Raster versus vector text fonts

[John McNally]

Can anyone give me pointers on methods of handling dual font
representations in raster and vector? For example, is there
available any software or algorithms for converting a raster font
definition into an efficient vector representation?

Does anyone have any experience in this problem area? If so, how
have you handled the problem? We would like to use raster font
definitions because of their flexibility in defining unique fonts
and their speed in rendering text on raster displays. However,
not all software and/or hardware we must interface with can
support raster text rendering.

The approach we are probably going to take is to define fonts in
raster and associate with them a vector representation. The
vector representation could be manually defined or generated from
the raster definition. Device drivers would access the definition
they need for the particular device. If one representation or the
other is missing, then any attempt to use a device that requires
the missing representation would fail.

Any comments on this? Any suggestions for alternatives?

Respond by e-mail and I will summarize for the net, if interest
warrants it.

Thanks in advance,
--
John McNally GE/Calma 9805 Scranton Rd. San Diego CA 92121
...{ucbvax | decvax}!sdcsvax!calmasd!jpm (619)-587-3211

[shan Curtis]

Organization : California Institute of Technology
Keywords: text fonts, raster, vector, Breshenheim (sp??) algorithms

.

I am also extremely interested in this subject, especially converting
raster fonts to vector fonts. Also, could someone please send me
the Breshenheim (spelling?) algorithm for rasterizing circles?
Any advice and information is greatly appreciated.
Curtis

[vanz...@uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu]

See Foley and Van Dam, "Fundamentals of Interactive Computer
Graphics" for a complete discussion of Bresenham's Circle Algorithm...