Hewlett-packard Company

Michael S DeLaurentis

Benjamin P Bauermeister

Clyde D McQueen

Raymond G Beausoleil

Glenn G Brooks

Donald J Munsil

Daniel E Lipkie

Paul M Higinbotham

Jason L Staczek

A method for managing a plurality of different fonts that are installed on a computer. Raw font data for the plurality of fonts are stored in files on a computer hard disk (34). At least some of the fonts for which a character set is defined by the raw data are installed in the graphics user interface operating system running on a computer. The installed fonts are listed in a file (40). The method enables a user (22) to create one or more font menu lists (28) that are displayed to the user whenever selection of a font for use in a document by an application is desired. The font menu lists are subsets of the complete list of installed fonts on the operating system. Applications (42) can access any of the fonts installed on the system, but whenever a font must be selected by the user for use in a document, a more limited list of fonts appropriate for the application then running on the computer is displayed, reducing confusion as to the appropriate fonts that should be considered. Fonts are also generated on-the-fly, using PANOSE.TM. numbers, if a font required for use in a document by an application is not installed. Special fonts, which are defined by PANOSE.TM. numbers and other data that fine tune the PANOSE.TM. number description, are included in the list of installed fonts, and are also generated on-the-fly.

Font manager with selective access of installed fonts

A method and system for parametrically generating characters and fonts. A font generation system is run on a computer and allows a user to create a Terafont binary file, which includes a set of universal font generation rules that are applied to generating fonts consistent with a common type of alphabet, and parametric data files, each of which specify a particular font. The user can create a new font, or replicate an existing font. The parametric data are distributed as files or embedded in documents. One or more characters of a font are generated using a font engine that executes the Terafont binary file on a computer using the parametric data specifying that font as an input. The parametric data provided to the font engine at least include a minimal set of font measurement data, such as a PANOSE.TM. number, which are used to compute global variables representing typographic characteristics common to many--if not all--of the glyphs in the font. Additional global and local variables needed to capture nuances of individual characters are computed or assigned default values by the font engine. Thus, a wide variety of fonts can be generated, each font using a set of parametric data relatively small in size, without extrapolating from a single master outline or interpolating between two or more outlines. Since the generated character outlines are defined in terms of conventional mathematical constructs, they are easily reformatted into other digital font formats by the font engine, if necessary.

Method and system for creating, specifying, and generating parametric

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Michael S DeLaurentis