JPH05249945A - Character generating method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the occurrence of a phenomenon where one part of a character is lost owing to the recovery shortage of a line width caused by the relationship between a reduction rate and a dot size, when a character is generated in a stroke dot method. CONSTITUTION:A negative width compensation flag, showing a reversely stored stroke because of the narrower line width than a standard value, is added to the pattern data of a pattern memory 1, and a negative line width compensating device 11 is interposed between a compensating adder-subtractor 6 and a stroke dot operating device 7. Even if the stroke, which is reduced by a multiplier 5 and is reversed to a negative line width recovery treated output by the compensating adder-subtractor 6, is left as it is, the negative line width compensator 11 detects the stroke referring to a negative width compensation graph, and forms a state existing no reversed stroke by performing a compensating processing for the left reversed stroke so as to send the stroke to the stroke operating device 7 after offsetting the stroke through a following stroke. The output is converted to a full dot signal by a converter 9 so as to be printed out through a printer 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character generation method, and more particularly to a character generation method in a printing device or a display device used as an output device of an information processing system or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a character generation method of this kind, in addition to a general dot matrix method, a stroke dot method utilizing information on contour lines forming characters and symbols has been conventionally used.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a conventional character generating device of the stroke dot system used in an information processing system.

In the pattern storage device 1a, the contour line pattern information shown in FIG. 8 in which the contours of the typesetting characters are divided into strokes of a required length and displayed is shown in the pattern data (type flag, stroke data, The line width relative correction flag) is stored. The stroke data among these is based on the standard contour information shown in FIG. 10 in which the contour line pattern shown in FIG. 8 is displayed with the starting point coordinates and the lengths of the X and Y axis components of each stroke. 10 shows the skeleton pattern of FIG. 9 formed by subtracting the line width reference values (a and d) which are the design standard values of FIG. The line width relative correction flag indicates the location and direction (sign) where the correction was performed at this time.
And is added as information indicating a portion where the line width is adjusted when the character is restored. Those marked with * in the stroke P11 → O column in FIG.
It indicates that the stroke can be omitted because it is a convergence stroke to the start point.

When the control device 2a receives the character code signal A designating a character or the like, it reads the pattern data of the corresponding character from the pattern storage device 1a, and the information of the stroke data therein is used as the pattern stroke signal C in the multiplication device. Then, the information of the corresponding line width relative correction flag is sent to the correction addition / subtraction device 6 as the line width correction code signal D. That is, when the character code corresponding to the contour image of FIG. 8 is received, the stroke data shown in FIG. 10 representing the skeleton pattern of FIG. 9 is transferred to the multiplication device 5, and the line width relative correction flag is transferred to the correction addition / subtraction device 6. ..

The multiplication value storage device 3 stores vertical and horizontal magnifications for standard size characters stored in the pattern storage device 1a corresponding to a magnification code designating the size of a character or the like. When the code signal B is received, the corresponding multiplication factor is sent to the multiplication device 5 as the multiplication value signal E. Similarly, the line width correction storage device 4 stores a line width relative correction value required to restore the line width corresponding to the magnification code, and when the magnification code signal B is received, the corresponding line width relative correction value is stored. The value is sent to the correction addition / subtraction device 6 as a line width relative correction value signal F.

The multiplication device 5 enlarges / reduces the input pattern stroke signal C by a magnification corresponding to the multiplication value signal E received from the multiplication value storage device 3, and supplies it to the correction addition / subtraction device 6 as the pattern stroke signal C1. Send out.

The correction addition / subtraction device 6 adds or subtracts the line width relative correction value to or from the pattern stroke signal C1 in accordance with the line width correction code signal D and the line width relative correction value signal F to obtain the pattern stroke signal C2. Is generated and sent to the stroke dot computing device 7.

The stroke dot computing device 7 traces all the contours of the pattern with dots from the pattern stroke signal C2, which is obtained by the correction adding / subtracting device 6 and consists only of the information of the coordinates of both ends of each contour stroke of the pattern of the character or the like. The stroke dot signal G is created and stored in the buffer device 8.

The stroke dot signal G is read from the buffer device 8 by the conversion device 9 and sandwiched between the contour stroke in the left Y plus (↑) direction and the contour stroke in the right Y minus (↓) direction. It is converted into a full dot signal H in which the inside area of the contour line is filled with dots and sent to the printing device 10 for printing, or sent to the display device and displayed on the screen.

[0011]

In the conventional character generation method described above, in the case of a character image having a portion thinner than the line width reference value as in the contour pattern shown in FIG.
In the pattern storage device 1a, as shown in FIG.
It is stored in the state in which the direction of the 7 "stroke is reversed.
However, if addition / subtraction of the line width adjustment is performed using the line width relative correction value corresponding to the magnification code signal B designating the size of a character or the like, the stroke in the original direction is restored even if it is reversed, which is practical. I was determined that there was no problem with.

However, due to the development of the printing device, a printing device having a high dot density and a wide range of reduction ratio has been put into practical use. Especially, when a character having a thin line width has a large reduction ratio, The direction of the reversed stroke as shown in 3 remains as it is after the line width adjustment, so that the character output to the printing device does not look like FIG. 5, but the constituent elements of the character are missing as in FIG. Then, there was a problem in that the original shape of the characters could not be retained.

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned problems,
Even if a character with a thin line width has a large reduction ratio,
An object of the present invention is to provide a character generation method for generating characters in the original shape without missing the parts forming the characters.

[0014]

According to the character generation method of the present invention, a stroke (A) is obtained by subtracting a design reference value of a line width from standard contour information in which a contour line forming a character or a symbol is represented as a closed stroke sequence. The data, a line width relative correction flag that indicates the location and direction of the line width adjustment, and a negative width correction flag that indicates that the stroke direction of the stroke data is the reverse of the stroke direction of the standard contour information are written. And a pattern storage device stored as pattern data, and (B) receives a magnification code signal designating the size of a character or the like, and outputs a prestored multiplication value indicating a magnification for enlargement or reduction. A multiplication value storage device, and (C) a line width correction storage device that receives the magnification code signal and sends out a pre-stored line width relative correction value for line width adjustment. (D) A multiplication device for enlarging or reducing the input stroke data by a multiplication value from the multiplication value storage device, and (E) referring to the line width relative correction flag for the output from the multiplication device. Performs line width adjustment with the line width relative correction value from the line width correction storage device,
A correction addition / subtraction device that outputs a pattern stroke signal in which the line width is restored, and (F) a reverse component remaining in the pattern stroke signal is detected by referring to the line width relative correction flag and the negative width correction flag, and a reverse component Is corrected to zero and the correction amount is canceled from the subsequent stroke in the same direction, and (G) a character code signal for designating a character or the like is received to read the pattern data from the pattern storage device. A control device for sending the stroke data to the multiplication device, information for the line width relative correction flag to the correction addition / subtraction device and the negative line width correction device, and information for the negative width correction flag to the negative line width correction device. ,
(H) A stroke dot calculation device for converting the output from the negative line width correction device into a continuous dot signal sequence, and (I)
And a conversion device for generating a full dot signal in which the contour is filled with dots from the output signal of the stroke dot calculation device.

[0015]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the character generation system of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the character generation system of this embodiment has a pattern storage device 1, a control device 2, a multiplication value storage device 3, a line width correction storage device 4, and a multiplication device 5. It is composed of a correction addition / subtraction device 6, a stroke dot calculation device 7, a buffer device 8, a conversion device 9, and a negative line width correction device 11. The above-mentioned configuration is different from the conventional character generation method shown in FIG.
To the pattern storage device 1 and the control device 2, respectively, and a negative line width correction device 11 is added between the correction addition / subtraction device 6 and the stroke dot calculation device 7.

In the pattern storage device 1, as shown in FIG. 4, in addition to the stroke data and the line width relative correction flag similar to those in the conventional system shown in FIG. 10, characters including a line width narrower than the reference value (see FIG. 2). ), The negative width correction flag indicating that the stroke is the opposite direction to the opposite stroke generated when the stroke width of the skeleton pattern (FIG. 3) is obtained by subtracting the line width reference value from the standard contour information. The added data is stored as pattern data such as characters.

When the control device 2 receives the character code signal A, it reads the pattern data of the corresponding character from the pattern storage device 1 and sends the stroke data to the multiplication device 5 as the pattern stroke signal C as in the conventional system. The information of the width relative correction flag is sent to the correction addition / subtraction device 6 and the negative line width correction device 11 as the line width relative correction code signal D, and the information of the negative width correction flag is given as the negative width correction code signal J. It is sent to 11.

Multiply value storage device 3, line width correction storage device 4,
The multiplying device 5 and the correction adding / subtracting device 6 are the same as those in the conventional system, and enlargement / reduction and addition or subtraction of the line width relative correction value are performed by the multiplication value signal E corresponding to the magnification code signal B and the line width relative correction value signal F. Pattern stroke signal C2
To occur. The generated pattern stroke signal C2 is sent to the line width correction device 11.

The negative line width correction device 11 performs the following operation in response to the line width relative correction code signal D and the negative width correction code signal J, converts the pattern stroke signal C2 into the pattern stroke signal C3, and strokes. It is sent to the dot arithmetic unit 7. The operation after the stroke dot computing device 7 is shown in FIG.
The processing is the same as that of the conventional method.

Next, the operation of the negative line width correction device 11 will be described in detail with reference to the example of FIG.

The line width relative correction code signal D (corresponding to the line width relative correction flag in FIG. 4) and the negative width correction code signal J (corresponding to the negative width correction flag in FIG. 4) sent from the control device 2 are stored. Incidentally, each stroke of the pattern stroke signal C2 sent from the correction addition / subtraction device 6 (O, O →
For P1, P1 → P2, ...), it is checked whether or not the stroke is marked by the negative width correction code signal J.

Stroke marked by the negative width correction code signal J ("-" is entered in Ym in FIG. 4) P6 →
If the value of the Y-direction component is not 0 but Yr (Yr> 0) when P7 is sent, the stroke is still reversed (Yr ≦ 0 in the normal state).
Therefore, "-Yr" is added to the value to correct it to 0, and the subsequent strokes P7 → P8, P8 → P
9, P9 → P10 ... The first stroke (P8 → P9 in this example) in the same direction as the original direction of the stroke P6 → P7 corrected to 0 (the “−” direction marked in Ym) “+ Yr” is added to the Y-direction component of (1) to reversely correct and absorb the distortion due to the above correction. The Y-direction component of the stroke P8 → P9 that is the target of the reverse correction is the Ys component of the stroke data {− (g +
a)} is multiplied by the reduction scale factor and the line width correction value of the scale factor is added.

In the example of FIG. 4, only the case where the negative width correction flag is the "-" mark has been described, but the same applies to the case where the negative width correction flag is the "+" mark. Also, there is no mark in the Xm component of the negative width correction flag, and therefore there is no reverse stroke in the X direction component, but if there is a reverse stroke in the X direction component, the same processing is performed.

As described above, according to the present invention, even after the line width relative correction processing is added and the direction is still reversed as shown in P6 → P7 in FIG. The direction component of the reverse stroke (P6 → P7) is corrected to 0, and the correction amount in the above P6 → P7 is adjusted in the subsequent first stroke (P8 → P9) in which the same direction component is not 0 ( In this case, the size of P8 → P9 is reduced). Therefore, the shaped pattern stroke signal C3 that does not include the reverse stroke as shown in FIG. 3 is sent to the stroke dot computing device 7 and the defective portion as shown in FIG. No output image is obtained.

[0027]

As described above, according to the character generation method of the present invention, when printing or displaying on a stroke dot type printing device or the like, a stroke whose direction is reversed even after the line width relative correction processing is applied is performed. If there is any left-over stroke, the size of the reverse stroke is set to 0 and a negative width correction device that adjusts that amount in the subsequent strokes is provided. It is possible to prevent a phenomenon in which a character element thinner than a value is missing and the shape of the character is changed, and in any case, a correct character can be generated without missing a constituent element of the character.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a contour line pattern of a character having a line width smaller than a line width reference value.

3 is an explanatory diagram of a skeleton pattern corresponding to the stroke data of the character in FIG.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a structure of pattern data according to the present embodiment.

5 is an explanatory diagram of an output image obtained by performing full dot conversion on the skeleton pattern of FIG. 9.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an output image obtained by performing full dot conversion on the skeleton pattern of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an example of a conventional character generation method.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a contour line pattern of a character having a line width equal to a line width reference value.

9 is an explanatory diagram of a skeleton pattern corresponding to the stroke data of the characters in FIG.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a structure of conventional pattern data.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 1a pattern storage device 2, 2a control device 3 multiplication value storage device 4 line width correction storage device 5 multiplication device 6 correction addition / subtraction device 7 stroke dot calculation device 8 buffer device 9 conversion device 10 printing device 11 negative line width correction device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Stroke data obtained by subtracting a design reference value of a line width from standard contour information in which a contour line forming a character or a symbol is represented as a closed stroke string, and a line indicating a position and a direction of line width adjustment. A pattern storage device in which a width relative correction flag and a negative width correction flag indicating that the stroke direction of the stroke data is reversed from the stroke direction of the standard contour information are stored as pattern data such as characters; A multiplying value storage device for receiving a magnification code signal designating a magnitude and outputting a prestored multiplication value indicating a magnification for enlargement or reduction; A line width correction storage device that sends a line width relative correction value for line width adjustment, and the stroke data input from the multiplication value storage device. A multiplication device that expands or contracts according to the multiplication value of, and performs line width adjustment on the output from the multiplication device with the line width relative correction value from the line width correction storage device with reference to the line width relative correction flag. A correction addition / subtraction device that outputs a pattern stroke signal in which the line width is restored; And a negative line width correction device that corrects the corrected amount from the subsequent stroke in the same direction, and a character code signal that specifies a character or the like is received, and the pattern data is read from the pattern storage device to obtain the stroke data. A multiplication device, the information of the line width relative correction flag to the correction addition and subtraction device and the negative line width correction device,
A control device that sends information on the negative width correction flag to the negative line width correction device, a stroke dot calculation device that converts the output from the negative line width correction device into a continuous dot signal sequence, and the stroke dot calculation device And a conversion device for generating a full-dot signal in which the contour is filled with dots from the output signal of 1.