Abstract: An article layout device comprises a layout execute section which virtually sets rectangular columns on an area where documents are arranged and searches for an unused sole column or compound column until the columns are filled with articles or all articles are completely arranged to attain a layout result on articles which can be arranged; an article entry priority output section which outputs the entry priority of each article to be entered, as required; a layout result evaluation section which gives an evaluation value based on the entry priority of the article to each of a plurality of layout results determined by the layout execute section; and a best layout result retrieval section which selects the layout result having the best evaluation value given by the layout result evaluation section among the plurality of layout results determined by the layout execute section.

Abstract: The invention provides a graphic form inputting apparatus wherein an arbitrary one of a plurality of grids defined in advance can be selected suitably and displayed on the screen and the origin, the distances of grid lines of the grid displayed can be changed with reference to another grid. A grid origin movement section displays, when a request to move an origin of an effective grid on a display apparatus by an operator is received, one of the other grids stored in a grid information storage section which is selected by the operator to be displayed on the display apparatus. Then, when coordinate values of a destination of the movement of the origin of the effective grid are inputted by the operator, the grid origin movement section normalizes the inputted coordinate values with the grid displayed on the display apparatus and changes coordinate values of the origin of the effective grid to coordinate values obtained by the normalization.

Abstract: A drawing arranging system includes a first storage portion for storing coupling relationship between aggregate of characteristic points representing an objective drawing for processing and aggregate of relative vectors connecting characteristic points, a second storage portion for storing relational expressions as constraint conditions relating the lengths and directions of the relative vector, a parameter selecting portion for selecting one of parameters, for which values are not yet determined, according to a predetermined rule when the parameter of the relational expression corresponding to the characteristic points and the relative vectors of the drawings as object for processing is the parameter, for which the value is not yet determined, and a drawing arranging portion for sequentially fixing values of parameters selected by the parameter selecting portion and performing re-arrangement of the drawing by updating the attribute of the drawing.

Abstract: A graphic form recognizer including a separate elevation angle computation and storage unit for extracting two reference points selected from a sequence of points constituting a predetermined section of an input graphic form and computing a separate elevation angle formed by line segments joining each of points of the sequence sandwiched between the reference points and each of the two reference points to compute a mean value, variance and mode of the separate elevation angle, a feature point extraction unit including a reference point setting portion and a reference point storage portion for further dividing the section sandwiched between the two reference points or integrating the section with another contiguous section according to said computed mean value and variance of the separate elevation angle, and a line kind determination unit for determining a kind of a line sandwiched between the two reference points according to the computed variance and mode of the separate elevation angle.

Abstract: In a figure recognition apparatus, a direction of a vector starting from a sample point most recently stored in a position data memory and terminating at an attention point is compared to an average value of directions of sample point vectors stored in the position data memory. The result of the comparison is used for deciding whether to discard the attention point.