WO1986005905A1

WO1986005905A1 - Improved method and apparatus for specifying and forming characters

Info

Publication number: WO1986005905A1
Application number: PCT/AU1986/000082
Authority: WO
Inventors: Shui-Yin Lo
Original assignee: Lo Shui Yin
Priority date: 1985-03-29
Filing date: 1986-03-27
Publication date: 1986-10-09
Also published as: EP0215929A1

Abstract

Method and apparatus for specifying and forming characters, such as Chinese or Roman characters. The characters are considered as being formed of one or more components, each of which components is in turn formed of one or more elements. The elements exist in various different variant forms. The specifying and forming of characters is effected by reference to a memory having first memory store (26) which for each character stores identities of the components thereof, a second memory store (28) which, for each component, stores information of the form X1, Yi, Zi....Xn, Yn, Zn, where the Xi, Yi specify the start point of the ith element in the component and Zi specifies a particular variant form of the element needed in forming the particular component, and a third memory store (30) storing, for each element variant, information as to how to draw that variant. In processing Chinese characters the elements comprise strokes identified by alpha numerics and accessing the memory is effected by using a code train made up of these alpha numerics, which code train may, however, be compressed by omission of one or more of the alpha numerics. Where two characters have a similar uncontracted alpha numeric code train, different contractions of the code train are used to identify the two characters. Inputting of code trains may be effected by a keyboard having only a number of keys corresponding to the total number of the elements, for Chinese characters, the five basic strokes.

Description

IMPROVED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SPECIFYING AND FORMING

CHARACTERS This invention relates to a method and apparatus for character processing including specifying and forming characters, particularly but not exclusively to a method of and apparatus for specifying and forming language characters such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other characters.

United Kingdom patent specification 2066534 de- scribes a method of character processing for characters made of strokes formed in a particular order, the characters being specified by the use of a limited number of elements, which elements comprise the whole or part of each stroke, elements of strokes of each charac- ter being allocated a unique alpha numeric code, code trains being formed for each particular character by ordering one or more selected said codes,the codes in a predetermined order of strokes of the respective charac¬ ter, the method comprising identifying characters by reference to the codes corresponding thereto, and forming the characters so identified. The term "ele¬ ment", is used in this specification in the same sense as in the prior United Kingdom specification, as meaning a fundamental unit of a stroke which stroke may comprise one or more elements. One or more strokes may form a component, a character being formed of one or more components.

Normally, the forming of the character is effected by printing the character or by displaying it on, say, a visual display unit. It may however be formed simply by generating a suitable electric signal for on trans¬ mission or data storage.

In practising the above method, it is usually necessary to provide a memory store having stored therein instructions for effecting display or printout of the character. If for example a dot matrix printer is employed to form the characters, the store may include data as to which of the matrix elements is to be actuated to effect printing. More generally, however, where printing is possibly to be effected by a device such as an ink jet printer, storage has in the past been effected by storing the start and end point of each element or of cojoining portions thereof. In such case, the display and printing are effected by "drawing" in linear steps from each start point to each end point of each element. This system can be reduced to identif¬ ication of matrix elements in a dot matrix printer by suitable programming.

A difficulty arises in the above described storage system in that a large amount of data needs to be stored for each character. In particular, where the method is employed for drawing of Chinese characters it is not uncommon for there to be numerous strokes in a part¬ icular character, each being made up of numerous elements, some of which elements may require specif¬ ication as a number of discrete portions. In one aspect, then, the invention is concerned with providing means whereby storage capacity required for storing this data may be reduced.

In one aspect, then, the invention provides a method of character processing for characters made of strokes formed in a particular order, the characters being specified by the use of a limited number of elements, which elements comprise the whole or part of each stroke, the elements of strokes of each character being allocated a unique alphanumeric code, code trains being formed for each particular character by ordering at least one or more selected said codes in a prede¬ termined order of corresponding strokes of the respec¬ tive character, the method comprising identifying characters by reference to the code trains corresponding thereto, and forming the characters so identified, characterised in that the step of forming is effected by •reference to a memory having a first store storing, for each said character, the identity of the or each component thereof, a second store storing, for each said component, information as to the spatial location in said component of the or each element thereof and an identification of which one of a number of different variant forms of that element is required in forming the component, and a third store storing, for each said element variant, information as to the drawing of that variant.

The invention also provides apparatus for character formation using the above described method comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alphanumeric codes iden¬ tify, with or without ambiguity, the particular charac¬ ter or characters, means whereby the character or characters can be displayed and output means whereby the character can be retrieved and formed, wherein said output means includes a memory storing instructions for forming the characters and wherein the memory includes a first store storing, for each said character, the identity of the or each component thereof, a second store storing, for each said component, information' as to the spatial location in said component of the or each element thereof and an identification of which one of a number of different variant forms of that element is required in forming the component, and a third store storing, for each said element variant, information as to the drawing of that variant.

In another aspect, the invention is concerned with obtaining improved speed of processing. In this aspect, then, the invention provides a method of charac¬ ter processing for characters made of strokes formed in a particular order, the characters being specified by the use of a-limited number of elements; which elements comprise the whole or part of each stroke, the elements being allocated a unique alphanumeric code, code trains being formed for each particular character by ordering one or more selected said codes in a predetermined order of corresponding strokes of the respective character, the method comprising identifying characters by ref- erence to the so derived code train corresponding thereto, and forming the characters so identified, characterised in that for at least one of said charac¬ ters the said identifying is effected by reference to a code train which does not include a code for every element in said at least one character. In particular, the full code train for said at least one character, including a code for every element in the character, may be stored to enable forming of the character, but the character may be identified, for retrieval, by input of less than the whole code train. Where the processing is concerned with processing of Chinese characters, the coding may exclude codings of single elements where these do not form part of a component (as herein defined) of a character. Where the method is practised by use of an apparatus including a typewriter or the like having a keyboard with keys corresponding to code train parts having more than one alpha numeric, the apparatus is arranged to be responsive to identify and form characters where only such keys corresponding to codes having multiple alphanumerics are actuated, at least where the key or keys so actuated to identify a character or identify a section of the code train such that any remaining section comprises only a code corres¬ ponding to a single said element.

In a still further aspect, the invention is con¬ cerned with removing ambiguities arising because some " characters, such as some Chinese language characters, are, when using the method of United Kingdom patent specification 2066534, identified by the same code train. In the United Kingdom patent specification, these ambiguities are resolvable by the provision of some selector means in the apparatus used for practising the method which selector means is effective to permit an operator to reject an initial character selection made by the apparatus and to replace it by another selection made on the basis of the same code train as was the first selection made. In accordance with this aspect of the invention there is provided a method of character processing for characters made of strokes formed in a particular order, the characters being specified by the use of a limited number of elements, which elements comprise the whole or part of each stroke, the elements being allocated a unique alphanumeric code, code trains being formed for each particular character by ordering one or more selected said codes in a predetermined order of corre¬ sponding strokes of the respective character, the method comprising identifying characters by reference to the so derived code trains corresponding thereto, and forming the characters so identified, characterised in that, for at least one character having an identifying code train that is the same as that for another character, said identifying is effected by reference to at least two blocks of the corresponding code train, which blocks contain at least one said code each, the blocks for these two characters being different. The blocks may be made different by arranging different groupings of the codes making up the two code trains, usually while still

- maintaining the same order of codes within each train. This method may be practised where identification is made on the basis of the full code train for each of these characters or where it is made by reference to code trains having less than one code for every element.

The last described method and apparatus may be employed in such a way as to enable distinguishing between characters which have the same code train when the full code train including one code for every element in each character is the same, by providing that differ¬ ent contractions of the full code are employed for identifying different ones of such characters. More generally, in this aspect of the invention, there is provided apparatus for character formation using the above described method comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alphanumeric codes identify, with or without ambiguity, the particular character or charac¬ ters, means whereby the character or characters can be displayed and output means whereby the character can be retrieved and formed, wherein said output means includes memory storing instructions for forming the characters, wherein processing means is effective to distinguish between characters, for which respective full alpha¬ numeric code trains including codes for each element in the respective character are the same, by identifying a particular one of those characters where said input means receives a code train which is a contraction of the full code train, obtained by omission of one or more of the code thereof, and by identifying the other where the full code train thereof is inputted or where a different contraction thereof is inputted.

In this aspect too, the invention provides appara¬ tus^'for character formation using the above described method comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alpha¬ numeric codes identify, with or without ambiguity, the particular character or characters, means whereby the character or characters can be displayed and output means whereby the character can be retrieved and formed, wherein said output means includes a memory storing instructions for forming the characters characterised in that said processing means is effective to distinguish between characters which are capable of identification by reference to code trains which are the same for each character, in accordance with input of the code trains in ways which differ.

In a still further aspect of the invention there is provided apparatus for character formation using the above described method comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alphanumeric codes identify, with or without ambig¬ uity, the particular character or characters, means whereby the character or characters can be displayed and output means whereby the character can be retrieved and formed, wherein said input means comprises a keyboard having keys for inputting said alpha numeric codes and wherein at least a majority of the keys for so inputting codes operate to input only a single code when so operated.

The invention is further described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective of an apparatus formed in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 is a -diagram- of the keyboard of the apparatus of Figure 1; '

Figure 3 is a diagram, in two parts labelled "3a" and "3b", illustrating codings of variant forms elements used in forming characters in an exemplary method in accordance with the invention;

Figure 4 illustrates exemplary codings when practising the method described in relation to Figure 3; Figures 5 and 6 show layouts for two kinds of small keyboards which can be employed in practising this invention; and

Figure 7 is a diagram of a memory used in forming characters in accordance with the invention. Referring firstly to Figures 1 and 2, the apparatus 10 shown in Figure 1 is substantially the same in general form as that in United Kingdom patent specification 2066534 and reference may be made to that specification for a full description. The apparatus, in this instance is for display and printing of Chinese characters. It is sufficient to note that the apparatus comprises an input means 11 which can receive alpha¬ numeric codes corresponding to the order of formation of elements of the character, processing means 12 whereby the alphanumeric codes identify, with or without ambigu¬ ity, the particular characters or character, means 13 whereby the characters or character can be displayed and if ambiguous characters are displayed means whereby the required character can be selected and output means 14 whereby the character can be retrieved and formed.

The input means may be a typewriter, a standard keyboard or, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, a spec¬ ially formed keyboard, the processing means may be a computer, mini computer or a microprocessor operating in conjunction with for example a disc drive 15," the display means may be a V.D.U., as illustrated in Figure 1 - or may be comprised of light emitting diodes (L.E.D.) or a liquid-crystal display (L.C.D.) and the output means may for example be a mechanical, electrical, optical, photographic, thermal or ink-jet device.

The processing means may comprise means to reject further members of the alphanumeric train as soon as there is no ambiguity. It may also comprise means for various forms of character processing so the arrangement of the various characters can be widely manipulated.

In forming Chinese characters, hereinafter for ease simply stated to be characters, the characters are commonly formed by writing or painting the strokes of the character in a particular order, either the tradi¬ tionally accepted or an otherwise specified order. Any character is considered to be made up of elements of only five types, these being dots and horizontal, vertical, positive diagonal and negative diagonal strokes in specific positions. The alphanumeric codes of these elements comprise the respective digits 1 to 5 respectively and thus by applying the required digit to each element of the character in the traditional order that it is made when forming the character there is obtained a code train which represents the formation of a particular character. It will be appreciated that this train can be very short in that it can have as little as one or two digits or, for more complicated characters, can have thirty or more digits.

It has been found that by restricting the alpha- numeric codes to a predetermined number of digits, say ten, although the number of ambiguities increase, the total percentage is still low, and as described in United Kingdom patent specification 2066534, it is possible to provide means to eliminate these ambigu- ities.

The processing means 12 is programmed with the required number of characters, each of which can be addressed by its corresponding alphanumeric code train. An operator can then, by viewing the character, deter- mine the required alphanumeric code, to the required number of digits, and feed this through the input device to the correct address in the computer memory and the character is then available. Preferably the character is immediately brought up on the display means 13 and the operator can ascertain whether or not the input was correct and the character shown is that which was required. A preferred keyboard is shown in more detail in Figure 2. In addition to keys for input of codes of single ones of the five basic elements, there are several keys which when operated input codes for com- binations of elements occurring with some frequency. By depressing selected keys in succession the whole of a code train can be inputted to enable the computer to identify the designated character for display and then for printing. The recognition of characters which are to be printed on actuation of keys of the keyboard identifying particular code trains is effected in the same fashion as described in United Kingdom specification 2066534 and is not detailed here. It is suffice to note that, in order to display the character or print it, information is needed as to how to actually construct the character once identified. Where it is simply desired to print out characters with a* daisywheel or the like identif¬ ication of the code train can be used to identify the position of the daisywheel for printing. However for display purposes, the display device still requires information as to how to actually draw the character whilst, where for example ink-jet printer is used similar information is necessary to enable the ink-jet printer to effect printing. In other case, such as where a dot matrix printer is employed some further coding may be necessary to define the components of the dot matrix printer which are to be actuated to actually form the character required. The present invention differs from that in the United Kingdom specification 2066534 in the manner in which, once a character is identified, information as to how to actually draw the character is extracted. For purposes of the following explanation, it will be assumed that each character is represented by points in a matrix of elements sixteen units wide and sixteen units high. Now, while for identification purposes it is sufficient to identify individual elements or strokes within a character in accordance with the described classification of elements into five kinds, i.e. dot, horizontal stroke, vertical stroke and positive and negatively sloped elements this is identification is not sufficient to simply enable the character to be drawn. Thus_o the position of each element is not indicated in the alphanumeric coding whilst, frequently, elements differ in physical form as between character to char¬ acter. This difficulty is overcome, in accordance with the prior art, by arranging a memory in which data for storing the information relating to the drawing of each character i-s separately stored. Thus, if a particular alphanumeric code train is called up, then the memory is addressed to give the start and end point of each element in the character, referenced in some prede¬ termined fashion. Where a grid such as the aforedescribed sixteen by sixteen grid is used, the start and end point of each element may thus be spe¬ cified. When display is effected, the visual display device would then operate to effect a display joining the start and end points of each element thereby to effect drawing of a character. If an ink-jet printer is employed for example the same data could be used dir¬ ectly to control the movement of the ink-jet to draw each element. This embodiment of the present invention is essentially characterised in that, instead of storing full data for drawing each character separately when it is accessed by calling up the particular code train therefor, the processing means of the present invention is provided with a memory organised with three separate stores.

1. In the first, for each character with a given alphanumeric code train is decomposed into its components, or sometimes called radicals. In the Chinese dictionary there are over two hundred radicals. But each radical may have different sizes and occupy different position in a character. This increases the number of components which need to be taken account of in drawing Chinese characters to approximately₀six hundred in number. Each such component is given a number w in the memory. The alphanumeric code train is augmented by a set of w. For example the character A^ 43323222 may be assigned two numbers w.. and w₂ corresponding to the component ] and JS. For Chinese^characters which cannot be separated into - components, the whole character will be treated as a component and stored as stroke elements so that character writing proceeds by by-passing this first store and proceeding directly to the second store.

2. The second store is where data are given on the positional location of at least one point on each element included in the components of a character, as well as identifying for each such element, a code is also stored indicating which of a number of variant forms of the element in question needs to be used to effect drawing of the particular character concerned.

3. The third store provides data as to how to draw each variant form of element. Figure 3 shows the five elements used in accordance with the invention of United Kingdom patent specifica¬ tion 2066534 used for forming the code trains used in identifying characters and, for each such element variant forms are shown, being described by a number of points in the sixteen by sixteen grid aforementioned. However, for convenience of representation here, the whole of each grid is not shown in each instance. The aforementioned third store has a bank of data as to how to form each variant of each element which is likely to be encountered in practice. In fact, with Chinese characters there are a limited number of such variant forms. For example in the example shown in Figure 3 the element having the greatest number of variant forms, that identified by the alphanumeric by 2 has only sixteen different forms. The set of variant forms illustrated in Figure 3 is adequate to enable representation of substantially all Chinese characters.*

The data stored in the second memory store may be in the form X-x. , Y-_.L , Z......Xπ, Y-π, Zπ where Xi. , i_s the horizontal location of a start point of the i element in the code train representing the character. Y. c tes the start vertical point for t represents a variant form of the i

drawing the character in question. In Figure 4, the first of the two radicals of the Chinese character illustrated therein has the identifying code train 43, and when this code train is inputted to the first store of the memory that memory outputs (Xm , Y, , ^~ m ^~ X~, ₂, ₂) as the alphanumerics (6, 13, 4; 5, 11, 8) as shown in Figure 4. Then, by reference to the third store, the processing means of the apparatus of the invention is able to retrieve the variant forms for each of the elements as represented in this particular example by the numbers "4 and 8" for the respective fourth and third kinds of element, to enable a full set of data for drawing the elements in the character to be concerned to be retrieved. The code numbers 6, 13 and 5, 11 indicate the start positions for drawing each of the elements in the character.

Figure 4 also shows the second radical of the Chinese character example for representing the Chinese character having the code train 323222 as shown.

The above processing operations are summarised with reference to Figure 7, where the first, second and third memory stores are designated by reference numerals 26, 28 and 30 respectfully. The memory store 26 is shown as storing, for each possible code train C_Q, the corresponding components w-. , >.... (or radicals) which make up the character so identified.. The memory store 28 is shown as storing, for each of the possible component w_n....w , the general instructions for forming each element (or stroke) thereof, each element being generally described, in the input train and thus in the part of the train designating the relevant component, by respective numbers 1 to 5. The instructions for forming each element in store 28 are stored as the aforementioned sets of X,, Y. , Z....X , Y , Z , where the X., Z. designate start points of the elements and the Z. indicate the variant forms of the elements to be used.

The memory store 30 is shown as receiving the Z. data from the store 28 as well as the element designations from the input train. Memory store 30 provides, for each combination of such identifications, data for forming the identified element variation. The aforementioned example involving retrieval of data for forming the character A__ is further illustrated in Figure 7 by indications therein of all of the memory locations involved in storage of data for forming the first component of that character, and some of those involved in storage of data for forming the second component thereof.

While the three memory stores 26, 28, 30 are shown as separate entities in Figure 7, they may of course simply comprise blocks of storage within a single memory.

It will be appreciated that, by the above process, the third memory store needs only store data describing the limited number of variant element forms which are necessary to form characters and the first and second stores need contain a substantially less amount of data than would be necessary in accordance with pr-Tor practice for fully specifying the form of the each character. Thus a considerable saving in memory capacity is obtainable. Aside from this described advantage, the arrangement in accordance with this invention has the particular advantage that by increasing the number of variant forms for each element which are stored it is simple to provide a facility of the apparatus to print a wide variety of different fonts. Thus, there may a number of sets of variant forms for each' element stored in the third store, each set corresponding to a particular font which would be selectable by use of suitable keys on the keyboard of the apparatus. Thus it would be easily possible to provide numerous different fonts without seriously taxing the storage capacity of the apparatus. These fonts include fonts where the variation in stroke width naturally occurring when representing Chinese characters by brush is duplicate. In that case, the data in the second memory store would include data as to the locations of points around the periphery of each stroke. However a reference grid of greater than 16 x 16 is preferred in this instance.

In the apparatus described in United Kingdom patent specification 2066534 the keys of the keyboard includes keys (as shown in Figure 2) which when depressed provide input of codes for multiple elements. Thereby, it is possible to achieve a substantial increase in operating speed of the apparatus. A skilled operator may thus select combinations of codes to give parts of the code trains in a fashion minimising the need to use the keys for input of single code alphanumerics (i.e. for input of single alphanumerics) and by this means can achieve a very satisfactory operating speed. It has now been discovered, however, that it is possible to program the processing means controlling operation of the apparatus to be responsive to input of sections only of codes where the sections of the codes are those which comprise two or more alphanumerics and thus represent two or more elements as inputted by use only of the keys which result in input of more than one alphanumeric. That is to say, the operator in this instance could, when enter¬ ing a code train, skip alphanumerics corresponding to single elements whilst still permitting identification of characters. 18

EXAMPLE

In representing Chinese characters using the aforementioned code using five digits to represent five classes of strokes for Chinese characters, the code is arranged in standard stroke ordering fashion, with the Strokes (in this case single "elements") represented as follows:

- I / \

1 , 2, 3, 4, 5,

For example the word - ^ T is represented by

^:A 11423 14442 3.

The number of strokes is, K=ll. Single code input keys, or "singlet" keys of the keyboard would need to be eleven times to produce this code for the character. The "multi-stroke" keys aforementioned represent the most frequent combinations of strokes:

E.g. The water radical y is represented by 114 The radical

is represented by 2314 The combination -p is represented by 23. So the exemplary character mentioned above can be typed as:

114 2314 44 23 This requires a strike number of K=5, which is a consid¬ erable saving from the original K=ll.

In accordance with this invention this scheme is improved by skipping the five single stroke keys in typing. So the above «- character is typed as 114 2314 23 The two single strokes 44 are omitted from typing, and the total number of strokes becomes K=3, a 40% reduction from K=5.

In general the saving achieved by omission of singlets is approximately 30% and the average stroke per

- character is reduced from K = 3.7 to an average of K=2.

Of course, the omission of these singlets from the code trains will introduce additional ambiguities.

However it has been found that these ambiguities can be resolved by software or by simple memory training on the part of the operator. Indeed it is possible to so eliminate certain of the ambiguities which arise even where the full code trains are inputted (owing to the fact that because of the different variants of each stroke which are possible some characters which are different will have the same code train) .

The following table shows, in fact, how old ambigu¬ ities- likely to arise because of duplication of the same code for different characters can be resolved, in accordance with this invention:

5

20 TABLE I

Characters Full Code Resolution of ambiguities train in improved code train

New Select

114 232 114 232 114 23_ 114 232 s

114 245 114 245

§ 114 323222 114 32322 114 323 114 32322 s

Here, three pairs of characters are shown which have the same full code train as between each pair. By input of the full code train, in accordance with past practice, individual ones of each pair could not be distinguished and, as taught in United Kingdom patent specification 2066534, the apparatus of that invention would operate to first display the most commonly occurring character, the operator having a facility to discard that choice if it were not wanted and to replace it by the next most commonly occurring character, and so forth through all of the characters having the same code until the opera¬ tor was able to choose the correct character. Under the new coding arrangements of this invention, it is poss¬ ible to distinguish between two characters of each pair if the operator remembers to adopt corresponding differ¬ ent methods of representing the code trains or to use a contracted or differently contracted form of the charac¬ ters in each instance. For example for the first pair of characters shown the operator may remember to omit the last code number when keying in the code for one of the characters. Similarly with the second pair, whilst in the third pair shown the operator would remember to omit the last two elements when keying in the code corresponding to one of the members of that pair. In order, however, to provide a facility for retrieval of characters when the operator is unfamiliar with the rules for selection a "select" key may be provided on the operator keyboard so that after keying in the full code and pressing the select key the character which is not displayed when the full code is inputted will then be displayed.

Table 2 shows how ambiguities arising from omission of skipping of singlets, in accordance with the inven¬ tion, are resolved.

TABLE 2

Character Code Trains Improved Code Train

~

124 231 124 23_ ϊT 1124 231 124 231

1124 2311 124 231 1

7ύ 1242321 124 232 1

+ 23 23_

1123 1 23 - x Here, three sets of characters, the first having three characters and the second and third sets having two characters and their full code trains are shown. In the first set, although the code trains where all elements are represented differ, the contracted code obtained when the multiple stroke keys 124, 23 were used for inputting the corresponding contracted code trains would each be the same. However, the operator may memorise different truncated code trains as shown under the column "IMPROVED CODE TRAIN" and the processing means would then be response to identify the characters in accordance with these. Similar ambiguities which might arise from omission of singlets in the second and third pairs of characters shown in Table 2 would be avoided by memorising these rules for the particular characters concerned.

Generally, the resolution between possibly ambigu¬ ously represented characters can come about by- fa) using different multi stroke keys where under particular circumstances, such as using ^3_ or 231 and/or (b) by keeping one or more single stroke keys, such as "1" in Table 2 either at the end or at the beginning.

By the above process, it is expected that an operator may need to memorize say two hundred pairs and the corresponding coding. However it will be noted that the more complicated the characters are, the easier it is to distinguish them and that ambiguities generally come from simple characters and in particular the first thousand most frequently occurring characters so that it is not thought that any great difficulty would be involved in memorising the method of handling these ambiguities. Although the keyboard shown in Figure 2 has multi stroke keys, it is possible, generally to construct a small keyboard where there are only five basic stroke keys or only a few of multi stroke keys. Figures 5 and 6 illustrate possible arrangements for such keyboards. Furthermore, if a shift key is employed with the keyboards of Figures 5 and 6, or indeed with that described in Figure 2 or in United Kingdom patent specification 2066534 the number of multi strokes representable is doubled.

While the invention has been described in relation, particularly, to the processing of Chinese characters, the invention is equally applicable to processing of other characters. For example, the processing operations described with reference to Figures 3a, 3b, 4 and 7 whereby the different fonts for Chinese characters maybe retrieved and stored in an economical fashion may equally be applied to alphabet letters as employed in English or other Roman derived alphabets. Thus, for example italic or various fancy styles may be stored by the storage of variant forms of parts of the characters which parts may be common to several different characters to drastically reduce the storage space required for storing a number of such characters.

Claims

1. A method of character processing for characters made of strokes formed in a particular order, the characters being specified by the use of a limited number of elements, which elements comprise the whole or part of each stroke, the elements of strokes of each character being allocated a unique alphanumeric code, code trains being formed for each particular character by ordering at least one or more selected said codes in a predetermined order of corresponding strokes of the respective character, the method comprising identifying characters by reference to the code trains corresponding thereto, and forming the characters so identified, characterised in that the step of forming is effected by reference to a memory having stored therein instructions for forming the characters, said memor .including: a first store storing, for each said character, the identity of the or each component thereof, a second store storing, for each said component, information as to the spatial location in said component of the or each element thereof and an identification of which one of a number of different variant forms of that element is required in forming the component, and a third store storing, for each said element variant, information as to the drawing of that variant.

2. Apparatus for character formation, using the method of claim 1, comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alphanumeric codes identify, with or without ambiguity, the particular character or characters, means whereby the character or characters can be displayed and output means whereby the character can retrieved and formed, wherein said output means includes a memory storing instructions for forming the characters and wherein the memory includes a first store storing, for each said character, the identity of the or each component thereof, a second store storing, for each said component, information as to the spatial location in said component of the or each element thereof and an identification of which one of a number of different variant forms of that element is required in forming the component, and a third store storing, for each said element variant, information as to the drawing of that variant.

3. A method of character processing for characters made of strokes formed in a particular order, the characters being specified by the use. of a limited number of elements; which elements comprise the whole or part of each stroke, the elements being allocated a unique alphanumeric code, code trains being formed for each particular character by ordering one or more selected said codes in a predetermined order of corresponding strokes of the respective character, the method comprising identifying characters by reference to the so derived code train corresponding thereto, and forming the characters so identified, characterised in that for at least one of said characters the said identifying is effected by reference to a code train which does not include a code for every element in said at least one character.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the full code train for said at least one character, including a code for every element in the character, is stored to enable forming of the character, the character being identified, for retrieval, by input of less than the whole code train.

5. A method as claimed in claim 3 or 4, for processing Chinese characters, the coding excluding codings of single elements where these do not form part of a component (as herein defined) of a character.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, practised by use of an apparatus including a typewriter or other apparatus having a keyboard with keys corresponding to code train parts having more than one alphanumeric, the apparatus responding to identify and form characters where only such keys corresponding to codes having multiple alphanumerics are actuated, at least where the- key or- keys ^*so actuated to identify a* character or identify a section of the code train such that any remaining section comprises only a code corresponding to a single said element.

7. A method of character processing for characters made of strokes formed in a particular order, the characters being specified by the use of a limited number of elements, which elements comprise the whole or part of each stroke, the elements being allocated a unique alphanumeric code, code trains being formed for each particular character by ordering one or more selected said codes in a predetermined order of corresponding strokes of the respective character, the method comprising identifying characters by reference to the so derived code trains corresponding thereto, and forming the characters so identified, characterised in that, for at least one character having an identifying code train that is the same as that for another character, said identifying is effected by reference to at least two blocks of the corresponding code train, which blocks contain at least one said code each, the blocks for these two characters being different.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein said blocks are made different by arranging different groupings of the codes making up the two code trains.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8 wherein the blocks are made different by said arranging of different groupings, whilst maintaining the same order of codes within each train.

10. Apparatus for character formation using the above described method comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alphanumeric codes identify, with or without ambiguity the particular character or characters, means whereby the character or characters can be displayed and output means whereby the character can be retrieved and formed, wherein said output means includes memory storing instructions for forming the characters, wherein processing means is effective to distinguish between characters, for which respective full alphanumeric code trains including codes for each element in the respective character are the same, by identifying a particular one of those characters where said input means receives a code train which is a contraction of the full code train, obtained by omission of one or more of the code thereof, and by identifying the other where the full code train thereof is inputted or where a different contraction thereof is inputted.

11. Apparatus for character formation, using the method of claim 10, comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alphanumeric codes identify, with or without ambiguity, the particular character or characters, means whereby the character or characters can be displayed and output means whereby the character can be retrieved and formed, wherein said output means includes a memory storing instructions for forming the characters characterised in that said processing means is effective to distinguish between characters which are capable of identification by reference to code trains which are the same for each character, in accordance with input of the code trains in ways which differ.

12. Apparatus for character formation, using the method of claim 10, comprising an input means which can receive alphanumeric codes, processing means whereby the alphanumeric codes identify, with or without ambiguity, the particular character or characters, means whereby the character or characters, can be displayed and output means whereby the character can be retrieved and formed, wherein said input means comprises a keyboard having keys for inputting said alphanumeric codes and wherein at least a majority of the keys for so inputting codes operate to input only a single code when so operated.

13. A method of forming characters whereby variant forms of the same character may be generated, forming being effected by reference to a memory having stored therein instructions for forming the characters, said memory including: a first store storing, for each said character, the identity of the or each component thereof, a second store storing, for each said component, information as to the spatial location in said component of the or each element thereof and an identification of which one of a number of different variant forms of that element is required in forming the component, and a third store storing, for each said element variant, information as to the drawing of that variant.

14. Apparatus for character formation, comprising a memory having stored therein instructions for forming the characters said memory including: a first store storing, for each said character, the identity of the or each component thereof, a second store storing, for each said component, information as to the spatial location in said component of the or each element thereof and an identification of which one of a number of different variant forms of that element is required in forming the component, and a third store storing, for each said element variant, information as to the drawing of that variant.

15. A method of character processing as claimed in claim 13 wherein said characters are Chinese characters.

16. A method of character processing as claimed in claim 13 wherein said characters are Roman characters.

17. Apparatus for character formation as claimed in claim 14 wherein said characters are Chinese characters.

18. Apparatus for character formation as claimed in claim 14 wherein said characters are Roman characters.

19. Apparatus for character formation as claimed in claim 2 wherein said characters are Chinese characters.

20. A method of character processing as claimed in Claim 3, Claim 4, Claim 5 or Claim 6 wherein said characters are Chinese characters.

21. A method of character processing as claimed in any one of Claims 7 to 9 wherein said characters are Chinese characters.

^'22. - Apparatus for character formation as claimed in Claim 10 wherein said characters are Chinese characters.