Method of substituting fonts and displaying characters

• US 5,185,818 A
• Filed: 06/05/1991
• Issued: 02/09/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Warnock, John E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mancuso, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US07/710,603
• Time in Patent Office: 615 Days
• Field of Search: 382/54, 382/41, 382/44, 340/735, 340/748, 395/150, 395/151
• US Class Current: 382/112
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/109 Font handling; Temporal or kinetic typography
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/02 using printers
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 345/948 Alteration of stored fonts to maintain feature consistency throughout scaled font

Abstract

The invention describes a method for reconstructing characters in a document, which are expressed in one or more fonts, to convert the characters to a different font designed to closely match characters from a plurality of fonts in an aesthetically pleasing manner. This is accomplished by first selecting a first character from the document and thereafter substituting for the first character the same character constructed from the different font and having the same width as the first character, the characters of varying widths within the different font being designed to have aesthetically pleasing relationships between their parts irrespective of width. The construction and substitution of characters of the different font for each of the characters in said document needing reconstruction is continued in the same manner until all the characters in the document needing reconstruction have been substituted, thereby creating a reconstructed document having an aesthetically pleasing relationship among the characters in the document. Thereafter the reconstructed document is stored, printed or displayed.

Claims

1. A method for reconstructing characters in a document, which are expressed in one or more fonts, to convert said characters to a different font designed to closely match characters from a plurality of fonts in an aesthetically pleasing manner, comprising:

selecting a first character from said document determining the width of said first character;

based upon this width determination,

substituting for said first character the same character constructed from said different font and having the same width as said first character, the characters of varying widths within said different font being designed to have aesthetically pleasing relationships between their parts irrespective of width;

continuing the construction and substitution of characters of said different font for each of the characters in said document needing reconstruction in the same manner until all the characters in said document needing reconstruction have been substituted, thereby creating a reconstructed document having aesthetically pleasing relationship among the characters in said document; and

storing said reconstructed document for subsequent display.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the characters of said different font have a constant stroke thickness over a broad range of character widths.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the characters of said different font have the same defining curve segments.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the characters of said different font have a weight which matches the weight of the font of the corresponding characters in said document.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the characters of said different font have an x-height which matches the x-height of the font of the corresponding characters in said document.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the characters of said different font have the same defining curve segments.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the characters of said different font have a weight which matches the weight of the font of the corresponding characters in said document.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the characters of said different font have an x-height which matches the x-height of the font of the corresponding characters in said document.