JPS6324374A - Character pattern shaping system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print characters of high quality by restoring the outline vector of enlarged or reduced characters to full dots, tracing character streak by a filter constituted of several squares, searching placed to be corrected and adding dots to the place. CONSTITUTION:Character patterns are stored in a memory 3 by an outline vector 3, and the character patterns 1 are enlarged or reduced 4 and restored to dot pattern characters 5. At the time of making characters 5 by enlarging or reducing the vector 2, searching is made by a searching means 6 using filtering process that shapes slanting lines forming characters. Dots are added to places searched by the searching means 6 by a means 7 that adds dots to places searched by the searching means 6 and outputs. High grade dot pattern characters 5 shaped by adding dots, and corresponding to the grading up of printing system are outputted.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] When enlarging or reducing the outline vector of a character pattern stored in memory and restoring it to a dot pattern character and outputting it, the shape of the diagonal lined part of the character is reshaped. , a formatting method that outputs high-quality characters is presented.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a method for formatting characters by enlarging or reducing a character pattern to an arbitrary size and outputting it.More specifically, when enlarging or reducing a character pattern stored in memory and outputting it, The present invention relates to a formatting method for outputting high-quality characters by formatting diagonal lines forming characters.

The character patterns used in CTS (computer typesetting system) are produced using the full dot method, in which the original designed characters are photoelectrically converted into binary data using a camera or other input device, and then stored in memory as image data. There are two types of methods: a vector method in which the outline of a character is converted into a vector from this binary data and stored in memory.

Each of these three methods has its advantages and disadvantages, and the former full-dot method requires a huge amount of memory because it is necessary to input character patterns for each character size that requires output.

On the other hand, with the vector method, if you store the vector pattern of one type of character in memory, you can enlarge or reduce characters of any size based on this data to create fonts (a set of typefaces) of various sizes. can be created.

However, in terms of output character quality, the latter vector method is inferior to the full dot method (in terms of detail).

Therefore, at present, it is sometimes used differently depending on the purpose, but CTS that outputs printing plates requires not only a variety of font sizes but also a wide variety of fonts, so it is necessary to - The vector method is widely used in the field of light printing because the dot method cannot handle it due to the amount of memory.

However, along with the expansion of the use of CTS, printing methods have become more sophisticated, and it has become possible to create more subtle expressions through printing.
The character quality that influences the stamp face effect of the stamp fllll i& has become obvious, and there is a strong demand for an apparatus that has the function of correcting the character quality by correcting the character quality by formatting the enlarged/reduced characters using the vectorization method.

[Conventional technology]

In the conventional method using contour vectors, no particular measures have been taken to deal with the distortion of the character shape that occurs when the contour vector of a character is enlarged or reduced and restored to a full dot.

The reason for this is that the maximum resolution of the block output by CTS is about 500DPI (do 7 bar inches), and the visual limit of human eyesight is about vvJ50 microns. I can see that the lines are disordered, but
When a printing plate was created using that block and printed on a printing press, the text lines became thicker, so this was not considered a problem.

FIG. 5 shows a conventional dot pattern, in which a character pattern restored to full dots by reducing the outline vector is expanded into dots for the purpose of explanation.

Figure 5 shows a square character composed of 52 (vertical) x 52 (horizontal) dots converted to an outline vector of approximately 77
4 reduced to % (40÷52) and restored to full dot
This is an example of a reduced character of 0 (vertical direction) x 40 (horizontal direction) dots.

In the figure, the disordered character shape is a portion D indicated by an arrow.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

If you create a font of any size by enlarging or reducing the character outline vector, a situation may occur where the diagonally shaded dots are connected at the corners, as shown at point D in Figure 3. be.

This phenomenon occurs when a DDA (digital differential analyzer) is used as a straight line generation mechanism when vectorizing the outline of a character pattern.
This is also due to the fact that this DDA uses the 8-concatenation method.

In the conventional method, no special measures were taken when the irregularity of the character shape was about one dot, but as printing methods became more sophisticated and it became possible to create subtle expressions, it became possible to correct the irregularity of the character shape from the stamp surface effect. The need to do so has rapidly increased.

The present invention was created in view of these points.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for correcting, in a simple manner, the irregularity of the character shape that occurs in the diagonal line parts forming the character when the outline of the character is vectorized, enlarged/reduced, and restored to a full dot.

[Means for solving problems]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a character pattern shaping method according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, ■ is image data obtained by converting a designed character original image into binary data by photoelectric conversion, and is a character pattern stored in a memory. This method is also called the full dot method.

2 is an outline vector of character pattern 1 which is extracted from the data of character pattern 1, vectorized, and stored in the memory.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a memory for storing data of contour vector 2 of character pattern 1, and reference numeral 4 denotes an enlargement/reduction of character pattern 1 carried out by a function for creating fonts of various sizes.

5 is a dot pattern character that is output after the enlarged/reduced contour vector 2 is restored and formatted into a full dot character.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a search means using a filtering method, which uses a filter to trace the character pattern that has been enlarged/reduced and restored to a full dot character, and searches for a portion of the diagonal line that requires modification. Reference numeral 7 indicates a search means using a filtering method. This is means for additionally outputting dots for shaping the location searched in step 6.

With such a configuration, the method corrects the irregular portions of the character shapes, formats and outputs the character pattern.

[Effect]

The method to correct the irregularities in character shapes that occur when creating a font of any size by enlarging or reducing the character outline vector is to restore the enlarged or reduced character outline vector to a full dot, and then create a few A filter made up of squares is used to trace the character stroke, and when the filter finds a correction location, a dot is added to that location to correct the character shape.

With this formatting method, it is possible to create elegant, high-quality characters by correcting the irregularities in character shapes that are considered problematic when printed with high-end printing machines, and by smoothing out the diagonal lines of characters.

〔Example〕

FIG. 2 is a first method diagram of the filtering method of the character pattern shaping method of the present invention.

The full dot pattern in FIG. 2(a) is a partial enlargement of the contour vector character pattern stored in the memory 3 in FIG. 1 after being reduced and restored to full dots. A, a, ~a7+B indicate the dot sequence of the pattern.

The distance from dot A to dot B in this point sequence is 8i! 8! As you can see, the dots a4+ and a5 are connected at the corners of the grid, so if circular dots are used for output, there will be a gap, and even if square dots are used, there will be point-like connections at the corners. Become.

When such a dot-shaped character is output, the part becomes thinner and becomes a weakly angry character.

Furthermore, during printing, the printing pressure in that area is weakened, increasing the probability of running out of printing ink. Therefore, it is necessary to search for, correct, and reshape this location.

Figure 2 (bl is a diagram showing the state of filtering method search and dot addition. Using the 2x2 filter of 2B, trace from dot A to dot B sequentially in the filter window P, and then This figure shows a state in which dot addition a0 is performed when dots of a dot pattern line up in the window and no dots appear in the window 20, and the pattern is corrected and shaped.

The dot pattern character (output) in FIG. 2 (C1) is an example of a state in which the connection state of the dot sequence of the pattern is corrected and shaped, and the result is output as a dot pattern character.

The first method described above is an example in which the 2×2 filter 2B is applied to a diagonal line that goes upward to the right, but the following second method is applied to a diagonal line that goes downward to the right.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of the second filtering method, in which the window P of the 3B 2×2 filter,
, trace the sequence of points from dot A to dot B sequentially, and
This figure shows a state in which dot addition a0 is performed and the pattern is corrected and shaped when dots appear in the windows 1 and P2 but do not appear in the window 20.

Figure 4 shows an example of the dot pattern after character pattern shaping, and shows a specific example of the dot pattern of the katakana ``shi'' restored to full dots. This is the DF point that has been corrected by adding dots.

Incidentally, the dot pattern in the figure is a 40 x 40 dot body face (outline of type) character pattern, and 4
In an output device of 800 PI (resolution of 480 lines per 1>'), the character size is approximately 2.1211. Also 1
The size per dot is about 53 microns, which is within the visible limit and requires correction.

The character pattern is formatted and output using the above method.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a simple filtering method is used to search for irregularities in character shapes that occur when creating a font of an arbitrary character size by enlarging or contracting the contour vector of a character. By adding and formatting, it is possible to create high-quality characters that are compatible with sophisticated printing methods, which is extremely useful in practice.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a block diagram configuring the character pattern formatting method of the present invention, Figure 2 is a diagram of a first filtering method used in the character pattern formatting method of the present invention, and Figure 3 is a block diagram configuring the character pattern formatting method of the present invention. Figure 4 is an expanded view of the dot pattern after character pattern shaping according to the present invention; Figure 5 is a diagram of the second method of filtering used; Figure 5 is an expanded view of the dot pattern after the character pattern has been formatted according to the present invention; Figure 5 is a diagram of the conventional integer vector reduced to a full dot. It is a developed view showing an enlarged view of the dot pattern. In Figure 1, 1 is a character pattern, 2 is an outline vector, 3 is a memory, 4 is an enlargement/reduction of a character pattern, 5 is a dot pattern character, and 6 is a filtering method that shapes the diagonal part that forms a character. Searching means 7 is means for adding and outputting dots at locations searched by the filtering method. tumor 1 figure, +4%e@M74L711>7”5
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Figure 4 VA Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] An apparatus for storing a character pattern (1) in a memory (3) using a contour vector (2), enlarging/reducing the character pattern (4) and restoring it to a dot pattern character (5), When the above contour vector (2) is enlarged or reduced to create the above dot pattern character (5), a search means using a filtering method to search for a portion of the diagonal line forming the character that requires shaping. (6) and a means (7) for additionally outputting dots in order to format the location searched by the search means (6) using the filtering method, and when creating the dot pattern character (5), A character pattern shaping method characterized in that a character pattern is output by means (7) for additionally outputting the dots.