US 5,412,771 A · Generation of interdependent font characters based on ligature and glyph categorizations

Abstract

A method is described for producing a font for creating strings of glyphs representing characters in a language having a handwritten, or other, appearance. The method starts with the step of categorizing each glyph within a set of glyphs to be utilized to create the font according to a set of predefined ligature types. The set of predefined ligature types includes a null ligature type which corresponds to glyphs which are next to a white spaces or next to other glyphs with proper null ligature types. Since each glyph has a left side and a right side, or in some languages, a top and bottom, each of the glyphs is operative to be categorized in as many as two ligature type categories (glyphs could also be categorized in the same ligature type category twice). After the glyphs are categorized, values associated with ligatures of the glyphs categorized within each of the ligature type categories are averaged to produce representative ligature values for each of the ligature type categories. These glyphs are then modified, as necessary, to produce a modified set of glyphs. A modified glyph has ligature values which have been conformed to the representative ligature values from a ligature type category corresponding to the modified glyph. Finally, the various glyphs from the modified set of glyphs are assigned to the strings of glyphs to represent characters as required by the font so as to produce strings of glyphs having a handwritten appearance.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A computer implemented method, using a prototype set of glyph image data, for producing a contextual font for creating strings of glyphs representing characters in a language having a desired appearance, comprising the steps of:

from a prototype set of glyph image data, said glyph image data comprising a set of glyphs, categorizing each glyph within said set of glyphs to be utilized to create said font according to a set of predefined ligature types, each of said glyphs having either zero ligatures, one ligature, or two ligatures, each of said ligatures having an appearance value, such that each of said glyphs is categorized into at least two ligature type categories;
averaging appearance values associated with ligatures of said glyphs categorized within each of said ligature type categories to produce a representative ligature defined by representative appearance values for each of said ligature type categories;
and
modifying said set of glyphs to produce a modified set of glyphs representing said font, each of said glyphs being modified as necessary to conform said appearance values for each of said glyphs to said representative appearance values from a ligature type category corresponding to each of said glyphs,
whereby strings of glyphs produced from said modified set of glyphs have said desired appearance.

2 more elements

A computer implemented method for producing a string of characters having a desired appearance from a set of glyph image data, said glyph image data comprising a set of glyphs, said set of glyphs corresponding to characters within the string of characters, each of the characters corresponding to at least one glyph, each of the glyphs that attach to an adjacent glyph wherein at least two adjacent glyphs are connected having at least one ligature for connecting to each connecting adjacent glyph, comprising the steps of:

categorizing each of said glyphs according to a set of predefined ligature types, each of said glyphs being categorized within at least one ligature type category, each ligature type category including one or more subcategories defined by one or more appearance values associated with each ligature;
averaging said appearance values for each subcategory of said ligature type categories to produce a representative ligature for each ligature type category, each representative ligature being comprised of averaged appearance values from said subcategories within a corresponding ligature type category;
modifying said set of glyphs as necessary to minimize differences between said appearance values for each of said glyphs and said averaged appearance values of representative ligatures corresponding to said glyphs;
and
selecting said glyphs from said set of glyphs to represent said characters in said string of characters in order to produce said desired appearance.

2 more elements

A computer implemented method for producing a font for creating strings of glyphs representing characters in a language having a handwritten appearance from a handwriting sample, comprising the steps of:

processing said handwriting sample to develop a set of glyphs to be utilized to create said font;
categorizing each glyph within said set of glyphs according to a set of predefined ligature types, each of said glyphs having either zero ligatures, one ligature, or two ligatures, each of said ligatures having an appearance value, such that each of said glyphs is categorized into at least two ligature type categories;
averaging appearance values associated with ligatures of said glyphs categorized within each of said ligature type categories to produce representative appearance values for each of said ligature type categories;
modifying at least one of said glyphs from said set of glyphs to produce a modified set of glyphs, a modified glyph having appearance values conformed to said representative appearance values from a ligature type category corresponding to said modified glyph;
and
assigning one or more glyphs from said modified set of glyphs to said stings of glyphs to represent characters as required by said font, whereby strings of glyphs produced from said modified set of glyphs have a handwritten appearance.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Generation of interdependent font characters based on ligature and glyph categorizations

Life of this patent

Generation of interdependent font characters based on ligature and glyph categorizations

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18