JPH096316A - Font file creation method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To reduce the data size of font files. [Structure] In step S101, a type document such as a book, magazine, newspaper, or document is read as a sample document by an optical character reader. In step S102, a code table that is a list of character codes of the characters included in the read sample document is created. In step S103, the code table is sorted. In step S104, the user is prompted to input the font name. Step S
At 105, the font data having the character code included in the code table is read from the font file associated with the input typeface name, and the new font file is created. By creating a font file corresponding to such a sample document, the data size of the font file can be reduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a font file creating method and apparatus for creating a font file.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when character processing is performed in a system such as a personal computer, a workstation, a printer, etc., necessary font data is acquired from a font file of a designated typeface to form a character pattern. Characters were output on a display device or recording paper. The font file referred to at this time is, for example, in the case of the Japanese typeface, usually the JIS first level,
It has font data for about 7,000 characters to support all of the second level and non-Kanji characters. Therefore, the file capacity also becomes large, and for example, in the case of an outline font, it reaches about 3 Mbytes.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional example, handling only one typeface outline font results in about 3 fonts.
It requires a storage capacity of M bytes. In addition, when a document is created with a plurality of typefaces, a large-capacity storage device corresponding to it is required, and it is difficult to say that this is preferable from the viewpoint of system cost reduction.

In addition, about 70 included in the font file
It can be said that all of the font data for 00 characters is rarely used, and there are many characters that are extremely rarely used if limited to a specific field. Therefore,
Storing font data of such extremely rarely used characters in the system causes an increase in system size and cost.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to reduce the data size of a font file.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] and

In order to solve the above problems, a font file creating method according to the present invention is a font file creating method for creating a font file, which is a character code conversion for reading a character pattern from an original image and converting it into a character code. A font data acquisition step of acquiring font data corresponding to the character code, and a font data integration step of integrating the font data to form a font file. By creating a font file based on this, the data size of the font file can be reduced, and a font file that matches the purpose of use can be created.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
For example, it is preferable that after the character code conversion step, a sorting step of sorting the character codes is further provided, and the font data integration step preferably integrates the font data in order of sorted results. You can create font files arranged in order.

Further, for example, the font data acquisition step has a font name input step of inputting a font name of the font, and by acquiring font data corresponding to the input font name and the character code, A font file can be created by specifying the typeface name.

[0009]

【Example】

[First Embodiment] An embodiment of a font file creating method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a system for realizing a font file creating process according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a CPU 1 is a CPU (central processing unit) that controls the entire system 100, performs arithmetic processing, and the like. The ROM 2 is a ROM (Read Only Mem) that stores a system start-up program, a program related to a font file creation process described later, and the like.
more). The RAM 3 is a RAM (Rand) that functions as a work memory for temporarily storing data used for arithmetic processing, holding a code table described later, and the like.
om Access Memory). DSKC
A disk controller 4 controls an external memory such as a hard disk (HD) 5, a compact disk (CD) 6 and a floppy disk (FD) 7. The HD 5 is used, for example, for storing font files. The CD 6 is used to supply large-capacity data such as a font file to the system from the outside.

The DSPC 8 is a display controller that controls the display 9. Display 9
Is a display device such as a CRT. KBC10 is
A keyboard controller that controls the keyboard 11. The keyboard 11 is a device for inputting characters and the like. A system bus 12 connects the entire system and exchanges data. Reference numeral 13 is an optical character reading device that optically reads characters in a sample document, which will be described later, and characterizes the read characters.

Next, the font file creation system 10
The operation of 0 will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the overall flow of the font file creation processing.

First, in step S101, the reading device 13 is used to read a sample sentence. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a sample document. Documents such as books, magazines, newspapers, and documents may be used as sample documents (original images). In step S102, a code table of the read sample document is created. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a code table created from a sample document. The code table is a list of character codes of characters included in the read document. This code table is, for example, R
It is created in a table format in a predetermined area of AM3.

In step S103, step S102
The code table 500 created in 1 is sorted in ascending order of character codes. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the code table after sorting. The sorting process may be performed after step S104 or step S105 as long as the font data included in the new font file created in step S105 is sorted. By this sorting, when the newly created font file is installed and used in another device, the character code can be searched efficiently.

In step S104, the font name of the font data to be created is designated. This can be done, for example, by prompting the user to input a font name via the display 9 and by the user inputting a desired font name via the keyboard 11.

In step S105, step S104
The font data (contour data in this embodiment) corresponding to the character code included in the code table 600 is sequentially read from the font file having the typeface name specified in (for example, stored in HD5 or CD6). Then create a new font file. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a conceptual configuration example of an outline font file. In FIG. 7, the character code indicates a code corresponding to each character. The contour data size represents the size of the contour data of each character. The offset indicates the offset from the beginning of the file to the storage location of the outline data of the character.
In the figure, the character "T" corresponding to the code 0x54 and 0
Offset for the character "a" corresponding to x61,
It shows the outline of contour data. The outline font file 700 is assumed to include font data corresponding to all character codes as in the conventional font file.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a font file newly created in step S105.

As described above, by creating a new font file (hereinafter referred to as a new font file) containing only the characters included in the sample document, the memory capacity required when the new font file is installed in a computer or the like. Can be reduced. However, if the number of characters included in the sample document is extremely small, or if the characters that are normally used are not included, the characters related to the font file to be installed (new font file) will not be included. It is desirable to select a sample document that contains the appropriate amount of characters to use.

Next, details of the new font file creation processing in step S105 will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of new font file creation processing. First, in step S201, the font file 7 having the typeface name specified in step S104.
Open 00.

In step S202, the code table 6
The character code included in 00 and the character code included in the font file 700 are referred to. And step S2
03, the character code of the code table 600,
It is determined whether or not there is a match in the character code of the font file 700. As a result, if there is no matching character code, the process proceeds to step S211, and the next character code included in the code table 600 is read. on the other hand,
If there is a matching character code, the process proceeds to step S204.

In step S204, the offset value corresponding to the matched character code is read from the font file 700. This offset value indicates the contour data storage position (address) corresponding to the matched character code.

In step S205, the contour data size corresponding to the matched character code is read out as in step S204. In step S206, the contour data is read using the offset value and the contour data size.
In step S207, the character code, contour data size, and contour data obtained in the above processing are written in the new font file 800. The file format at that time follows the font file 700.

In step S208, the number of characters of the font data written in the new font file 800 is counted. In step S209, the size of the contour data for the number of characters counted in step S208 is calculated. Then, based on the calculation result, the size of the font data already written in the new font file 800 is obtained to calculate the offset value for the contour data of the next character, and the offset value is written in the new font file 800.

In step S210, the code table 6
It is determined whether the above process has been completed for all the character codes included in 00, and if not, step S
In step 211, the new font file creation processing is ended when the processing is ended.

In the above embodiment, when a new font file is installed in a computer or the like when the sample document does not have all or some of the characters that are normally used, such as hiragana, katakana, and alphanumeric characters. , You will not be able to use those characters in the corresponding font. Therefore, it is desirable to process such normally used characters so that they are included in the new font file even if they are not included in the sample document.

Further, when using a device in which the new font file is installed, it is naturally conceivable to use characters that are not included in the new font file. In order to deal with such a case, for example, for one font file such as Hosho Mincho, a complete font file (corresponding to all character codes) is installed, and for other typefaces, the above It is effective to install a font file (new font file) whose data size is reduced by processing. In this case, for example, while editing a document etc. using another typeface,
If the character related to the editing is not included in the font file of the other typeface (hereinafter, such a character is referred to as a missing character), the typeface in which the complete font file is installed (for example, Hosomyocho mentioned above) You can substitute the missing character by body). As a result, the font files of a plurality of typefaces can be installed without putting pressure on the memory capacity of the device, so that it is possible to improve the degree of freedom in font selection by the user while achieving cost reduction.

Further, when a missing character occurs, it is also effective to inform the user of it and provide an opportunity to newly install the missing character. [Second Embodiment] In the above embodiment, the font file creating process for the outline font has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to such a font type. Similarly, it can be widely applied to map fonts.

The following is an example of a font file creation process relating to a stroke font. In this case, the new font creation process (FIG. 3) in the first embodiment is changed as follows. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of a new font creation process regarding a stroke font. As shown in the figure, the new font file creation process relating to the stroke font can be realized by performing the same process as in the first embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a conceptual configuration example of a stroke font file. Further, FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a new font file relating to a stroke font. It is understood that each has the same configuration as that of the first embodiment.

The following is an example of a font file creation process relating to a bitmap font. In this case, the first
The new font creation process (FIG. 3) in the above embodiment is changed as follows. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the flow of a new font creation process for a bitmap font. As shown in the figure, the new font file creation process relating to the bitmap font can be realized by performing the same process as in the first embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a conceptual configuration example of a bitmap font file. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a new font file related to bitmap fonts. It is understood that each has the same configuration as that of the first embodiment.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the data size of the font file by creating the font file based on the characters included in the original image, and also for the purpose of use. You can create a matching font file.

[0034]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a system that realizes a font file creation process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the overall flow of font file creation processing.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of new font file creation processing.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a sample document.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a code table created from a sample document.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a code table after sorting.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a conceptual configuration example of an outline font file.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a new font file.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of a new font creation process relating to a stroke font.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a conceptual configuration example of a stroke font file.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a new font file relating to a stroke font.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the flow of a new font creation process relating to a bitmap font.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a conceptual configuration example of a bitmap font file.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a new font file relating to a bitmap font.

Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Office reference number FI Technical display location G06T 1/00 G06F 15/62

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A font file creation method for creating a font file, comprising a character code conversion step of reading a character pattern from an original image and converting it into a character code, and font data for obtaining font data corresponding to the character code. A font file creation method comprising: an acquisition step; and a font data integration step of integrating the font data into a font file. 2. The method further comprises a sorting step of sorting the character codes after the character code converting step, and the font data integrating step integrates the font data in order of sorted results. The method of creating a font file according to item 1. 3. The font data acquisition step has a font name input step of inputting a font name of a font, and acquires font data corresponding to the input font name and the character code. The font file creating method according to claim 1 or claim 2. 4. A font file creation device for creating a font file, comprising character code conversion means for reading a character pattern from an original image and converting it into a character code, and font data for acquiring font data corresponding to the character code. A font file creation device comprising: an acquisition unit; and a font data integration unit that integrates the font data to form a font file. 5. The font file creating apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a sorting means for sorting the character codes, wherein the font data integrating means integrates the font data in order of sorted results. . 6. The font data acquisition means has a font name input means for inputting a font name of a font, and acquires font data corresponding to the entered font name and the character code. 4. The font file creation device according to claim 4 or claim 5.