Patent ID: 7116844

Claim:
A method for obtaining vector data for a hand-drawn curve, comprising: a step of receiving and storing in a temporary memory coordinate data and pen pressure data representing points of a hand-drawn path obtained from a pointing device; a first extraction step of extracting from the coordinate data stored in the temporary memory coordinate characteristic points indicating characteristics of the path; a coordinate data storage step of storing the coordinate characteristic points into a first storage means; a second extraction step of extracting pen pressure characteristic points characterizing changes in pen pressure from the pen pressure data stored in the temporary memory; a pen pressure data storage step of storing the pen pressure characteristic points into a second storage means; and a plotting processing step of using the coordinate characteristic points stored in the first storage means and the pen pressure characteristic points stored in the second storage means to calculate a curve along which the thickness or density thereof changes in response to the pen pressure, wherein the first and second extraction steps are carried out independently of each other.