Abstract: A method and system for rapidly transmitting multicolor or gray scale display data having multiple bits per pixel to a display device is provided. In a preferred embodiment, the method and system constitutes a software facility. The facility first encodes the image into multiple bit per pixel raster data. The multiple bit per pixel raster data has a number of pixels. Each pixel stores a color value corresponding to the color of a particular region within the image. The facility then associates one or more single bit per pixel raster planes with the multiple bit per pixel raster data. Each single bit per pixel raster plane corresponds to a color value that appears in the multiple bit per pixel raster data. Each pixel of each single bit per pixel raster plane corresponds to a pixel of the multiple bit per pixel raster data, and indicates whether the corresponding pixel in the multiple bit per pixel raster data contains the color value of the single bit per pixel raster plane.

Abstract: An improved font format for displaying text-based characters on pixel-oriented display devices. The improved font format includes a simplified header that includes font information and a plurality of flags indicating one of a plurality of predetermined formats for the plurality of glyph bitmaps. The header also includes a flag indicating whether the font was derived from a bitmapped font and a flag indicating whether the font is stored as a small format (i.e., less than 64k) or a large format (i.e., greater than 64k). A movable glyph offset table and a movable advance width table are also provided. To facilitate antialiased textout, additional background mode values are provided to allow for a blending of the glyphs into the background.