Using and accessing information from fonts in multiple formats

Abstract

One embodiment of the invention provide for access and use of information from fonts in multiple formats (including font format specific information) in an object oriented system. A generic private Font Handler abstract class is defined with multiple methods and references to objects and variables to provide for the storage and retrieval of information. Subclasses of the Font Handler class implement the abstract methods and provide for retrieval of this information. Further, each Font Handler subclass and instances thereof implement a specific interface that provides format specific capabilities. Font information is stored in instances of the Font Handler. A Font class is defined that provides application developers the ability to access the information from the Font Handler. When an application developer desires to use a particular font, the developer creates an instance of the Font class and establishes an association with a corresponding Font Handler instance. Frequently used information may be cached into variables or objects of the Font class. Information that is not cached is retrieved by calling the appropriate Font Handler method through its association. In this manner, one object may be used to access and use fonts of varying formats. An application developer may retrieve general information and format specific information from one object, a Font class object, without any knowledge of the underlying Font Handler. In another embodiment, the Font Handler class is not utilized and the Font class incorporates the methods and references of the Font Handler class thus providing direct access to font information.