JPH09114439A - Information output device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information output device capable of selecting a font according to an application from among plural fonts. SOLUTION: Plural fonts having application codes corresponding to applications are stored in the character ROW 2 of a laser printer 50 and when a user inputs desired application information by operating a panel SW 12. a font having the application code corresponding to the inputted application information is selected and then a character code is converted into dot image data based on the selected font.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information output device having a plurality of types of font data and capable of selecting desired font data from the font data and visually outputting it.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an information output device of this type, a plurality of types of font data and a font name as identification information thereof are stored in a storage means, and a font name desired to be used is designated by a keyboard and the storage means There is a configuration in which the corresponding font data is read from and the read font data is output to a display device or a printing device as an output means.

In this conventional apparatus, the operator stores the font name and the output shape of the font data in advance, and inputs the desired font name on the keyboard. However, with the recent diversification of user preferences, the type of font data that can be output by the information output device tends to increase exponentially, and the operator has a large number of font names and output shapes of the font data in advance. There is a limit to remembering it, and the font name of the font you want to use tends to be difficult to use because you do not immediately know it when you key in.

As a solution to this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-
The technique described in Japanese Patent No. 80895 is proposed. In this description technology, a plurality of types of font data and their attribute information (character size, character thickness, character inclination) are stored in the storage means, and the priority order is stored in the attribute information. The font data is read by specifying the attribute information. If the specified attribute information does not completely match, the one with the higher priority attribute matches is read out.

[0005]

However, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-80895, the operator stores the font name by designating the character size, the character thickness, and the character inclination. Although it is possible to select font data without it, the following problems still exist with respect to font selection.

[0006] That is, in this described technique, it is necessary for the operator to decide beforehand the design of the font to be printed / displayed.
Since the font data that is the same as or close to the one that determined the design is read, the operator
It is not possible to make a selection according to the purpose of displaying and printing the font. In other words, it is necessary to analogize what kind of design font is used according to the purpose. Therefore, when estimating which font design to use,
When it is unclear which design itself is good or is often used, it is difficult to estimate a design candidate.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide an information output device capable of easily selecting a font according to its use.

[0008]

In order to solve this problem, an information output device according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a font storage means for respectively storing a plurality of types of font data and usage information of the font data. Output means for visually outputting based on the font data, designating means for designating usage information of the font data to be output by the output means, and the font based on the usage information designated by the designating means And a control means for controlling the output means to read the corresponding font data from the storage means, and the font storage means stores a plurality of types of font data and usage information of the font data, respectively. When the usage information of the font data to be output from the output means is specified by the specification means, the control means Based on the specified use information by the designation means, and controls to output by the output means reads the corresponding font data from the font storage means.

According to another aspect of the information output device of the present invention, the font storage means stores a plurality of types of font data, identification information of the font data and usage information, and the control means uses the designating means. Based on the designated usage information, display control means for displaying on the display means the identification information of the font data having matching usage information, and the desired identification information is selected from the identification information displayed on the display means. Selection means and output control means for controlling the font data corresponding to the identification information selected by the selection means to be read out and output by the output means. The identification information of the font data and the usage information are stored respectively, and the display control means designates the designation means. Based on the application information, is displayed on the display means the identity of the font data with application information corresponding thereto, selecting the desired identification information from the identification information displayed on the display unit by the selection means,
The output control means controls the font data corresponding to the identification information selected by the selection means to be read and output by the output means.

Further, in the information output device according to the third aspect, the designating means displays a list of the usage information of the font data on the display means and designates the desired usage information from the listed usage information.

Further, in the information output device according to the present invention, the identification information of the font data is shape data indicating the shape of at least one character included in the corresponding font,
The display means displays the font shape data on the display means.

[0012]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of a laser printer 50 to which the present invention is applied. The microcomputer unit 20 which is the main body of this control circuit is a CPU
1, a character ROM 2, a program ROM 3, a text memory 4, and a working memory 5. The CPU 1 and the like are connected to each other via a bus 8. A panel I / F 6, an LCD I / F 10, a parallel I / F 9, and a printer engine 7 described later are connected to the bus 8.

The CPU 1 executes a program given to implement the present invention.

The character ROM 2 also stores outline font data corresponding to various fonts described later. 2 and 3 in the program ROM 3.
In addition to the character output processing program shown in the flowchart of
Various programs necessary for the operation of the device are stored.

Further, the text memory 4 temporarily stores character codes input from the host computer 11 through the parallel I / F 9 and font usage information input from the panel SW 12 through the panel I / F 6. The working memory 5 stores data necessary for executing each program described above.

The parallel I / F 9 is an interface with the host computer 11, and when a user operates the host computer 11, various information including commands such as character code and printing start and end is displayed by the host computer. It is input to the microcomputer unit 20 from 11. Further, the panel I / F 6 is also an interface with the panel SW 12, and commands such as font application information, paper size setting and forced paper ejection are displayed on the panel S based on the user's operation.
It is input to the microcomputer unit 20 from W12.
The LCD I / F 10 is also an interface with the LCD 13 and various information is displayed based on the operation of the panel SW12.

The printer engine 7 is, for example, a printing mechanism for printing out by a well-known electrophotographic method,
The character corresponding to the character code stored in the text memory 4 is printed out based on the font having the attribute that matches the designated use information.

Character output processing in the laser printer 50 having the above-mentioned structure will be described below with reference to the flow charts shown in FIGS.

First, in S21, it is determined whether or not there is an input through the panel I / F 6 or the parallel I / F 9. If there is an input (S21: YES), then in S22, it is determined whether or not the input specifies font usage information. If it is the font usage information (S22: YES), a font selection routine is executed in S23. Note that this routine will be described later with reference to FIG.

When it is determined in S22 that the usage information of the font is not designated (S22: N
O) and S24, it is determined whether the input is a character code. If the input is not a character code (S24: NO),
Control is performed according to the input data and the process returns to S21.
If the input is a character code in S24 (S24: Y
ES), the character code is converted into dot image data based on the outline font data stored in the character ROM 2 according to the currently selected font (S26), and output to the print engine 7 (S27). Then, the print engine 7 performs the printing process by the electrophotographic method according to the dot image data.

Next, a selection routine based on font usage information will be described with reference to FIGS.

In the laser printer 50 of this example, four types of fonts (font A, font B,
Outline data corresponding to fonts C and D) is stored in the character ROM 2, and a character corresponding to one selected font among them can be output. As shown in FIG. 5, assuming that font A is a heading font, font B is a highlighted font, font C is a body font, and font D is a decorative font, the start address of each font data and each font Corresponding to the usage code representing the usage information, FIG.
A font address conversion table as shown in (1) is stored in advance in the character ROM 2.

Next, when the user writes, for example, the text of a headline, the user operates the panel SW12 to specify the font for the headline while referring to the display on the LCD 13. Then, the fact that the font for the heading is designated from the panel I / F 6 is indicated by the microcomputer unit 20.
The application code corresponding to the specified font is stored in the text memory 4. Then, S23 is executed in the flowchart of FIG.

Therefore, in the font selection routine,
As shown in FIG. 3, first, it is determined whether or not the font designated in S31 is a heading font. At the time of this determination, the usage code stored in the text memory 4 is output, and the usage code is used as a key for character ROM.
The above-mentioned font address conversion table in 2 is searched. In the case of this example, the usage code stored in the text memory 4 corresponds to the usage code of the heading font, so they match (S31:
YES), font A, which is a heading font, is selected as the font for print output (S32). When the font A corresponding to the usage code of the heading font is selected, the start address of the outline data corresponding to the font A stored in the character ROM 2 can be obtained. Therefore, in the microcomputer unit 20, The obtained address can be used when converting the character code to the dot image data in S26 of the flowchart of FIG.

Similarly, when the font designated by the panel SW12 is an emphasized font, the usage code stored in the text memory 4 and the character RO are stored.
Since the usage code of the emphasized font stored in M2 matches (S31: NO, S33: YES), the font B which is the emphasized font is selected as the font for print output (S34).

Further, when the font designated by the panel SW12 is the text font, the usage code stored in the text memory 4 and the character R are stored.
The usage code of the text font stored in OM2 matches (S31: NO, S33: NO, S35: Y
ES), the font C, which is the text font, is selected as the font for print output (S36).

Furthermore, when the font designated by the panel SW12 is a decorative font, the usage code stored in the text memory 4 and the character RO are stored.
It does not match any of the use codes of the above-mentioned heading, emphasizing and text fonts stored in M2 (S31:
Since NO, S33: NO, S35: NO), the font D, which is a decorative font, is selected as the font for print output (S37). When selecting the decorative font, the decorative font was selected because it was determined that the usage code was different from other fonts. However, the usage code stored in the text memory 4 and the usage code corresponding to the decorative font are different from each other. If the two match, the decorative font may be selected, and if the font cannot be selected because it is different from the usage code corresponding to any font, an error message may be output.

By configuring as described above,
When selecting a font for printing sentences, you do not need to select by font name, you can select a font corresponding to that application by specifying a specific application, so it is also suitable for beginners. Font selection becomes extremely easy.

It should be noted that this embodiment can be variously applied without departing from the spirit of the invention.

The usage information and the fonts do not necessarily have to be in one-to-one correspondence. For example, when a plurality of fonts suitable as heading fonts are provided, the shapes of the plurality of fonts may be displayed on the LCD 13 to inform the user, and the user may be allowed to select from among them. At this time, by displaying the shape of the font, the font can be specified more easily.

Alternatively, one type of font may be selected from a plurality of usage information. For example,
It is also possible to give the font A two types of usage information, that is, usage information called a heading font and usage information called a highlighted font.

Other than the electrophotographic printing output, the present invention can be applied to other printing apparatus (inkjet method, thermal transfer method, impact wire dot method, etc.) for printing output. It is also applicable to a device for visual display such as a CRT.

When selecting a font, the font may be specified not only by the panel SW12 but also by the host computer 11.

[0035]

As described in detail above, in the information output apparatus according to the first aspect, the font storage means stores a plurality of types of font data and usage information of the font data, respectively, and the designation means outputs the output data from the output means. When the usage information of the font data to be output is designated, the control means is configured to read the corresponding font data from the font storage means based on the usage information designated by the designating means and output it by the output means. Therefore, it is possible to easily select a font according to the purpose, and it is possible to select an optimum font even for a beginner.

Further, in the information output device according to the second aspect, in addition to the above-mentioned effect, the display control means is based on the use information designated by the designating means, and the identification information of the font data having the use information corresponding to the use information. Is displayed on the display means, and the desired identification information is selected from the identification information displayed on the display means by the selection means, the output control means reads out the font data corresponding to the identification information selected by the selection means. Since the output means outputs the identification information even if a plurality of font data corresponding to the specified use information is stored, the identification information is displayed on the display means to suit the purpose. This has the effect that only fonts can be selected efficiently.

Further, in the information output device according to the third aspect, the designating means further displays the usage information of the font data on the display means, and the user specifies the desired usage information from the displayed usage information. Since it is configured to, there is an effect that it is possible to easily recognize how many uses there are when the use is specified.

Further, in the information output device according to the present invention, since the identification information of the font data is shape data indicating the shape of at least one character included in the corresponding font, the font corresponding to the designated use. When there are a plurality of data, the font shape is directly displayed, which further has the effect that the font can be selected at a glance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control device of an information output device.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a character output process of the information output device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a font selection process of the information output device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a font address conversion table of the information output device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a font shape of the information output device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 Character ROM 3 Program ROM 4 Text Memory 5 Working Memory 7 Printer Engine 11 Host Computer 12 Panel SW 20 Microcomputer Section 50 Laser Printer

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A font storage unit for respectively storing a plurality of types of font data and usage information of the font data, an output unit for visually outputting based on the font data, and a font to be output by the output unit. It has a designating means for designating usage information of the data, and a control means for controlling, based on the usage information designated by the designating means, corresponding font data to be read from the font storage means and output by the output means. An information output device characterized by the above. 2. The font storage means stores a plurality of types of font data, identification information of the font data, and usage information, respectively, and the control means, based on the usage information designated by the designating means, The display control means for displaying on the display means the identification information of the font data having the corresponding usage information, the selection means for selecting the desired identification information from the identification information displayed on the display means, and the selection means 2. The information output device according to claim 1, further comprising an output control unit that controls the font data corresponding to the selected identification information to be read and output by the output unit. 3. The specification means displays a list of usage information of font data on the display means and specifies desired usage information from the listed usage information. Information output device. 4. The identification information of the font data is shape data indicating a shape of at least one character included in the corresponding font.
The information output device described in.