Patent ID: 7589733

Claim:
A layout element arranging device, comprising: a first storage unit that prestores L paths (where L is a positive integer greater than 1) each having M arrangement points (where M is a positive integer specific to each path), the M arrangement points of a path including a start point and an end point of the path, each of the M arrangement points having a first time difference indicating a distance from the start point to the arrangement point, the first time difference between the start point and the end point being normalized to have a length of 1: a second storage unit that prestores N layout elements (where N is any positive integer), the N layout elements having respective different directional information, the N layout elements including a beginning element and a final element, each of the N layout elements having a second time difference indicating a distance from the beginning element to the layout element, the second time difference between the beginning element and the final element being normalized to have a length of 1: a display that displays the L paths, a first selection unit that selects one oath from the L paths, the first select unit prompting a user to select a single path from the displayed paths for arranging the layout elements along the selected single path; and a second selection unit that selects one layout element from the N layout elements to arrange the one layout element to one arrangement point among the M arrangement points of the selected one path, each of the M arrangement points having first information indicating a direction specified by a shape of the path of the arrangement point; each of the N layout elements having second information indicating a direction specified by a content of the layout element, the second information including facial direction information; and the second selection unit selecting the one layout element based on 1) comparison between the direction in the first information of an arrangement point with the facial direction information in the second information of each layout elements, and 2) comparison between the first time difference and the second time difference, to select a layout element having 1) the facial direction information that is closest to the direction in the first information, and 2) the second time difference that is closest to the first time difference, a state in which the selected one layout element is arranged being the same as a state in which the one layout element is prestored.