Patent ID: 7598954

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for adapting and rendering a graphic effect associated with text rendered via an output device, comprising: receiving, by a computing system, a character associated with the graphic effect, wherein the received character is an additional character to be added to at least one previously received character also associated with the graphic effect; determining, by the computing system, whether the graphic effect has not been fully rendered with the at least one previously received character by determining whether a render call sent to a graphics effects layer for fully rendering the at least one previously received character has not returned by the time the character to be added is received; and in response to determining, by the computer system, that the graphic effect has not been fully rendered with the at least one previously received character, degrading a display quality of the graphic effect from a full fidelity and rendering the graphic effect and the character at less than the full fidelity to allow the character and the graphic effect to be displayed via the output device in substantially real time, wherein degrading a display quality of the graphic effect and rendering the graphic effect comprises measuring each of the following: a) a current quality of the graphic effect applied to the previously received character; b) an amount of time spent rendering graphic effects wherein the graphic effects were fully rendered; c) an amount of time spent rendering graphic effects wherein rendering the graphic effects was aborted; d) a ratio level, between a value of zero and a value of one, at which a display quality upgrade is to occur; e) an amount of time at which b) and c) are to be scaled using a scale factor; f) a factor, between a value of zero and a value of one, by which b) and c) are to be multiplied; and g) a font size of the character being rendered; wherein the display quality is not degraded when the font size of the character is less than or equal to a minimum threshold value thereby safeguarding legibility.