Patent ID: 6323864
Filing Date: 2001-11-27
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method for providing the developer of a software application with access to information about fonts, said method comprising the steps of:a computer program written by a software developer, said computer program obtaining at least one font handler object, said at least one font handler object implementing a font format interface, said font format interface providing at least one common method to access a subset of font format specific features of a set of font format specific features, said computer program configured to access said set of font format specific features without specifying a font type;obtaining a font object comprised of at least one reference to said set of font specific features;associating said font object with said font handler object;receiving a message requesting access to said subset of said font format specific features from said font object;retrieving said subset of said set of font format specific features, wherein said retrieving step further comprises the steps of:invoking said at least one common method to access said subset of said font format specific features from said at least one font handler object; andobtaining said subset of said font parameters using said reference.