Method and apparatus for font data storage and retrieval.

摘要

A method and apparatus for storing scaleable font data (430) in a compact form and retrieving it in one of several usable forms common in digital typography. The retrieval process can be influenced by parameters to produce not only the original typeface designs (514) that were compressed, but also variations on those typeface designs (514). Variations produced in this manner are related typeface designs (514) which therefore effectively add new fonts to the family originally stored. Individual character pixelmaps (360) and scaleable character outlines (212) are two of the forms which can be retrieved from the compressed font data (430). The storage and retrieval methods are designed so that the time needed to produce a single character pixelmap (360) from the internal form is less than that required for producing the same pixelmap from an uncompressed hinted outline font (470) stored in an industry-standard format.