character become large. This is a pattern processing method and apparatus in which sampling points that are considered better to be interpolated are extracted, and information on the coordinates of each sampling point, the order of sampling, and whether or not it is a sampling point for interpolation is prepared in advance as outline data.

The present invention generates a bitmap font according to the basic sampling point if the specified character size is smaller than an arbitrary size, and generates a bitmap font according to the basic sampling point if the specified character size is larger than an arbitrary size. A pattern processing method and apparatus for generating a bitmap font by using sampling points of interpolation between points for expansion.

[0009]

[Operation] When a character smaller than an arbitrary size is developed by the font development control performed by the above means, the sampling point of interpolation is ignored, and the development into a bitmap font is performed at high speed. When developing large characters, it is now possible to output higher quality characters by using sampling points for interpolation.

0010

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention may be applied to a system consisting of a plurality of devices, or may be applied to a device consisting of one device, or may be achieved by supplying a program to the system or device. Needless to say, it's a good thing.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing hardware and software constituting a font expansion control device installed in a computer, word processor, printer, or the like to realize the present invention. Each block of this embodiment will be explained below.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 indicates a font expansion memory.

Reference numeral 2 designates a ROM for storing various processing programs related to font development, including a bitmap font generation routine shown at 3, a font data load routine shown at 4, and a character processing program shown at 5. It consists of a size identification routine. Outline font data related to each character is stored in an external storage device represented by a hard disk, etc., shown by numeral 6, and an internal storage device, represented by ROM/RAM, shown by numeral 7. It has a function of passing data regarding a predetermined character specified by the load routine to the bitmap font generation routine 3. Figure 2 and these various programs are shown in Figure 1.
Needless to say, it is stored in the ROM2 of the. A data bus indicated by reference numeral 8 is for exchanging data between each processing routine and the storage device.

Next, the outline font generation algorithm of this embodiment having the above configuration will be explained using the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, in step S1, a request to develop a predetermined character is transmitted to the font development control routine. The font development control routine that receives this development request is executed in step S.
Step S2 activates a font data load routine for searching and loading outline font data for developing a predetermined character, and in step S3 this is loaded from the external storage devices and internal storage devices indicated by numerals 6 and 7. do. Once the outline font data of the character to be developed has been loaded, the process moves to step S4, where a character size identification routine is activated to determine whether or not to include interpolation data in the development of the specified character, and in step S5, If it is larger than the determined threshold value N points, the process moves to step S9, and if it is smaller, the process moves to step S7. If it is smaller than the threshold value N points, a bitmap font generation routine is activated in step S7, and a bitmap font that does not include interpolation data is developed in the font development memory in step S8.

If it is larger than the threshold value N points, a bitmap font generation routine is activated in step S9, and a bitmap font including interpolation data is developed in the font development memory in step S10 (reference numeral 6).
The interpolation sampling points in the outline data stored in the external storage device 7 and the internal storage device 7 are extracted between the basic sampling points and are necessary to form the character outline when enlarged. Use possible points. ).

Next, using FIG. 3, step S8, 1 in FIG.
Differences between the operations of developing into a bitmap font including interpolated data indicated by 0 and developing into a bitmap font not including interpolated data, and the quality of output characters will be explained.

The interpolated character A shown in the upper left of FIG. 3 shows how it is developed into a bitmap font using both the basic sampling point P and the interpolation point P' in the enlarged view shown in the upper right. . The non-interpolated character A shown at the bottom left shows how it is developed into a bitmap font using only the basic sampling point P in the enlarged view shown at the top right.

In the middle right and lower right, small-sized interpolated character B and non-interpolated character B are shown, which are obtained by reducing the interpolated character A and the non-interpolated character A, respectively.

As shown in FIG. 3, there was no difference in quality between the two expansion methods when the size was relatively small, but as the size increases, the interval between the basic sampling points becomes wider for character A, which is not interpolated. As a result, the length of the line segment between points becomes longer, and the angular outline of the character is emphasized. In this regard, if we focus on the interpolated character A, we can make the angular character outline appear smooth by using the interpolation points between the basic sampling points and reducing the length of the line segments between the points. can.

[0021] Also, in a relatively small size, the line segment length between points is difficult to recognize by the human eye when expanded using only the basic sampling points and when an interpolation operation is added. It can be seen that there is no significant difference in the smoothness of the character contours because it is not so large as to be large.

(Description of Laser Beam Printer) Next, a laser beam printer will be described as an example of a printer applicable to the present invention.

1002 in the figure is a host computer 100
Image data, etc. input from the external device through the input control 1002 is stored in a page memory 1003 having a capacity of at least one page. The data stored in the page memory 1003 includes image information,
Contains control codes that specify character information, emphasized characters, etc.

Furthermore, the input control unit 1002 judges from the code system of the data sent from the host computer and stores the start address and end address of the image data that does not require smoothing in the address data memory 10.
Store it in 04.

Reference numeral 1005 denotes a main control unit that controls the entire printing device, and stores a CPU such as a microprocessor, the control program explained in FIG. 1, and data.
It is equipped with OM2, RAM1 for work area, TTL for hard logic, gate array, etc.

The main control unit 1005 has a page memory 100.
The data output from 3 is input. Main control section 1
If the data input to 005 is character data, a character image is read into the main control unit from the character pattern generation unit 1006. Furthermore, if the input data is an image, it is transferred to a scan buffer 1007, which will be described later.

Reference numeral 1007 denotes a scan buffer that stores pattern data for one scanning line scanned by the laser beam out of pattern data for one line to be printed (S3,
S4, S5).

When the pattern data for one scan is stored in the scan buffer 1071, the scan buffer 1071
The data is read out and sent as a video signal to the printer engine to form an image. At this time, pattern data for the next scan is stored in the scan buffer 1072 at the same time. Similarly, when a video signal is output from the scan buffer 1072, the scan buffer 1072
Data is stored in 71. The operations described above are performed alternately.

Reference numeral 1008 denotes a readout control section for controlling readout of the scan buffer, which starts reading out the corresponding scan buffer in response to the readout signal 1012 from the main control section 1005, and starts reading out the corresponding scan buffer in synchronization with the horizontal synchronization signal 1014 of the image forming section 1011. , outputs data to the corresponding parallel-to-serial converter 1010. 1009 is a smoothing circuit that performs smoothing. In other words, it is a part that performs dot interpolation etc. based on the distribution status of the pattern to be output, which contributes to high quality output as well as the aforementioned interpolation of contour points.

(Description of Laser Beam Printer) Next, the structure of a laser beam printer as an example of a printer applicable to the present invention will be described.

The configuration of a laser beam printer to which this embodiment is applied will be explained with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the internal structure of the laser beam printer (hereinafter abbreviated as LBP) of the embodiment.
The BP can register character patterns, fixed formats (form data), etc. from a data source (not shown). It goes without saying that it also has a page memory 1003.

In the figure, 100 is the LBP main body;
Externally connected host computer (10 in Figure 4)
01) input and store character information (character code), form information, or macro commands supplied from form an image. 300 is a switch and L for operation
Operation panel with ED display etc., 101 is L
This is a printer control unit that controls the entire BP 100 and analyzes character information etc. supplied from the host computer. This printer control unit 101 mainly converts character information into a video signal of a corresponding character pattern and outputs it to a laser driver 102 .

The laser driver 102 is a semiconductor laser 10
3, and is a circuit for driving laser light 1 emitted from semiconductor laser 103 according to an input video signal.
04 on/off. The laser beam 104 is swung left and right by a rotating polygon mirror 105 and scans over an electrostatic drum 106. As a result, an electrostatic latent image of a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 106. After this latent image is developed by the developing unit 107 around the electrostatic drum 106,
Transferred to recording paper. A cut sheet is used as the recording paper, and the cut sheet recording paper is stored in a paper cassette 108 attached to the LBP 100, and taken into the apparatus by a paper feed roller 109 and transport rollers 110 and 111.
The electrostatic drum 106 is supplied with the electrostatic drum 106 . Laser driver 102
By changing the frequency of the laser beam or controlling the rotation speed of the electrostatic drum 106, the resolution of the printer can be made variable.

(Description of Inkjet Printer) FIG. 6 shows an example of the configuration of an inkjet printer 45 that utilizes bubbles generated by the action of thermal energy, which can be applied to the present invention.

Here, 809 is a head cartridge having an inkjet recording head, and 811 is a carriage on which this is mounted for scanning in the S direction in the figure. 813
is a hook for attaching the head cartridge 809 to the carriage 811, and 815 is a lever for operating the hook 813. This lever 815 is provided with a marker 817 for indicating a scale provided on the cover, which will be described later, so as to read the printing position and setting position of the recording head of the head cartridge. 819 is a support plate that supports the electrical connection to the head cartridge 809. 821 is a flexible cable for connecting the electrical connection section and the main body control section.

823 is a guide shaft for guiding the carriage 811 in the S direction, and the bearing 823 of the carriage 811
25 is inserted. Reference numeral 827 denotes a timing belt to which the carriage 811 is fixed and which transmits power for moving the carriage in the S direction, and is stretched around pulleys 829A and 829B arranged on both sides of the apparatus. Driving force is transmitted to one pulley 829B from the carriage motor 831 via a conductive mechanism such as a gear.

A platen roller 833 is driven by a conveyance motor 835 for regulating the recording surface of a recording medium such as paper (hereinafter also referred to as recording paper) and conveying it during recording. 837 is a paper pan 839 for guiding the recording medium from the paper feed tray side to the recording position, which is disposed in the middle of the recording medium feeding path and presses the recording medium toward the platen roller 833 to convey it. It is a feed roller. 841 is on the recording medium conveyance direction;
This is a paper discharge roller that is disposed downstream from the recording position and discharges the recording medium toward a paper discharge port (not shown). 842
is a spur provided corresponding to the paper ejection roller 841;
The roller 841 is pressed through the recording medium, and the paper ejection roller 8
41 to generate a conveyance force for the recording medium.

Reference numeral 843 denotes a release lever for releasing the respective biases of the feed roller 839, presser plate 845, and spur 842 when setting a recording medium.

Reference numeral 845 is a presser plate for suppressing floating of the recording medium in the vicinity of the recording position and ensuring close contact with the platen roller 833. In this embodiment, an inkjet recording head that performs recording by ejecting ink is used as the recording head. Therefore, the distance between the ink ejection orifice forming surface of the recording head and the recording surface of the recording medium is relatively small, and the distance must be strictly controlled to avoid contact between the recording medium and the ejection orifice forming surface. , the arrangement of the presser plate 845 is effective. 847 is a scale provided on the holding plate 845, and 849 is a marker provided on the carriage 811 corresponding to this scale, and the print position and setting position of the recording head can also be read by these.

Reference numeral 851 denotes a cap made of an elastic material such as rubber, which faces the ink discharge orifice forming surface of the recording head in the home position, and is supported so as to be able to come into contact with and separate from the recording head. This cap 851 is used to protect the print head during non-printing and during ejection recovery processing of the print head. Ejection recovery processing is to eject ink from all ejection ports by driving an energy generating element installed inside the ink ejection ports and used for ink ejection, thereby eliminating air bubbles, dust, thickening, and recording. These processes include a process (preliminary ejection) for removing causes of ejection failure such as ink that is no longer suitable for use, and a separate process for removing causes of ejection failure by forcibly discharging ink from an ejection port.

The cap 853 applies a suction force for forced ejection of ink, and the cap 85 is used during ejection recovery processing by such forced ejection or ejection recovery processing by preliminary ejection.
1 is a pump used to suck ink received in 1. 855 is a waste ink tank for storing the waste ink sucked by this pump 853, and 857 is a tube that communicates the pump 853 and the waste ink tank 855.

Reference numeral 859 is a blade for wamping the ejection orifice forming surface of the recording head, and there are two positions for protruding toward the recording head to wamp the ejection orifice forming surface in the process of head movement, and a retracted blade that does not engage the ejection orifice forming surface. It is supported so that it can be moved to and from the position. 861 is a recovery system motor, and 863 is a cam device that receives power from the recovery system motor 861 to drive the pump 853 and move the cap 851 and the blade 859, respectively.

Although not shown, it goes without saying that the inkjet printer has a memory for several lines or a page memory as shown in FIG. It goes without saying that the printer section is not limited to this, and may be of a serial type, full multi-type, or the like.

[0045]

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above, according to the present invention, when developing characters larger than a certain arbitrary size as a boundary, an interpolation operation is performed to improve the quality of the characters. In the case of size, by not adding interpolation to shorten the expansion processing speed, it has become possible to obtain high-quality character output without reducing throughput.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the hardware and software configuration of a font development control device employing the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a sequence algorithm for font expansion control implemented by the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the operation of developing into a bitmap font including interpolated data and developing into a bitmap font not including interpolated data, and the quality of output characters, to capture and explain FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a printer controller.

FIG. 5 is a structural diagram of a laser beam printer.

FIG. 6 is a structural diagram of a bubble jet printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Font development memory (RAM) 2 Program storage ROM 3 Bitmap font generation routine 4 Font data loading routine 5 Character size identification routine 6 External storage device (hard disk, etc.) 7 Internal storage device (ROM/RAM, etc.) 8 data bus

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. Storage means for storing an expansion algorithm for generating a pattern based on coordinate point data represented; means for generating a bitmap font using the font expansion algorithm stored in the storage means;
If the specified character size is smaller than the predetermined size, a bitmap font is generated using the font expansion algorithm according to the basic sampling point, and if the specified character size is larger than the predetermined size, the basic control for controlling the generation means to generate a bitmap font using a font expansion algorithm by using interpolation sampling points between the basic sampling points for expansion in order to more smoothly connect the sampling points of . 1. A pattern processing device comprising: means. 2. Determine whether the specified output size is larger than or equal to a predetermined size, and if smaller than the predetermined size, generate a dot pattern based on coordinate point data representing a pattern to be output. and the output size is
If the size is larger than a predetermined size, a dot pattern is generated using coordinate points obtained by adding an interpolation point to the coordinate points.