Abstract: A method and system for providing a substitute font that visually approximates a selected font that is unavailable in a computer system is provided. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the method and system first selects as the substitute font a font that is available in the computer system. The method and system then adjusts the overall widths of the characters of the substitute font to match the overall widths of the corresponding characters of the selected font. This causes the same combinations of characters of the substitute font and of the selected font to have substantially the same size and appearance. The method and system then makes the substitute font available to a program that has requested the selected font.

Abstract: A character pattern generating apparatus includes a memory and a CPU. The memory stores, in advance, character skeleton data representing the skeleton shapes of characters and element outline data representing the outline shapes of the elements constituting the characters for each character style. The CPU obtains outline shape data corresponding to one constituent element in character skeleton data from the element outline data, extracts therefrom element skeleton data for the constituent element, transforms the extracted element skeleton data based on the character skeleton data, and modifies the outline shape data in accordance with the transformation so as to generate a character pattern by using the modified outline data. The character pattern generating apparatus of the present invention generates multiple kinds of high quality fonts involving no design restrictions in a smaller number of steps.

Abstract: There is provided a picture-forming device which is capable of easily drawing an arrow having a desired shape on a display screen of a display device, such as a CRT. The picture-forming device is capable of setting a basic shape of an arrow to be used in picture-forming. The basic shape of the arrow set is stored. When arrow display conditions indicative of a position, a direction, and a length of the arrow are entered via the display screen, data of the basic shape of the arrow and data of the arrow display conditions are synthesized, to display an image data thus synthesized, on the display screen.

Abstract: A character processing apparatus using outline font that represents the shape of a character with outline coordinates, capable of determining an effective range for correcting the outline coordinates upon plotting outline coordinates, by each of a plurality of pre-stored line-width information. The apparatus control not to perform a plurality of high-quality processings at once, by correcting the outline coordinates in accordance with the line-width information within the effective range, thus maintains high-quality character shape after correction.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods for generating a set of defective images from a model image. Defect parameters used with the apparatus and methods specify classes of defects including resolution, blur, threshold, speckle, jitter, skew, distortion of width and height, offset from a baseline, and kerning. The parameters further permit specification of a range of sizes of the defects and a distribution of the defects within the range. Within the apparatus, actual values for the defects are generated randomly within the specified ranges and distributions. The model image may be represented by means of pixels or by a format which describes the model image's shape. The user may specify the number and the size of the defective images. The defective images are useful for inferring accurate and efficient image classifiers for use in image recognition devices such as optical character readers.

Abstract: A font data output method that applies bandwidth limitation to binary font data using a two-dimensional low-pass filter, and applies gain of one or more to a multilevel-value data group obtained by reduction at a predetermined ratio according to the distribution of values in the multilevel-value data group to generate the gradated font data. Using this method, the loss of line and character density in the font data due to a high reduction ratio can be prevented.

Abstract: A character generation device that easily implements a multiple-font system without increasing the data amount is provided. Character data of a basic font is stored in a character data storage while paste component data is stored in a paste component data storage. A shape recognizer determines a length and an angle of a process-target element as well as an angle of a stroke to which the process-target element belongs, by referring to a font attribute storage based on a font code and character number specified from a keyboard. A paste component data modifier performs scaling up/down processing and rotation processing with the selected paste component data by referring to the font attribute storage. A data synthesizer generates character data that paste components, subjected to the scaling up/down process and the rotation process, are applied onto the process-target element.

Abstract: A method for the entry of a graphic character displays a character in a graphic file on a display unit through a graphic processor having a graphic display function, which involves specifying a parallelogram in a space in which the graphic character to be displayed exists and a character code of the graphic character in defining the graphic character; and creating a graphic character data of the graphic character by determining an attribute representing a geometric shape of the graphic character on the basis of the parallelogram and the number of characters of the character code. The arrangement of this method allows the graphic processor to enter graphic characters efficiently in displaying characters on the graphics.