Patent ID: 7710422

Claim:
A computer-readable storage medium including a data structure stored thereon for providing data corresponding to a plurality of characters in accordance with a font, the data structure comprising: a trajectory based data set including data corresponding to the plurality of characters in a first format suitable for use by a computing device to render the plurality of characters in accordance with the font, the trajectory based data set comprising a first set of design rules, a first descriptive code corresponding to the first format of the plurality of characters; first operational code executable by the computing device to render, using the trajectory based data set, the plurality of characters according to a first method of rendering; an outline based data set including data corresponding to the plurality of characters in a second format suitable for use by the computing device to render the plurality of characters in accordance with the font, the outline based data set comprising a second set of design rules, a second descriptive code corresponding to the second format of the plurality of characters; and second operational code executable by the computing device to render, using the outline based data set, the plurality of characters according to a second method of rendering; third operational code executable by the computing device to select, based on runtime conditions, a data set from a group comprised of at least the trajectory based data set and the outline based data set; fourth operational code executable by the computing device to output a plurality of rendered characters from an output device in a human visible form, wherein: when the trajectory based data set is selected by the third operational code, the plurality of rendered characters are rendered by execution of the first operational code, when the outline based data set is selected by the third operational code, the plurality of rendered characters are rendered by execution of the second operational code, the first format for the trajectory based data set is a trajectory-based description having, for each of the plurality of characters, data defining at least one open path, the first method of rendering comprises sweeping a brush along each of the at least one open paths of a character to be rendered, the second format for the outline based data set is an outline-based description having, for each of the plurality of characters, data defining at least one closed contour, and the second method of rendering comprises filling a region bounded by the at least one closed contour for a character to be rendered.