JPS63172663A - Document processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the cost for storing character font patterns and shorten retrieval time, by transferring the entire part or a part of the region of character font patterns of a read image to a character font buffer, and storing it into the character font buffer while maintaining the arrangement relationship of the character font patterns on a character font business form. CONSTITUTION:Address information and a data transfer quantity are set in a direct memory access controlling mechanism in a CPU 22, and after starting, a predetermined unit of images read is transferred from an input buffer 12 to a character font buffer 17. The length and the width of a region 26 for the character font patterns on a character font business form are preset, and the quantity of data of the images read is also previously determined. In the CPU 22, the data quantity and the quantity of data of the read images already transferred are compared with each other, and when they match each other, a character font pattern registering operation is finished, and the operation of a transferring part 16 is stopped. Thus, the character font patterns on the character font business form 25 are stored into the buffer 17 while maintaining the arrangement relationship thereof.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dedicated or general-purpose document processing device having document processing functions such as document creation and editing, and particularly relates to character output such as character display and printing. The present invention relates to a document processing device having a rewritable character font buffer for storing character font patterns accessed by the user.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, devices with document processing functions such as document creation and editing have become widespread. Such devices include document processing dedicated devices called so-called word processors, and general-purpose devices such as personal computers that have document processing functions and other data processing functions.

Document processing devices in this specification include both such specialized devices and general-purpose devices.

Such document processing devices need to be equipped with character font patterns for character output such as character display and printing, but devices that process a wide variety of characters including kanji require a huge number of character font patterns. It becomes quantity. Furthermore, in connection with character output, it is necessary to be able to quickly extract necessary character patterns from a huge amount of character font patterns.

As described above, how to equip a document processing device with character font patterns is a major technical issue. Conventional techniques regarding this technical problem will be described below.

FIG. 7 is a simplified hardware configuration diagram of a typical conventional document processing device, in which 1 is a central processing unit (hereinafter abbreviated as CPU), and 2 is a unit for storing programs, data, etc. Main memory, 3 is hard disk device, 4
5 is a display device, 5 is a display memory, 6 is a keyboard, and 7 is a bus for data exchange between the CPU 1 and the above-mentioned functional parts.

Note that the hard disk device 3 and the keyboard 6 each have a built-in circuit for interfacing with the bus 7.

The hard disk device 3 stores a font file 8 which is a collection of a huge amount of character font patterns. Further, a part of the main memory 2 is used as a character font buffer 9, which is a temporary storage area for character font patterns. The display memory 5 is connected to the display device 4
This is the memory in which character font patterns to be displayed on the screen are developed.

Regarding the conventional document processing device configured as described above,
The operation will be explained below.

When this document processing device is started, part or all of the character font patterns in the font file 8 are transferred to the character font buffer 9 in the main memory 2 under the control of the CPU 1 according to the program stored in the main memory 2 .

Then, during document processing, by instructions from the program or by inputting characters from the keyboard 6,
When it is necessary to display (output) a certain character, the character font buffer 9 is accessed from the CPU 1, the character font pattern corresponding to the code of that character is taken out from the character 2 font buffer 9, and transferred to the display memory 5.
It is displayed on the display device 40 screen.

If the necessary character font pattern is not stored in the character font buffer 9, the character font pattern is extracted from the font file 8 on the hard disk device 3 and transferred to the display memory 5.

In addition to the conventional examples described above, there are document processing devices that do not have a character font buffer and directly search for a character font pattern to be output from a font file,
Floppy disk device or read-only memory (R
Some document processing devices store font files in OM).

In addition, if you need a character font pattern that is not registered in the font file, you can create a character font pattern dot by dot by interactive manual operation from the keyboard and register it additionally, or use the existing character font pattern. Some document processing devices have a function to replace and register (change registration).

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, with the above-described conventional configuration, the cost associated with storing character font patterns increases, the time required to search for character font patterns tends to increase, and it is difficult to add or change character font patterns. The problem was that it was either possible or extremely troublesome.

In other words, the types of character font patterns that a particular user of a document processing device actually uses are naturally limited;
In conventional document processing devices, all character font patterns that may be used by a variety of users are stored in an auxiliary storage device such as a hard disk drive or in a character 7 onboard buffer. occupies a large amount of space on auxiliary storage or main memory. In particular, in the case of a document processing device that uses character font patterns of a plurality of fonts or character sizes, the storage area occupied by the character font patterns becomes enormous, which significantly increases costs.

Such an increase in the amount of stored character font patterns inevitably results in an increase in the time required to search for the necessary character font patterns.

Additionally, registering additions or changes to specific character font patterns is not possible with devices that store font files in ROM, and even with devices that can do so, it requires an interactive, troublesome and time-consuming process as described above. requiring such steps.

The present invention has been made in view of the conventional problems as described above, and reduces the cost for storing character font patterns, shortens the time to search for character font patterns, and
An object of the present invention is to provide a document processing device that facilitates registration of addition or change of character font patterns.

Means for Solving the Problems The conventional problems as described above are basically that the font files whose contents are fixed in advance are used directly or indirectly by intervening character font buffers to obtain the necessary information for output. This is due to the structure of extracting the character font pattern.

Therefore, the present invention eliminates the font file with fixed contents and makes it possible to load the character font pattern into the character font buffer using the character font form in which the character font pattern is recorded.
This invention aims to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and achieve the above-mentioned object.

That is, as shown in the claim correspondence diagram of FIG. 1, the document processing device of the present invention includes a character font buffer and an image for reading a character font form in which character font patterns are recorded in a fixed arrangement as a binary image. a reading means, and transfers the entire or part of the character font pattern area of the image read by the image reading means to the character font buffer, and reads the character while maintaining the arrangement relationship of the character 7 ont pattern on the character font form. 7. The present invention is characterized in that it has a character font registration means to be stored in the onthop buffer.

Function With this configuration, by having the image reading means read the character font form in which the character font pattern required by the user of the document processing device is recorded,
Only the required character font patterns can be loaded into the character font buffer. In other words, character font patterns that the user does not need can be eliminated from the character font buffer.

Therefore, the storage capacity of the character font buffer can be reduced to the minimum necessary, and the cost can be reduced, as well as the time required to search the character font buffer for a character font pattern to be output.

Furthermore, there is no need for a storage area to store huge capacity font files with fixed contents as in the past, and costs can be reduced accordingly.

Furthermore, since the character font pattern in the character font buffer is a copy of the character font pattern on the character font form, prepare various character font forms with different fonts and sizes, and transfer the necessary character font form to the image reading means. By reading, it is possible to easily change or add character font patterns on the character font buffer.

Further, if the character font form allows characters to be written by hand, handwritten character patterns can also be easily registered by having the image reading means read the character font form on which handwritten characters have been written.

Furthermore, character font patterns can be easily exchanged between the document processing apparatuses of the present invention using a character font form as an intermediary.

EXAMPLE Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a simplified functional configuration of a document processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, 11 is a general image scanner as the image reading means, and a character font form (
(Details will be described later) is read as a binary image by optically scanning it. The image scanner 11 includes an input buffer 12 as a temporary storage area for read images.

Reference numeral 13 denotes the character font registration means, which is composed of a marker detection section 14, an area identification section 15, and a transfer section 6.

17 is a character font buffer for storing the character font pattern transferred from the transfer unit 16;

Reference numeral 18 denotes a display memory in which character font patterns to be displayed (output) are developed, and 19 a display device that sequentially displays patterns such as the character font patterns developed in the display memory 18 on a screen. 20 is a hard disk drive for storing programs, document data, kana-kanji conversion dictionaries for document creation, etc. 21 is a keyboard for inputting codes such as characters, various commands, etc., and corresponds to the input means.

A data processing/control unit 22 performs data processing related to document processing such as document creation and editing, and controls operations of other units and data transfer.

When it is necessary to output a character in document processing, this data processing/control unit 22 accesses the character font buffer 17, reads the character font pattern, and transfers it to the display position of the display memory 18, thereby outputting the character. is displayed on the display device 19.

FIG. 3 is a practical hardware configuration diagram of this document processing apparatus, and the same reference numerals as in FIG. 2 indicate the same parts.

In FIG. 3, parts different from those in FIG. 2 will be explained. 22 is a CPU, and 28 is a main memory.

This main memory 23 stores document processing and control programs, a kana-kanji dictionary, etc. on the hard disk drive 23.
loaded from. Further, a part of the storage area of the main memory 23 is used as the character font buffer 17.

24 is a bus for exchanging data between the CPU 22 and other parts.

The character font registration means 13 and the data processing/control section 22 are realized by the CPU 22, a storage area of the main memory 23, and a program stored in the main memory 23.

In addition, the image scanner 11 and the hard disk device 20
and keyboard 21 each have an interface circuit with bus 24.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a character font form used in this embodiment. This character font form 25
, character font patterns are printed or handwritten at regular intervals in the order of character codes within a fixed area 26 of a generally rectangular sheet of paper. In order to detect the position of the reference point (upper left corner) P of the constant amount area 26 and the reading skew (tilt) of the character font form 25, two horizontal markers 2 are placed at predetermined positions at the upper end of the character font form 25.
7.28 and one vertical marker 29 are printed.

The operation of the document processing apparatus of this embodiment configured as described above will be described below.

When the document processing device is started up or when a character font registration instruction is input from the keyboard 21 thereafter, the operation of registering a character font pattern in the character font buffer 17 is executed.

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of a program related to the character font pattern registration operation at startup.

The character font pattern registration operation at startup will be described below with reference to this schematic flowchart, FIGS. 2, 3, and 4.

When the initial settings of each part of the device and the loading of the program are completed at startup, the program for registering character font patterns starts running. Note that, prior to activation, the character font form 25 is set in the reading section of the image scanner 11.

First, by the program's scanner start command, the CPU2
2 starts the image scanner 11 via the bus 24 (step 30). In other words, the image scanner 11 is activated by the data processing/control unit 22 . Here, the program waits for notification of completion of reading from the image scanner 22 (step 31).

The image scanner 11 is activated, and the character font form 25 set in its reading section is sequentially read as a binary image and stored in the input buffer 12. When reading of the character font form is completed, a reading completion notification is sent from the image scanner 11.

When this reading completion notification is input to the CPU 22 through the path 24, the program exits the loop of waiting for reading completion and proceeds to the marker detection process from step 32 to step 35.

That is, the marker detection section 14 is activated by the data processing/control section 22, and the marker detection section 14 is activated.

The read images of the character font forms stored in input buffer 2 are sequentially read into the CPU 22 in fixed units, and horizontal markers 27 and 28 are detected (step 8).
2.88). This step 23.33 is horizontal marker 2
7.280 is executed continuously until both are detected.

As each horizontal marker 27 , 28 is detected, its detected position information is written to a specific storage location in the main memory 23 .

Subsequently, the read images in the input buffer 12 are sequentially read into the CPU 22 in fixed units, and the vertical marker 29 is detected (step 34.35). When the vertical marker 29 is detected, its detected position information is stored in the main memory 23.
is written to a specific storage location.

Next, the program executes steps 36 and 37 of the region identification process.
Proceed to the processing stage. In other words, the area detection section 15 shown in FIG. 2 operates.

First, the detected position information of the horizontal marker 27 and the vertical marker 29 stored in a specific storage position of the main memory 23 is read into the CPU 22, and based on the detected position information, the reference point P on the read image of the character font form 25 is read. The location of is calculated and written to a specific storage location in the main memory 23 (step 36). Similarly, the skew amount of the read image of the character font form is calculated from the detected position information of the horizontal markers 27 and 28 stored in a specific storage location of the main memory 23, and is written to a specific storage location of the main memory 23. (Step 37).

The character font area 29 of the read image on the input buffer 12 can be identified from the position of the reference point P and the skew amount thus calculated.

After completing the area identification process, the program proceeds to step 38 of the character font pattern transfer process.
39. Proceed to 40. That is, the transfer section 16 shown in FIG. 2 operates.

Based on the positional information of the reference point P, the amount of skew, and the width of the character font area (preset), the read start address of the input buffer 16 that is the transfer source and the writing of the character 7 onto buffer 17 that is the transfer destination are determined. A starting address is calculated.

This address information and data transfer amount are set in the direct memory access control mechanism (DMA control mechanism) inside the CPU 22, and when it is activated, a fixed unit of read image is transferred from the input buffer 12 to the character font buffer 1.
Transferred to 7. The length and width of the character font pattern area 26 of the character font form are set in advance.
The data amount of the read image is also determined in advance. C.P.
At U22, a comparison is made between the amount of data and the amount of transferred data of the read image (step 40).
If a match is found in the comparison, the character font pattern registration operation ends. That is, the operation of the transfer unit 16 is stopped.

In this way, the character font patterns on the character font form 25 are stored in the character font buffer 17 while maintaining their arrangement relationship.

As can be understood from the above explanation, by reading the character font form 25 in which the desired character font pattern is recorded, the user of the document processing device can store only the desired character font pattern in the character font buffer 17. can be stored. Therefore, the character font buffer 17 only needs the minimum necessary storage capacity, and its memory cost can be reduced. Naturally, the time required for the data processing/control unit 22 to search for a necessary character font pattern from the character font buffer 17 can be shortened by the reduction in storage capacity.

Furthermore, since it is no longer necessary to provide huge capacity font files as in the past, memory costs are also reduced.

Furthermore, changing or adding character font patterns in the character font buffer 17 can be easily done simply by exchanging character font forms. Further, by reading the character font form 25 in which characters are handwritten, the handwritten character pattern can be easily registered in the character font buffer 17.

FIG. 6 shows that the keyboard 1 is
12 is a schematic flowchart of a program for character font pattern registration operation when a character font pattern registration instruction is input from . The character font pattern registration operation in this case will be described below with reference to this schematic flowchart.

This program starts running when a key code for character font pattern registration instruction is input from the keyboard 21.

First, the program waits for input from the keyboard 21. When a code is input from the keyboard 21, the CPU 22 determines whether the input code is a code for a character designation key, which is a function key of the keyboard 21, or a code for an execution key (step 41).
.

If the code of the character specification key is input, the memory 23
The flags prepared above are sected (step 42),
Next, it is checked whether the input code is a character code (step 43). If the input code is a character code, the character code is stored in the specific storage area of the memory 23 in the order of input (step 44), and the program waits for input again.

If it is determined in step 41 that the input code is an execution key code, or if it is determined in step 43 that the input code is not a character code, step 45 of the program
The subsequent processing is executed.

Steps 45 and 46 are the same steps as steps 30 and 81 in FIG.

When the image scanner 11 finishes reading the image of the character font form 25, step 47 of the program is executed. This step 47 corresponds to step 32 in FIG.
This is a processing step similar to the processing content from step 35 to step 35, in other words, it is an operation stage of the marker detection section 13 in FIG.

Once the horizontal markers 27, 28 and vertical markers 29 have been detected, step 48 of the program (similar to step 36, 37 in FIG. 5) is executed. That is, the area identification section 15 shown in FIG. 2 is activated.

Next, the flag is checked (step 49),
If the flag is in the reset state, step 50 (similar to steps 38, 39, and 40 in FIG. 5) is executed. That is, as in the case of the character font pattern registration operation at startup, the transfer unit 16 transfers an image of the entire character font area of the character font form to the transfer unit 16.

On the other hand, if the flag is set, it means that a character has been specified. In this case, one input character code stored in the specific storage area of the main memory 23 is read out by the CPU 22 starting from the first code. (Step 51
).

Since character font patterns are recorded in a fixed arrangement in the order of character codes in the character font form 25, it is possible to calculate the area of the character font pattern within the character font pattern area 26 of the read image from the character code. be. The CPU 22 calculates the position of this area, specifically the read address range of the input buffer 12 and the corresponding write address range of the character font buffer 17 (step 52).

Then, under the control of the CPU 22, the address range is changed from the input buffer 12 to the character font buffer 1.
Transfer of the take of the character font pattern to No. 7 is executed (step 53).

When the transfer of the character font pattern corresponding to one character code is completed, check whether there are any unprocessed character codes remaining.
The character code is checked by the PU (step 54), and if there are any remaining character codes, the process returns to step 51 to execute processing regarding the next character code.

When the processing of the last character code stored in the specific storage area of the main memory 23 is completed, the character font pattern registration operation ends.

Here, the processes from step 49 to step 54 are actually executed by the CPU 22 according to the program, but functionally, steps 49.5] and 54 are executed by the data processing/control unit 22, and steps 52. 53 is executed by the transfer unit 16.

As explained above, when a character is specified, only the character font pattern specified by the character code is selectively transferred to the character 7 ontobatsu 7a 17, and the characters corresponding to other character codes in the character font buffer 17 are Font patterns are preserved.

Therefore, if you want to change only a specific character font pattern, you can easily and efficiently change it by inputting the character font form 25 recording the changed character font pattern from the image scanner 11. can. Addition or deletion of a specific character font pattern (recording spaces as a character font pattern in a character font form) can also be performed in the same manner. Furthermore, by inputting the execution key code from the keyboard 21 without specifying a character, the character font pattern can be updated for all character codes.

Next, the operation related to the character font buffer 17 of the data processing/control unit 22 will be explained.

Assume that the data processing/control unit 22 is performing document creation processing. When a character is input from the keyboard 21, the data processing/control unit 22 stores the code of that character at the character input position in the document storage area, and also accesses the character font buffer 17 to obtain the corresponding character font pattern. It is read out and transferred to the display memory 18.

When the kana-kanji conversion method is selected as the kanji input method, the kana character code (sequence) input from the keyboard 21 is converted into the corresponding kanji or kanji and kana character string by referring to the kana-kanji conversion dictionary. Then, the codes are sequentially stored at the character input positions in the document storage area. Further, the character font pattern is read from the character font buffer 17 and transferred to the display memo 1J18.

Actually, such document creation processing is executed by the CPU 22 according to a program.

A specific storage area of the main memory 23 is used as a storage area for documents. Further, the kana-kanji conversion dictionary is placed in the hard disk device 20 or loaded from the node disk device 20 into a specific area of the main memory 28.

Since such document creation processing itself is similar to processing in conventional document processing devices, further explanation will be omitted.

In this embodiment, an image scanner having an input cap is used as an image reading means, but a similar image scanner without an input cap may also be used. In this case, it is necessary to make the character font registration means capable of real-time processing, or to add a similar buffer function to the character font registration means. If the character font registration means is capable of real-time processing, it is possible to speed up the character font pattern registration operation.

Further, in this embodiment, the character font registration means is realized by program control, but it may also be realized by hardware or firmware, and further speeding up of processing can be expected.

Furthermore, although a paper character font form was used in this embodiment, the material of the character font form may be changed as appropriate.

The overall form of the character font form may also be changed as appropriate.

Further, in the character font form of this embodiment, horizontal markers and vertical markers are recorded for purposes such as identifying areas of the character font butter 7. However, such markers may be eliminated if the character font registration means is configured to perform similar identification using a character extraction technique employed in an optical character reader (OCR) or the like.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, when adding, changing, or deleting some character font patterns, characters were specified from the keyboard. It may also be changed so that it is displayed on the screen and the same character designation is made using a cursor or light pen on the screen.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above description, the present invention reads a character font form in which character font patterns are recorded in a fixed arrangement as a binary image, and reads all or part of the character font pattern area of this read image. is transferred to the character font buffer, and stored in the character font buffer while maintaining the arrangement relationship of character font patterns on the character font form.The user of the document processing device can transfer only the necessary character font patterns to the character font buffer. Can be registered in the buffer. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the storage capacity of the Character 7 Ontobafu to the minimum necessary, reducing its cost, and shortening the time it takes to search for the character font pattern to be output from the Character Font/Tobanofa. You can eliminate large font files with fixed contents.

Since the character font pattern in the character font buffer is a copy of the character font pattern on the character font form, prepare various character font forms with different fonts and character sizes, and transfer the necessary character font form to the image reading means. By reading the text, it is possible to easily change or add character font patterns on the Character 7 Ontoba software, and it is also easy to register handwritten character patterns. Further, character font patterns can be easily exchanged between the document processing apparatuses of the present invention using a character font form as an intermediary.

Thus, according to the present invention, the conventional problems are solved,
Reduces the cost of storing character font patterns,
It is possible to reduce the time required to search for a necessary character font pattern, and to realize a document processing device that can easily change or add a character font pattern at a low cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a claim correspondence diagram of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a document processing device in an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 8 is a hardware configuration diagram of the document processing device, and FIG. 4 is a diagram of the document processing device. A schematic plan view showing an example of a character font form used in the processing device, FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart for explaining the character font pattern registration operation at the time of startup of the document processing device, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart for explaining the character font pattern registration operation during document processing, and is a hardware configuration diagram of a conventional document processing apparatus. 11... Image scanner (image reading means), 1
2... Input buffer, 13... Character font registration means, 14... Marker detection section, 15... Area identification section, 16... Transfer section, 17... Character font buffer, 22... - Data processing/control unit, 22... central processing unit (CPU), 28... main memory. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person No. 1
Figure No. 1 Image ``+d'' 13.2 (Oka'l-Rekiren Tekaze 2nd Figure 1) Marker detection group 7s 6. Area Suuhiki no kami/6...Transfer group 3rd Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7!

Claims (1)

[Claims] a character font buffer for storing character font patterns accessed in connection with character output; an image reading means for reading a character font form in which character font patterns are recorded in a fixed arrangement as a binary image; Transferring the entire or part of the character font pattern area of the image read by the image reading means to the character font buffer, and storing the character font pattern in the character font buffer while maintaining the arrangement relationship of the character font patterns on the character font form. A document processing device comprising: character font registration means.