JPH05323937A - Hinting processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To hold relative positions of control points at the time of designing and control the contour line by a simple process with a small volume of data. CONSTITUTION:The dot numbers of the contour line are held in Ns and Ne (step 101), and the difference between the (x) coordinates of Ns and Ne is held in X and the difference between the (y) coordinates is held in Y (step 102). Then X(N) is regarded as the (x) coordinate of a dot N and Y(N) is regarded as the (y) coordinate of the dot N; and X'(N) is regarded as the (x) coordinate of the dot N after movement and Y'(N) is regarded as (y) coordinate of the dot N after the movement, and a point right after the starting point is set to N (step 104). Further, N'(N) and T'(N) are calculated until the point N reaches the end point Ns, and N is increased to N+1 and the calculation is repeated (step 105, 106, and 107). Consequently, points between the dots Ns and Ne are moved so that the initial relative positions are maintained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hinting method for contour lines in an outline font file.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In desktop publishing, personal computers, word processors, digital fax machines, etc., character font data is prepared in the apparatus. Such font data is usually held by a dot pattern method, an outline method, or a combination thereof. The font representation is then converted to a dot pattern for displaying and printing the outline font.

Conventionally, in rasterization for converting an outline font into a dot image, a font file gives coordinate data of contour points and attribute data relating to hinting of each contour point, and the actual hinting process uses these coordinate data. It was done by the rasterizer using the attribute data.

Here, the hinting process is a process for shaping the outline beautifully, and is performed by moving the contour point to an appropriate position during hinting. Conventionally, since this hinting processing has performed rounding processing such as rounding or truncation, there is a tendency that a plurality of curves originally designed to be smoothly connected tend to be uneven after the hinting processing.

[0005]

As a technique for improving the above points, for example, a character processing device described in JP-A-2-223988 is proposed. This device
Although the character patterns are classified and the smoothing process that meets the conditions is performed on the classified patterns, the process is very complicated.

By the way, in this kind of technical field,
It is well known that there is a problem that lines appear thinner as the size of the outline font increases. It is explained that the black part such as the stem becomes thicker and the white part of the gap becomes wider at the same time, and as a result, only the white part is emphasized and the line looks relatively thin to the human eye. To be done.

As a technique for solving this, there is a method of generating characters and figures described in Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 63-6874. This method stores two patterns in the character memory for the outline portion of one character. I am processing it, so
There is a drawback that the amount of processed data is almost twice as much as usual.

An object of the present invention is to provide a hinting processing method for maintaining the relative positions of contour points at the time of designing, simple processing, and controlling the contour line with a smaller amount of data.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a hinting processing method which adapts the size after scaling to change the line width and processes with high quality according to the size.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 has a plurality of glyph data, each glyph data being outline information which is a set of contour points and the outline. In a hinting method for outlines in an outline font file, which is composed of hinting information for controlling information,
For predetermined contour points that make up the contour line, line width correction,
A first hinting process including line disappearing prevention and blurring prevention is performed, and other contour points are moved so as to maintain a relative position with respect to the first hinting processed point. It is characterized by the hinting process.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the second hinting process is applied to points other than the start point and the end point for controlling the curve.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the first hinting process is performed on the contour points forming the vertical and horizontal stems, and the second hinting process is performed on the other contour points. It has a feature.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the first hinting process is performed on the contour points forming the vertical and horizontal stems and the starting and ending points of the curve.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the hinting processing method according to the fourth aspect is characterized in that the first hinting process is applied to a portion in the curve where a direction change occurs.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the first hinting process is applied to two points on a diagonal line of a rectangle,
The second hinting process is applied to the other two points.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the second hinting process is applied to the tip points of the scales in the glyph.

According to the eighth aspect of the invention, in the hinting processing method for correcting the line width so that the stems, which should have originally the same width, maintain the same line width even after scaling, in the method after scaling. Is characterized by having a predetermined functional relationship.

The invention according to claim 9 is characterized in that the line width is corrected by referring to a table storing the correspondence between the size after scaling and the line width according to the size.

The invention described in claim 10 is characterized in that the line width is corrected by using either the function described in claim 8 or the table described in claim 9 according to the size after scaling.

According to the invention of claim 11, the invention according to claim 1
It is characterized in that the processing according to any one of claims 1 to 7 is combined with the line width correction processing according to any one of claims 8 to 10.

[0021]

The point numbers of the start and end points of the contour line are held in Ns and Ne, the difference between the x coordinates of Ns and Ne is set to X, and the difference between the y coordinates is set to Y.
Hold on. X (N) is the x coordinate of point N, Y (N) is the point N
X '(N) after the movement of the point N,
Let Y '(N) be the y coordinate after the movement of point N, set the point next to the start point to N, and set X' (N) until the point N becomes the end point Ns.
And Y '(N) are calculated, and N is set to N + 1, and the process is repeated. As a result, the point sandwiched between the point Ns and the point Ne is moved so as to maintain the initial relative position, and the shape of the glyph after the hinting processing can be made beautiful.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, each contour point is referred to by a consecutive number uniquely determined within the glyph, and
As shown in, the number is incremented by 1 in the order of tracing the contour line. Further, although a quadratic spline (this is a so-called conic curve) is used as the expression of the curve, the present embodiment is not limited to this, and an expression of another curve may be used.

The outline font file structure which is the premise of this embodiment is composed of n glyph data 1 (glyph 1, glyph 2, ... Glyph n) and shared data 2 as shown in FIG. Has been done.

Further, as shown in FIG. 16, the glyph data is composed of outline information 11 and hinting information 12. The outline information 11 is made up of contour points that are consecutively numbered and their coordinate data.
The hinting information 12 is composed of an instruction sequence for controlling the outline information 11 (for example, an instruction for shifting the point 1 to the right by one dot). FIG. 17 is a diagram in which the shared data 2 includes a group of subroutines (subroutine 1 to subroutine m) for controlling contour points.

The conventional hinting process used in this embodiment will be briefly described. (1) Line width correction If the outline of a scaled font is rasterized as it is, even if it is originally designed to have the same width, the resulting dot image will have a different width depending on the position where it is placed. There is. The so-called line width correction corrects this. This is processed as follows.

1. The vertical line on the left side of the vertical stem and the horizontal line on the lower side of the horizontal stem are moved to a specific position such as a pixel boundary or a pixel center, and a line corresponding to a position at a specific distance is moved from that position. 2. The center line of the vertical and horizontal stems is moved to a specific position such as the pixel boundary or the pixel center, and the contour line is moved to a position at a specific distance from that. 3. A plurality of feature points are set for each character, and the position of each stem is managed as the distance from the feature point. Move this control point to a specific position such as the pixel boundary or the pixel center,
Move each stem to a specific distance from it.

(2) Prevention of line disappearance When the size is reduced due to magnification change, a stem may be located between pixels. Therefore, the stem does not appear as a dot. In order to prevent this, the following method is used.

1. Move only the part of the outline related to that stem so that it appears as a dot. 2. By defining the minimum width of the stem as 1, for example, the stem is sure to appear. 3. The function of the rasterizer is to prevent such line disappearance. Such a process is also applied to a vertically and horizontally sharp portion formed by diagonal lines and curves.

(3) Prevention of Blurring When the size is reduced by zooming, a part of it may fall between pixels in a diagonal line or a curved line. As a result, it looks faint,
Beauty is spoiled. In order to prevent this, the following method is used.

1. By defining the minimum width of the slanted line or the curve to be 1, for example, the slanted line or the curved line is sure to appear. 2. The rasterizer's function is to prevent such blurring.

<Embodiment 1> The present invention relates to a method for controlling contour points in the hinting information 12, and FIG. 1 is a flowchart of hinting processing for storing relative positions and moving them according to the present embodiment. is there. In FIG. 1, first, the point numbers of the starting point and the ending point of the contour line are held in Ns and Ne, respectively (step 101). The difference between the x coordinates of Ns and Ne is held at X, and the difference between the y coordinates is held at Y (step 102).
At this time, if X or Y is 0, it is treated as an exception (step 108).

X (N) is the x coordinate of the point N, and Y (N) is the point N.
X '(N) after the movement of the point N,
Let Y ′ (N) be the y coordinate after the movement of the point N. The point next to the start point is set to N (step 104). Then, until the point N reaches the end point Ns, X ′ (N) = {(X (N) −X (Ns)) * (X ′ (Ne)
−X ′ (Ns)) / X} + X ′ (Ns) Y ′ (N) = {(Y (N) −Y (Ns)) * (Y ′ (Ne)
-Y '(Ns)) / Y} + Y' (Ns) is calculated, and N is set to N + 1 and repeated (step 10).
5, 106, 107).

The above-mentioned calculation of the position after the movement is a proportional distribution method, whereby the point sandwiched between the points Ns and Ne can be moved so as to maintain the initial relative position. An example of actually moving a graphic using the processing of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. It should be noted that here, it is assumed that the original figure is reduced to a certain size.

FIG. 2A is a diagram showing an initial state,
A curve starting from a point a to a point b as an off point (a point between the start point and the end point of the curve for controlling the curve) and a point starting from a point c and having an off point d. The curve up to e represents a smooth connection. The relative position of each point is: X (b) -X (a): X (c) -X (b): X (d)-
X (c): X (e) -X (d) = 2: 5: 5: 4 Y (b) -Y (a): Y (c) -Y (b): Y (d)-
Y (c): Y (e) -Y (d) = 7: 3: 3: -2.

FIG. 2B shows a diagram in which these contour points are rounded on the integer coordinates by the conventional hinting process. As is apparent from this diagram, the curve connection is not correctly saved. ..

Therefore, in this embodiment, the conventional hinting process is applied only to the points a and e, and the points are moved so as to maintain the relative position described above with respect to the remaining points.
The curve shown in FIG. 2 (c) is obtained. As is clear from the curves in FIG. 2 (c), it can be seen that the curve connections are preserved correctly. As described above, in the first embodiment, since the relative positions of the contour points at the time of design are saved, it is possible to prevent the glyph shape from being extremely distorted even after the hinting process.
The effect is remarkable especially in continuous curves.
Also, the characteristic shapes of glyphs such as scales and tome can be unified.

<Embodiment 2> When displaying a character having a large number of strokes such as a Chinese character, it is important to display features such as a scale and a tome at least within the glyph. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a glyph, and the shapes of the points n and i need to be unified in the glyph. Of course, it is desirable that the shapes are uniform throughout the font, but this requires considerable processing. Therefore, in this embodiment, processing is performed so that one glyph has the same shape.

In the glyph of FIG. 4, points o, j, and m
And the point h are subjected to the same hinting process. Therefore, in this embodiment, by maintaining the relative position with respect to these points, the dot image having the same shape at the points n and i is generated.

FIG. 3 is a processing flowchart of the second embodiment. It should be noted that here, for simplification of description, it is assumed that the start point of the contour line is not the off point. First, the starting point of the contour line is set to Pn (step 201). If Pn is not the off point (step 204), normal hinting processing is performed (step 205). Then Pn to P
It is set to n + 1 (step 206). This process is repeated until Pn exceeds the end point of the contour line (step 203).

Again, the start point of the contour line is set to Pn, and the point immediately before that (the end point of the contour line at this point) is set to Pp (step 207). If Pn is not the off point, do nothing. While Pn is the off point, Pn is set to Pn + 1 repeatedly (steps 210, 211, and 21).
2). At this time, when the end point of the contour line is reached, the process returns to the start point (step 215). When Pn is no longer the off point, the moving process for maintaining the relative position shown in FIG. 1 is performed on the point sandwiched between Pp and Pn (step 21).
3). Pn is set to Pn + 1 and Pp is set to the point immediately before that (step 214). The above process is repeated until Pn exceeds the end point of the contour line.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, it is possible to unify the shape represented by one curve such as a toe in the glyph.

<Embodiment 3> In a font having a characteristic of vertical and horizontal stems such as Mincho type, hinting processing for them is important. In other words, conversely, the hinting process is not so important in other points.

In the present embodiment, in the glyph shown in FIG. 4, points a, b, c, g, h, j, which form vertical and horizontal stems,
Conventional hinting processing (for example, line width correction processing) is applied to k, l, m, and o, and other points d,
With respect to e, f, i and n, a sufficiently beautiful shape can be obtained only by performing a moving process for maintaining the relative position in FIG. 1 of the present embodiment.

5 and 6 are processing flowcharts of the third embodiment. 5 and 6, the starting point of the contour line is P
The point next to s and Ps is set to Pe (step 301). P
If s and Pe have the same x coordinate, the line segment from Ps to Pe is a vertical line (step 302). And
The line segment is one of the left and right ends of the vertical stem (step 307), but if the y coordinate of Ps is larger than that of Pe, it is determined as the right end, otherwise it is determined as the left end. Performs a hinting process to make the width of the vertical stem a predetermined width (steps 308 and 309).

Even when the x-coordinates of Ps and Pe are different and the y-coordinates are the same (step 303), it is determined exactly whether it is the upper end or the lower end of the lateral stem (step 30).
4). Then, a hinting process is performed on these to set the width of the lateral stem to a predetermined width (step 30).
5,306).

If the line segment from Ps to Pe is neither of the above stems, nothing is done. The above processing is performed until Ps reaches the end point of the contour line, that is, for all line segments on the contour line (steps 310, 311, 312, 31).
3).

Again, the starting point of the contour line is set to Ps, and the point next to Ps is set to Pe (step 314). Ps to Pe
If the line segment to is horizontal or vertical, do nothing (step 324 and below). Otherwise, its starting point P
Hold s at Pc (step 316). Let Ps be Pe, and let the point next to Ps be Pe (steps 317, 31).
8, 320). This process is repeated while the line segment from Ps to Pe is not horizontal or vertical (step 322).

When the line segment from Ps to Pe becomes horizontal or vertical, for a series of points sandwiched between Pc and Ps,
A movement process for maintaining the relative position in FIG. 1 is performed (step 32).
2, 323). It should be noted that, when the end point of the contour line comes during the repetition, it is an error, but the moving process for maintaining the relative position in FIG. 1 is performed here and the process ends (step 321). Then, Ps is set to Pe, and the point next to Ps is set to Pe (step 327). Then, the process returns to step 315. At this time, if Ps reaches the end point of the contour line, the process ends (step 325).

According to this embodiment, the glyph as a whole can be formed into a neat shape only by subjecting the vertical and horizontal stems to the conventional hinting process, and the parts other than the vertical and horizontal stems are subjected to the hinting process of the moving process. As a result, the amount of processed data can be significantly reduced.

<Embodiment 4> When the processing of Embodiment 3 described above is applied to the glyph of FIG.
Conventional hinting processing is applied to points on the stem such as 1 and 2. On the other hand, the curve group from the point 13 to the point 19 and the curve group from the point 23 to the point 27 are subjected to the movement processing for maintaining the relative position in FIG. 1 in accordance with the hinting processing of the vertical and horizontal stems. Therefore, when the thickness of the stem changes due to the conventional hinting process for the stem, the consistency with the thickness of the curved portion may be lost.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the hinting process for moving the points 13, 19 and the points 23, 27 up and down is performed, and then the moving process for maintaining the relative position of FIG. It is intended to adjust the overall thickness while smoothing.

7 and 8 are process flowcharts of the fourth embodiment. This process is basically the same as the process of FIGS. However, here, the conventional hinting processing for vertical and horizontal stems (steps 305 and 3 in FIG. 5) is performed.
06, 308, 309) to “correction process (step 40
3) ”.

First, let Ps be the starting point of the contour line and Pe be P
It is set as the next point of s (step 401). If the straight line from Ps to Pe constitutes a vertical and horizontal stem, hinting processing for that is performed (step 403). Otherwise, the contour line is traced while successively increasing Ps and Pe until the straight line from Ps to Pe becomes the vertical and horizontal stems (processes up to step 407 and step 413).

When the end point of the contour line is reached (steps 405 and 411), Ps is again set as the start point of the contour line and Pe is set as the next point of Ps (step 414). P
If s is the start point of the curved portion (step 415), Pc
Hold Ps at step 420. The contour line is traced while increasing Ps and Pe until Pe reaches the end point of the curved portion (repeat steps 421 and thereafter). The starting point of the curve,
The necessary hinting process is applied to the end points Pc and Pe. After that, for the points sandwiched between Pc and Pe,
The moving process of FIG. 1 is performed (step 426). While Ps is not the end point of the curved portion, the contour line is traced while increasing Ps and Pe, and the above processing is repeated.

According to this embodiment, a beautiful hinting result can be obtained by performing the conventional hinting process only on the vertical and horizontal stems and the starting and ending points of the curve (or group of curves). In particular, the hinting process is applied to the entire curved portion by the simple moving process of this embodiment.

<Embodiment 5> In this embodiment, a hinting process is applied to a portion where a direction change occurs. FIG. 9B shows a part of the Chinese character, and the straight line from the point 5 to the point 6 and the straight line from the point 16 to the point 17 form a lateral stem. Conventionally, hinting processing is performed on such a drawing by combining the above-described techniques. That is, line width correction and line erasure measures are applied to the lateral stem composed of the straight line from point 5 to point 6 and the straight line from point 16 to point 17, and from point 8 to point 1.
For the curve reaching 0 and the curve extending from the point 12 to the point 14, a kind of line disappearing countermeasure is taken.

However, if these processes are performed independently,
Curved connections may not be smooth, and the overall shape may be distorted. Therefore, it is considered to perform the moving process on the curved portion according to the method described in the fourth embodiment. Conventional hinting processing is applied to points 6 and 16. As a result of this processing, these points will move up and down.

When the moving process is applied to the curve between the points 6 and 16, the points 7 to 15 are moved so as to maintain their relative positions. As a result, the positions of these curves can be changed while being smoothly connected.

However, since the points 6 and 16 move only in the vertical direction, for example, the curve from the point 8 to the point 10 is not provided with a measure to eliminate the line by this moving process. Therefore, the curved portion from the point 8 to the point 10 may not be displayed as a dot. The same applies to the curve from point 12 to point 14.

Therefore, in such a case, the conventional hinting process is applied to the curve from the point 8 to the point 10 and the curve from the point 12 to the point 14 and then the moving process is executed. It will be good. That is, conventional hinting processing may be performed when the direction of a curved line or diagonal line changes significantly.

In this embodiment, the change in the direction of tracing a point is 9
An example in which the conventional hinting process is applied to those having a degree of less than 0 degrees (forming a steep angle) has been shown. However, there are various methods for applying this condition, for example, it is applied when the temperature is lower than 120 degrees instead of 90 degrees, or when the slope is steep. This can also be applied to the part that changes to a different slope and vice versa.

According to this embodiment, a beautiful hinting result can be obtained by subjecting the vertical and horizontal stems and the starting point of the curve (or group of curves), the ending point and the change point of the direction to the hinting process. In particular, the hinting process is applied to the entire curved portion by a simple process.

<Embodiment 6> It is considered that hinting processing is applied to a rectangular contour line shown in FIG. For example, the hinting process is performed based on the point a. Point b
Performs the same processing as the point a in the vertical direction, and performs processing for correcting the line width of the vertical stem in the horizontal direction. The point d is
The same process as the point a is performed in the horizontal direction, and the process for correcting the line width of the horizontal stem is performed in the vertical direction.

The remaining point c has to be processed for line width correction in both the vertical and horizontal directions, which requires a considerable time. However, the hinting process for this point can be made unnecessary by using the moving process for saving the relative position of the present embodiment described above. In other words, the moving process for saving the relative position in this embodiment guarantees that the originally same x and y coordinates are the same after the moving process. For the same reason, the hinting process is not necessary for the point a, and for the rectangle, it is sufficient to perform the hinting process only on two diagonal points.

According to the present embodiment, the hinting processing conventionally performed on all four contour points only needs to be subjected to the hinting processing on only two points on the diagonal line, and the processing time and the amount of data are significantly reduced. be able to.

<Embodiment 7> In this embodiment, a moving process for storing the relative position is applied to the vertices of a scale. That is, FIG. 11 is a diagram before and after the hinting process for the scale portion of a certain glyph, (a) is a scaled original figure, and (b) is a conventional figure in which each contour point is rounded to integer coordinates. It is a figure after the hinting process of. Most of the conventional hinting processes have adopted methods such as rounding down and rounding up, so the shape of the contour line after hinting will be completely different depending on the position where it is placed. The rasterized result will also be quite different.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the shape of the scales can be unified as shown in FIG. 11 (c) by performing the moving process for storing the relative position only on the vertices of the scales. As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to unify the shapes of the scales within one glyph by a simple process.

<Embodiment 8> Conventionally, the line width when performing line width correction has been obtained by scaling a line width designed according to its display size. That is, the change in the line width was linearly changed as shown in FIG. Therefore, as described in the related art, it gives an impression that the line is thick in the small size and thin in the large size. Also, if the size is small enough, the stem will disappear.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the line width is determined by using various functions as shown in FIG. That is, in FIG. 13A, the minimum width is set to a certain minimum width (for example, 1 dot) in the minimum size, and in the size larger than that, the function is changed linearly as in the conventional case.
(B) is an example of a function, such as a quadratic curve, that has a small change in a small size and a large change in a large size. (C) is a function that connects (a) and (b),
In other words, it is a function that has a minimum width (for example, 1 dot) in the extremely small size, changes like a quadratic curve up to a certain large size, and linearly changes in the larger size. The present embodiment is not limited to a specific function, and various functions can be applied.

According to this embodiment, it is possible to perform line width processing with various characteristics with a small storage capacity.

<Embodiment 9> This embodiment is an embodiment in which the above function is realized by using a table. FIG. 14A shows
A configuration example of a table in which a size and a line width have a one-to-one correspondence relationship is shown, and (b) shows a many-to-one correspondence relationship for generating a corresponding line width when a size in a certain range is given. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a table. These numbers are
It is merely an example.

According to the present embodiment, by using the table, the storage capacity is increased, but the processing speed is higher than that of the function calculation.

<Embodiment 10> This embodiment is an embodiment in which Embodiments 8 and 9 described above are combined. That is, for a commonly used size of, for example, 30 to 50 dots, or a size of 20 to 30 dots that requires fine processing, a line width is calculated using a table,
Functions are used for other sizes. As a result, the required size has a high processing speed, and the infrequently used size requires a small storage capacity.

<Embodiment 11> Embodiments 1 to 7 described above.
Is an example relating to the use of the moving process for storing the relative position. Particularly, Example 1 is general, Examples 2 to 5 relate to curves and stems, and Example 6 is rectangular processing. 7 relates to the processing of scales. Therefore, it is possible to use some of these processes in combination. Furthermore, a more beautiful font can be obtained by simultaneously applying the line width determination methods shown in the eighth to eleventh embodiments. As described above, in this embodiment, all the advantages of the above-described embodiments can be selectively used.

The present invention has disclosed a general outline font file hinting processing method. However, this method is even more effective when used in a system such as True Type, which includes hinting information as a program in itself. Especially Tr
Since the ue Type has a group of data shared in the font file, and is configured to include a group of subroutines called from the hinting procedure of each glyph, the processing of this embodiment described above. By registering the common part of the method or the part used repeatedly as a subroutine, it is possible to further reduce the data amount.

[0076]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the relative position of the contour point at the time of design is preserved even after the hinting process, so that the shape of the glyph is extremely small. It will not be distorted.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the shapes of the toe and the like can be unified within the glyph.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to form the glyph as a whole by just performing the first hinting process on the vertical and horizontal stems, and it is possible to greatly reduce the processing amount. Becomes

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, since the first hinting process is applied to the vertical and horizontal stems and the start and end points of the curve, a beautiful hinting result can be obtained.

According to the fifth aspect of the invention, since the first hinting process is applied to the vertical and horizontal stems and the start point, the end point and the change point of the direction of the curve, a beautiful hinting result can be obtained.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the first hinting process only needs to be applied to two points on the diagonal line of the rectangle. Therefore, both the processing time and the data amount can be greatly reduced.

According to the invention described in claim 7, it becomes possible to unify the shapes of the scales within one glyph.

According to the invention described in claim 8, line width processing of various characteristics can be performed with a small storage capacity, and a beautiful font adapted to the size can be obtained.

According to the invention described in claim 9, high speed processing can be performed by referring to the table.

According to the tenth aspect of the invention, the required size has a high processing speed, the infrequently used size requires a small storage capacity, and the size can be adjusted to achieve beautiful processing.

According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, all the advantages can be selectively used, so that a more beautiful font can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a hinting process for storing a relative position and performing a moving process according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 2A is a diagram showing a curve in an initial state,
(B) is a figure in which the contour points are rounded on the integer coordinates by the conventional hinting processing, and (c) is a figure showing the curve processed by the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a processing flowchart of a second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a glyph.

FIG. 5 is a processing flowchart of a third embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a continuation of the processing flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a processing flowchart of the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a continuation of the processing flowchart of FIG.

9A and 9B are other examples of glyphs to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 10 is an example in which the present invention is applied to a rectangular contour line.

11A and 11B are diagrams before and after the hinting process on the scale part, in which FIG. 11A is a scaled original figure, and FIG.
The figure after the conventional hinting processing in which each contour point is rounded off on the integer coordinates, and (c) is the figure after the movement processing that saves the relative position only to the vertices of the scales of this embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing changes in conventional size and line width.

13 (a), (b) and (c) are various functions for determining the line width of this embodiment.

14A and 14B are diagrams showing the configuration of a table for generating a line width.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing the structure of an outline font file.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a structure of glyph data.

FIG. 17 is a diagram in which shared data includes a subroutine for controlling contour points.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Glyph data 2 Shared data 11 Outline information 12 Hinting information

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An outline font file comprising a plurality of glyph data, wherein each glyph data is composed of outline information which is a set of outline points and hinting information for controlling the outline information. In the tinging processing method, first hinting processing including line width correction, line disappearing prevention and blurring prevention is performed on predetermined contour points forming the contour line, and other contour points are A hinting method, comprising performing a second hinting process of moving so as to maintain a relative position with respect to the point subjected to the first hinting process. 2. The hinting processing method according to claim 1, wherein the second hinting processing is performed on points excluding a start point and an end point for controlling a curve. 3. The first hinting process is performed on contour points forming vertical and horizontal stems, and the second hinting process is performed on other contour points. Hinting treatment method described. 4. The hinting processing method according to claim 3, wherein the first hinting processing is performed on the start points and the end points of the contour points and curves that form the vertical and horizontal stems. 5. The hinting processing method according to claim 4, wherein the first hinting processing is applied to a portion in the curve where a direction change occurs. 6. The first hinting process is applied to two points on a diagonal line of the rectangle, and the second hinting process is applied to the other two points.
Hinting treatment method described. 7. The hinting processing method according to claim 1, wherein the second hinting processing is applied to a tip of the scales in the glyph. 8. A hinting processing method for correcting a line width so that stems that should have the same width should have the same line width even after scaling, wherein the line width and the size after scaling are a predetermined function. A hinting processing method characterized by having a relationship. 9. The hinting processing method according to claim 8, wherein the line width is corrected by referring to a table storing the correspondence between the size after scaling and the line width corresponding to the size. 10. A hinting processing method, wherein the line width is corrected using either the function according to claim 8 or the table according to claim 9, according to the size after scaling. 11. A hinting processing method, wherein the processing according to any one of claims 1 to 7 is combined with the line width correction processing according to any one of claims 8 to 10.