METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OUTLINE FONT CHARACTER GENERATION IN DOT MATRIX DEVICES

Method and apparatus for outline font character generation in dot matrix devices including a point transform engine, a parametric equation generator, an adaptive forward differencing engine, a transition detection engine, a transition processor, an intermediate storage, and a bitmap converter. The point transform engine performs a linear transformation on the input control points to produce a set of control points corresponding to the description of the scaled image. The parametric equation generator computes a set of coefficients used in generating polysegments. The adaptive forward differencing engine generates a set of controlled length vectors representing the image, while the transition detection engine determines the transition pixels by scanning the vectors both horizontally and vertically to determine whether a scanline is crossed by the vector. The transition processor enhances the image quality and alters the number and location of the previously determined transition pixel. The transition locations for the image are accumulated in the intermediate storage until all curves of the image have been processed. The bitmap converter converts, on a line-by-line basis, the transition information into bitmap format.