Method and system for creating a graphic image with geometric descriptors

A method of creating a scalable graphic image that can be displayed at a plurality of sizes by a pixel-oriented display device, comprising the steps of:

• creating a pixel-based design of said graphic image;
• dividing said pixel-based design into constituent parts based on the colors of said constituent parts;
• generating a geometric descriptor for each constituent part;
• and
• hinting each geometric descriptor to produce a set of hinted geometric descriptors representing constituent parts that can be overlaid to form a display of said graphic image for each of said plurality of sizes.

A method of creating a scalable graphic image that can be displayed at a plurality of sizes by a pixel-oriented display device, comprising the steps of:

• creating a pixel-based design of said graphic image;
• dividing said pixel-based design into constituent parts based on the colors of said constituent parts;
• using a font editor program to generate a geometric descriptor for each constituent part;
• using a hinting program to hint each geometric descriptor to produce a set of hinted geometric descriptors representing constituent parts that can be overlaid to form a display of said graphic image for said plurality of sizes;
• and
• converting said set of hinted geometric descriptors to a format compatible with a selected font program.

A method of creating a scaleable graphic image for display by a pixel-oriented display device at a plurality of point sizes, comprising the steps of:

• creating a pixel-based design of a graphic image having a default size defined by a predefined one of said point sizes;
• dividing said pixel-based design into constituent parts based on colors of said pixel-based design, each constituent part having a single one of the colors;
• importing said constituent parts into a font editor program;
• using said font editor program to create geometric descriptors for said constituent parts;
• supplying said geometric descriptors to a hinting program;
• using said hinting program to apply hints to said geometric descriptors to produce a set of hinted geometric descriptors for each of said plurality of point sizes;
• storing said set of hinted geometric descriptors as a set of font tables in a font file;
• and
• converting said set of font tables to a format compatible with a font program.

For a computer characterized by a pixel-oriented display device having a display resolution and a program module maintained in a computer memory and executable on the computer, the program module operative to render a scaleable graphic image by performing the steps of:

• accessing a font file comprising a plurality of geometric descriptors representing constituent parts of a pixel-based design corresponding to the graphic image, the pixel-based design having a plurality of colors, each constituent part corresponding to a portion of the pixel-based design and having only one of the colors of the pixel-based design, each geometric descriptor scaleable for a range of point sizes to support rendering of the scaleable graphic image by the pixel-oriented display device at any one of the point sizes;
• scaling the geometric descriptors in response to a selected one of the point sizes and the display resolution of the pixel-oriented display device;
• responsive to the scaled geometric descriptors, generating character bitmaps that define pixels of the pixel-oriented display device to be illuminated for displaying a representation of the constituent parts;
• and
• responsive to the character bitmaps, drawing the representation of each of the constituent parts to render the scaleable graphic image at the selected point size.