JPH04373087A - Graphic generating system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the system to simultaneously execute the generation of character/graphic contour lines and the inside painting-out of the contour lines without increasing the capacity of a memory to be used. CONSTITUTION:This system is composed of a contour line generating circuit 1 to generate the character/graphic contour lines from contour information in a vector form, a painting-out circuit 2 for the inside of the contour lines, a memory control circuit 3 to arbitrarte memory access requests from the contour line generating circuit 1 and the painting-out circuit 2, a bit map memory 4 to store the character/graphic contour lines, a bus 5 to transmit font data in the vector form to the contour line generating circuit 1, an address bus 9 from the contour line generating circuit 1, a data bus 10 for the contour line generating circuit 1, an address bus 13 from the painting-out circuit 2, a data bus 14 for the painting-out circuit 2, an address bus 16 to the bit map memory 4 and a data bus 17 for the bit map memory 4. Thus, characters/ graphics painting out the inside of the contour lines can be generated at high speed.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for rapidly generating character/graphic data in dot format from contour information of characters/figures expressed in vector format in an information processing apparatus such as a character/graphic generating apparatus.

0002

[Prior Art] A conventional method for generating dot-format data whose interior is filled using vector-format outline information of characters and figures is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-234370.
As described in the publication, after completing the process of generating outlines of characters and figures expressed in dot format on memory,
The inside was being painted.

0003

[Problem to be solved by the invention] The above prior art
Since the inside of the figure is filled after the outline of the figure is completely generated, no consideration is given to the long idle time when memory is not accessed, and it takes time to generate characters and figures whose insides are filled. There was a problem.

An object of the present invention is to fill an area that can be filled in while the contour line of a character/figure is being generated, without increasing the memory capacity used, by using the time when the means for generating the contour line is not accessing the memory. By doing this, it is possible to reduce idle time when memory is not accessed and generate filled characters and figures at high speed.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides contour information of characters/figures expressed in vector format, which increases monotonically in the Y-axis direction among a plurality of closed contour information. The closed contour information with the longest part is processed last, the monotonically increasing start flag is embedded after the start point coordinates of the monotonically increasing part mentioned above, and the end point coordinates are processed last. The starting point coordinates of

[0006] In order to fill in the area that can be filled while the outline is being generated, the character/figure generator must have a function that prevents the means for generating the outline and the means for filling the inside from accessing memory at the same time. It has been established that
Some of the means for generating the contour line are provided with a function of starting the means for filling out the interior when the monotonically increasing start flag described above is detected; If the address at which the memory is accessed is greater than or equal to the address at which the contour line generating means last accessed, a function is provided to wait without accessing the memory.

[0007] Furthermore, in order to fill in the portion above the end point coordinates of the monotonically increasing portion in the Y-axis direction, if the contour line is completely generated in the means for filling out the inside, It provides a function to access memory regardless of the size of the address.

[0008]

[Effect] Outline information for characters and figures is processed in the order that among multiple closed contour information, the one with the longest monotonically increasing portion in the Y-axis direction is processed last, and the monotonically increasing portion described above is processed last. A monotonically increasing start flag is embedded after the start point coordinates of the part where the end point coordinates are the start point coordinates of the closed contour information. As a result, if the means for generating a contour line detects the monotonically increasing start flag while the contour line is being generated, the means for filling the inside can be activated. Since it becomes possible to fill in the available area, and as a result, idle time during which memory is not accessed is reduced, filled characters and figures can be generated at high speed.

[0009] Furthermore, when accessing the memory, the above-mentioned means for generating an outline line and means for filling in the inside operate so that if another means has already accessed the memory, it waits in that state until it is completed. do. This prevents the two means from accessing the memory at the same time, thereby preventing malfunctions.

[0010] Furthermore, the above-mentioned means for filling in the inside does not access the memory if the address at which it is accessed is greater than or equal to the address at which the means for generating an outline line last accessed it. It acts like a wait in the state. As a result, the means for filling in the interior will not fill in areas that cannot be filled in, so that correct filling can be performed.

Furthermore, the means for filling the inside operates to fill the inside, regardless of the size of the address, as long as the contour line is completely generated. As a result, the portion above the monotonically increasing portion can also be filled in, so complete filling can be achieved.

0012

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be explained below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for implementing the invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 indicates an outline generation circuit that generates outlines of characters and figures from outline information in vector format;
3 is a memory control circuit that mediates memory access requests from the outline generation circuit 1 and the filling circuit 2; 4 is a bitmap memory that stores the outlines of characters and figures; , 5 is a bus that sends vector format font data to the contour generation circuit 1, 6 is a memory access request signal LMREQ from the contour generation circuit 1, 7 is a memory access permission signal LMACK from the memory control circuit 3, and 8 is a contour signal. 9 is an address bus LADR from the contour generation circuit 1; 10 is a data bus LDATA of the contour generation circuit 1; 11 12 is the memory access permission signal FMACK from the memory control circuit 3, 13 is the address bus FADR from the filling circuit 2, 14 is the data bus FDATA of the filling circuit 2, and 15 is the filling circuit 2. Filled circuit activation signal FS, 16 that activates circuit 2
is address bus ADR to bitmap memory 4, 17
is the data bus DATA of the bitmap memory 4.

[0014] Using the device configuration of the present invention, fill-in characters and
The procedure for generating figures will be explained.

First, the outline generation circuit 1 receives font data via the bus 5 and starts generating an outline on the bitmap memory 4. When reading/writing the bitmap memory 4, a request is made with LMREQ=1, and when the permission signal LMACK=1 is returned, the read/write is performed using the address bus LADR9 and data bus LDATA10, and when the read/write is completed, LMREQ=0. do. When the contour generation circuit 1 detects a monotonous increase start flag MIS, which will be described later, from the font data during operation,
The filling circuit 2 is activated by setting FS=1. The activated filling circuit 2 starts filling the area that can be filled out of the outline generated on the bitmap memory 4. When reading/writing, a request is made with FMREQ=1, and when the permission signal FMACK=1 is returned, the address bus FADR13 and data bus FDATA are
14 to read/write, and when finished, FM
Set REQ=0.

The memory control circuit 3 arbitrates so that the outline generation circuit 1 and the filling circuit 2 do not access the bitmap memory 4 at the same time. The enabled address bus and data bus are connected to ADR16 and DATA17. Furthermore, when the contour generation circuit 1 finishes the generation process, it sets a completion signal LC=1 to notify the memory control circuit 3 of the completion. If LC=1, the memory control circuit 3 always accepts requests from the filling circuit 2.

In this way, the contour generating circuit 1 and the filling circuit 2 mediate with each other and simultaneously perform the contour generating process and the filling process for the same character/figure, so that the filled character is stored in the bitmap memory 4. - Shapes can be generated quickly.

Next, vector-format contour information for realizing the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG. 2 is an example of contour information. Since the longest vector sequence that monotonically increases in the Y direction is P10 to P7, the closed contour information P1→P2→P3→P4→P5→
P6→P1 is processed first, P7→P8→P
The last processing order is 9→P10→P11→P12→P7. The coordinate data example shown in FIG. 3 is obtained by converting the contour information example in FIG. 2 into XY coordinate data. CLS here
is a flag indicating the start of closed contour information, FDE is a flag indicating the end of coordinate data for one figure, and MI
S is a flag representing the start of a monotonically increasing vector sequence, and the coordinates of P1 are represented by (X1, Y1). According to this coordinate data, the contour generation circuit 1 is
Detected and activated the filling circuit 2, P10→P11
As the contour line is generated in the order of →P12→P7, it becomes possible to simultaneously fill in the outline from the bottom.

Next, the operation of the contour generation circuit 1 will be explained in FIG.
This will be explained in detail using FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an algorithm for the operation of the contour generation circuit 1. First, font data is received (step 40), and if the received data is the flag CLS indicating the start of closed contour information (step 41 is true), the start and end points of the vector are set (step 42), and the A line segment is generated (step 43). CLS (step 41 is false), M
If it is IS (step 44 is true), start up the filling circuit 2 with FS=1 (step 45), and step 42
Perform processing from . Also, instead of MIS (step 4)
4 is false) If FDE (step 46 is true), set LC=1 (step 47) and end the operation (step 48)
. Moreover, if it is not FDE, the process from step 42 is performed. By performing the operations from step 40 to step 48, a contour line is generated in the bitmap memory 4,
The filling circuit 2 can be activated during the generation.

Next, the operation of the filling circuit 2 will be explained in detail using FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an algorithm for the operation of the filling circuit 2. As shown in FIG. First, the contour line generating circuit 1 is activated, and if FS=1 (step 51 is true), FS=0 is set (step 52), and the inside of the contour line is filled in (step 53). When the filling is finished, the process returns to step 51 and waits for the next activation. Further, if FS=0 in step 51, the process waits in that state until activation is applied. By performing the operations from step 51 to step 53,
The inside of the contour line generated on the bitmap memory 4 is filled in.

Next, the operation when the contour generation circuit 1 reads/writes the bitmap memory 4 will be explained in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an algorithm of operations when the contour generation circuit 1 reads/writes the bitmap memory 4. First, LMREQ
= 1 (step 61) and issues an access request. If the access permission signal LMACK=1 (step 62 is true), the read/write to the bitmap memory 4 is performed (step 63), and after completion, LMREQ is set to 0 (step 64) and the access request is lowered. If the access permission signal LMACK=0 (step 62 is false), the process waits until LMACK=1. By carrying out the operations from step 61 to step 64, the contour generation circuit 1 can read/write to the bitmap memory 4.

Next, the operation when the filling circuit 2 reads/writes the bitmap memory 4 will be explained in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an algorithm of operations when the filling circuit 2 reads/writes the bitmap memory 4. First, FMREQ=1
(step 71) issues an access request. If the access permission signal FMACK=1 (step 72 is true)
Read/write to bitmap memory 4 is performed (step 73), and after completion, FMREQ is set to 0 (step 74) and the access request is lowered. Access permission signal FM
If ACK=0 (step 72 is false), the process waits until FMACK=1. By performing the operations from step 71 to step 74, the filling circuit 2 performs read/write operations to the bitmap memory 4.
Can do light.

Next, the operation of the memory control circuit 3 will be explained in detail using FIGS. 8 and 9. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an algorithm for operation when an access request is received from the contour generation circuit 1, and FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an algorithm for operation when an access request is received from the filling circuit 2. In FIG. 8, first, if the access request signal LMREQ from the contour generation circuit 1 is 0 (step 80 is false), the process waits in that state. Even if LMREQ=1 (step 80 is true), if the filling circuit 2 is being accessed (step 81 is true)
If the access is completed (step 81 is false), the access permission signal LMACK is set to 1 (step 82), and the bus and signals from the contour generation circuit 1 are enabled (step 83). If the contour generating circuit 1 is reading/writing and LMREQ≠0 (step 84 is false), it waits as is, and if the reading/writing is completed and LMREQ=0 (step 84 is true), the access request is lowered. For example, the access permission is lowered by setting LMACK=0 (step 85), and the processing from step 80 is repeated again. This step 80 to step 85
By performing the operations described above, the memory control circuit 3 can mediate memory access requests from the contour generation circuit 1.

Next, in FIG. 9, first, the filling circuit 2
If the access request signal FMREQ from FMREQ=0 (step 90 is false), the process waits as is. FMR
Even if EQ=1 (step 90 is true), if the contour generation circuit 1 is being accessed (step 91 is true), it remains in a wait state. If the contour generation circuit 1 completes the access (step 91 is false) and the accessed address LADR is larger than the address FADR that the filling circuit 2 attempts to access (step 92 is true),
Access permission signal FMACK=1 (step 94)
Allow access. It is assumed here that the relationship between coordinate values and addresses is proportional. In other words, if the coordinate value increases, the corresponding address also increases. Furthermore, in step 92, even if LADR≦FADR (
If step 92 is false), the contour generating circuit 1 has completely finished generating the contour and LC=1 (step 93 is true), then the access permission signal FMACK is set to 1 (step 9
4) Allow access. Also, in step 93,
Since the contour line generation circuit 1 is in the middle of generating a contour line, LC=
If it is 0 (step 93 is false), the process from step 91 is repeated. After setting FMACK=1 in step 94, the bus and signals from the filling circuit 2 are enabled (
Step 95). If the filling circuit 2 is in the process of reading/writing to the bitmap memory 4 and FMREQ≠0 (step 96 is false), it waits as is. When the read/write is finished and FMREQ becomes 0 (step 96 is true) and the access request has decreased, the FMA
Lower the access permission by setting CK=0 (step 97),
The process from step 90 is repeated again. By performing the operations from step 90 to step 97,
The memory control circuit 3 can mediate memory access requests from the filling circuit 2.

Next, the process of generating filled characters and figures from the outline information shown in FIG. 2 will be explained in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing the process of obtaining filled characters and figures from the contour information shown in FIG. 2. First 1
At 01, an inner closed contour is generated. then 10
At step 2, generation of an outer closed contour line is started, and at step 103, a contour line is generated up to the starting point of a vector sequence that monotonically increases in the Y direction. Furthermore, since the monotonous increase start flag MIS is detected, filling is started. As we generate a contour line from the starting point of a monotonically increasing vector sequence at 104, 105,
Fill in from the bottom. At 106, when the generation of the contour line is finished, the filling is also finished.

Note that in this embodiment, among a plurality of pieces of closed contour information, the one with the longest vector sequence that monotonically increases in the Y direction is processed last, but the vector sequence that monotonically increases in the Y direction This is applicable even if the monotonically increasing start flag MIS is embedded after the start point of the nth longest vector sequence, with the order in which the nth longest vector sequence is processed last (n is an integer greater than or equal to 2). In FIG. 2, vector strings P6 to P3 are used instead of vector strings P10 to P7.
This can be explained by saying that it is sufficient to use .

Furthermore, in this embodiment, after the start point of the vector sequence that monotonically increases in the Y direction, a monotonically increasing start flag MIS is set.
However, in Fig. 2, it is applicable to embedding at any position between monotonically increasing vector sequences, not after P10, but after P11,
This can be explained by saying that it should be embedded after P12.

Although this embodiment uses a vector sequence that monotonically increases in the Y direction, it can also be applied by using a vector sequence that monotonically decreases in the Y direction and filling from the top instead of from the bottom. What is possible is that in FIG.
This can be explained by saying that it is sufficient to use 7 to P10.

Furthermore, although this embodiment uses a vector sequence that monotonically increases in the Y direction, it is also applicable to use a vector sequence that monotonically increases in the X direction, as shown in FIG. This can be explained by saying that all you have to do is replace the X axis.

[0030]

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, while the outline of a character/figure is being generated, the area that can be filled can be filled using the time when the means for generating the outline does not access the memory. As a result, idle time when memory is not accessed is reduced, and filled characters and figures can be generated at high speed without increasing the amount of memory used.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

[Figure 1] Block diagram of character/figure generator,

[Fig. 2] An explanatory diagram of outline information of characters and figures for realizing the present invention,

[Fig. 3] An explanatory diagram of an example of X, Y coordinate data of the contour information in Fig. 2,

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an algorithm for the operation of the contour generation circuit;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an algorithm for the operation of the filling circuit;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an algorithm of operations when the contour generation circuit accesses the bitmap memory;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation algorithm when the filling circuit accesses the bitmap memory;

[
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an algorithm for the operation of the memory control circuit;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an algorithm for the operation of the memory control circuit;

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing the process of generating filled characters and figures.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Contour generation circuit, 2...Filling circuit, 3...Memory control circuit, 4...Bitmap memory, 6...Memory access request signal LMREQ, 7...Memory access permission signal LMACK, 8...Contour line generation end signal LC, 11 …
Memory access request signal FMREQ, 12...Memory access permission signal FMACK, 15...Filling circuit activation signal FS.

Claims (6)

[Claims] Claim 1: In outline information of characters and figures expressed in vector format, among one or more sets of mutually independent vector sequences, those containing any monotonically increasing vector sequence are processed last. , one coordinate point that constitutes an arbitrary vector sequence is the starting point of the independent vector sequence that is processed last, and the coordinate values in the increasing direction are smaller or equal to the starting point, increasing monotonically. A figure generation method characterized by embedding information indicating that 2. According to claim 1, means for generating character/figure data in dot format from the outline information of the characters/figures, and generating outlines of the characters/figures based on the outline information;
comprising means for storing the contour line, and means for filling in the inside of the contour line generated by the storing means, wherein the means for generating the contour line is generating the contour line in the storing means. In a figure generation method, the means for filling out the inside fills out a fillable area. 3. A figure generation method according to claim 2, wherein after said means for generating a contour line detects information indicating that the contour line increases monotonically in the vertical direction, said means for filling out the inside is activated. 4. In claim 2, when the means for generating an outline or the means for filling in the inside starts accessing the means for storing, if another means is already accessing, A figure generation method that waits until access is completed in the state. 5. In claim 2, when the means for filling out the inside starts accessing the means for storing, the address to be accessed is greater than the address at which the means for generating the contour line last accessed. A figure generation method that waits as is if both are larger or equal. 6. In claim 2, if the means for generating the contour line has completely finished generating the contour line, the means for filling out the inside is stored in the memory regardless of the size of the address. A figure generation method that provides access to the means.