US 7,257,776 B2 · Systems and methods for scaling a graphical user interface according to display dimensions and using a tiered sizing schema to define display objects

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for scaling a graphical user interface (GUI) to fit proportionally in displays of different sizes. Bounds of display objects to be displayed in the graphical user interface are defined in terms of position relative to horizontal and vertical dimensions of a display on which the GUI is rendered. An application defines the GUI in relative terms, but an end user may alter the look and feel of controls in the GUI. A tiered sizing schema is described that provides size constraints for display objects. The end user is limited as to how much a size of a display object can be altered in order to preserve the integrity of the original specifications of the GUI when the GUI is displayed on displays of various dimensions.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A method of adapting graphic output of generic applications to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) hardware display, comprising:

establishing a tiered sizing schema that defines multiple size tiers for display objects to be displayed on different OEM hardware displays;
establishing readability constraints for sizes of text objects to be displayed on the different OEM hardware displays;
specifying a minimum number of character spaces to be maintained in a text box associated with an individual text object;
embedding the tiered sizing schema the readability constraints and the minimum number of character spaces in an OEM software that receives the graphic output from the generic application;
receiving display object instances, text object instances, and a placement of the display object instances and the text object instances from a generic application;
adapting sizes of the display object instances via the OEM software according to the tiered sizing schema to fit a size of one of the OEM hardware displays;
and
adapting sizes of the text object instances via the OEM software according to the readability constraints to fit a size of the OEM hardware display while maintaining the minimum number of character spaces in the text box.

5 more elements

One or more computer-readable media containing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on a computer, perform the following steps:

defining multiple upper left bounds of a display object to be displayed on a display according to a tiered fraction of a height of the display and a tiered fraction of a width of the display;
defining multiple lower right bounds of the display object according to a tiered fraction of the height and the width of the display;
defining multiple sizes for the display object according to a tiered sizing schema for display object sizes;
receiving a GUI configuration from an application program, wherein the GUI configuration specifies the display object, an upper left bound, a lower right bound, and a size of the display object;
adapting the upper left bound, the lower right bound, and the size to an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) hardware display via OEM software implementing the tiered sizing schema including resizing for compatibility with an aspect ratio of a the hardware display, the display objects being resized to an aspect ratio of the hardware display by selecting one of the defined multiple upper left bounds, one of the defined lower right bounds, and one of the defined sizes, while in an instance where the display object is a text object, maintaining a pre-established number of character spaces for the text object.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Systems and methods for scaling a graphical user interface according to display dimensions and using a tiered sizing schema to define display objects

Life of this patent

Systems and methods for scaling a graphical user interface according to display dimensions and using a tiered sizing schema to define display objects

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims14