Abstract: Methods and apparatus that process a front-end editable text file—a feature file—that specifies features for a font, and in particular to an OpenType™ font. The specified features are parsed and stored in the font as font data. The feature file contains simple logic statements for the specification of various typographical features, such as layout features, expressed in a high-level feature definition language. The feature file may contain override values for fields in font tables. The feature file can be processed in combination with an existing font file to establish an enhanced font file.

Abstract: This paper introduces a multifont classification scheme to help with the recognition of multifont and multisize characters. It uses typographical attributes such as ascenders, descenders and serifs obtained from a word image. The attributes are used as an input to a neural network classifier to produce the multifont classification results. It can classify 7 commonly used fonts for all point sizes from 7 to 18. The approach developed in this scheme can handle a wide range of image quality even with severely touching characters. The detection of the font can improve character segmentation as well as character recognition because the identification of the font provides information on the structure and typographical design of characters. Therefore, this multifont classification algorithm can be used for maintaining good recognition rates of a machine printed OCR system regardless of fonts and sizes. Experiments have shown that font classification accuracies reach high performance levels of about 95 percent even with severely touching characters. The technique developed for the selected 7 fonts in this paper can be applied to any other fonts.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for creating an animated font character based on an initial non-animated font character. Initially, a glyph representative of at least one aspect of the non-animated font character is provided. A first predetermined function is then applied to the glyph, thereby to generate a modified glyph. A second predetermined function is then provided, for generating an output dependent upon a value of a variable parameter having an initial value. A visual appearance of the modified glyph is based at least partly on the output of the second predetermined function. The modified glyph is then rendered and the value of the variable parameter is altered. The rendering and altering steps are then repeated, which results in the generation of a plurality of rendered modified glyphs that together define an animated font character. Finally, the animated font character is displayed or stored for subsequent reproduction.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus that enable a user to select a font from a collection of available fonts. The invention receives font data identifying each font in a collection of available fonts, identifies a location in a navigation space for each available font, receives a target location, and uses the target location to identify a candidate font in the collection of available fonts. The navigation space is defined by a set of navigation attributes. Each navigation attribute corresponds to a distinguishing font characteristic. Each location is defined by a set of navigation attribute values for all navigation attributes defining the navigation space. The target location is defined by input values for each navigation attribute specified by a navigation input received interactively from the user. The candidate font is a font with a location in the navigation space identical to the first target location if the collection of available fonts contains such a font. If the collection of available fonts does not contain such a font, the candidate font is a font in the collection of available fonts that is close to the first target location in the navigation space. Particular embodiments have the following features. The invention interactively receives a second navigation input specifying a second input value for one or more navigation attributes, where the second input values and the first input values define a second target location in the navigation space, and uses the second target location to identify a second candidate font in the collection of available fonts. The target location is defined by the attribute values defining the navigation space location of a current font and an input value designating a desired change in an attribute value of the current font. The user can select the candidate font from a collection of installed fonts for use in an application running on a computer, or can download the candidate font from the World Wide Web.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method of generating a glyph in which a plurality of design characteristics are extracted from a target font and a source glyph program is generated using the design characteristics. The source glyph program defines a new glyph that corresponds to a character that is not present in the target font, e.g., the Euro, and is stylistically similar to glyphs of the target font. The new glyph may be added to the target font, it may be rendered on an output device, or it may be saved separately from the target font.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining a format for displaying information in a display area coupled to a computer system, the format being based on the size of the display area and the amount of information to display. As a user continues to enter information in the display area, software program instructions update the format of the information when the amount of information to display changes. This includes reducing the size of the font as additional information is entered and enlarging the size of the font when enough information is deleted to create available space. The font type and/or the font size may be changed to allow the information to fit within the available display area. The size of the text may be reduced to a minimum level and, and as more information is entered, the display is scrolled so the user may view the most recently entered data. A scale also be determined to reduce or enlarge graphics information so that it fits within the available display area.

Abstract: Font attributes of characters or letters are estimated by an optical character recognition system using character, run or stroke-based techniques with or without character identification information.

Abstract: A system and methods automatically provide access and management of installed and noninstalled fonts in a computer system. Installed fonts are resident in computer memory, whereas the noninstalled fonts are preferably described in a compact database including the computer-accessible location of the physical font. Broadly, the invention provides user applications with the capability of automatic selection of both installed and noninstalled fonts without modifications to the application itself.

Abstract: A system and method of identifying the matching or best-matching font to output text of indeterminate language are presented. Today's operating systems do not provide the native tools and functions to easily display text of unknown language or multiple languages. The complexity of any underlying code that handles a multilingual display is sharply increased due to the text being segmented into multiple text runs. The invention employs character set engine that provides necessary character set guessing functionality, as well as an enumerator module to build a linked list of suitable output fonts to display text from an arbitrary language, and multilingual text. Output can be granted by traversing that list.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer-readable medium for generating a glyph-based outline font are provided, which allow for font communication between different devices having various (high and low) resolutions. A method selects a character for display on the output device. The character consists of one or more glyphs, and each glyph forming the character is predefined by key points, width values, feature points that have predefined spatial relationship to the key points and width values, and curve ratios prestored in a curve level table. Next, the method determines the resolution of an output device. Then, for each glyph forming the character, the method retrieves curve ratios from the prestored curve level table according to the determined resolution of the output device. Curve ratios are used to create curve segments, which form the outline of the selected glyph. Finally, the method renders the glyphs of the selected character on the output device according to the key points, the width values, the feature points, and the retrieved curve ratios.

Abstract: In this paper we present a multi-font OCR system to be employed for document processing, which performs, at the same time, both the character recognition and the font-style detection of the digits belonging to a subset of the existing fonts. The detection of the font-style of the document words can guide a rough automatic classification of documents, and can also be used to improve the character recognition. The system uses the tangent distance as a classification function in a nearest neighbour approach. We have to discriminate among different digits and, for the same character, we have to discriminate among different font-styles. The nearest neighbour approach is always able to recognize the digit, but the performance in font detection is not optimal. To improve the performance of the system, we have used a discriminant model, the TD-Neuron, which is employed to discriminate between two similar classes. Some experimental results and prospective use in document processing applications are presented.

Abstract: A system and method for accurately recognizing the font of text in an image generates a bitmap of the text character represented by a font in the image and compares that bitmap to the bitmaps of characters stored in a memory. Statistics are gathered on the best matching fonts over the characters in a quantity sufficient to ascertain the most commonly occurring font. The most commonly occurring font is then selected from all fonts in the memory to represent the original image.

Abstract: A system and method of identifying the matching or best-matching font to output text having a sequence of indeterminate languages are presented. Today's operating systems do not provide the native tools and functions to easily display text of unknown language or multiple languages. The complexity of any underlying code that handles a multilingual display is sharply increased due to the text being segmented into multiple text runs. The invention employs character set engine that provides necessary character set guessing functionality, as well as an enumerator module to build a linked list of suitable output fonts to display text from an arbitrary language, and multilingual text. Output can be granted by traversing that list for each portion of the multipart text.

Abstract: A client computer(1) and a server (30) share fonts in an efficient manner. The client computer (1) and server (30) are capable of communicating data with each other. Character specifying data for specifying a character and a font ID for specifying the font of this character are stored in a layout information file and transmitted from the client computer (1) to the server (30). On the basis of a layout information file, the server (30) retrieves character image data (a bitmap text file) expressing the character as an image. The server (30) transmits the found character image data to the client computer (1). When character image data cannot be found, the character image data is generated and is then transmitted from the server (30) to the client computer (1).

Abstract: To provide a method for font access, a method for font registration, a method for font display, a method for font printing and a method for handling an electronic document in which a variant font is included, and a recording medium therefor, whereby the creator of an electronic document can use many more characters than those to which restricted by the conventional character codes. According to the method for font access, the method for font registration, the method for font display, the method for font printing, and the method for processing an electronic document in which a variant font is included, a variant font file is used that includes a variant font data file and an index conversion table having a primary index table and a secondary index table. Based on a character code and a variant character number of a regular character of a target variant font that is indexed in an electronic document; a pointer to a corresponding secondary index can be obtained from the character code of the regular code; the position of entry data of a secondary index in the secondary index table pointed to by the obtained pointer can be moved a distance equivalent to the variant character number; and a font image at the position of the pointer to the first byte of the target variant font can be obtained as the target variant font. Then a recording medium in acquired to record the electronic document in which the above described variant font is included.

Abstract: The paper describes the processing of magazine or newspaper images which need to be segmented in gray level. The first part proposes an original method to extract the physical layout of gray-level documents. The second part of the paper describes a rough logical structure by analyzing the typography, aiming to extract relevant information about the logical layout by combining information about colors, typography, and the physical structural layout for use by an automatic document indexation system. Character prototypes were automatically extracted by grouping characters which have the same binary patterns. We suggest using this character-grouping method to extract typographical information and recognize different font styles and sizes used in the document.

Abstract: A client computer and a server share fonts in an efficient manner. The client computer and server are capable of communicating data with each other. Character specifying data for specifying a character and a font ID for specifying the font of this character are stored in a layout information file and transmitted from the client computer to the server. On the basis of a layout information file, the server retrieves character image data (a bitmap text file) expressing the character as an image. The server transmits the found character image data to the client computer. When character image data cannot be found, the character image data is generated and is then transmitted from the server to the client computer.

Abstract: A method of, and a font for, representing the extended arabic characters in which a distinctive Arabic based alphabet of minimum constant number of letters would include characters that have unique non-varying glyph representations, detachable forms to render non-cursive strings, and generally symmetric outlines to facilitate bi-directional utilization. Each glyph in the new font has the core characteristics of its traditional Arabic equivalent so that words and text strings utilizing new font and method will closely resemble traditional Arabic. Unlike prior art Arabic fonts and the systems employing them, the invention introduces a significantly smaller font size and a platform independent font-only based character input/output method or system eliminating previously required glyph and ligature substitutions and allowing bi-directional and non-cursive rendering. Articles utilizing the present invention, such as computerized systems, transparencies, or language learning tools, can overcome much of the currently based system complexity.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus in a data processing system for printing characters. Data received include glyphs for output on an output device, wherein the glyphs are to be output using a selected device font. A list containing all device font supported glyphs is passed to the operating system. Monitoring for unsupported glyphs in the selected device font is performed by the operating system. In response to detecting a glyph unsupported by the selected device font, a backup system font is used to output the glyph to the output device.

Abstract: The present invention is aimed at three specific data areas of font compression, each of whose size has become significant as other data areas have been compressed. The three data areas include model factoring, character level feature measurement (local dimensions) factoring, and typeface level feature measurement (global dimensions) factoring. In general, the invention in each area is an apparatus and method used in font compression to reduce redundant information, thereby allowing a reduction in data format (e.g., words to bytes and bytes to bits) resulting in an overall reduction in storage area for a given font collection.

Abstract: A character font generation apparatus generates a font of a character for the output of the character to an output unit. First, whether the character specified through the operation of an input unit can be output in a desired font based on a predetermined resolution of the output unit or not is determined. If the result of the determination is no, a stroke of the character is omitted to reduce the size of the character, to allow the correct output according to the predetermined resolution. The stroke omission is performed with reference to contents of a memory storing various information necessary for the character font generation and a priority determination rule indicating various information for determining the priority of stroke omission, so as to maintain the balance and to preserve the shape (contour) of the character.

Abstract: At least a portion of a plurality of formatting variables associated with an electronic document are modified based in part upon optimized formatting values. A user may specify values for one or more user-modifiable formatting variables. Based on the user data thus specified, at least a portion of the plurality of formatting variables are modified according to corresponding optimized formatting values. The electronic document is then formatted in accordance with the modified formatting variables and provided for display. The user-modifiable variables may comprise a font reference variable and/or a display form factor variable. In this manner, the present invention optimizes readability of electronic documents while still accommodating user preferences for displaying such documents.

Abstract: Our experience is typical of what happened at many Web sites in 1998, and this trend will likely accelerate as more sites drop support for older browsers in favour of the ease and strength of style sheets. It seems clear at this point that 1999 will be a watershed year for CSS. The new CSS2 specification builds on CSS1, greatly broadening the application areas. It includes the following major enhancements: Support for "paged media", typically used in situations where a Web page will be printed on paper or transparency. It allows for dividing the page into sections that are not designed to be continuously scrolled on a computer screen. Greater font control, including the ability to point to fonts elsewhere on the Web, which I suspect many designers will go crazy with (as most have cursed the whole platform-font puzzle more than once). Position control for numerous regions and layers on a given page, which will finally unshackle designers from the element as a page-layout tool for which it was never designed. Ways to invent style sheets for different "media types", which is a major development for specialized application developers. For example, a page could be designed to render a document into speech (using a speech synthesizer plug-in on the client's computer), or on braille printers, palmtop computers, and other media.

Abstract: A system and method of highlighting and manipulating text of different languages or fonts which are matched to a best-matching font are presented. Today's operating systems do not provide the native tools and functions to easily display text of unknown language or multiple languages. The complexity of any underlying code that handles a multilingual display is sharply increased due to the text being segmented into multiple text runs. The invention employs character set engine that provides necessary character set guessing functionality, as well as an enumerator module to build a linked list of suitable output fonts to display text from an arbitrary language, and multilingual text. Output can be granted by traversing that list. Different portions of the sequence of languages in the text may have minimum outline, start and end markers and other highlighting and other text manipulation features scaled or adjusted according to the differing fonts.

Abstract: A font retrieval apparatus includes a storage device storing a relationship between a plurality of fonts and a plurality of modes of a text. A mode selecting device selects at least one of the modes stored in the storage device. A font output device outputs font information corresponding to the mode selected by the mode selecting device.

Abstract: A method and a system are used to manage fonts in print jobs with more than one context where at least some of the contexts include text strings. Print jobs may be divided into portions, called contexts, so that they are easier for a print manager to manage. These larger contexts are called graphic sets. Each of these graphic sets is sent to the printer driver consecutively. Each text string has a font associated with it. The font data for each text string is read from the operating system and cached into memory at the time each string is received by the printer driver. After all individual text strings elements of a given graphic set have been received by the printer driver, the context is stored and the cached fonts are stored with the context. After all of the contexts of the print job have been received by the printer and stored, each context is restored and rendered. The graphics sets may be restored in any order. The fonts stored with a context are also restored when the context is restored.

Abstract: This invention specifically covers one of the many image quality (IQ) metrics that can be part of an overall image quality (IQ) analysis engine. The specific problem with image quality addressed with this metric is that of printed text. Analytical outline font characters are used to represent certain traits of existing text characters, allowing proper image quality analysis while simplifying image processing. Preferably, a set of analytical outline font characters are used, with each representing a different trait.

Abstract: An integrated graphic and character combining circuit for driving a display device, for example an LCD panel, allows for a configuration by which an external ROM is not necessary, reduces processing burden on the data-supplying processor, and provides a system wherein both graphic images and complete character fonts can be combined and simultaneously displayed on an LCD panel. The circuit includes a character font ROM, a character display data RAM, a graphic image data RAM, a property register, a character/graphic mixed display control circuit, an interface circuit, and a common/segment LCD driver. The character font ROM stores font data pertaining to complete characters. The character display data RAM stores addresses corresponding to the font data stored in the character font ROM. The graphic image data RAM stores graphic image data. The property register stores selection information pertaining to the graphic and character data. The character/graphic mixed display control circuit receives the font data from the character font ROM and graphic image data from the graphic image data RAM, and selects and outputs final data to be displayed on an LCD panel, in response to the output of the property register.

Abstract: A method and apparatus in a distributed data processing system for controlling printing. An interface is presented, wherein the interface allows for association of a logical font with a number of system fonts on a per printer queue basis. Responsive to a print request, the print request is printed using the system font associated with the logical font for that print request.