JPH03248194A - Outline font output device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain both data by linear approximation and curve approximation by using data in outline font pattern as the curve approximation by preparing a 1st memory stored with NOT data on the outline font and a 2nd memory stored with control point data on the outline font as a memory. CONSTITUTION:The memory stored with the data on the outline font is divided into the 1st memory 1a stored with the NOT data and the 2nd memory 1b stored with the control point data. Then the 1st memory 1a is provided for the linear approximation system and the 1st memory 1a and 2nd memory 1b are provided for the curve approximation system. Consequently, the data by the linear approximation system and curve approximation system are obtained by using data obtained by the curve approximation, the 2nd memory 1b is only provided for the grade-up from the linear approximation system to the curve approximation system, and the 1st memory 1a is usable in common.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Table of contents] Overview Industrial field of application Prior art (Figure 7) Means for solving the problem to be solved by the invention (Figure 1) Working example (a) 1 Description of the embodiment (Figs. 2 to 6(b))
Description of Other Embodiments (Effects of the Invention) C Overview] Concerning an outline font output device that develops and outputs outline font data in a memory into a driver matrix font, the font data is processed using a curve approximation method and a straight line approximation method. The purpose is to realize a Q-grade upgrade from a straight line approximation method to a curve approximation method with minimal addition of memory. In an outline font output device having a character development section that develops the dot matrix font, an output memory into which the dot matrix font is written, and an output section that outputs the V capacity of the output memory, as the memory,
1st C that stores the outline font knot data
A second memory that stores control point data of an outline font is prepared, and for those that perform linear approximation character development, the first memory is provided to perform curve approximation character development. The first memory and the second memory are provided for the device.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to an outline font output device that develops characters from outline font data stored in a memory into a dot matrix font and outputs the resultant characters.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been a tendency to use outline fonts with good print quality in output devices such as page printers.

The outline font stores the outline data of characters and approximates the outline according to the outline data to obtain a dot matrix font.

This approximate value method includes curve approximation and straight line approximation.

Since the curve approximation method approximates the contour line using a quadratic or cubic function, smooth and beautiful fonts can be obtained, but the amount of font data becomes large, and, for example, Mincho and Gothic fonts cannot be used up to JIS level 2. If it has, a memory capacity of about 12 megabytes is required, and the drawing speed is slow due to i-drawing using a quadratic function, etc., so a high-performance MPU is required for drawing processing, and the price of the printer becomes expensive.

On the other hand, the font quality of the linear approximation method is not as high as that of the curve approximation method, but it is better than the dot matrix font, and compared to the curve approximation method, the font data size is smaller, the drawing speed is faster, and the memory capacity is higher. Since a small and inexpensive MPU can be used, the price of the printer can be kept low.

There is a desire for something that can realize the curve approximation method and the straight line approximation method, which have advantages and disadvantages, by sharing font data.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the prior art.

For example, when the character rbJ is approximated by a curve using an outline font, a point (knot) n selected on the outline of the character and a point (control point) C chosen outside the outline as shown in Figure 7(A) Two types are required.

Then, as shown in FIG. 7(B), two knots no.
, n1 and two control points C15C! One curve is defined.

The first knot no in the drawing direction is called the starting point, and the next knot nt is called the ending point.

If the curves are continuous, the end point becomes the start point of the next curve,
If the curve is closed, the start point of the first curve and the end point of the last curve are the same.

The memory that stores font data contains coordinate data of knots and control points.

When drawing characters from these font data in the printer, as shown in FIG. 7(C), a starting point no and an ending point n! are calculated from two control points c1 and c2 and two knots nQ and n1 by mathematical calculations. A new (not)nz is generated in between, dividing one curve into two.

By repeating this operation for each curve, it is possible to generate as many knots as you like between the starting point no and the ending point n1.

Finally, by connecting all the knots with straight lines, you can obtain a curved outline of the character.

In contrast, in the linear approximation method, only knot data is stored in the memory that stores font data, and in the drawing process, the knots are connected with straight lines to obtain the outline of the character.

Such outline font data is obtained by digitizing the characters of a certain typeface, but depending on the required print quality and memory capacity, font data may be created by curve approximation or linear approximation. When creating data, digitization work was done separately.

Therefore, even if the characters are the same, knot data approximated by a curve and knot data approximated by a straight line do not necessarily match.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

For this reason, font data for curve approximation and font data for linear approximation cannot be shared, and with the curve approximation method and the linear approximation method, a huge number of characters (more than 7,000 characters) must be digitized separately, which is very time-consuming. It was something.

Additionally, when upgrading from a straight line approximation system to a curve approximation system, in addition to the straight line approximation memory that stores knot data, you must also provide a curve approximation memory that stores knot data and control point data. However, there was a problem in that knot data could not be shared and memory was wasted.

Therefore, the present invention provides an outline font output device in which font data can be shared between the curve approximation method and the linear approximation method, and the grade amplifier from the linear approximation method to the curve approximation method can be realized with minimal addition of memory. The purpose is to

[Means to solve the problem]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention comprises a memory 1 that stores outline font data, a character development section 2 that reads the outline font data from the memory 1 and develops it into a dot matrix font, and a character development section 2 that reads out the outline font data from the memory 1 and develops it into a dot matrix font. In an outline font output device that has an output memory 3 that stores the contents of the output memory 3, and an output unit 4 that outputs the contents of the output memory 3, the memory 1 includes a first memory 1a that stores knot data of an outline font, and a first memory 1a that stores knot data of an outline font. For those who prepare a second memory 1b storing control point data and perform character expansion using linear approximation, the first memory 1a is provided, and for those that perform character expansion using curved approximation. , the first memory 1a and the second memory 1b are provided.

[Effect]

The present invention includes a memory for storing outline font data, a first memory 1a for storing knot data, and a first memory 1a for storing knot data.
It is divided into a second memory lb for storing control point data, and the first memory 1a is provided for the linear approximation method, and the first memory 1a and the second memory 1b are provided for the curve approximation method.
Data obtained by curve approximation of an outline font can be used to obtain data for the straight line approximation method and the curve approximation method.

In addition, since the first memory 1a is provided for the linear approximation method, and the first memory 1a and the second memory Ib are provided for the curve approximation method, when upgrading from the linear approximation method to the curve approximation method, It is only necessary to provide the second memory 1b, and the first memory 1a can be shared.

Therefore, it is possible to upgrade to the curve approximation method with minimal addition of memory.

〔Example〕

(a) Description of one embodiment FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, the same parts as shown in Fig. 1 are indicated by the same symbols, and 5 is a control unit, which is composed of a microphone 07' processor and analyzes data received from a host such as a personal computer. , character code, character position, etc., and controls the character expansion section 2 and output memory 3.

The output memory 3 is composed of a bitmanb memory 3 for one page, in which the dot matrix font developed by the character development section 2 is written at the character position designated by the control section 5, and the printing section 4 is configured by a laser printer. It is composed of an electrophotographic printing mechanism or an LED electrophotographic printing mechanism, and prints the contents of the bitmap memory 3.

As shown in FIG. 2(A), a linear approximation type printer is provided with a first memory 1a for storing knot data, and a curve approximation type printer is provided with a first memory 1a, as shown in FIG. 2(B). A first memory 1a and a second memory 1a for storing control point data.
A memory lb is provided.

Note that the character expansion section 2 is composed of a microprocessor,
It is assumed that both linear approximation processing and curve approximation processing can be performed.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an outline font, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of outline font data, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the contents of the memory, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the printing side of linear approximation and curve approximation.

The case where the character rbJ is converted into an outline font as shown in FIG. 3 will be described.

The character rbJ is digitized with 200 dots on the X axis and 300 dots on the Y axis.

This number of dots is required to obtain the print quality of the type difference using a printer.

Using a personal computer or the like, find the coordinates of knots and control points from the outline of the character.

In FIG. 3, the white circles in the figure are knots, the black circles are starting points, and two control points 1 and 2 are set outside the contour line for the pair of knots.

The resulting knot and control point coordinate data (X, Y
) is as shown in Figure 4.

In other words, the character rbJ has two outlines, one inside and one outside.
Knots and control points are assigned to each counterclockwise direction, and a line type (curve C1 straight line L) is attached to these.

For example, the starting point of the outer contour (knot) is X=63, Y
=47, and the coordinates of control point 1.2 with the next knot are X=68, Y=38, X=73, and Y=31, respectively.

Regarding the coordinate data of such curve approximation, the first memory 1a stores the line type and knot data as shown in FIG. 5(A), and the second memory 1b stores the line type and knot data as shown in FIG. 5(B). ), two control point data are stored.

Then, as shown in FIG. 2(A), when a first memory 1a is provided as a font ROM and characters are drawn, linearly approximated characters as shown in FIG. 6(A) are printed.

Also, as shown in Figure 2 (B), the first font ROM is
When the memory 1a and the second memory 1b are provided and a character is drawn, the knot data of the curve C in the first memory 1a and the data of the control point 1.2 in the second memory 1b are approximated to the curve, and the Characters approximated by a curve as shown in Figure 6 (B) are printed.

In this way, font data for the linear approximation method and the curve approximation method can be obtained by converting characters into outline fonts by approximating them to curves only once.

Although the print quality will be lower, low-cost printers are equipped with a first memory 1 containing knot data, as shown in Figure 2 (A).
A (ROM or font card) installed in a printer that requires high quality has a first memory 1a containing knot data and a second memory 1a containing control point data, as shown in Figure 2 (B). Equipped with both 2 lb of memory.

If the second memory 1b is treated as an option, the linear approximation method and the curve approximation method can be used depending on the purpose with a minimum increase in memory capacity.

In other words, even if the print quality deteriorates, if the speed is faster,
The user can select the curve approximation method from the straight line approximation method, which is slow in speed but provides good print quality.

Furthermore, upgrading from a linear approximation method to a curve approximation method is possible with a minimum increase in memory capacity.

(b) Description of other embodiments In the above embodiments, a printer was used as an example of the output unit, but other embodiments such as a display device may be used.

In addition, the first memory 1a is equipped as a ROM, and the second memory 1a is equipped as a ROM.
If the first memory 1b is made into a ROM card as an option, the manufacturer only has to manufacture a printer equipped with the first memory 1a, improving production efficiency.

Although the present invention has been described above using examples, the present invention can be modified in various ways according to the gist of the present invention, and these are not excluded from the present invention.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, since a memory for storing knot data and a memory for storing control point data are provided, linear approximation and curve approximation can be performed using data converted into an outline font for curve approximation. This has the effect that both types of data can be obtained, and the effort of data creation work can be saved.

Furthermore, since it is only necessary to provide the second memory and the first memory can be shared in order to upgrade from the linear approximation method to the curve approximation method, there is an effect that it can be realized with a minimum addition of memory capacity.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram of the principle of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an outline font, Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of curve approximation outline font data, and Fig. 5 is an explanatory diagram of outline font data. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the contents of the memory, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the printing side of linear approximation and curve approximation, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the prior art. In the figure, la, lb-memory, 2...-character expansion section, 3...-output memory, 4...-output section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A memory (1) for storing outline font data; a character development section (2) for reading the outline font data from the memory (1) and developing it into a dot matrix font; In an outline font output device having an output memory (3) into which data is written and an output unit (4) which outputs the contents of the output memory (3), the memory (1) is a memory (1) that stores knot data of an outline font. 1 memory (1a) and a second memory (1a) that stores outline font control point data.
b), and for those that perform linear approximation character expansion, the first memory (1a) is provided, and for those that perform curve approximation character expansion, the first memory (1a) is provided. 1a) and the second memory (1b).