Patent · US Expired

Font type identification

US6496600B1 · kind B1 · utility

13Cited by
7References
95Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateJun 17, 1996
Grant dateDec 17, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 17, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06V30/245
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An optical character recognition system identifies a font type for an image of a block of text. Key characters matching characters in a pre-defined character set are located in the text block. The image of the text block is partitioned into plural image segments where, for example, each image segment is an image of one line of text. Each image segment is evaluated to determine whether the characters in the image segment have fixed pitch or variable pitch. For each key character in the image segments designated as variable pitch, a determination is made whether a gap exists between a left edge of the key character image and the left border of the key character. A font type is identified for the characters in the image data based on the fixed pitch determinations and the gap determinations.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.