Use of an input black and white bitmap to generate emboldened anti-aliasing bitmap
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsTanya Matskewich, Mohammed Gabar El-Gammal, David L. Kilgrow, Jian Wang, Jiang Wu, Liyong Chen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A computer-implemented simulated emboldening mechanism for emboldening an input Black and White bitmap to generate an emboldened Anti-Aliasing bitmap. The simulated emboldening adjusts the intensity of the pixel in the direction of emboldening taking into account contextual information regarding surrounding pixels. Since the emboldening is not limited to a Black and White output bitmap, and since the emboldening takes such contextual information into account, legibility and readability of the resulting emboldened character is enhanced.
Claims22
A computer-implemented method for performing simulated emboldening of the characters of a font when rendering the characters, the method comprising the following acts:
- determining whether a font contains embedded Black and White bitmaps for one or more characters of the font, and if so,
- inputting data from the bitmaps for the one or more characters of the font,
- and if not, inputting outline data for one or more characters of the font;
- irrespective of whether the input data is from an embedded bitmap or from outline data, generating from the input data a Black and White bitmap for the characters of the font;
- accessing the Black and White bitmap;
- using the Black and White bitmap to generate an emboldened Anti-Aliasing bitmap and consequently extending the number of possible shading choices for a pixel by not requiring that it be limited to simply two binary values per pixel;
- and
- mapping values of the Anti-Aliasing bitmap to the pixels of a display for one or more characters of the font.
A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for performing simulated emboldening of the characters of a font when rendering the characters, the method comprising the following acts:
- determining whether a font contains embedded Black and White bitmaps for one or more characters of the font, and if so,
- inputting data from the bitmaps for the one or more characters of the font,
- and if not, inputting outline data for one or more characters of the font;
- irrespective of whether the input data is from an embedded bitmap or from outline data, generating from the input data a Black and White bitmap for the characters of the font;
- accessing the Black and White bitmap;
- using the Black and White bitmap to generate an emboldened Anti-Aliasing bitmap and consequently extending the number of possible shading choices for a pixel by not requiring that it be limited to simply two binary values per pixel;
- and
- mapping values of the Anti-Aliasing bitmap to the pixels of a display for one or more characters of the font.
A computer-implemented method for performing simulated emboldening of the characters of a font when rendering the characters, the method comprising the following acts:
- determining whether a font contains embedded Black and White bitmaps for one or more characters of the font, and if so,
- inputting data from the bitmaps for the one or more characters of the font,
- and if not, inputting outline data for one or more characters of the font;
- irrespective of whether the input data is from an embedded bitmap or from outline data, generating from the input data a Black and White bitmap for the characters of the font;
- accessing the Black and White bitmap;
- using the Black and White bitmap to generate an emboldened Anti-Aliasing bitmap by performing the following further acts for at least one output pixel of the Anti-Aliasing bitmap for which a corresponding input pixel from the Black and White bitmap is white:
- determining that the left neighbor input pixel for the corresponding input pixel is black;
- determining that the right neighbor input pixel for the corresponding input pixel is black;
- and
- assigning a middle gray level to the output pixel in response to the acts of determining;
- and
- mapping values of the Anti-Aliasing bitmap to the pixels of a display for one or more characters of the font.
A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for performing simulated emboldening of the characters of a font when rendering the characters, the method comprising the following acts:
- determining whether a font contains embedded Black and White bitmaps for one or more characters of the font, and if so,
- inputting data from the bitmaps for the one or more characters of the font,
- and if not, inputting outline data for one or more characters of the font;
- irrespective of whether the input data is from an embedded bitmap or from outline data, generating from the input data a Black and White bitmap for the characters of the font;
- accessing the Black and White bitmap;
- using the Black and White bitmap to generate an emboldened Anti-Aliasing bitmap by performing the following further acts for at least one output pixel of the Anti-Aliasing bitmap for which a corresponding input pixel from the Black and White bitmap is white:
- determining that the left neighbor input pixel for the corresponding input pixel is black;
- determining that the right neighbor input pixel for the corresponding input pixel is black;
- and
- assigning a middle gray level to the output pixel in response to the acts of determining;
- and
- mapping values of the Anti-Aliasing bitmap to the pixels of a display for one or more characters of the font.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.