Method and apparatus for text layout across a region
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsIkko Fushiki, Hock San Lee, Donald B. Curtis
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention displays text within a region by identifying text boxes within the region. To identify the text boxes, the invention uses scan lines that are spaced at intervals that are smaller than the text height of the text to be placed in the boxes. These scan lines are combined to identify the full text boxes. Additionally, under the invention, a region is transformed before text boxes are generated for the region. The transform is an inverse of a text transform that is applied to the text placed in the region. This allows rotated and skewed text to be placed in the region. The invention also facilitates displaying a single text string across several disjointed regions.
Claims15
A method for writing text to a region, the method comprising:
- performing an inverse transform on expressions for coordinates of a perimeter of the region to produce transformed expressions for coordinates of a perimeter of a transformed region, the inverse transform being the inverse of a text transform;
- identifying a set of text boxes in the transformed region;
- writing text to the text boxes;
- and
- applying the text transform to the text.
The method of claim l wherein in the method forms part of a larger method for writing a single string of text across a plurality of regions, the larger method further comprising:
- performing the inverse transform on at least two of the regions to form two transformed regions;
- identifying a set of text boxes in at least two of the transformed regions;
- writing different portions of the text string to text boxes in at least two different transformed regions;
- and
- applying the text transform to text written to the text boxes.
A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components comprising:
- a transform component for transforming a region using an inverse of a text transform to produce a transformed region, wherein transforming the region comprises applying the inverse of the text transform to expressions for coordinates of the perimeter of the region to form transformed expressions for coordinates of the perimeter of the transformed region;
- a text box identifying component for identifying at least one text box in the transformed region;
- and
- a draw text component for drawing text to at least one of the text boxes while applying the text transform to the text.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.