Intelligent Font Replacement for Missing Glyphs

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing technologies fail to effectively replace missing glyphs in electronic documents when the rendering device lacks the necessary font, leading to aesthetically displeasing placeholders and errors, as they do not intelligently select suitable font replacements.

Innovation Solution

A computer-implemented method that identifies missing glyphs, extracts features from the source font, ranks target fonts based on similarity, and displays a subset of ranked fonts to replace each missing glyph, ensuring visual and stylistic consistency with the original font.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If a placeholder symbol is used to represent a missing character, then the document can be rendered on devices without the specific font, but the aesthetic quality and visual consistency of the document deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedocument compatibilityVSAvoidvisual consistency

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSShape

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a copy of the missing glyph by extracting features from the source font and generating a substitute glyph that mimics the original's visual characteristics. This allows the document to maintain visual consistency while being renderable on devices without the original font.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes the parameters of the placeholder by dynamically generating substitute glyphs with adjusted visual properties (such as width, height, and stylistic features) to match the surrounding text, rather than using fixed placeholder symbols.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

2Adaptability or versatility

If a character is displayed that does not fit esthetically with other characters, then the document can be rendered without the original font, but the overall quality and readability of the document worsens

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefont availabilityVSAvoidrendering quality

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

Instead of using generic placeholders, the system creates customized copies of the missing glyphs by analyzing the source font's characteristics and generating substitute characters that visually match the original font's style, weight, and proportions.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies local quality by generating visually similar substitute glyphs specifically tailored to match the characteristics of the missing characters in their local context, rather than applying a uniform placeholder across the entire document.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Manufacturing precision

If manual font selection is required for each missing glyph, then the visual quality can be maintained, but the user interaction time and complexity of the process increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveglyph replacement accuracyVSAvoiduser interaction time

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs self-service by automatically identifying missing glyphs, analyzing their visual characteristics, generating suitable substitutes, and integrating them into the document without requiring manual user intervention for each glyph replacement.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs preliminary action by pre-processing the font analysis and glyph generation before the user needs to view or edit the document, so that when the document is opened, the missing glyphs are already replaced with visually appropriate substitutes.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

4Adaptability or versatility

If error symbols or unwanted remnants are placed in the document, then the document can be opened on systems without the specific font, but the document quality and professionalism deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem compatibilityVSAvoiddocument quality

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The system creates accurate visual copies of the original glyphs using feature extraction and generation algorithms, producing substitute characters that maintain the document's professional appearance rather than using error symbols or placeholders.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The patent dynamically changes the visual parameters of substitute glyphs to match the source font's characteristics, ensuring that the replaced characters maintain the same visual quality and professional appearance as the original document.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS10409896B2Intelligent font replacement of missing glyphs

Publication Date: 2019.09.10 ADOBE INC

AI summary

Techniques are described for systems and computer-implemented methods that may be used to replace missing glyphs. The methods may include identifying a source font associated with each respective missing glyph in a document and extracting features pertaining to the source font for each respective missing glyph. The method may further include identifying a number of target fonts for each respective missing glyph based at least in part on the features extracted from the source font. The method may also include ranking the target fonts based on a respective target font having a similarity to one or more of the features. The method may include triggering for display in a user interface within the document and for each missing glyph, a subset of the ranked target fonts that are ranked highest and which include a character configured to replace each respective missing glyph in the document with a new glyph.