Patent ID: 7236174

Claim:
A method in a computing system that has access to a set of control points defining an outline of a graphical object for simplifying the control data that represents the outline of the graphical object, the method comprising: identifying a plurality of local extrema on the outline of the graphical object; identifying a plurality of sets of local extrema, each local extremum in a set of local extrema being on a common edge of the outline of the graphical object, each set of local extrema including one or more local extremum from the plurality of identified local extrema; determining that control points interspersed between local extrema or at the local extremum of each set of local extrema are on a common edge of a simplified outline, including when the control points are off of the outline of the graphical object; generating simplified control data that represents an outline of the common edges of a simplified graphical object, the simplified graphical object having been derived from the graphical object, the simplified control data defining a common edge including straight line segments defined by and through the control points that are interspersed between local extrema or at the local extremum, including when the control points are off of the outline of the graphical object; using the simplified control data to display the graphical object on a display device.