Image generation device

An image generation device comprising:

• a memory storing an application program, a rasterizer program and an embedding program;
• a processor configured to execute the application program, the rasterizer program and the embedding program stored in the memory,
• execution of the application program causing the processor to generate string data corresponding to a string, the string including a plurality of first-type string elements and a plurality of second-type string elements arranged in a predetermined order, each of the plurality of first-type string elements being a letter that can be rasterized by the processor executing the rasterizer program and each of the plurality of second-type string elements being an icon that cannot be rasterized by the processor executing the rasterizer program, the string data including a plurality of control codes including a plurality of font control codes indicating the plurality of first-type string elements and a plurality of blank identification control codes indicating a plurality of blanks in place of the plurality of second-type string elements, each of the plurality of font control codes and the plurality of blank identification control codes being Unicode,
• execution of the rasterizer program causing the processor to generate, according to the string data including the plurality of font control codes and the plurality of blank identification control codes, a plurality of first element images indicating the plurality of first-type string elements and a plurality of blank images indicating the plurality of blanks in place of the plurality of second-type string elements one by one in the predetermined order to generate an element-blank image, and
• execution of the embedding program causing the processor to identify and embed a plurality of second element images indicating the plurality of second-type string elements in the plurality of blank images of the element-blank image generated by the processor;
• a first data storage portion in which a first data group including a set of pieces of data used to generate the plurality of first element images is stored;
• and
• a second data storage portion in which a second data group including a set of pieces of data to be embedded as the plurality of second element images is stored,
• wherein:
• execution of the rasterizer program further causes the processor to generate, according to the string data, the plurality of first element images by identifying data necessary to generate the plurality of first element images among the pieces of data included in the first data group stored in the first data storage portion and to rasterize the plurality of first type string elements using the identified data and to generate, according to the string data, the plurality of blank images at a plurality of positions where the plurality of second element images are respectively to be embedded in the element-blank image by identifying a plurality of embedding positions of the plurality of second element images;
• the plurality of second element images is identified among the pieces of data included in the second data group stored in the second data storage portion.