Abstract: The present invention discloses a user interface system which enables the parameters (eg character infilling, character color, character opacity, color saturation, etc) of a character font (or other image) to be selected in sequence. Of the maximum possible combination of selectable sequences, some are disabled in order to deliberately simplify the choice available to the user. The disablement is preferably selectively activatable to assist first time and new users but not inhibit experienced users. The characters (FIGS. 1 and 2) are able to be generated on a conventional general purpose computer (100). The interface system is vendible as a computer program product.

Abstract: A form analyzing unit receives 2-D outline data stored in an outline data storing unit via an outline data obtaining unit, and judges from the received 2-D outline data whether an outline of a character includes an outline of a hole formed in the character. If so, a top/bottom dividing unit divides an area surrounded by the two outlines into convex polygons. A side generating unit moves each divided structure element in a z-axis direction to generate a side plane of the 3-D character, and generates 3-D data for the character.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus to control display attributes of characters in a pre-boot environment are described herein. In an example method, a glyph associated with a character of a string is retrieved based on glyph information embedded in the string to display the character in a local console. Accordingly, the glyph is displayed on the local console. Prior to transmitting the string for display on a remote console, the glyph information is removed from the string.

Abstract: One embodiment of a method of performing a font operation involves receiving a set of font data identifying a font operation to be performed. If a first font data unit in the set indicates that a first coordinate should be a background color and transparent background is enabled, the method involves outputting an enable for a second font data unit in the set. The second font data unit indicates that a second coordinate should be a foreground color. The enable for the second coordinate is output instead of a disable for the first coordinate. If instead the first font data unit in the set indicates that the first coordinate should be a background color and transparent background is disabled, the method may involve outputting a disable for the first coordinate.

Abstract: Colors are specified within the individual glyphs of a font by means of an indirect approach which employs multiple tables. The data values for individual pixels of a glyph identify entries in an index table, which pertains to a subset of all available colors. The entries in the index table map to a complete set of colors that are specified in a color table. As a result of this structure, the amount of data that is required to specify the individual pixels of a glyph can be minimized to the number of bits required to distinguish the colors within that glyph. The specification of all available colors within a single table permits that table to be shared among various resources, including bitmap fonts and outline fonts.

Abstract: A cursor is moved through regions of text 300 having differing directions to a location visually adjacent to a previous cursor location. The cursor is moved in the direction of requested cursor movement even when moving from text having a first direction to text having a second direction. A comparison of direction for current and proposed cursor locations is made 810 in both a method and apparatus for so moving the cursor. The direction of a character to be inserted is also examined 816 in determining the next location of the cursor.

Abstract: An animation data generation apparatus that supplies a state where a character string can be read in a part of 3D character animation generated based on functions. The apparatus includes an interface unit for setting characters which are used for animation, time allocation between 3D character animations in a moving standstill state, and the type of the animation in the moving state. The apparatus also includes a calculation unit for calculating the number of frames corresponding to animation based on the time allocation, and a generation unit for generating animation data in the standstill state so that 3D characters corresponding to the set characters can be read, and for generating data of the 3D character animation in a moving state so as to link to the data of the animation in the standstill state by using the number of calculated frames and a function corresponding to the set animation.

Abstract: A font memory for display comprises a ROM wherein a storage region is divided into a program storing region and a font data storing region which is divided into a mono-font data storing region and a color font data storing region, and is designed to map and store data in three segment storage regions in the color font data storing region with respect to a CRA code which defines characteristics of color font data. Three segment storage regions in the color font data storing region, in which color font data corresponding to a CRA code, which is not displayed on a screen, of CRA codes of color font data with respect to a specific font, are to be written, have a mono-font storage diversion changeable storage region which stores therein mono-font data with respect to a font other than the specific font. Thus, it is possible to effectively use a mono-font data storage region in a limited storage range and to store mono-font data in an appropriate proportion by carrying out a simple operation.

Abstract: A formatting object according to the present invention conveys information to the reader of a document (such as a table or chart) by associating visual attributes (such as color, fill type, border width, line width, line style, font size, marker size and marker type) to characters or markers within the document. The formatting object may be used to emphasize data within a table or a chart by modifying the structural visual attributes of characters or markers within the table or chart according to pre-defined criteria. Similarly, the formatting object may be used to increase information density within a table or chart, and to elegantly represent the relationships between four or more interrelated variables in a two-dimensional chart. The formatting object accomplishes this by defining at least one format map that comprises one or more mapping segments.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a method, apparatus and computer program product for positioning a plurality of sub-images such as spheres or circles within a bounded image (such as a character). The size (eg radius) and/or packing density of the sub-images can be varied in accordance with the distance of a point where the sub-image is to be located from a reference line (131, 171) which can be internal or external of the bounded image. The use of actual and virtual dimensions (ra, rv) enables overlapping and spaced apart sub-images to be created. A threshold test is also able to prevent display of sub-images below a certain size.

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 system and method is described for manipulating text relative to a curved reference line in order to transform a character, rendered in a particular font, to generate a warped character with the degree of warping reflecting the local curvature of the curved reference line. The curvature of the reference line is reflected in the nature of quadilaterals, i.e., quads, generated for a corresponding rectangle on a straight reference line. The coordinates of the corners of the quad provide the parameters to carry out the transformation. Such rendering improves the appearance of the text and provides a method that modifies available fonts in a flexible fashion without the need to generate new fonts.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for positioning characters within an arbitrarily sized graphics window in order to maximize the distribution of unused space. The method and system are particularly adapted for the redistribution of characters produced during a terminal emulation session with another computing system. Characters produced during the emulated session are adjusted to completely fill the graphics window, regardless of its size. A fill justification procedure distributes characters in areas within the graphics window that would otherwise appear as gutters or margins. A character spacing unit maintains correct character image proportions in the graphics window while not rigidly adhering to a uniform alignment of character rows and columns. A linear distribution procedure allows the character image to fill the graphics window completely with a natural appearance.

Abstract: Provided are a method and an apparatus for generating transformed fonts using a small amount of memory by transforming vector font data stored in the memory and outputting the transformed vector font data. As to certain identical characters in one text, it is decided to transform the respective identical characters to different degrees or to the same degree. Then, a degree of character transformation is set according to the decision. According to the set degree, the character is transformed by moving feature points, which form the character, upward, downward, to the left, or to the right.

Abstract: A method typesets a set of glyphs. A current glyph is selected from the set of glyphs and a current position of the current glyph is selected. A next position of a next glyph is determined, where the next glyph is selected from the set of glyphs. The determination of the next position of the next glyph first represents the current glyph as a two-dimensional distance field and then determines the next position using the current position, an escapement of the current glyph, and an alignment of the two-dimensional distance field. The current glyph is then updated to be the next glyph and the current position is updated to be the next position. The selection of the next glyph and the determination of the next position continue until a termination condition is satisfied.

Abstract: A method (48) and digital image device (18) for providing a bolded character bitmap. The device (18) has a memory unit (22) for storing a character bitmap and an input buffer (21a) for receiving character bitmap from the memory unit (22). There is a processor (20) coupled to the input buffer (21a) and in use the processor (20) generates a bolded character bitmap by applying a bolding process that to determines if a neighboring row pixel for each active pixel in the character bitmap is active. The bolding process generates a shifted active pixel, for each active pixel, if the neighboring pixel is active to generate a shifted character bitmap that is displayed on an LCD (26).

Abstract: Displaying characters on a dot-matrix display includes characters for display on a display device and an array of pixel boxes for displaying the characters, where each of the characters is justified against one side of the pixel box included in the array of pixel boxes and occupies a standard width of four pixels in the pixel box.

Abstract: When a character is present in a line adjacent to a concerned section, bordering is applied to a dot in the concerned section adjacent to that line. To avoid unnecessary bordering, when processing a head line of the concerned part, data on the head line is read instead of the data on a line above the head line. Alternatively, data on a line above the head line is all changed to background data. A last display line is similarly processed.

Abstract: In one embodiment, selecting auxiliary screen regions to activate in rendering a straight line segment on a screen of a computer monitor, wherein the straight line segment comprises points defined by an algebraic expression equal to zero, wherein the expression is expressed as a first constant multiplied by a x-axis value plus a second constant multiplied by a y-axis value plus a third constant, wherein the straight line segment has a width.

Abstract: A system for typographic glyph construction includes a graphics system, a glyph server coupled to the graphics system, and an operating system coupled to the glyph server. An apparatus for typographic glyph construction of input text in a graphics system running on a computer system and output on an output device of the computer system includes a line layout core unit, a glyph cache unit coupled to the line layout core unit, an open font architecture services unit coupled to the glyph cache unit, at least one scaler unit coupled to the open font architecture unit, a font object management unit coupled to the at least one font scaler, and an attribute group support unit supporting a data structure for communication among the units of the apparatus.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for representing sets of Chinese or Asian characters having complicated and basic ideographic symbols in collision free combinations of English letters to provide one-code-one-character ideographic character coding.

Abstract: Methods and computer systems render displays of text strings during bios activity by utilizing escape codes within the strings to signify that portions of the text strings are to be displayed in various formats. One escape code signifies one format, such as bold typeface while another escape code signifies another format, such as underlined. A display engine of the BIOS when generating the display of text strings encounters the escape codes, interprets them to determine the format for the subsequent text, and renders the display of the subsequent text in the corresponding format.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method of combining fonts. A first plurality of glyphs from a first font and a second plurality of glyphs from a second font are copied into a combined font, each glyph in the combined font being assigned a unique identification code. A mapping is generated of a first plurality of code points in an encoding scheme to the identification codes of the first plurality of glyphs in the combined font, and a substitution feature is generated in the combined font that can substitute at least one of the first plurality of glyphs in the combined font with at least one of the second plurality of glyphs in the combined font.

Abstract: A font generation apparatus includes: a basic font storage section storing a font character of a basic font for generating a font character; a feature parameter storage section storing a feature parameter expressing a feature of the font character; a genetic algorithm processing section generating plural new feature parameters by performing genetic algorithm processing on the feature parameter; a font generation section generating new font characters by deforming the font character of the basic font based on the plural generated feature parameters; and a display unit displaying the generated new font characters. The genetic algorithm processing section determines the feature parameter according to the preferences of a user based on a font character selected by the user from among the new font characters displayed on the display unit. The font generation section creates a font based on the determined feature parameter according to the preferences of the user.

Abstract: A layout of five stroke shapes for inputting Chinese characters in a device is disclosed. The layout is Cross-shaped with relative positions of the five strokes being helpful to users knowledgeable in Chinese writing. Further, the layout arrangement is accompanied with a lyric which helps users remember and memorize the locations of the five strokes on the keypad. The relative locations of the five strokes are: Pie at the left of the cross, Dian at the right, Heng at the top, Zhe at the bottom, and Shu at the center. The lyric describes the shapes of the strokes and the relative locations of the strokes in the Cross-shaped configuration. For example, the lyric may be “left slash, right gash, upper over, lower turn with one down in the middle.” The lyric may have a tune to become a song and may be burned in a ROM of a device, such as a mobile phone.

Abstract: A character display apparatus includes: a display device having a plurality of pixels; and a control section for controlling the display device, wherein: each of the pixels includes a plurality of sub-pixels arranged along a predetermined direction; a corresponding one of a plurality of color elements is pre-assigned to each of the sub-pixels; an intensity of each of the color elements is represented stepwise through a plurality of color element levels; the control section executes tasks of: setting each of the sub-pixels to one of the color element levels; according to a relationship between the plurality of color element levels and a plurality of brightness levels, converting the color element level for each of the sub-pixels to a corresponding brightness level among the plurality of brightness levels; and changing the relationship according to at least one of character color information which defines a color of a character to be displayed on the display device and background color information which defines

Abstract: The present invention provides an article manufacturing apparatus that even a user unfamiliar with the article manufacturing apparatus can operate appropriately. The article manufacturing apparatus is a combinational weighing apparatus (1) arranged in an article manufacturing line, and is provided with a touch screen (70). The touch screen (70) displays operation screens that indicate the operation details to be performed by the combinational weighing apparatus (1), and guidance screens that provide procedural guidance on the operation details. In addition, the touch screen (70) inputs the operation details.

Abstract: Methods and systems for automatically hinting fonts, particularly TrueType fonts, by transferring hints from one font to another are described. In one embodiment, a character or glyph (i.e. a source character) from a first font is selected and provides hints that are to be transferred to a character or glyph of a second font (i.e. a target character). The hints comprise statements defined in terms of control points or knots that define the shape or appearance of a character. A match is found between individual control points on the different characters and then used as the basis for transferring the hints. In one embodiment, hints are transferred by modifying values in a control value table (CVT) that contains entries that are used to constrain the control points of the source character. The CVT values are modified so that they now constrain corresponding control points in the target character.

Abstract: The invention provides a font processing device. In font enlargement, a target font to be enlarged or reduced is divided into columns or rows, and a cost is calculated based on the pixel pattern formation for each column and row. In enlargement processing, a cost represents a line segment volume, and a column or a row that has low-cost, that is, has a pixel array close to a line segment, is difficult to be enlarged. Further, in reduction processing, a cost represents a degree of likeness to an adjacent column or row, and a column or a row that has a similar pixel pattern is reduced with priority. In practice, the column or row for the target font is decided based on the pixel formation of the target font for enlargement or reduction so that natural enlargement/reduction can be obtained. In addition, font modification is executed by using enlargement and reduction of the font.

Abstract: The process for coding characters and associated display attributes in a video system consists in: coding a first cue of character type in a first word; coding a second cue of display attribute type, a so-called parallel attribute, defining the color or aspect associated with a character, in a second word, comprising at least one selection bit whose value indicates whether the parallel display attribute transmitted is a color attribute or a shape attribute; storing the value of the said parallel display attribute; using, for display of the current character, the color attribute, respectively the shape attribute, transmitted at the same time as the current character, or by default, the color attribute, respectively the shape attribute, stored during transmission of a previous character.

Abstract: The invention provides basic 1-to-1 character case mapping information for Unicode characters while using only small amount of memory and at a reasonable speed. The presently preferred embodiment of the invention provides a technique that encodes the case mapping into a sequential list of <Minimum, Size, Gap, Offset> quadruple. Every quadruple represents a range of characters. The Minimum and Size values represent the boundary of the range. The Gap represents which characters in the range have the valid mapping. Thus, if the character Minimum is a multiple of the Gap, then the character has a mapping in the quadruple. Otherwise, the character does not have a mapping. If the character has a mapping, then the mapped value is the character plus the Offset.

Abstract: A method and system of operating a remote terminal by a terminal server caches representation data of glyphs to be displayed on the remote terminal to reduce the amount of glyph data that have to be transmitted to the remote terminal through a network connection. The glyph caching is performed on a level of text fragments each of which includes a plurality of glyphs. The remote terminal stores a fragment cache for caching fragments and glyph caches for caching individual glyphs. Each entry in the fragment cache contains data indicating where the glyph data for the glyphs of the fragment are stored in the glyph caches. When the terminal server receives a request to display a text fragment on the remote terminal, it checks whether that fragment is cached at the remote terminal. If so, the terminal server sends a fragment index to the client identifying the entry in the fragment cache for that fragment.

Abstract: The present invention employs the notion of a Chinese writing brush moving a geometric figure to produce a style of calligraphy, and the area of the geometric figure is big or small, then the strokes of a character is also big or small. Hence the purpose that is the variance of the strokes of a character achieved using the present invention. The present invention only decides the moving path of the strokes of a character and the size of the geometric figure from the starting points and the end points, and then moves the geometric figure along the moving path, the area the geometric figure passing is the style of calligraphy.

Abstract: An information processing method and apparatus which uses a memory storing stroke data forming one character together with respective stroke order information to display each stroke data based on the stored stroke order information at an arbitrary speed. In addition, a display speed changing instruction is input into the apparatus and the display speed of the stroke data is changed in response to the display speed changing instruction. In addition, stroke data stored in correspondence to the stroke order information of an input stroke order number is read from the memory and displayed. Further, the stroke data can be displayed under different display conditions such that the stroke order information stored in correspondence to the stroke data can be distinguished from each other.

Abstract: The application relates to an information transfer system, comprising a receiver (3) and a transmitter (1) for transferring an information signal to the receiver (3) via a transfer medium (2). The information signal comprises main data and sub data. The sub data comprises coded text lines having a plurality of character codes. The receiver is provided with a character display unit (10) for displaying characters corresponding with the character codes in the coded text lines. The number of character display positions is less than the number of character codes in the coded text line. The receiver is provided with display control means (9) for controlling the display of characters corresponding to the character codes included in the coded text line in dependence on serial control codes included in the coded text line.

Abstract: A system and method for displaying font in a wireless telephone. The system and method employ the operations of converting base font data into converted font data, wherein the converted font data has a data bits equal in number to data bits of a background screen into which the converted font data will be transcribed; generating a mask for the converted font data; storing the converted font data and the mask in a memory of the wireless telephone; retrieving the mask stored in the memory.

Abstract: Automatically positioning of typographical features, such as vertical stems or horizontal segments of a character, on high contrast pixel sub-component boundaries as part of a rendering process that uses separately controllable pixel sub-components of pixels to represent different portions of the character. In order to identify the typographical features of the character that are to be aligned with high contrast pixel sub-component boundaries, topology of the character is analyzed at runtime. In display devices having vertical stripes of same-colored pixel sub-components, character legibility is increased when the left edges of stems are aligned with high contrast boundaries between pixel sub-components. Processing time and resources are conserved by performing a partial, rather than a full, topological analysis of the character.

Abstract: A character sequence drawing apparatus which stores font data and font processing functions for executing processes for using the font data. The font processing functions are, for example a rasterizer initialization function, a glyph-by-glyph pattern obtaining function, a glyph-by-glyph font metrics information obtaining function, and a common font metrics information obtaining function. The character sequence drawing apparatus receives, from an application program (AP), a piece of font access information that includes addresses of font data and a group of types of font processing functions, assigns a font ID to the piece of font access information, stores the font ID with correspondence to the piece of font access information, and sends the font ID to the AP. After this, the AP can issue a request to execute a drawing-related process (e.g., obtaining a character sequence width, obtaining height of a font, or drawing a character sequence) to the character sequence drawing apparatus, specifying a font ID.

Abstract: A method and system of operating a remote terminal by a terminal server caches representation data of glyphs to be displayed on the remote terminal to reduce the amount of glyph data that have to be transmitted to the remote terminal through a network connection. The glyph caching is performed on a level of text fragments each of which includes a plurality of glyphs. The remote terminal stores a fragment cache for caching fragments and glyph caches for caching individual glyphs. Each entry in the fragment cache contains data indicating where the glyph data for the glyphs of the fragment are stored in the glyph caches. When the terminal server receives a request to display a text fragment on the remote terminal, it checks whether that fragment is cached at the remote terminal. If so, the terminal server sends a fragment index to the client identifying the entry in the fragment cache for that fragment.

Abstract: A font controlling method and apparatus in a so-called on-screen display (OSD), in which, when displaying letters or the like of different languages, well-balanced high-quality display that is easy and comfortable to see is enabled without abbreviating a word or splitting one line into two lines. To this end, the font controlling apparatus includes an input signal discriminating unit 2, an OSD control micro-computer 3 and a character generator IC 5. The input signal discriminating unit 2 discriminates the sort of graphics display standard of an input signal. OSD control micro-computer 3 determines the sort of the font in use and size of the font based on a display language request signal from the user and the sort of graphics display standard of the input signal. The character generator IC 5 generates an OSD display signal responsive to the sort of the font determined by OSD control micro-computer 3 and the font size.

Abstract: A general-purpose system for enabling the user to easily enter characters whose contents are hard to understand at a glance, such as bar codes, by using a general-purpose application program such as a wordprocessor is provided. For this purpose, a printer driver comprising a font file storing a display font and a bar code record font corresponding to the display font and a conversion function of converting display font codes into record font codes is provided. When a bar code is entered in an application program, a legible display font corresponding to the bar code can be used. On the other hand, when the bar code is printed, the printer driver compatible with a given printer converts the display font into a bar code record font and supplies the bar code record font. Thus, a high-accuracy bar code is printed in accordance with the standard.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus for displaying a character on a television or monitor screen are presented. The contents from a first memory location are fetched to determine the character and character attributes to be displayed. A graphical representation for the character to be displayed is then retrieved and overwritten based on the character attribute information of the character and a second character, such as an adjacent character.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for justifying text rendered from a digital font at an output pointsize. The invention includes using a kerning value for a character pair including a space character and a nonspace character to place the nonspace character at a margin. The invention can be used in conjunction with a font having first kerning metrics for a small pointsize and for a different large pointsize. The kerning value can be obtained by interpolating the small pointsize metrics and the large pointsize metrics.

Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for optimizing processing of single byte characters employed within a multibyte character encoding scheme in association with an underlying data encoding scheme employed within an operating system. The method includes: (1) receiving a data string, (2) passing the data string in its entirety to a first processing routine and (3) evaluating the data string to determine if any character in the data string is an excluded character of a host font. The method further includes (4) transferring the data string in its entirety to a second processing routine and (5) assessing a limited number of characters in the data string to determine if the data string can be converted under an underlying encoding scheme.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for typesetting a text line of characters with different fonts or different sizes without the presence of a preset baseline in the font. A coordination line is set for the text line to coordinate the characters. The dimensions of each character to be typeset on the text line is first determined. An embox is determined for each character, where the vertical and horizontal size of each embox are the determined dimensions for the character. The characters are compared with at least one preselected reference character of the same font, and a coordination point is determined for each character in its embox, based on the result of the comparison with the reference character. Finally the coordination point is coordinated for each of the characters with the coordination line in order to typeset the characters on the text line.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for horizontally expanding a video graphics adapter (VGA) text character display image to fully fill the screen of a flat panel display. Cell lines for each character are remapped to provide expanded cell lines. The flat panel apparatus includes a video memory for storing the character code, attribute data and font data, a character generator for generating character font data based on the character code, a lookup table for providing expanded cell lines, and an attribute controller for combining the font data and the attribute data for output to a flat panel display.

Abstract: A system, method and a computer readable medium for controlling character data access between a personal computer and server. This system allows a user to display large amounts of data required to accurately represent, store, manipulate and create characters of an Asian font. The system includes one or more personal computers and a server coupled to a public data network. The one or more personal computers and the server interact to provide the users of the one or more personal computers with access to Asian characters stored on both the personal computer and the server.

Abstract: The present invention provides for automatic placement of typographical features such as vertical stems or horizontal segments of a character on high contrast pixel sub-component boundaries as part of a rendering process that uses separately controllable pixel sub-components of pixels to represent different portions of the character. In order to identify the typographical features of the character that are to be aligned with high contrast pixel sub-component boundaries, topology of the character is analyzed at runtime. In display devices having vertical stripes of same-colored pixel sub-components, it has been found that character legibility is increased when the left edges of stems are aligned with high contrast boundaries between pixel sub-components. Processing time and resources are conserved by performing a partial, rather than a full, topological analysis of the character.

Abstract: A character information processor including display means having a display area in which a limitation is imposed on an allowable number of lines of a character string to be displayed, including: means for dividing the display area into at least a function display region and a guidance display region in a function mode in which a function is selected; and means for displaying, at the function display region, options of a function menu in a hierarchical manner, and for displaying, at the guidance display region, an explanatory sentence corresponding to an option designated out of the options displayed at the function display region.

Abstract: A method for rendering a line segment extending in the positive-x direction and positive-y direction on a computer display given a starting point and an ending point, the starting point having the form (xs, ys) and the ending point having the form (xe, ye). In this method, &Dgr;x and &Dgr;y are computed using the formula &Dgr;x=|xe−xs| and &Dgr;y=|ye−ys|, respectively. Then dt(0)=(yf*&Dgr;x)−(xf*&Dgr;y) is computed, where xf is the fractional portion of xs and yf is the fractional portion of ys, which allows for more precision. If the line segment extends in the postive-x and positive-y directions, then for each column n containing a portion of said line segment the process: plots said current pixel if dt(n)<=0.5*&Dgr;x and plotting the pixel above said current pixel if dt(n)>0.5*&Dgr;x; moves said current pixel to the right one pixel if dt(n)<=0.5*&Dgr;x and moves said pixel to the right and up one pixel if dt(n)>0.