Patent ID: 6901427

Claim:
A font sharing system in which data can be communicated between a client computer and a server, data representing a character string including a plurality of characters and data representing sizes of characters are included in the character string being transmitted to said server from said client computer, said server comprising: layout generating means for generating data representing a layout based upon the data representing the character string and the data representing the sizes of characters transmitted from said client computer; and transmitting means for transmitting the layout data generated by said layout generating means, said client computer comprising: display control means for controlling a display device so as to display only layout frames in a preview area on a display screen, each of the layout frames corresponding to the size of each character included in the character string based upon the layout data transmitted from said transmitting means of said server, wherein each of the layout frames are box-shaped such that each of the layout frames is able to enclose their respective characters that are represented by the data representing the sizes of characters.