JPH05265428A - Outline data converting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the time required for conversion by providing a converting means with >=2 kind of converting methods and performing the data conversion by using a method specified by a converting method indicating means. CONSTITUTION:This device is equipped with a storage means 0 which include an outline data storage means 1 for storing outline data of characters and a converting method indication data storage means 2 for storing converting method indication data, a converting method indicating means 3 which indicates the converting method, and a data converting means 4 which has 42 kind of methods for converting outline data according to the indication. When the outline data on the characters are converted into dot data, the outline data on the characters and converting method indication data are read out of the storage means 0 and the converting method indicating means 3 indicates a converting means to the data converting means 4 according to the converting method indication data. The data converting means 4 converts the outline data into the dot data by using the indicated converting means.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a contour line data conversion apparatus for converting contour line data representing contours of characters and symbols into dot data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this kind of contour line data conversion apparatus uses only one method as a conversion method when filling the inside of the contour line data and converting it into dot data. Was being converted.

[0003]

However, the relationship between the contour line data conversion means and the contour line data is close, and there is a conversion method suitable for each contour line data of each character. Since only one is used, there is a great need to consider the data conversion method when creating the contour data, and there is a drawback that the efficiency of the contour data development is deteriorated.

Before specifically explaining the problems of the prior art,
A method of filling two contour line data which is already known will be described. Firstly, the even-odd rule filling method (hereinafter referred to as the odd-even rule conversion method) is, for example, scanning the contour line data in the x-axis direction to intersect the contour line data with the horizontal scanning line at an odd number of times. This is a filling method in which the filling is started with and the filling is finished at the even-numbered intersections. According to this method, in the example of FIG.
Regarding the scanning line m1, the intersection x1,
x3 is the painting start point, x2 and x4 are the painting end points, and the area between x1 and x2 and the area between x3 and x4 are filled.

Secondly, the method based on the non-zero winding number rule (hereinafter referred to as the non-zero winding number conversion method), for example, first scans the contour line data in the x-axis direction, and then first reads 0.
First, add 1 if the vector of the contour line intersecting the scanning line is upward (direction in which y coordinate value increases), and subtract 1 if it is downward (direction in which y coordinate value decreases). After counting the number of turns for all intersections, if the result is 0, the point is outside the contour line, and if not, it is inside and the filling process is performed.

In the example of FIG. 5B, the contour line data is formed by two closed contour lines L1 and L2 (hereinafter referred to as a closed loop), and the vertex data forming the contour is the right side of the vector connecting the vertices. The data is created in such an order that becomes a character data area. Therefore, the closed loop L1 is stored in the clockwise direction, and the closed loop L2 is stored in the counterclockwise direction. According to the above non-zero winding number law conversion method, the scanning line m2
At the intersection with the contour line data in (1), 1 is added because the contour is upward at x5 and x7, and 1 is subtracted at x6 and x8 because it is downward. Therefore, the left side of x5 is not filled because the number of turns is 0, and the number of turns is 1 between x5 and x6 because the number of turns is 1. Similarly, the area between x6 and x7 and the right side of x8 are not filled with the number of turns = 0, and the area between x7 and x8 is filled with the number of turns = 1. In this method, when creating contour line data, it is important that one character is unified such that either side (right side or left side) of the direction of the contour line becomes a character area. This is because, in FIG. 5B, if the vertex data of the closed loop L2 is the same clockwise as L1, the number of turns between x5 and x8 is not 0, and as a result, between x5 and x8 is filled.

If the non-zero winding number conversion method is used for the four character data shown in FIG. 5, all the filling processing is performed correctly. As described above, which side of the contour line becomes the character area when the data is created, That is, it is necessary to consider the direction of the apex row forming the closed loop, which reduces the efficiency of data creation, and also has the drawback that it takes processing time because the number of turns is calculated during data conversion.

If the odd-even conversion method is used for the four character data shown in FIG. 5, the overlapping portions of the contour lines in (c) and (d) are not filled. Therefore, there is a drawback that the efficiency of data creation is deteriorated because it is necessary to eliminate the overlapping portion during data creation.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and improves the efficiency at the time of creating contour line data, and requires conversion when converting the contour line data into dot data. The purpose is to speed up the time.

[0010]

To achieve this object, a contour line data conversion apparatus of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, is a contour line data storage means 1 for storing contour line data of characters and a conversion method. A storage unit 0 having a conversion method instruction data storage unit 2 for storing instruction data, and a conversion method instruction unit 3 for instructing a conversion method according to the conversion method instruction data.
And a data conversion means 4 having two or more types of methods for converting the contour line data in accordance with the instruction.

[0011]

In the contour line data conversion device of the present invention having the above-mentioned configuration, when converting the contour line data of a character into dot data, the contour line data of the character and the conversion method instruction data are read from the storage means 0, The conversion method instruction means 3
According to the conversion method instruction data, instructs the data conversion means 4 of the conversion means. The data conversion unit 4 uses the specified conversion unit to convert the contour line data into dot data.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a device for converting outline data into dot data in a laser printer will be described as an example.

FIG. 2 shows a control circuit of the laser printer.
It is a figure which mainly shows the part regarding data conversion. The microcomputer unit 10, which is the main body of this control circuit,
CPU 12, character ROM 14, program ROM
16, a text memory 18, a working memory 20, and a dot data memory 22 are provided. These CPU12
Etc. are connected by a bus 26.

Further, an input device 28 and a printing unit 30 are connected to the bus 26. The input device 28 is for inputting necessary data to the microcomputer unit 10, and the printing unit 30 is a unit for performing printing by a laser printer method based on a command from the microcomputer unit 10. The resolution of this laser printer is 300 dots / inch.

The CPU 12 realizes various programs necessary for printing, including a program for converting the outline data into dot data in accordance with control of the entire apparatus and conversion method instruction data described later.

The character ROM 14 constitutes the storage means 0 shown in FIG. 1, and stores character outline data and conversion means instruction data in association with the character code number. As shown in FIG. 3, conversion means instruction data P is first stored in each character data, and the closed loop number num is shown at the beginning, the coordinate values (x, y) of the vertices forming the outline of the character, and the end of the closed loop. A flag end0 and a flag end1 indicating the end of character data are stored.

The program ROM 16 stores various programs required for printing, including a program for converting contour line data into dot data in accordance with conversion method instruction data as shown in the flowchart of FIG.

The text memory 18 stores character data consisting of code data input from the input device 28, data designating a print size, and the like, and the working memory 20 temporarily stores data necessary for executing a program. It is something to remember. Further, the dot data memory 22 stores the dot data obtained by the data conversion.

Since the printing is not essential for understanding the present invention, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. However, in this laser printer, printing can be performed in any size, and printing is performed page by page. Be done. Data is read from the document data stored in the text memory 18 page by page, contour data of a large number of characters corresponding to the data is converted into dot data for each character, and the data is arranged on the dot data memory 22. After all the characters in one page are converted, the printing unit 30 prints.

In this embodiment, there are three methods for converting the contour line data into the dot data, and the first conversion method is the odd-even conversion method described above where the conversion method instruction data is P1, In the second conversion method, the conversion instruction data is P2 in the above-described non-zero winding number conversion method, and the third conversion method is the even-even conversion method as the basic filling method, but as shown in FIG. In order to convert character data, each closed loop is converted to dot data by the odd-even conversion method, and then the logical sum is generated to generate character dot data. Is P3.

Here, a case of converting a certain character data will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S1 (hereinafter abbreviated as S1; the same applies to other steps), the parameters necessary for developing the contour line data are stored in the working memory 20.
Set to. The parameters to be set are the typeface of the character to be printed, the character code, the character size, the rotation angle, and the printing position within one page.

In S2, typeface data among the parameters,
Contour line data and conversion method instruction data are read from the character ROM 14 in accordance with the character code data.

In S3, the character size of the parameters,
The contour line data is transformed according to the rotation angle and stored in the working memory 20.

In S4, it is determined whether or not the conversion instruction data is P1, and if YES, data conversion is performed by the first conversion method in S5. If NO, the process proceeds to S6.

In S6, it is determined whether or not the conversion instruction data is P2, and if YES, data conversion is performed by the second conversion method in S7. If NO, the process proceeds to S8 and data conversion is performed in S8 by the third conversion method.

The dot data converted in S5, S7 and S8 is created in the working memory 20. Therefore, in S9, the converted dot data is arranged on the dot memory 22 according to the print position data of the parameter.

When all the character data for one page is converted in this way, the printing section 30 prints.

The present invention is applied to each character data in FIG. First, the conversion method instruction data for each character data is
Regarding the character data of (a) and (b), P1 is (c)
It is assumed that P3 is set to (1) and P2 is set to (d).
For the contour line data of (a) and (b), the determination in S4 is YE.
S is obtained, and the dot data is converted by the first conversion method, that is, the odd-even conversion method. Again, (b)
When the character data conversion method instruction data is P2, or in an apparatus having only the P2 conversion method, it is necessary to consider the closed loop rotation direction when creating the contour line data. The contour line data of (c) is converted to dot data by the third conversion method because the determinations in S4 and S6 are both NO.

The effect of the third conversion method is that, for example, when the contour line data of the closed loops L3 and L4 already exist as part data when the data is created, the closed loop L is used.
It is possible to create contour line data by overlapping parts at appropriate positions without having to consider the rotation directions of L3 and L4.
The contour line data of (d) is converted to dot data by the second conversion method, that is, the non-zero winding number rule conversion method, when the determination in S4 is NO and the determination in S6 is YES.

In this embodiment, three conversion methods are set, one for each of the three conversion instruction data. However, another conversion method can be performed in correspondence with another conversion instruction data. Needless to say.

Although this embodiment is applied to a laser printer,
Not only the laser printer, but also other printers can be applied, and in addition to the printer, it can be generally applied to an apparatus using contour line character data.

Besides, various applications are possible without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0034]

As is apparent from the above description, the contour line data conversion apparatus of the present invention uses the conversion method instruction data to instruct a suitable data conversion method for each contour line character data and convert it to dot data. Therefore, the time required for conversion when converting the contour line data into the dot data can be shortened, and the efficiency at the time of creating the contour line data can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram conceptually showing a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of a laser printer including a data conversion device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a method of storing contour data of a character “A”.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart diagram of a program for converting contour data of a certain character into dot data among programs stored in a program ROM.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a relationship between a method of converting contour line data and dot data.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 outline data storage means 2 conversion method instruction data storage means 3 conversion method instruction means 4 data conversion means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A contour line data storage unit having character data indicating contour information of a character, a symbol, and other characters (hereinafter, simply referred to as a character) that are treated equivalently as a character, as vertex data defined on coordinates, and A contour line data conversion device including a conversion unit for converting the inside of character data into dot data by performing a filling process, and stores conversion method instruction data for instructing a conversion method when converting the character data. A conversion method instruction data storage means, a conversion method instruction means for instructing a conversion method to the contour line data conversion means in accordance with the conversion method instruction data, and two or more kinds of conversion methods in the conversion means, A contour line data conversion device comprising: a data conversion unit that performs data conversion using the method instructed by the conversion method instruction unit.