METHOD OF RENDERING TEXT ON AN OUTPUT DEVICE

• US 20070153002A1
• Filed: 11/09/2006
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Klassen, Gerhard
• Granted Patent: US 7,768,513 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/467
• 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: G06T 11/203 Drawing of straight lines or curves

Abstract

A method of rendering text on an output device using a pre-developed image of a custom font. An image file defines an image of a custom developed character set. The custom character set may be developed off-line using graphics development tools. Associated character information enables the location of specific characters within the image. When a text character is output to a display or other output device, a custom font module locates the text character within the image and defines a subimage that contains the text character. The subimage is rendered upon the output device, thereby producing an image of the text character.

Claims

1. A method of rendering text on a display screen of a computer device, the computer device including a memory storing an image file, the image file defining an image containing a plurality of glyphs, the method comprising the steps of:

defining a portion of said image containing one of said glyphs and excluding at least one other of said glyphs; and

rendering said portion on the display screen.

2. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of defining includes clipping said portion of said image to obtain a subimage and passing said subimage to a graphics subsystem for performing said step of rendering.

3. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein said memory stores associated character information and wherein said step of defining a portion of said image includes locating said one of said glyphs based upon said associated character information.

4. The method claimed in claim 3, wherein said associated character information includes data regarding the order of said glyphs and width data regarding the width of each of said glyphs, and wherein said step of locating includes determining the location of said one of said glyphs within said image based upon said data regarding the order and said width data.

5. The method claimed in claim 1, further including steps of receiving a text string, identifying a character within said text string, and selecting said one of said glyphs corresponding to said character.

6. The method claimed in claim 5, wherein said steps of identifying, selecting, defining, and rendering are repeated for each character within said text string.

7. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of glyphs comprise a font.

8. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of glyphs comprise a reduced character set consisting of a subset of a font.

9. A computer device, comprising:

a display screen;

a graphics subsystem for rendering text upon said display screen;

a memory, said memory having stored thereon an image file, the image file defining an image containing a plurality of glyphs;

a processor; and

a custom font module executable by said processor and configured to define a portion of said image containing one of said glyphs and excluding at least one other of said glyphs,

wherein said graphics subsystem is configured to render said portion on said display screen.

10. The computer device claimed in claim 9, wherein said custom font module is configured to clip said portion of said image to obtain a subimage and pass said subimage to said graphics subsystem.

11. The computer device claimed in claim 9, wherein said memory stores associated character information and wherein said custom font module is configured to locate said one of said glyphs based upon said associated character information.

12. The computer device claimed in claim 11, wherein said associated character information includes data regarding the order of said glyphs and width data regarding the width of each of said glyphs, and wherein said custom font module is configured to determine the location of said one of said glyphs within said image based upon said data regarding the order and said width data.

13. The computer device claimed in claim 9, wherein said plurality of glyphs comprise a font.

14. The computer device claimed in claim 9, wherein said plurality of glyphs comprise a reduced character set consisting of a subset of a font.

15. A computer device, comprising:

a display screen;

a memory, said memory having stored thereon an image file, the image file defining an image containing a plurality of glyphs;

means for defining a portion of said image containing one of said glyphs and excluding at least one other of said glyphs; and

means for rendering said portion on the display screen.

16. The computer device claimed in claim 15, wherein said means for defining comprises means for clipping said portion of said image to obtain a subimage and means for passing said subimage to said graphics subsystem.

17. The computer device claimed in claim 15, wherein said memory stores associated character information and wherein said means for defining further comprises means for locating said one of said glyphs based upon said associated character information.

18. The computer device claimed in claim 17, wherein said associated character information includes data regarding the order of said glyphs and width data regarding the width of each of said glyphs, and wherein said means for locating comprises means for calculating the location of said one of said glyphs within said image based upon said data regarding the order and said width data.

19. The computer device claimed in claim 15, wherein said plurality of glyphs comprise a font.

20. The computer device claimed in claim 15, wherein said plurality of glyphs comprise a reduced character set consisting of a subset of a font.