A CHARACTER GENERATOR FOR CARTOGRAPHIC DISPLAYS

Abstract

Due to the recent advances in computer and display hardware technology, visual displays have found many .applications. A visual edit display with communication facilities with the computer has been proposed to aid making decisions in the Automatic Cartographic Project at the University of Saskatchewan. This thesis, conducted as part of the overall display project, was undertaken to investigate the feasibility of displaying 500 depth sounding indications "flicker free" at one time. A survey of the terminal devices and the character generation techniques was carried out, and a new design approach using a digital stroke method of character generation was proposed. Prototype digital stroke character generators, using both "Beam Pencil" and "Fixed Pattern" methods were designed, constructed and tested. The advantages and disadvantages of both "Beam Pencil" and "Fixed Pattern" methods were then compared and evaluated.