Method of and apparatus for forming outline character

An apparatus for forming an outline character comprising:

• a main control means including a microprocessor, a code buffer storing character code from a host machine through an interface, and a character generator storing character font data expressing standard characters by dot patterns and outputting the character data upon receipt of a signal output by the code buffer under the control of the microprocessor;
• a display means including a printing control means receiving the output of the main control means and a printing means for printing in accordance with a signal output from the printing control means;
• a modify means for an outline character for reading the font of standard characters from the character generator and forming the outline character by expanding a character selected from said font of standard characters;
• and
• a widened character storage means connected to the modify means for storing the character expanded by said modify means;
• said modify means receiving a command to output an outline character from the main control means and reading the standard character from the character generator, the standard character then being read from the character generator and expanded by said modify means in response to said command, said modify means then removing the dot pattern of the original character data except for dots in the upper or lower end of a dot display space, from the widened character to form a white space when a dot pattern of the standard character data from the character generator exists at at least one upper or lower end of the display space and stored in the widened character storage means as the outline character.