Adapting display fonts for reflective displays

• US 9,190,025 B1
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zehner, Robert Waverly, Awad, Nadim, McCormack, Jonathan Ian, Lewbel, Hannah Rebecca, Dylewski, Scott Michael, Fernandez, Ronald Joseph, Letourneur, Herve Jacques Clement
• Primary Examiner(s): Sajous, Wesner
• Application Number:
  US13/830,677
• Time in Patent Office: 978 Days
• Field of Search: 345/581, 345/636, 345/639, 345/643, 345/467, 345/471, 345/551, 345/1.1, 345/1.3, 345/5, 358/1.11, 358/462, 715/200, 715/256, 715/269, 715/270, 715/273
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/02 using printers
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/22 characterised by the display of characters or indicia using display control signals derived from coded signals representing the characters or indicia, e.g. with a character-code memory
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/222 Control of the character-code memory
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/32 with means for controlling the display position see provisionally G09G5/42

Abstract

Techniques for utilizing different versions of a same font when rendering subsequent portions of a content item. For instance, envision that a user requests to open an electronic book. In response to this request, a display controller may display the first page of the electronic book using a flashing update and, therefore, may display the text using a regular weight of a particular font. However, when the user subsequently requests to turn to the second page of the electronic book, the display controller (utilizing a non-flashing update) may update the display using a version of the same font having a lesser weight. Given that some level of bleeding with likely occur when using the non-flashing update, the lesser weight coupled with the bleeding may result in text that approximates the weight of the text of the first page of the electronic book.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

an electronic paper display configured to display an electronic book;

a display controller configured to update the electronic paper display;

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

instructing the display controller to cause display of a first page of the electronic book using a first weight of a particular font;

receiving a request to navigate from the first page of the electronic book to a second page of the electronic book; and

at least partly in response to receiving the request, instructing the display controller to cause display of the second page of the electronic book using a second, different weight of the particular font.

2. An electronic device as recited in claim 1, the acts further comprising:

causing display of the first page using a flashing waveform; and

causing display of the second page using a non-flashing waveform; and

and wherein the first weight of the particular font is greater than the second weight of the particular font.

3. An electronic device as recited in claim 1, the acts further comprising determining that the first page is to be displayed using a flashing waveform, and wherein the instructing the display controller to cause display of the first page using the first version further comprises instructing the display controller to cause display of the first page using the flashing waveform.

4. An electronic device as recited in claim 1, the acts further comprising determining that the second page is to be displayed using a non-flashing waveform, and wherein the instructing the display controller to cause display of the second page using the second version further comprises instructing the display controller to cause display of the second page using the non-flashing waveform.

5. An electronic device comprising:

a display;

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

causing, using a waveform display of text of a first portion of a content item using a first version of a font;

receiving a request to display a second portion of the content item; and

at least partly in response to receiving the request, causing, u waveform that updates less than an entirety of the display, display of text of the second portion in a second version of the font, the second version of the font being different than the first version of the font.

6. An electronic device as recited in claim 5, wherein:

the first version of the font comprises the font in a first weight; and

the second version of the font comprises the font in a second weight.

7. An electronic device as recited in claim 6, further comprising memory storing:

(i) a first font definition file comprising the font in the first weight, and (ii) a second font definition file comprising the font in the second weight.

8. An electronic device as recited in claim 5, wherein at least one glyph of the first version of the font has an outline that differs from a corresponding glyph of the second version of the font.

9. An electronic device as recited in claim 5, wherein:

the display comprises an electronic paper display;

the waveform that updates the entirety of the display comprises a flashing waveform; and

the waveform that updates less than the entirety of the display comprises a non-flashing waveform.

10. An electronic device as recited in claim 5, wherein the first version of the font includes a glyph having an outline that differs from a corresponding glyph of the second version of the font.

11. An electronic device as recited in claim 5, wherein the display comprises an electronic paper display.

12. A method comprising:

under control of an electronic device that includes a display and that is configured with executable instructions,

selecting a first version of a font in which to display a first page of a text on the display;

displaying the first page on the display in the first version of the font;

receiving a request to update the display to display a second page of the text;

based at least in part on receiving the request, selecting a second version of the font in which to display the second page on the display; and

displaying the second page on the display in the second version of the font.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein:

the first version of the font comprises the font in a first weight;

the second version of the font comprises the font in a second weight, the second weight being different that the first weight; and

the first and second weights are calculated using an algorithm that is based on one or more criteria.

14. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein the one or more criteria comprise a type of update that the electronic device will use when updating the display.

15. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein the one or more criteria comprise whether the electronic device will use a flashing waveform or a non-flashing waveform when updating the display.

16. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein the one or more criteria comprise an ambient temperature of the electronic device.

17. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein:

the display is associated with one of multiple batches of displays; and

the one or more criteria comprise which batch of the multiple batches the display is associated with.

18. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein:

the displaying of the first page comprises displaying the first page from a first font definition file stored in memory of the electronic device; and

the displaying of the second page comprises displaying the second page from a second font definition file stored in the memory of the electronic device.

19. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein:

the text includes an electronic book;

the displaying of the first page comprises displaying a page of the electronic book;

and

the displaying of the second page comprises displaying another page of the electronic book.

20. A method comprising:

under control of an electronic device that includes a display and that is configured with executable instructions,

selecting a first version of a font in which to display first text on the display, wherein the first version of the font comprises the font in a first weight;

displaying the first text on the display in the first version of the font;

receiving a request to update the display to display second text;

at least partly in response to receiving the request, selecting a second version of the font in which to display the second text on the display, wherein the second version of the font comprises the font in a second weight, the second weight being different that the first weight, and the first and second weights are calculated using an algorithm that is based on one or more criteria; and

displaying the second text on the display in the second version of the font.

21. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein the one or more criteria comprise a type of update that the electronic device will use when updating the display.