Abstract: Methods, apparatus, including computer program products, and systems implement and use techniques for rendering glyphs. A plurality of glyphs to be rendered are received. For each glyph, an anti-aliasing procedure is selected to render the glyph. The anti-aliasing procedure is selected from a first anti-aliasing procedure and one or more alternative anti- aliasing procedures. The anti-aliasing procedure for each glyph is selected based on the glyph.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, including computer program products, and systems implement and use techniques for rendering glyphs. A representation of a glyph is generated, the glyph to be rendered at a size on an output device having a device resolution. A bitmap representation of the glyph is generated using a first anti-aliasing process in a first direction and using a different second anti-aliasing process in a second direction.

Abstract: Method and apparatus, implementing and using techniques for processing a character for display on a raster output device having a resolution defined by a set of output pixel positions. A stem of the character is aligned to a best sub-pixel boundary. The character is rendered at a resolution higher than the resolution of the raster output device. The aligned character is downsampled to the raster output device resolution.

Abstract: A method for creating anti-aliased characters on a computer output device includes the steps of generating a call from a client process for a character to be rendered, selecting a best alignment grid from a set of alignment grids associated with the device grid, rendering the character at a high resolution, and aligning stems of the character with an alignment grid corresponding to the resolution of an output device. The step of aligning the high resolution rendered stems to the alignment grid provides for an anti-aliased output with balanced stems.

Abstract: A method of displaying predefined characters contained in a font which maintain their artistically pleasing shapes as font design properties change over a font design axis (which defines a variable font design property) including the steps of:(1) including within each character definition a character-specific transition point which will be used to select a predefined character attribute of the character when it is displayed, the transition point lying along the font design axis;(2) selecting a value for the variable font design property of the character along the font design axis, and then determining a predefined character attribute for the character based upon the location of the selected value in relation to the character-specific transition point along the font design axis; and(3) displaying the character using the selected value of the variable font design property and the determined, predefined character attribute.

Abstract: A method for creating anti-aliased characters on a computer output device includes the steps of generating a call from a client process for a character to be rendered, rendering the character at a high resolution, and aligning stems of the character with a coarse grid corresponding to the resolution of an output device. The step of aligning the high resolution rendered stems to the coarse grid provides for an anti-aliased output with balanced stems. A method for rendering a character includes the steps of determining a device resolution and a number of greyscales to be displayed by a digital output device, determining a coarse grid and a high-resolution grid, developing character information concerning a character to be rendered, creating an initial bitmap of the character from the character information at the resolution of the high-resolution grid, and aligning stems of the initial bitmap with the coarse grid to create a coarse grid aligned high-resolution bitmap.

Abstract: A laser-excited marking system wherein a laser beam is used to mark information on an article. A laser beam from a laser is directed onto a scanner unit which includes positionable mirrors for reflecting the laser beam onto the article. The positionable mirrors are positioned in accordance with control signals from a controller to reflect the laser beam in two dimensions. Information consisting of alphanumeric and symbolic characters is provided as an input to the controller. The controller includes a general purpose computer which is programmed to develop control signals for the scanner unit whereby the character information input to the controller is marked by the reflected laser beam on the article. Stored within the computer is a listing containing a two-dimensional dot matrix representation of each alphanumeric and symbolic character, each such dot matrix being referred to as a character matrix.