Quick Font Match

• US 20120054231A1
• Filed: 08/25/2011
• Published: 03/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Zhang, Hai F., Fu, Xing W., Jia, Yan M., Lai, Jing, Zhang, Jian F.
• Granted Patent: US 9,002,877 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/109 Font handling; Temporal or kinetic typography
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/203 Drawing of straight lines or curves

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a font match technology, and in particular relate to a technology for performing font match with attribute values of a font. A method for font matching may include generating a two-dimensional link matrix based on available fonts and attribute values of the available fonts, receiving a font match query, and determining a font matching the received font match query from the available fonts by using the two-dimensional link matrix. Font matching may be implemented automatically, quickly, and accurately, without the need of manually randomly trying each font of a plurality of available fonts. Meanwhile, this method is independent from text processing software and may be called by any arbitrary text processing software (application). Moreover, this method allows the user to flexibly configure selection of the font attributes so as to perform font match more efficiently.

Claims

1. A method for font match, comprising:

generating a two-dimensional link matrix based on available fonts and attributes of the available fonts;

receiving a font match query; and

determining a font matching the received font match query from the available fonts based on the two-dimensional link matrix.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein each row in the two-dimensional link matrix indicates an attribute value of one font instance corresponding to each font attribute.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the one font instance is indicated by the following vector:

Ft=(V_p1, V_p2, . . . , V_pm), wherein Ft indicates the one font instance, and V_p1, V_p2, . . . , V_pm indicate attribute values of the one font instance corresponding to font attributes P₁, P₂, . . . , P_m.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the font match query comprises at least one attribute-attribute value pair.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the font match query has the following form:

Q={P_q1=V_q1, P_q2=V_q2, . . . , P_qk=V_qk},

wherein Q indicates a font match query, P_qk indicates the k^th attribute in the query Q for font match, and V_qk indicates an attribute value of the k^th attribute in the query Q for font match.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein determining a font matching the received font match query from the available fonts based on the two-dimensional link matrix comprises:

retrieving the two-dimensional link matrix for an attribute-attribute value pair in the font match query to generate a set of fonts returned results.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein determining a font matching the received font match query from the available fonts based on the two-dimensional link matrix further comprises:

retrieving the two-dimensional link matrix for other attribute-attribute value pairs in the font match query one by one to filter the generated set of fonts returned results; and

determining a font contained in the set of fonts returned results after final filtering as a font matching the received font match query if all attribute-attribute value pairs in the font match query have been traversed.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein determining a font matching the received font match query from the available fonts based on the two-dimensional link matrix further comprises:

initializing a set of fonts returned results to a set containing all available fonts before a first time of retrieving of the two-dimensional link matrix to generate the set of fonts returned results.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein determining a font matching the received font match query from the available fonts based on the two-dimensional link matrix further comprises:

determining the set of fonts returned results before this filtering operation as a set of filtered results of this time if the filtered set of fonts returned results is an empty set.

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein determining a font matching the received font match query from the available fonts based on the two-dimensional link matrix further comprises:

determining a sequence of retrieving the two-dimensional link matrix for the attribute-attribute value pairs in the font match query based on a predetermined weight value of each attribute.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the font match query is generated by a text processing application.

12. A system for font match, comprising:

matrix generating means for generating a two-dimensional link matrix based on available fonts and attributes of the available fonts;

receiving means for receiving a font match query; and

font match determining means for determining a font matching the received font match query from the available fonts based on the two-dimensional link matrix.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein each row in the two-dimensional link matrix indicates an attribute value of one font instance corresponding to each font attribute.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the one font instance is indicated by the following vector:

Ft=(V_p1, V_p2, . . . , V_pm), wherein Ft indicates the one font instance, and V_p1, V_p2, . . . , V_pm indicate attribute values of the font corresponding attributes P₁, P₂, . . . , P_m.

15. The system according to claim 12, wherein the font match query comprises at least one attribute-attribute value pair.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the font match query has the following form:

Q={P_q1=V_q1, P_q2=V_q2, . . . , P_qk=V_qk},

wherein Q indicates a font match query, P_qk indicates the k^th attribute in the query Q for font match, and V_qk indicates an attribute value of the k^th attribute in the query Q for font match.

17. The system according to claim 15, wherein the font match determining means is further configured to:

retrieve the two-dimensional link matrix for an attribute-attribute value pair in the font match query to generate a set of fonts returned results.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the font match determining means is further configured to:

retrieve the two-dimensional link matrix for other attribute-attribute value pairs in the font match query one by one to filter the generated set of fonts returned results; and

determine a font contained in the set of fonts returned results after final filtering as a font matching the received font match query if all attribute-attribute value pairs in the font match query have been traversed.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein the font match determining means is further configured to:

initialize a set of fonts returned results to a set containing all available fonts before a first time of retrieving of the two-dimensional link matrix to generate the set of fonts returned results.

20. The system according to claim 18, wherein the font match determining means is further configured to:

determine the set of fonts returned results before this filtering operation as a set of filtered results of this time if the filtered set of fonts returned results is an empty set.

21. The system according to claim 17, wherein the font match determining means is further configured to:

determine a sequence of retrieving the two-dimensional link matrix for the attribute-attribute value pairs in the font match query based on a predetermined weight value of each attribute.

22. The system according to claim 12, wherein the font match query is generated by a text processing application.