JPH07106654B2 - Information processing method - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an information processing method, and more particularly to an information processing method for selecting and outputting a desired font from fonts of a plurality of typefaces.

[Prior Art] In recent years, with the spread of laser printers, the types of characters that can be output have diversified. For example, enlarged characters and reduced characters can be used by designating from the keyboard of the operation panel. Also bold (BOL
It is also possible to use D) and italics (ITALIC). A so-called pattern conversion device is a device that generates a desired font pattern according to these user specifications.
In the past, complicated control and parameter specification were required for this kind of pattern conversion.

To explain this point in more detail, FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a conventional pattern conversion apparatus, in which 1 is the apparatus main body and 4
Is a printer for printing with the font pattern P output from the main body 1. Further, in the main body 1, 2 is a font memory for reading the font pattern FP by the character address FA, 3 is accessing the font memory 2 by the character code C (character address FA), and the read pattern FP is set as the designated parameter T. Accordingly, pattern conversion for forming and outputting a desired font pattern P by size conversion, character spacing conversion, etc.
It is a forming part. In the above configuration, when the user specifies a font from the keyboard, this is input to the pattern conversion / formation unit 3 as parameter T information.
According to the configuration and method of the conventional pattern conversion / formation unit 3, the parameter T is information for converting the character spacing, the character size, the thickness and inclination of the character into specific numerical values, and further for distinguishing the design type of the character, Because it had to be information,
Not only the creation of the parameter T is complicated, but also the structure of the pattern conversion / formation unit 3 and the control itself are complicated.

[Object] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and provides an information processing method capable of easily selecting a desired font from a plurality of fonts and outputting the font pattern. The purpose is to

Embodiments Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the information processing apparatus of the embodiment according to the present invention. In the figure, various functions realized by program execution (FIGS. 3 and 4) of a CPU (not shown) are shown in a block form in the main body 10, and 11 is a plurality of fonts A to D. Font memory to store, 12
Is a specifying means for assigning and specifying names to the fonts A to D in the font memory 11, and 13 is a name for this purpose.
A register that holds REGULAR, BOLD, ITALIC, FOOTNOTE and the corresponding start addresses of the fonts A to D as a pair, and 14 is a specific name read from the external (font) designation code N (name) and line 110. Reference numeral 15 is a comparing means for comparing the character code input C and a selecting means for connecting the character code input C to the specific name font for which the comparing means 14 has obtained a match.

The font memory 11 is a ROM, a RAM, or a combination thereof, and the RAM can be externally loaded into the RAM via a line 106. Font memory 11 is normally font (RE
GULAR) and various fonts such as enlarged font, reduced font, bold font (BOLD), italic font (IT
ALIC), footnotes (FOOTNOTE), etc. are stored separately. An index register M for accessing the font memory 11 provides any leading address to fonts AD through line 102. The read pattern P of the font memory 11 is a pattern desired by the user as it is and is sent to the printer 4 via the line 105. Further, for example, in the specific area of the font A, a name for specifying the own font can be held in advance, and for this purpose, in the initialization processing 2 of FIG. The name read from the font specific area can be stored in the register 13 via the line 104.

An address register G is provided in the specifying means 12, and the register G can access any of the contents of the register 13 via the line 103. It is also possible to write the contents of the register G.

With the above configuration, the operation of the embodiment will be described below.

FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b) relate to the initialization process of the embodiment in which names are assigned to the fonts A to D, and FIG. 3 (a) is a process in which names are assigned in the physical storage order of the fonts A to D. Is a flow chart. For example, when the laser beam printer equipped with this apparatus is turned on, the power-on detection signal PWR ON is added via the line 107 and input to the initialization processing 1. At step S1, the register G is set to 0 and the step
In S2, the index register M is initialized to the head address of the font A (physically stored first). At step S3, it is determined whether or not the font A exists at that address,
If there is a font A, a name is assigned to the font in step S4. Since the content of the register G is 0 at the beginning, the address 0 of the register 13 is selected, and an easy name which is read from a predetermined memory (not shown) by using the content 0 of the G in the first half of the selected address. REGULAR is written {(G) ₁
← (G)}. In the latter half, the head address of font A is written {(G) ₂ ← M}. At step S5, the content of the register G is incremented by 1, and at step S6, the content of the index register M is updated to indicate the leading address of the font B (physically stored next). The flow then returns to step S3 to determine whether font B is present there. In this way, the same processing as described above is repeated up to the font D, and when it is determined that there is no next font E, the processing ends.

When the initialization process 1 is completed, the user will be able to use the fonts A to
D is a simple name (eg REGULAR, BOLD, ITALIC, FOOTNOT
It can be specified by key input in E). If the names do not match the original meanings of fonts (usually in bold, etc.) because the user is unfamiliar, a symmetry table is provided near the console for convenience. But usually it can be easily specified without a symmetry table. Moreover, the physical storage order of fonts A to D is the same as the designated name.
Since it matches with REGULAR ~ FOOTNOTE, it is convenient because you can take an intuitive response when replacing the font ROM or when reloading the font.

Incidentally, in the case as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the device may be configured so that a predetermined name (REGULAR to FOOTNOTE) is assigned to the physical storage order of fonts in advance, instead of carrying out the initialization process 1. Good.

FIG. 3 (d) relates to the initialization processing of another embodiment,
It is a flow chart showing a process whose name is specified by a name owned by the fonts A to D. The same processing blocks as those in FIG. 3 (a) are given the same names and their explanations are omitted. Similarly, the process proceeds to step S3, and if it is determined that the font A exists at the address, the process proceeds to step S7. In step S7, the name read from the specific area of the font A (in the embodiment, the head address of each font) is assigned to the font A. That is, since the content of the address register G is 0 at the beginning, the address 0 of the register 13 is selected, and the content read from the leading address M of the font A is written in the first half thereof {(G) ₁
← (M)}. For example, if the name REGULAR is written in the address, the name REGULAR is assigned to font A and B
If written as OLD, the name BOLD is assigned. In the latter half, the leading address of font A is written {(G)
₂ ← M}. The subsequent processing is the same as that shown in FIG. In this case, since the font itself has a name for identifying itself, there is an advantage that the specified name does not change even if the address is actually loaded (ROM insertion) to any address in the font memory 11.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a font designation process during use. This process is input when the user or the like makes a desired font designation. In step S11, the designated code N (name REGULAR to FOOTN) input via the line 109 is used.
The comparison means 14 compares the contents (name) of the register 13 pointed to by the address register G at that point in time (corresponding to OTE).
If no match is obtained, the process proceeds to step S12 and the content of the address register G is incremented by one. In step S13, it is determined whether or not the content of the address register G exceeds the maximum value (for example, the value 3 corresponding to FOOTNOTE), and if not, the process returns to step S11. If it exceeds the threshold value, the address register G is reset at step S14 and then the process returns to step S11. Eventually, if a match is obtained by the determination in step 11, the process proceeds to step S15, and the output of the comparison means 14 is the line 108.
The switch of the selecting means 15 is connected to the contact of the name through the, and the subsequent character code C is connected to the specified name font. Specifically, the latter half of the contents of the register 13 pointed to by the register G (front leading address) is set to the index register M.
To store {M ← (G) ₂ }.

In the above embodiment, the specifying means 12 is the font memory 11
The fonts A to D therein are assigned names according to their physical storage order, but the present invention is not limited to this, and names may be assigned sequentially from the upper side on the hardware board. This is because the ROM replacement method is intuitive and convenient. This also applies to fonts A to D, for example.
It is possible to make a table of each head address according to the actual arrangement (for example, from top to bottom).

The present invention may be applied to a system including a plurality of devices or an apparatus including a single device. Further, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program for implementing the present invention to a system or an apparatus.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, since there is provided a configuration in which a table in which specific information for identifying each font of a plurality of fonts and the name of the font are associated is created, When selecting, the desired font can be intuitively and easily specified by the font name, and for example, the font is downloaded or the font ROM is replaced by the font cartridge and stored. Even if the font is changed, a table is created by the initialization process, and the desired font can be easily specified by the font name.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing a conventional pattern conversion device, FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram showing an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 (a) is a physical name of the fonts A to D. FIG. 3 (b) is a flow chart showing the processing assigned in the order of physical storage, and FIG. 3 (b) is a flow chart showing the processing whose names are specified by the names owned by the fonts A to D. FIG. It is a flow chart showing processing. Here, 10 ... Main body, 11 ... Font memory, 12 ... Specification means, 13 ... Register, 14 ... Comparison means, 15 ... Selection means.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Haruo Shimizu 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Satoshi Nagata 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Incorporated (72) Inventor Yoshiaki Kawamura 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Soichi Shibuya 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hiroshi Murakami 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56) References JP-A-54-40525 (JP, A) JP-A-54-53835 (JP, A) JP-A-59-22134 (JP, A) JP-A-59-214937 (JP, A) JP-A-57-55482 (JP, A) Practical application Sho-58-76748 (JP, U)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An information processing method for outputting a pattern corresponding to input code information by using a storage means for storing a font of a plurality of typefaces together with a name representing a typeface of each font, wherein the font of the plurality of typefaces is used. A creation step of creating a table in which the specific information for identifying each of the above and the name of the font are associated with each other; if the name of the font is input to select the font, the name of the input font and the table Based on the above, there is a selection step of selecting a font for the input name, and an output step of outputting a pattern corresponding to the input code information by using the selected font. Processing method. 2. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the table is created when the power is turned on. 3. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the specific information is address information.