Fast rendering of ink
View Patent ↗A system and process for quickly rendering ink is described. Rendered ink information is placed into a transparency map of an image. The image is combined with foreground and background information to produce a final image. Using this process, the painting of ink using transparency map information may be performed quickly and with less processor work than a slow rendering process.
1. A process for caching ink information comprising the steps of:
receiving ink input from a user;
rendering said ink;
creating a transparency map, wherein the transparency map stores transparency information corresponding to said ink; and,
caching said transparency map, wherein the transparency map is later combined with foreground information to define one or more attributes of a likeness of the rendered ink and produce a resultant image that includes the likeness of said ink.
2. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising the steps of: storing said transparency map.
3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said rendering step produces a bitmap of said ink.
4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said transparency map is an alpha channel of an image.
5. The process according to claim 4 , wherein said image is a bitmap image.
6. A system for caching ink information comprising:
means for receiving ink input from a user;
means for rendering ink;
means for creating a transparency map, wherein the transparency map stores only transparency information, wherein at least a portion of the transparency information corresponds to said ink, and wherein the transparency map is later combined with foreground information to define one or more attributes of a likeness of the rendered ink and produce a resultant image including the likeness of said ink; and,
means for caching said transparency map.
7. The system according to claim 6 , further comprising:
means for storing said transparency map.
8. The system according to claim 6 , wherein said means for rendering produces a bitmap of said ink.
9. The system according to claim 6 , wherein said transparency map is an alpha channel of an image.
10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein said image is a bitmap image.
11. A process for displaying ink information comprising the steps of:
creating a transparency map, wherein the transparency map stores transparency information corresponding to ink input from a user;
applying foreground information to said transparency map to define one or more attributes of a likeness of said ink;
combining the transparency map defined by said foreground information with background information to form a resultant image; and,
displaying said resultant image.
12. The process according to claim 11 , wherein said transparency information is in an alpha channel of an image.
13. The process according to claim 12 , wherein said image is a bitmap image.
14. A system for displaying ink information comprising:
means for creating a transparency map, wherein the transparency map stores transparency information relating to ink input from a user;
means for applying foreground information to said transparency map to define one or more attributes of a likeness of said ink;
means for combining the transparency map defined by said foreground information with background information to form a resultant image; and,
means for displaying said resultant image.
15. The system according to claim 14 , wherein said transparency information is in an alpha channel of an image.
16. The system according to claim 15 , wherein said image is a bitmap image.
17. The process of claim 11 , wherein the one or more attributes includes a color of said ink.
18. The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more attributes includes a color of said ink.