Method and system for loading fonts by caching font-loading information

• US 6,751,726 B1
• Filed: 12/15/1999
• Issued: 06/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lee, Hock San, Tsai, Yung-Jen Tony, Dresevic, Bodin
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang, Eric
• Application Number:
  US09/461,967
• Time in Patent Office: 1,644 Days
• Field of Search: 713/1, 345/467, 400/61, 707/200, 358/1.11
• US Class Current: 713/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/109 Font handling; Temporal or kinetic typography
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4401 Bootstrapping security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

A method and system for efficiently loading fonts at the boot time of a computer uses a cache file to store font-loading information for the installed fonts. The font-loading information is extracted from the font files by associated font drivers and stored in the font-loading information cache when the fonts were installed. During the boot time of the computer, for each installed font, an associated font driver determines whether the font-loading information for that font has been stored in the font-loading information cache. If the font-loading information is in the cache, the font driver retrieves the font-loading information from the cache, without having to open the font file.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps for loading fonts installed on a computer, comprising:

identifying a font from a list of installed fonts for loading;

determining whether font-loading information for the font is stored in a cache file;

if the font-loading information for the font is in the cache file, retrieving the font-loading information from the cache file;

if the font-loading information for the font is not in the cache file, reading a font file for the font to extract the font-loading information; and

loading the font using the font-loading information.

2. A computer-readable medium as in claim 1, including further computer-executable instructions for performing the step of storing the font-loading information extracted from the font file into the cache file.

3. A computer-readable medium as in claim 1, including further computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

checking whether the computer is in a boot process; and

enabling access to the cache file if the computer is in a boot process.

4. A computer-readable medium as in claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the font-loading information for the font is stored in the cache file includes generating a font-caching identification for identifying the font to be loaded, and querying the cache file to determine whether the cache file contains font-loading information corresponding to the font-caching identification.

5. A computer-readable medium having computer executable components comprising:

an operating system (OS) graphics component for handling graphics operations of the computer, the OS graphics component during an initialization process identifying a font to be loaded from a list of installed fonts and generating a request to load the font;

a font driver component for loading said font in response to the request to load the font, the font driver checking a cache file to determine whether font-loading information for the font is stored in the cache file, if said font-loading information is in the cache file, retrieving the font-loading information from the cache file; and

loading said font using the font-loading information.

6. A computer-readable medium as in claim 5, wherein the font driver component reads a font file for the font to extract the font-loading information if the font-loading information is not in the cache file.

7. A computer-readable medium as in claim 5, wherein the OS graphics component generates a font-caching identification for the font as a parameter of the request, and the font driver component uses the font-caching identification to determine whether the font-loading information for the font is in the cache file.

8. A computer-readable medium as in claim 7, wherein the OS graphics component generates the font-caching identification from data including a path of a font file for the font.

9. A method of loading fonts installed on a computer, comprising the steps of:

identifying from a list of installed fonts a font to be loaded;

requesting a font driver associated with the font to load the font;

checking, by the font driver, whether font-loading information for the font is stored in a cache file;

if the font-loading information for the font is in the cache file, retrieving by the font driver the font-loading information for the font from the cache file; and

loading the font using the font-loading information.

10. A method as in claim 9, further including the step of calculating a font-caching identification for the font, and wherein the step of requesting passes the font-caching identification to the font driver, and the step of checking determines whether font-loading information corresponding to the font-caching identification is stored in the cache file.

11. A method as in claim 9, further including the steps of:

if the font-loading information for the font is not in the cache file,

reading a font file for the font to extract the font-loading information; and

storing the font-loading information for the font into the cache file.

12. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps for loading fonts installed on a remote terminal server, comprising:

during a console session;

identifying a font from a list of installed fonts for loading;

determining whether font-loading information for the font is stored in a cache file;

if the font-loading information for the font is in the cache file, retrieving the font-loading information from the cache file;

if the font-loading information for the font is not in the cache file, reading a font file for the font to extract the font-loading information, and storing the font-loading information extracted from the font file into the cache file; and

during a remote terminal session;

identifying a font from the list of installed fonts for loading;

determining whether font-loading information for the font is stored in the cache file;

if the font-loading information for the font is in the cache file, retrieving the font-loading information from the cache file;

if the font-loading information for the font is not in the cache file, reading a font file for the font to extract the font-loading information; and

loading the font using the font-loading information.

13. A computer-readable medium as in claim 12, including further computer-executable instructions for performing the step of determining during the remote terminal session whether the cache file is available for retrieval of font-loading information.

14. A computer-readable medium as in claim 13, wherein the step of determining whether the cache file is available includes determining whether the cache file is being updated in the console session.