Fast glyph rendering for vector based fonts

1. A method of rendering a glyph of a vector-based font comprising the steps of:

generating a MIP map for a glyph of a vector-based font, wherein said MIP map comprises at least one level having a plurality of pixels and wherein each level is generated from original vector data for said glyph;

storing said MIP map on a computer readable medium;

placing said glyph in an image to be rendered;

retrieving said stored MIP map for said glyph;

rendering a level of said MIP map, wherein said level is associated with a resolution of said glyph; and

displaying said glyph as said rendered level.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of generating a level of a MIP map comprises:

for each pixel in the MIP map level, calculating a distance from said pixel to said glyph; and

calculating an opacity for said pixel based on a function of said calculated distance.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein at each MIP map level, a different function is used to calculate said pixel opacity.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

zeroing each pixel's opacity prior to calculating said opacity; and

assigning to said pixel the lesser of said calculated opacity and one, when said calculated opacity is greater than a previous value of said pixel's opacity.

5. A method of rendering a glyph of a vector-based font comprising the steps of:

generating a MIP map for a glyph of a vector-based font wherein said MIP map comprises at least one level having a plurality of pixels and wherein a pixel opacity at each level of said MIP map is calculated from a different opacity function;

storing said MIP map on a computer readable medium;

placing said glyph in an image to be rendered;

retrieving said stored MIP map for said glyph;

rendering a level of said MIP map, wherein said level is associated with a resolution of said glyph; and

displaying said glyph as said rendered level.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein said glyph's original vector data is used to generate each level of said MIP map.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein said generating step comprises:

for each pixel in a MIP map level, calculating a distance from said pixel to said glyph; and

wherein said different opacity function is a function of said calculated distance.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein said generating step comprises:

zeroing each pixel's opacity prior to calculating said pixel opacity; and

assigning to said pixel the lesser of said calculated opacity and one, when said calculated opacity is greater than a previous value of said pixel's opacity.

9. A method for generating a MIP map of a glyph of a vector-based font, the MIP map comprising at least one level and a plurality of pixels, the method comprising the steps of:

for each level of the MIP map, determining a distance from each pixel in said level to said glyph of the vector-based font using the vectors that construct the glyph;

calculating a pixel coverage and a pixel opacity based on a function of said distance;

placing said glyph in an image to be rendered;

retrieving the MIP map for said glyph;

rendering a level of the MIP map wherein said level is associated with a resolution of said glyph; and

displaying said glyph as said rendered level.

10. A system for rendering a glyph of a vector-based font comprising:

means for generating a MIP map for a glyph of a vector-based font, wherein said MIP map comprises at least one level having a plurality of pixels and wherein each level of said MIP map is generated from original vector data for said glyph;

means for storing said MIP map on a computer readable medium;

means for placing said glyph in an image to be rendered;

means for retrieving said stored MIP map for said glyph;

means for rendering a level of said MIP map, wherein said level is associated with a resolution of said glyph; and

means for displaying said glyph as said rendered level.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein said means for generating comprises:

means for calculating a distance from said pixel to said glyph; and

means for calculating an opacity for said pixel based on a function of said calculated distance.

12. A computer useable information storage medium storing computer readable program code for causing a computer to perform the steps of:

generating a MIP map for a glyph of a vector-based font, wherein said MIP map comprises at least one level having a plurality of pixels and wherein each level of said MIP map is generated from original vector data for said glyph;

storing said MIP map on a computer readable medium;

retrieving said stored MIP map for said glyph;

rendering a level of said MIP map, wherein said level is associated with a resolution of said glyph; and

displaying said glyph as said rendered level.

13. The computer useable information storage medium storing computer readable program code of claim 12 , wherein said generating step comprises:

for each pixel in the MIP map level, calculating a distance from said pixel to said glyph; and

calculating an opacity for said pixel based on a function of said calculated distance.