Method and system for providing multiple glyphs at a time from a font scaler sub-system

• US 6,356,268 B1
• Filed: 04/26/1996
• Issued: 03/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Computer Incorporated (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Beaman, Alexander B., Reed, Michael R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chauhan, Ulka J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Padmanabhan, Mano
• Application Number:
  US08/638,489
• Time in Patent Office: 2,146 Days
• Field of Search: 345/143, 345/467, 345/471, 345/472, 345/439, 345/128, 345/129, 345/130, 345/508, 345/536, 345/472.1, 345/472.2, 709/230
• US Class Current: 345/467
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/109 Font handling; Temporal or kinetic typography

Abstract

A method and system for providing multiple typographic glyph data items to a requesting client from a font scaler sub-system. The method and system includes accepting a request from the client that describes multiple glyphs and a destination memory in which to store the glyphs. From the request, a transaction message is formed and transmitted to a scaler server using an application program interface. The scaler server then generates the multiple glyph data items from the descriptions of the multiple glyphs, and stores the glyph data items directly into the destination memory.

Claims

1. A method for providing requested glyph data items to multiple software clients from a font scaler sub-system on a single computer having an operating system, comprising the steps of:

(a) directly accepting by the font scaler sub-system a first request from a first software client via an application programming interface (API) on the single computer, the request including a first description of a first set of glyphs and a destination field indicating a location of a first destination memory, wherein the first set of glyphs is less than all characters in a font;

(b) accepting by the font scaler sub-system a second request from a second software client via the API on the single computer, the request including a second description of a second set of multiple glyphs and a destination field indicating a location of a second destination memory;

(c) forming a first message from the first request;

(d) forming a second message from the second request;

(e) asynchronously sending the first message to a scaler server process via the operating system;

(f) asynchronously sending the second message to the scaler server process via the operating system;

(g) generating first multiple glyph data items from the first description of the first set of multiple glyphs;

(h) storing the first multiple glyph data items directly into the first destination memory at the same time;

(i) generating second multiple glyph data items from the second description of the second set of multiple glyphs; and

(j) storing the second multiple glyph data items directly into the second destination memory at the same time.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein step (c) further includes the step of:

(c1) placing a glyph code array, a glyph data description, and a strike description in the first message.

3. A method as in claim 1 wherein step (a) further includes the step of:

(a1) allocating sufficient first destination memory to store the glyph data items described in the first request.

4. A method as in claim 3 wherein steps (a) and (b) further include the steps of:

passing the first and second requests to an open font architecture services unit.

5. A method as in claim 4 wherein step (a1) further includes the step of:

(a1i) estimating the size of the glyph data items before allocating the first destination memory.

6. A method as in claim 5 wherein step (a1) further includes the step of:

(A1ii) requesting the scaler server process to perform the estimate.

7. A method for providing requested glyphs at a time to multiple software clients from a font scaler sub-system on a single computer having an operating system, the font scaler sub-system including a font services unit, and a first scaler server and a second scaler server, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) sending a first client request directly to the font services unit via an application programming interface (API) on the single computer that describes a first set of multiple glyphs and includes a destination field indicating a location of a first destination memory, wherein the first set of glyphs is less than all characters in a font;

(b) sending a second client request directly to the font services unit via the API on the single computer that describes a second set of multiple glyphs and includes a destination field indicating a location of a second destination memory, wherein the second set of glyphs is less than all characters in a font;

(c) passing the first client request from the font services unit to the first scaler server via the operating system in a first asynchronous transaction message;

(d) passing the second client request from the font services unit to the second scaler server via the operating system in a second asynchronous transaction message;

(e) generating the first set of multiple glyphs by the first scaler server in response to the first asynchronous transaction message;

(f) generating the second set of multiple glyphs by the second scaler server in response to the second asynchronous transaction message;

(g) storing the first set of multiple glyphs directly into the first destination memory at the same time; and

(h) storing the second set of multiple glyphs directly into the second destination memory at the same time.

8. A method as in claim 7 wherein step (a) further includes the step of:

(a1) sending a request from the first client to the font services unit asking for an estimate of the size of the glyphs.

9. A method as in claim 8 wherein step (a) further includes the step of:

(a2) allocating sufficient first destination memory to store the first set of glyphs.

10. A method as in claim 9 wherein step (a) further includes the step of:

(a3) sending the request from the first client to the font services unit using a function call.

11. A method as in claim 10 wherein step (b) further includes the step of:

(b1) reformatting the request into the transaction message.

12. A method as in claim 11 wherein step (c) further includes the step of:

(c2) passing a glyph code array and a destination field that indicates a location of the first destination memory in the first asynchronous transaction message.

13. A system for providing requested glyphs on a single computer having an operating system, comprising:

a first software client on the single computer, the first software client including means for sending a first multi-glyph request via an application programming interface (API) that includes a description of a first set of glyphs to be generated and a destination field indicating a location of a first destination memory in which to store the first set of glyphs once generated directly;

a second software client on the single computer, the software second client including means for sending a second multi-glyph request via the API that includes a description of a second set of glyphs to be generated and a destination field indicating a location of a second destination memory in which to store the second set of glyphs once generated, wherein the second set of glyphs is less than all characters in a font;

a font services unit in direct communication with the first and second software clients for receiving the first and second requests, the font services unit including means for forming a first message from the first request and a second message from the second request, and means for asynchronously transmitting the first and second messages via the operating system;

a first scaler server process in communication with the font services unit for generating the first set of multiple glyph data in response to receiving the first message, the first scaler server process including means for storing the first set of multiple glyph data in the first destination memory at the same time; and

a second scaler server process in communication with the font services unit for generating the second set of multiple glyph data in response to receiving the second message, the second scaler server process including means for storing the second set of multiple glyph data in the second destination memory at the same time.

14. A system as in claim 13 wherein the first message includes a glyph code array, a glyph description, and a strike description.

15. A system as in claim 13 wherein the first scaler server includes means for estimating a size of the multiple glyphs for the first client.

16. A system as in claim 15 wherein the first client allocates sufficient first destination memory in response to the size estimate from the first scaler server process.

17. A computer-readable medium containing program instructions for providing requested glyph data items to multiple software clients from a font scaler sub-system on a single computer having an operating system, the program instructions comprising:

(a) instructions for directly accepting a first request from a first software client via an application programming interface (API) on the single computer, the request including a first description of a first set of multiple glyphs and a destination field indicating a location of a first destination memory, wherein the first set of glyphs is less than all characters in a font;

(b) instructions for directly accepting a second request from a second software client via the API on the single computer, the request including a second description of a second set of multiple glyphs and a destination field indicating a location of a second destination memory, wherein the second set of glyphs is less than all characters in a font;

(c) instructions for forming a first message from the first request;

(d) instructions for forming a second message from the second request;

(e) instructions for asynchronously sending the first message to a scaler server process via the operating system;

(f) instructions for asynchronously sending the second message to the scaler server process via the operating system;

(g) instructions for generating first multiple glyph data items from the first description of the multiple glyphs;

(h) instructions for storing the first set of multiple glyph data items directly into the first destination memory at the same time;

(i) instructions for generating second set of multiple glyph data items from the second description of the multiple glyphs; and

(j) instructions for storing the second multiple glyph data items directly into the second destination memory at the same time.

18. A computer-readable medium as in claim 17 wherein instruction (c) further includes the instruction of:

(c1) instructions for placing a glyph code array, a glyph data description, and a strike description in the first message.

19. A computer-readable medium as in claim 18 wherein instruction (c) further includes the instruction of:

(c2) instructions for placing a destination structure in the first message indicating a location of the first destination memory.

20. A computer-readable medium as in claim 19 wherein instruction (a) further includes the instruction of:

(a1) instructions for allocating sufficient first destination memory to store the glyph data items described in the first request.

21. A computer-readable medium as in claim 20 wherein instructions (a) and (b) further include the instructions of:

instructions for passing the multi-glyph request to an open font architecture services unit.

22. A computer-readable medium as in claim 21 wherein instruction (a1) further includes the instruction of:

(a1i) instructions for estimating the size of the glyph data items before allocating the first destination memory.

23. A computer-readable medium as in claim 22 wherein instruction (a1) further includes the instruction of:

(a1ii) instructions for requesting the first scaler server process to perform the estimate.