System and method for text legibility enhancement

• US 20070094591A1
• Filed: 10/24/2005
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Etgen, Michael, Schell, David
• Application Number:
  US11/256,710
• Publication Number:
  US 20070094591A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets

Abstract

In alternative embodiments, the invention comprises an apparatus, article, and method for modifying the properties of a style sheet having at least one rule associated with a document rendered by a display program on an output device, comprising: determining if the rule specifies a font size; comparing the font size to a legible size limit; and if the font size is less than the legible size limit, iteratively increasing the font size of the rule by a step size until the font size is greater than or equal to the legible size limit.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for modifying the properties of a style sheet having at least one rule associated with a document rendered by a display program on an output device, the method comprising:

determining if the rule specifies a font size;

comparing the font size to a legible size limit; and

if the font size is less than the legible size limit, iteratively increasing the font size of the rule by a step size until the font size is greater than or equal to the legible size limit.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the legible size limit is a minimum height, and the step of comparing the font size to the legible size limit comprises:

converting the font size to a height; and

comparing the height to the minimum height.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the font size is a rule font size, the document has a default font size, and the step of converting the rule font size to a height comprises:

inserting a test element into the document, the test element having a test font size;

setting the test font size to 100% of the default font size;

converting the test font size into a test height;

calculating the ratio of the rule font size to the test font size; and

multiplying the ratio by the test height;

wherein the result of the multiplying step is the height of the rule font size.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the legible size limit is greater than or equal to 10 pixels.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step size is less than 10% of the font size.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the document is a web page and the display program is a web browser program.

7. A computer-readable memory having a computer program for performing a method of modifying the properties of a style sheet having at least one rule associated with a document rendered by a display program on an output device, the method comprising:

determining if the rule specifies a font size;

comparing the font size to a legible size limit; and

if the font size is less than the legible size limit, iteratively increasing the font size of the rule by a step size until the font size is greater than or equal to the legible size limit.

8. The memory of claim 7 wherein the legible size limit is a minimum height, and the step of comparing the font size to the legible size limit comprises:

converting the font size to a height; and

comparing the height to the minimum height.

9. The memory of claim 8 wherein the font size is a rule font size, the document has a default font size, and the step of converting the rule font size to a height comprises:

inserting a test element into the document, the test element having a test font size;

setting the test font size to 100% of the default font size;

converting the test font size into a test height;

calculating the ratio of the rule font size to the test font size; and

multiplying the ratio by the test height;

wherein the product of the multiplying step is the height of the rule font size.

10. The memory of claim 7 wherein the legible size limit is greater than or equal to 10 pixels.

11. The memory of claim 7 wherein the step size is less than 10% of the font size.

12. The memory of claim 7 wherein the document is a web page and the display program is a web browser program.

13. A computer comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor;

an output device coupled to the processor;

a document in the memory;

a style sheet in the memory, the style sheet having at least one rule associated with the document;

a display program in the memory, the display program comprising instructions for causing the processor to render the document on the output device; and

a text legibility enhancement program in the memory, the text legibility enhancement program comprising instructions for causing the processor to

determine if the rule specifies a font size;

compare the font size to a legible size limit; and

if the font size is less than the legible size limit, iteratively increase the font size of the rule by a step size until the font size is greater than or equal to the legible size limit.

14. The computer of claim 13 wherein the legible size limit is a minimum height, and the instructions for causing the processor to compare the font size to the legible size limit comprise instructions for causing the processor to:

convert the font size to a height; and

compare the height to the minimum height.

15. The computer of claim 14 wherein the font size is a rule font size, the document has a default font size, and the instructions for causing the processor to convert the rule font size to a height comprise instructions for causing the processor to:

insert a test element into the document, the test element having a test font size;

set the test font size to 100% of the default font size;

convert the test font size into a test height;

calculate the ratio of the rule font size to the test font size; and

multiply the ratio by the test height;

wherein the product of the multiplication is the height of the rule font size.

16. The computer of claim 13 wherein the legible size limit is greater than or equal to 10 pixels.

17. The computer of claim 13 wherein the step size is less than 10% of the font size.

18. The computer of claim 13 wherein the document is a web page and the display program is a web browser program.