Text composition spacing amount setting device with icon indicators

• US 20050177786A1
• Filed: 09/25/2001
• Published: 08/11/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Hiramatsu, Shinji, Shade, Marilyn E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,168,037 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/244
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/163 Handling of whitespace
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for setting a text composition spacing amount for a DTP system. At least one inter-character-class spacing amount setting table, for use in line composition, groups similar characters, forms a plurality of character classes and sets inter-character spacing amounts between a character class of a previous character and a character class of a next character within a pair of continuous characters. A display device displays electronic text that has been line composed. An input device receives user input. A spacing amount setter is operable to start in response to user input, to display a dialog box for user input of a spacing amount between the character class for the previous character and the character class for the next character, and to display in the dialog box an icon representing the character class for the previous character and an icon representing the character class for the next character.

Claims

1. A text composition spacing amount setting device for a desktop publishing (DTP) system, comprising:

at least one inter-character-class spacing amount setting table, for use in line composition, for grouping similar characters, forming a plurality of character classes and setting inter-character spacing amounts between a character class of a previous character and a character class of a next character within a pair of continuous characters;

a display device for displaying electronic text that has been line composed; and

an input device for providing user input;

a spacing amount setter that is operable to display on the display device a dialog box for user input of a spacing amount between the character class for the previous character and the character class for the next character, and to display in the dialog box an icon representing the character class for the previous character and an icon representing the character class for the next character.

2. The text composition spacing amount setting device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of character classes includes one or more of (1) starting parenthesis, (2) ending parenthesis, (3) characters that cannot appear at the start of a line, (4) non-centered punctuation, (5) centered punctuation, (6) period, (7) comma, (8) repeating characters that cannot be broken across lines, (9) preceding abbreviation code, (10) following abbreviation code, (11) full-width ideographic spaces, (12) hiragana, (13) Japanese characters other than character classes (1) through (12), (14) full-width numeral, (15) half-width numeral, (16) half-width Roman text, (17) start of line, (18) start of paragraph, and (19) end of line.

3. The text composition spacing amount setting device of claim 1, further operable to receive a user selection of either the character class of the previous character or the character class of the next character in the dialog box.

4. The text composition spacing amount setting device of claim 3, wherein a left side display column is provided for icons of the character class for the previous character and a right side display column is provided for icons for the character class of the next character in the dialog box, the device further being operable to display an icon representing a selected character class, among a plurality of classes, for the previous character in the left side display column, and to display an icon representing a selected character class, among a plurality of classes, for the next character in the right side display column.

5. A computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, for setting at text composition spacing amount in a desktop publishing (DTP) system, comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:

display on a display device a spacing amount saved in an inter-class character table in response to a user selection in the inter-character class spacing amount setting table, for use in line composition, the inter-character class spacing amount setting table grouping similar characters, forming a plurality of character classes and defining inter-character spacing amounts between a character class of a previous character and a character class of a next character within a pair of continuous characters; and

display in the dialog box an icon representing the character class of the previous character and an icon representing the character class of the next character.

6. The computer program product of claim 5, wherein the plurality of character classes includes one or more of:

(1) starting parenthesis, (2) ending parenthesis, (3) Japanese characters that cannot appear at the start of a line, (4) non-centered punctuation, (5) centered punctuation, (6) period, (7) comma, (8) repeating characters that cannot be broken across lines, (9) preceding abbreviation code, (10) following abbreviation code, (11) full-width ideographic spaces, (12) hiragana, (13) Japanese characters other than character classes (1) through (12), (14) full-width numeral, (15) half-width numeral, (16) half-width Roman text, (17) start of line, (18) start of paragraph, and (19) end of line.

7. The computer program product of claim 5, further operable to receive a user selection of either the character class of the previous character or the character class of the next character in the dialog box.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, further operable to:

display a left side display column for icons of the character class of the previous character and a right side display column for icons of the character class of the next character in the dialog box;

display the icon of the selected character class in the left side display column when a character class among a plurality of character classes is selected for the previous character'"'"'s character class; and

display the icon of the selected character class in the right side display column when a character class among a plurality of character classes is selected for the next character'"'"'s character class.

9. A text composition spacing amount setting device for a DTP system, comprising:

at least one inter-character-class spacing amount setting table, for use in line composition, the inter-character-class spacing amount setting table grouping similar characters, forming a plurality of character classes and setting inter-character spacing amounts between a character class of a previous character and a character class of a next character within a pair of continuous characters;

a display means capable of displaying electronic text that has been line composed;

an input means with which a user can perform input; and

a spacing amount setting means that is operable to start in response to user input, and to display on the display means a dialog box for user input of spacing amount between the character class of the previous character and the character class of the next character, and to display in the dialog box an icon representing the character class of the previous character and an icon representing the character class of the next character.

10. A computer readable recording medium recording a text composition spacing amount setting program for executing by computer in a desktop publishing system, comprising:

a procedure for displaying on a display means in dialog box format a spacing amount saved in an inter-character-class spacing amount setting table when a user selects the inter-character-class spacing amount setting table, for use in line composition, wherein the inter-character-class spacing amount setting table groups similar characters, forms a plurality of character classes and sets inter-character spacing amounts between a character class of a previous character and a character class of a next character within a pair of continuous characters; and

a procedure for displaying in the dialog box an icon representing the character class of the previous character and an icon representing the character class of the next character.