Activating a filling of a graphical object

Abstract

A method is disclosed for activating the filling of a graphical object. The method generates, for a current scanline, a plurality of edge records associated with an edge of the object from a previously generated edge record for a previous scanline. One of these edge records comprises fractional data which defines a minimum position of the edge within the current scanline or on a border thereto with respect to a direction along said current scanline. Another of these edge records comprises fractional data which defines a maximum position of the edge within the current scanline or on a border thereto with respect to a direction along the current scanline. One of these edge records comprises fractional data which defines an exit position of the edge from the current scanline. The previously generated edge record comprises fractional data defining an exit point of the edge from the previous scanline. After the edge record generation step, the method then activates, for the current scanline, the filling of the graphical object over a run of pixels or pixel from a minimum pixel position to a maximum pixel position. The minimum pixel position is derived from rounding down a value equal to the fractional data of the edge record defining the minimum position, and the maximum pixel position is derived from rounding up a value equal to the fractional data of the edge record defining the maximum position.