JPH0642066B2 - Character graphic input / output device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention outputs a character or graphic that is input or edited as a printing block or as data on a recording medium such as a floppy disk or magnetic tape. It relates to an input / output device.

[Prior Art and its Problems] Conventionally, there are a typesetting machine, a word processor, various computers, and the like as a device for inputting and outputting a character or a symbol, a bar code, a tint block, or the like. In a word processor, personal computer, etc., the character graphic displayed on the CRT or various displays and the character graphic printed out from the printer have almost the same number of pixels, so the same image as the printout is displayed on the screen of the display unit. It is relatively easy to display and confirm on the screen.

On the other hand, a device such as a typesetting machine that prints out a block for printing can output high-quality character graphics. However, the display device used in the input device for obtaining the output is almost the same as the word processor. The print output of the typesetting machine has a scanning line density of about 20 to 100 lines per mm, whereas the display device used for the input device has a relatively high definition and has a scanning line density of about 4 lines per mm. .

In such a case, when a character graphic of the same image as the output device is displayed on the screen of the display device in almost the same size, the scanning lines have to be thinned to about 1/5 to 1/25 and displayed. . However, this makes it difficult to confirm the typeface of some characters and to identify marks and tint blocks. There are also symbols such as bar codes whose meanings are not easily readable by workers. These are one of the problems in realizing a device having a function (WYSIWYG) that can be confirmed on the display screen as it is output in a high-quality character / graphic input / output device.

Therefore, there is a demand for a character / graphics input / output device that can be printed out with a quality comparable to that of a phototypesetting machine and can be displayed on a display device so that the character / graphics of the image that is almost the same as the printed output can be confirmed and the displayed character / graphics can be easily identified.

[Means for Solving the Problems] According to the present invention, it is possible to display an image that is difficult to identify on a screen of a display device, or a character graphic whose meaning is not easily readable such as a barcode, in an easily identifiable image. To aim. The feature is that the character / graphic font used for both display and print output in a character / graphic input / output device in which the character / graphics input from the input unit is temporarily displayed on the screen, edited, and printed out. The data A and the font data B for display only for some character graphics of the font data A are separately provided, and the relationship between the font data A and B is determined for each input of the graphic information. That is, the character graphic is displayed according to the corresponding font data.

[Embodiment] First, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

11 is a character code or typeface code corresponding to each character graphic,
The input unit is for inputting character / graphic information such as a size code, editing information indicating how to assemble and layout the character / graphics, and other various commands. The input unit is composed of an input device such as a keyboard, a mouse, a bar code reader, and a floppy disk drive.

The control unit 12 transfers each data input from the input unit 11, edits a character / graphic, controls the whole, and the like. What is editing?
For example, it means laying out a character graphic, and performing line beginning and end alignment processing, prohibition processing, and the like. The character / graphic information once edited is transferred from the control unit 12 to the display RIP unit 13.

The display RIP unit 13 is a raster image processor (RIP) that converts image data of a character graphic into raster data for display.

The print output RIP unit 14 outputs the image data of the character graphic
A raster image processor (RIP) that converts raster data for printing.

The image data is data that directly represents an image of a character / graphic corresponding to each character / graphic, and is, for example, data in which the character / graphic is represented by dots. The raster data is data that modulates scanning of an electron beam of a CRT used in the display unit 18, a light beam of a laser printer used in the print output unit 19, and the like.

The font management unit 15 reads the font data of the character / graphic indicated by the transferred character / graphic information from the font storage 16, decodes it by the decoding unit 17, and decodes the restored image data to the RIP (display RIP unit or print) indicated by the identifier. Output RIP unit).

The font storage unit 16 stores the font data A of each character graphic,
Remember B. The font data A and B are data for display or print output corresponding to each character graphic. Generally, a device for outputting high quality characters stores information-compressed font data. When displaying or printing out a character graphic, it is necessary to decode the font data A and B read from the font storage unit 16 and convert them into image data.

The font data A is used for both display and print output, and most of the character graphics are font data A.
Is displayed or printed out in accordance with the decoded image data. The font data B is display-only font data, and stores character figures (examples are shown in FIG. 4) that are difficult to identify when displayed on the display unit.

The font data A and B are stored for each typeface, and one character / figure code corresponds to a plurality of font data of different typefaces. The information designating the typeface is a typeface code included in the character / graphic information.

The decoding unit 17 decodes the font data A and B read from the font storage unit 16 and converts them into image data. At that time, the font data is decoded into the image data of the designated number of pixels according to the size information of the display or output of the character graphic included in the character graphic information.

The display unit 18 displays the sent raster data on a display device such as a CRT.

The print output unit 19 uses the CRT to send the received raster data.
Print out from an output device such as a phototypesetting machine or a laser printer.

The data output unit 20 outputs the character / graphic information to a floppy disk or the like.

When the edited character / graphic information is sent from the control unit 12, the display RIP unit 13 requests the font management unit 15 described later for image data corresponding to each character / graphic or typeface. At this time, the character / graphic information of the requested character / graphic and the identifier for distinguishing from the print output RIP unit 14 described later are transferred to the font management unit 15.

The font management unit 15 has a font management table (FIG. 3) in order to determine which character of the display-only font data B is stored in the font storage unit 16. Like the font data A, the font data B is also decoded by the decoding unit 17 and converted into image data.

The image data decoded by the decoding unit 17 according to the request of the display RIP unit 13 is
The raster data is output to the display unit 18 according to the image data. Further, the display unit 18 displays a character graphic on the screen according to the sent raster data.

When the input and editing of the character graphic is completed and an output command is input from the input unit 11, the control unit 12 transfers the character graphic information of the character graphic to be printed out to the print output RIP unit 14. The print output RIP unit 14 is the font management unit 1.
5 sends character and graphic information to request image data.
At that time, an identifier for identifying the display RIP unit 13 and the print output RIP unit 14 is added. A character graphic displayed based on the font data B at the time of display is also printed according to the font data A.

FIG. 2 illustrates the data flow of the present invention.

S1: First, character graphic information, edit information, etc. are input from the input unit 11.

S2: The control unit 12 performs editing (layout, line-to-line alignment, prohibition processing, etc.) on the character graphic according to the input editing information.

S3: The character / graphic information edited in S2 is sent to the display RIP unit 13.

S4: The display RIP unit 13 requests the font management unit 15 for the image data of the character graphic indicated by the transmitted character graphic information. Specifically, the character / graphic information and the print output RIP unit 14
An identifier for distinguishing from is sent to the font management unit 15.

S5: The font management unit 15 determines from the font management table whether or not the display-only font data B of the character / graphic requested in S4 is stored in the font storage unit 16. If there is the font data B of the requested character / graphic, the process proceeds to S6, and if not, the process proceeds to S7.

S6: The font management unit 15 reads the font data B of the character graphic requested in S4 from the font storage unit 16. Specifically, the address in which the font data B of the requested character graphic is stored is obtained from the font management table, and the content data of that address in the font storage unit 16 is read.

S7: The font management unit 15 obtains the address in which the font data B of the desired character graphic is stored from the font management table, and reads the content data of the address in the font storage unit 16.

S8: The font management unit 15 transfers the font data A or font data B read in S6 or S7 to the decoding unit 17, and the decoding unit 17 converts the font data A or font data B into image data. The image data is transferred to the display RIP unit 13.

S9: The display RIP unit 13 converts the sent image data into raster data, transfers the raster data to the display unit 18, and displays a character graphic.

S10: If there is a data output command, proceed to S11, and if not, S1
Go to 2.

S11: The control unit 12 transfers the character / graphic information to the data output unit 20 and outputs it as data to a floppy disk, magnetic tape, or the like.

S12: When the output command is issued, the control unit 12 sends the edited character / graphic information to the print output RIP unit 14.

S13: The print output RIP unit 14 requests the font management unit 15 for the image data of the character graphic to be printed out.

S14: The font management unit 15 obtains the storage address of the font data A of the requested character / graphic from the font management table, and reads the content data of the storage address of the font storage unit 16.

S15: The font data A is converted into image data by the decoding unit 17 and transferred to the printout RIP unit 14.

S16: The print output RIP unit 14 converts the transferred image data into raster data and sends it to the print output unit 19. The print output unit 19 follows the sent raster data
Print out with an output device such as a laser printer.

FIG. 3 shows a specific example of the font management table of the font management unit 15. The column of column 31 shows a character graphic, column 3
Column 2 is a character / graphic code corresponding to the character / graphic in column 31 on a one-to-one basis. The character / graphic code is one of the data included in the character / graphic information. The column 33 is the font storage unit 16 of the font data A corresponding to each character / graphic code of the column 32.
Is the storage address in.

In the storage address of the font storage unit 16 shown in the column 33,
The font data A of the character / graphic corresponding to each character / graphic code in the column 32 is stored. When the character information is sent to the font management unit 15, the character graphic code is converted into the address of the column of the column 33. Next, the font data A at that address is read from the font storage unit 16 and sent to the decoding unit 17.

The column 34 is an address where the display-only font data B corresponding to each character / graphic code is stored. The font data B is stored only for some character / graphic codes.

When the font management unit 15 receives an image data request from the display RIP unit, if there is an address in the column of the column 34 corresponding to the sent character / graphic information, the font data B is read from the font storage unit 16 according to the address. The data is read out, converted into image data by the decoding unit 17, and transferred to the display RIP unit 13.

FIG. 4 is a specific example of the characters displayed on the display unit 18 according to the font data B and the characters output according to the font data A. (1) is a specific example of a character (bar code) displayed by the font data B, and an identification symbol 41 indicating the meaning of the bar code at the bottom of the bar code.
Is added. (2) is the printed character (bar code). In the case of bar codes, it is difficult for the operator to identify how each bar code represents a numerical value or symbol when displayed or output. It is effective to add a numerical value, the symbol 41, which assists the identification when displayed, in order to confirm what has been input.

Also, if it is difficult to distinguish a tint block (4) or a typeface of numbers (6), etc., by adding numbers and symbols such as 41 and displaying as (3) and (5), it will be displayed on the screen during input editing. You can easily check what you have entered by the displayed text and graphics.

[Effects of the Invention] With the device of the present invention, it is possible to display and output characters that are difficult to identify with low pixels with different images for display and output. By displaying characters that are easy to identify even with low pixels, it is possible to confirm what is output by a high-quality character / graphic input / output device as if it were an image.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the method of the present invention, FIG. 3 is an example of a font management table, and FIG. 4 is an output based on font data A and B. It is an example of the image of the drawn character figure. 11: input unit 12: control unit 13: display RIP unit 14: print output RIP unit 15: font management unit 16: font storage unit 17: decoding unit 18: display unit 19: print output unit 20: data output unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A character / graphic input / output device configured to print and output a character / graphics input from an input unit, and an input unit for inputting character / graphic information, edit information, and the like, and an input from the input unit. A control unit that controls from input / edit to output according to the input information, and R that converts the input character / graphic information into raster data
An IP unit, a display unit that displays the raster data converted by the RIP unit, a print output unit that outputs the raster data converted by the RIP unit, and font data of character graphics used for both display and print output. A and a font storage unit separately storing display-only font data B for only a part of the character data of the font data A, according to the font data A or the font data B and the size code of the character data. , A decoding unit for generating image data, and a storage address of the font data A and B in the font storage unit are stored, and the font data A or the font data B is read from the font storage unit and transferred to the decoding unit. And a font management unit for sending image data to the RIP unit. Input and output devices.