Simplifying complex characters to maintain legibility

Abstract From the Canadian patent

Methods, systems, and computer program products for adding hinting instructions to a character in order to improve a character bitmap produced from an outline of the character at a certain size and output resolution when the character outline is scan converted. A character is retrieved to be output. A determination is made that the character belongs to a semantic character classifications and hinting instructions that are associated with the semantic character classification are accessed. The hinting instructions preserve semantic meaning for the character while altering either stroke presence stroke location, or both for at least one stroke of at least one feature of the character based on …