JPS6061792A - Character display system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character display method in a device that displays a mixture of characters and images.

Prior Art and Problems Displaying characters, for example, by displaying them on the screen of a CR or T screen or by printing dots on paper, is widely used on a CRT display or printer attached to a computer input/output device or word processor, or on a facsimile machine. It is being done. Images, ie, pictures, graphs, maps, etc., have been displayed on the above-mentioned CRT displays, and characters and images have also been displayed in a mixed manner.

In order to display a mixture of text and images, the conventional method is as shown in Fig. 1. In this figure, IO is C, the screen of the RT tube or paper, 12 is the character string displayed on the screen 10, 1
4.16 is an image, and the screen shown below has a character code (white) as shown by the dotted line in the image corresponding part of the character string.
space code) to fill the entire screen 10 with character codes, coordinates are specified, image data is sent to the space code section, and the two are displayed superimposed to form the image shown. In other words, in a mixed display of text and images, the characters are the characters, and the character codes are densely filled with a predetermined number of lines and characters per line per screen, and the image area is left open by filling in space codes. Overlay the image in the desired location.

However, with this method, it is necessary to fill the entire screen with character codes (spaces are also character codes), and data transfer takes time.

In particular, there are images all over the screen, and at the bottom there are 1~
On pages with two lines of explanatory text, it is necessary to fill most of the space with space codes, which is a noticeable waste.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to reduce the amount of data (number of character codes) necessary for displaying a screen containing text and images, thereby achieving high-speed and efficient display.

Structure of the Invention The present invention relates to a character display method in a device that displays a mixture of characters and images, in which a character display area is designated by the coordinates of the start and end points of the area in the same way as the image display area on the screen, and the characters displayed in the character display area are specified by the coordinates of the start and end points of the area. The present invention is characterized in that a group of characters is sent using a character code, a bit pattern is generated using the character code, and the bit pattern is displayed in the designated character display area.This will be explained next with reference to an embodiment.

Embodiments of the Invention In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, character areas can also be displayed locally by specifying their coordinates. Area specification by coordinates is done by specifying the start point coordinates and end point coordinates, and in the image area -, the image and its area are indicated by the same symbol) 14.16
is performed by specifying the start point coordinates 14a and 16a and the end point coordinates 14b and 16b, so similarly for the character area, specify the area 12A with the start point coordinates 12a and the end point coordinates 12b, and specify the start point coordinates 12c, 12e and the end point coordinates 12d, Area 12 in 12e
Specify B and 12C. These areas are a series of character areas, but are divided into a group of rectangles with sides parallel to the X and Y axes, and the start and end point coordinates are those of the rectangle. In this way, there is no need to fill in space codes in the image areas 14 and 16, and it is only necessary to send character codes for the area 12, thereby reducing data transmission time and enabling efficient display.

Figure 3 shows an outline of a device that displays a mixture of characters and images, in which 20 is an external device such as a central processing unit (CPU), 22 is a converter (CG) that converts a character code into a bit pattern, and 24 is a run. Image decompressor 2 that decompresses compressed data such as length codes and converts them into bit patterns.
6 is a conversion unit that converts vector data representing an image into a bit pattern, and 28 is a register that specifies an area on the bitmap memory 3o. The bitmap memory records data in units of bits (pixels) in accordance with the display device 32 such as a CRT.1. It is a memory for a.

The display device 32 displays characters and/or images from the external device 20.
The procedure for displaying data on the display area is to first store data specifying a display area in the area register 28, and then transfer display data such as character codes, compressed image data, or vector information to the converters 22, 24 . or 26, where it is converted into a bit pattern and stored in the area of bitmap memory 30 indicated by area register 28.

For example, regarding the area 14 in FIG. 2, if the image displayed in the area 14 is a picture, and the picture is sent from the external device 20 in a code that indicates the black and white of each pixel on the scanning line by the run length, The code is converted into a bit pattern by the image decompressor 24 and stored in the area of the bitmap memory 30 indicated by the starting point coordinates 14a1 and ending point coordinates 14b sent to the area register 28. The display device 32 is CR
As a T display, the number of scanning lines per screen and the number of bits or pixels per scanning line are fixed, and if the former is N and the latter is M bits, the bitmap memory 30 also has BXN bits (or pixels). ), and can be imagined as a two-dimensional surface similar to a CRT screen), the start and end point coordinates are the number of bits from the left end, and the X coordinate is also the number of scanning lines from the top. The Y of the line
Coordinates are represented. The pattern data output from the image decompressor 24 indicates the image displayed on the area 14 by each bit (pixel) on a scanning line, and the pattern data is divided into a first scanning line segment, a second scanning line segment, etc.・are sequentially connected to form a series, but when storing in the bitmap memory 30, the X coordinate of the separate address is within the range of the X coordinate of the start and end points, and the Y coordinate of the separate address is the Y coordinate of the start and end points. The same two-dimensional image as the sent one can be stored in the area 14 by limiting the range to the range and sequentially writing from the upper end corresponding to the first line.

Assuming that the image displayed in area 16 is a line graph, this type of image is generally sent as hector data. The vector data consists of the X and Y coordinates of each bending point of the polygonal line, and an instruction to connect which points with which points with a straight line. To generate pattern data representing a line graph, for example, a memory having the width of the line graph area (also with a memory cell configuration corresponding to the scanning lines and pixels of the screen of a CRT display) is used, and the entire memory cell is It is sufficient to write the background color, for example, white, and then rewrite the corresponding cells to the polygonal line color, for example, black, according to the hector data, and read out the memory sequentially starting from the first line.

Such processing is performed by the vector/bit pattern converter 26. Once the pattern data is obtained, the procedure for writing it into area 16 of bitmap memory 30 is the same as for area 14.

The character data is sent from the external device 20 as a character code to the character code/bit pattern converter 22, and at this time, the coordinates of the start and end points of the character display area are sent from the external device to the area register 28. FIG. 4 shows an outline of the format of data such as character codes or images sent from an external device and the coordinate information of the display area. ■ is information for area 14, ■ is information for area 12A, areas 12B, 12C, 16
The same thing will be sent to . "Start" is the starting point coordinates,
"End" indicates the end point coordinates.

In the conventional method, the character display area is the entire screen, and the start and end point coordinates are known, so they are not sent. The number of lines on the screen and the number of characters per line are also fixed (this can be changed with special processing, but here we will use a general fixed method), and one character is, for example, 7 dots vertically and 5 dots horizontally. If the character is displayed, the converter (CG: Character Generator) 22 is accessed seven times in synchronization with scanning to output the dot pattern of the character with the same character code. The position of characters in a line is determined by the order of character codes, and if characters are displayed and start from the center, space codes are padded from the starting edge to the center. The center is empty,
Or, even if the end is empty, a space code is filled in that position. The line spacing is also fixed, and the scan lines are automatically blanked. Therefore, in the conventional method, the character code for one screen is simply sent in order from top to bottom and from left to right by filling space codes in areas where there are no characters to display the character screen. However, as mentioned above, this method is particularly wasteful when there are many image areas and few text areas.

In the present invention, since the character display area is specified by its start and end coordinates, the pattern from the converter 22 is written into the specified area of the bitmap memory 30.

The procedure for accessing the converter 22 with a character code, the procedure for writing an output pattern into a designated memory area, etc. are the same as the conventional method and the method for writing to the area 14, etc. described above. However, since the memory 30 functions as a buffer, it is not necessary to synchronize the access with the scanning of the CRT. Since the writing position on the memory 30 is specified by coordinate data, it is not necessary to fill the empty part with a space code.

However, character display area 1 '2 A, 12. B...
It is effective to fill the empty parts within ... with space codes; otherwise, it is necessary to divide the character display area into many parts and make sure that there is no empty space in each division.

Explanatory characters may be added to the graph, and when the external device 20 sends the characters as a character code, the graph display area 16 is subdivided and the character portions are used as character display areas.

Of course, this area is also specified by the start and end coordinates.

Achievements of the Invention As explained above, according to the present invention, since the coordinates of the character display area are specified, there is no need to fill in the non-character area with space codes outside the area, and a high-speed and efficient mixed display of characters and images is possible. It becomes possible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the conventional display method, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the display method of the present invention, Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 4 is a data format sent from an external device. FIG. In the drawing, 10 is the screen, 14.16 is the image display area, 1
2 is the character display area, 14a, 12a, ... are the starting points, 14b, 12b, old... are the ending points, 22° 24.2
6 is a converter that outputs a bit pattern, 2B is a register in which coordinate information is stored, and 32 is a display device. Applicant Fujitsu Ltd. Representative Patent Attorney Minoru Aoyagi Figure 1 Figure 2 +28 2 4 +2A 4 +4b , +2b! 2c +29 12e F top""d +2 -16 (3rd diagram start: end image position - evening

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a character display method for a device that displays a mixture of text and images, the character display area is specified by the coordinates of the start and end points of the area in the same way as the image display area on the screen, and the character groups appearing in the character display area are specified by character codes. A character display method characterized in that a bit pattern is generated based on the character code and displayed in the specified character display area.