1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for generating a dot-based image of a character, and more specifically, to a method for generating a dot-based image of a character by scaling strokes of the character.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electronic devices have developed over the years, and handheld information appliances (IA), such as mobile phones, set-top boxes, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and mp3 media players, are more popular than ever. Almost every IA device has a display screen to show related information for user operation. These small-sized IA devices commonly show smaller dot characters with their display, unlike many desktop LCD displays, which have the ability of displaying characters of all sizes.
However, the prior art display method of a dot-based image of a character records every single fixed-size character one by one, by which each dot-based image of the character takes up a certain amount of memory. An IA device using a Chinese character set requires even more memory. There is another font displaying technique named “vector font technology” which uses mathematical operations, which can solve the large memory occupation problem of the dot character displaying technique. The vector font is capable of being enlarged or reduced freely by mathematical operation. However, operating the vector font takes even more processor resources, which may cause a serious delay since common handheld IA devices are equipped with slower processors. Also, the display quality of a vector font is even worse than a dot character when the displayed font is small-sized, which is major to IA devices.
Therefore, the primary objective of the present invention is to provide a method for generating a dot-based image of a character by scaling strokes of the character to solve the above-mentioned problem.
The present invention provides a method for generating a dot-based image of a character by scaling strokes of the character. The method comprises the following steps: (a) establishing a dot stroke data set having a plurality of dot strokes, (b) selecting strokes from the stroke data set, (c) scaling the strokes selected in step (b), and (d) combining the strokes to form the dot-based image of the character.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
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Step 100: Establish a dot stroke data set by manual analysis or by analysis of a vector font data set;
Step 110: Select strokes from the stroke data set according to a character about to be formed;
Step 120: Scale the strokes selected in Step 110 according to the size of the character about to be formed;
Step 130: Combine the strokes to form the character;
Step 140: Adjust the strokes of the character combined in Step 130.
The present invention's dot-based character image generating method, by scaling the strokes of the character, establishes in advance a monochrome dot stroke data set or a gray-scale dot stroke data set in a memory. The dot stroke data comprises a plurality of dot strokes for forming a Chinese character. As Step 100 describes, the plurality of dot strokes in the dot stroke data set is established based on users' common analysis or through analysis of a prior art's vector font data set. To make the follow-up scaling simple, the scaling is done in detail with dot strokes; therefore, the present invention establishes the dot stroke data set in step 100 that will include as many dot strokes as possible. For a transverse stroke of a Chinese character, for example, the dot stroke data set includes various lengths of transverse strokes.
In addition, it is more intuitional and easier for a larger character to be reduced to a smaller character when scaling it, while one must add lots of stroke information when enlarging a smaller character to a larger one since the smaller character has less stroke information. Although the enlargement can be performed with interpolation, it is still a much more complicated task. In step 100, the present invention's dot-based character image generating method establishes a dot stroke data set having a plurality of dot strokes of predetermined size that are capable of including strokes of the largest size of target characters to be formed. That can minimize the degradation of quality when scaling strokes.
When a plurality of dot strokes are selected for analysis, any single stroke of the plurality of selected dot strokes can be pre-adjusted to a dot stroke with higher quality if needed. It is sufficient to establish one dot stroke data set in the present invention, but it can also establish a second set or more dot stroke data sets for a particular requirement for quality. The present invention provides a possibility to establish a dot stroke data set with the most commonly used font size of an IA device to which it will be applied. For example, if an IA device mostly uses characters of the size of 16×16 dots, the present invention is capable of establishing a second dot stroke data set having a plurality of strokes with the size of 16×16 dots. It can directly combine the strokes to form a character without scaling the strokes, which further reduces the problem of scaling.
Subsequent strokes are selected from the dot stroke data set according to a character about to be formed as described in Step 110. Each dot stroke comprises a stroke code and a dot-based image, wherein the dot-based image is the actual image of the dot stroke. Each dot character includes stroke codes of all the dot strokes that form the dot character, a starting point of within a matrix frame of each dot stroke, and the dot character code of it own. In Step 110, the present invention selects strokes according to the dot stroke codes included in the dot character.
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If a gray-scale dot stroke data set is established in Step 100, then the original dot stroke includes even more information than a stroke in the monochrome dot stroke data set. When the gray-scale dot stroke is reduced to a target dot stroke, each dot of the target dot stroke can have larger gray-scale range to express the detail of the target dot stroke. Monochrome target dot stroke output is also available, of course. In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, segment A of the original dot stroke in
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In summary, the present invention establishes a monochrome or gray-scale dot stroke data set and scales the dot strokes to form a dot character of an arbitrary size within a displaying range. It has the advantages of low memory usage, high processing speed, and high output quality. Therefore the present invention can effectively solve many problems caused by the prior art's dot character displaying technology applied on popular IA devices.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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094108178 | Mar 2005 | TW | national |