Attributes of Output Primitives

By : Renita Josna Santhmayora,
Lecturer in Compuer Science Dept,
Sri Venkataramana Swamy College,
Bantwal.

Structure :
Definition
Line Attribute
Curve Attribute
Color and Grayscale Level
Area Filled Attribute
Text and Characters

The way a primitive is to be displayed is referred to as an
Attribute Parameter.
Some attribute parameters include color ,size etc.
Different ways to incorporate attribute changes :
 Extend the parameter list associated with each primitive
 Maintain a system list of current attribute values and
use separate functions to set attributes.

 Basic attributes of a straight line segment are its
type, its width, and its color.
 In some graphics packages, lines can also be
displayed using selected pen or brush

 The line-type attribute include solid lines, dashed
lines, and dotted lines. We modify a line drawing
algorithm to generate such lines by setting the length
and spacing of displayed solid sections along the line
path.
 A dashed line could be displayed by generating an
inter dash spacing that is equal to the length of the
solid sections. Both the length of the dashes and the
inter dash spacing are often specified as user options.

 A dotted line can be displayed by generating very
short dashes with the spacing equal to or greater than
the dash size.
 To set line type attributes in a PHICS application
program, a user invokes the function
setLinetype (It)
 where parameter lt is assigned a positive integer value
of 1,2,3, or 4 to generate.
 lines that are, respectively, solid, dashed, dotted, or
dash-dotted.

 Raster line algorithms display line-type
attributes by plotting pixel spans.
 For the various dashed, dotted, and dot-
dashed pattern..,, the line-drawing procedure.
 outputs sections of contiguous pixels along the
line path, skipping over a number of
intervening pixels between the solid spans.

 Pixel counts for the span length
and interspan spacing can be
specified in a pixel mask, which is
a string containing the digits I and
0 to indicate which positions to
plot along the line path.
 The mask 1111000, for instance,
could be used to display a dashed
line with a dash length of four
pixels and an interdash spacing of
three pixels.

 Line- width options depends on the capabilities of
the output device. A heavy line on video monitor
could be displayed as adjacent parallel lines, while
a pen plotter might require pen changes.
 We set the line-width attribute with the command:
using
setLineWidthScaleFactor(lw);
 Line-width parameter lw is assigned a positive
number to indicate the relative width of the line to
be displayed..

 A value of 1 specifies a standard-width line. on pen
plotter, for instance, a user could set lw to a value of
0.5 to plot a line whose width is half that of the
standard line. Values greater than 1 produce lines
thicker than the standard.
 For raster implementation, a standard-width line is
generated with single pixels at each sample position.
 Other-width link line Attributes are displayed as
positive integer multiples of the standard line by
plotting additional pixels along adjacent parallel line
paths.

 For lines with slope magnitude less than 1, we
can modify a line-drawing routine to display
thick lines by plotting a vertical span of pixels
at each x position along the line. The number
of pixels in each span is set equal to the
integer magnitude of parameter lw.

 For lines with slope magnitude greater than 1,
we can plot thick lines with horizontal spans,
alternately picking up pixels to the right and
left of the line path.

 We can adjust the shape of the line ends to give
them a better appearance by adding line caps.
 One kind of line cap is the butt cap obtained by
adjusting the end positions of the component
parallel lines so that the thick line is displayed
with square ends that are perpendicular to the
line path.
 If the specified line has slope m, the square end
of the thick line has slope - l / m .

 Another line cap is the round cap obtained by
adding a filled semicircle to each butt cap.
 The circular arcs are centered on the line
endpoints and have a diameter equal to the line
thickness.
 A third type of line cap is the projecting square
cap.
 Here, we simply extend the line and add butt
caps that are positioned one-half of the line
width beyond the specified endpoints.

 We can generate thick polylines that are
smoothly joined at the cost of additional
processing at the segment endpoints.
 There three possible methods for smoothly
joining two line segments.
 miter join
 round join
 beveI join.

 A miter join is accomplished by
extending the outer
boundaries of each of the two
lines until they meet.
 A round join is produced by
capping the connection
between the two segments
with a circular boundary whose
diameter is equal to the line
width.
 a belevel join is generated by
displaying the line segments
with butt caps and filling in the
triangular gap where the
segments meet.

 With some packages, lines can be displayed
with pen or brush selections.
 Options in this category include shape, size,
and pattern.

 These shapes can be stored in a pixel mask
 that identifies the array of pixel positions that
are to be set along the line path.

 A polyline routine displays a line in the
current color by setting this color value in
the frame buffer at pixel locations along the
line path using the setpixel procedure. The
number of color choices depends on the
number of bits available per pixel in the
frame buffer.
 We set the line color value in PHlCS with the
function

 Nonnegative integer values, corresponding to
allowed color choices, are assigned to the line
color parameter lc.
 A line drawn in the background color is
invisible, and a user can erase a previously
displayed line by respecifying it in the
background color.
 An example of the use of the various line
attribute commands in an applications
program is given by the following sequence
of statements:

 setLineType (2 ) ;
 setLinewidthScaleFactor ( 2 : ;
 setPolylinesColourIndex ( 5 ) ;
 polyline ( n l , wcpolnts1) :
 setPolyline:clourIndex (61 ;
 polyline (nl ,wcpoints2) :

 Parameters for curve attributes are the same as
those for line segments. We can display curves
with varying colors, widths, dotdash patterns,
and available pen or brush options. Methods
for adapting curve-drawing algorithms to
accommodate attribute selections are similar
to those for line drawing.

 Raster curves of various widths can be
displayed using the method of horizontal or
vertical pixel spans. Where the magnitude of
the curve slope is less than1, we plot vertical
spans; where the slope magnitude is greater
than 1, we plot horizontal spans.

 General purpose raster-scan systems, usually
provide a wide range of colors, while random-
scan monitors typically offer only a few color
choices, if any.
 Color options are numerically coded with values
ranging from 0 through the positive integers.
 For CRT monitors, these color codes are then
converted to intensity level settings for the
electron beams. With color plotters, the codes
could control ink-jet deposits or pen selections.

 In a color raster system, the number of color
choices available depends on the amount of
storage provided per pixel in the frame buffer.
 color-information can be stored in the frame buffer
in two ways: We can store color codes directly in
the frame buffer, or we can put the color codes in a
separate table and use pixel values as an index into
this table.
 With the direct storage scheme, whenever a
particular color code is specified in an application
program, the corresponding binary value is placed
in the frame buffer for each-component pixel in
the output primitives to be displayed in that color.

 A minimum number of colors can be provided
in this scheme with 3 bits of storage per pixel,
as shown in Table.

 Each of the three bit positions is used to control
the intensity level (either on or off) of the
corresponding electron gun in an RGB monitor.
 Adding more bits per pixel to the frame buffer
increases the number of color choices. With 6 bits
per pixel, 2 bits can be used for each gun.
 This allows four different intensity settings for
each of the three color guns, and a total of 64
color values are available for each screen pixel.

 With a resolution of 1024 by 1024, a full-color
(24bit per pixel) RGB system needs 3
megabytes of storage for the frame buffer.
 Color tables are an alternate means for
providing extended color capabilities to a user
without requiring large frame buffers.
 Use of color tables to reduce frame-buffer
storage requirements.

 A possible scheme for storing color values in a
color lookup table (or video lookup
table),where frame-buffer values art- now used
as indices into the color table.
 A user can set color-table entries in a PHIGS
applications program with the function
setColourRepresentation (ws, ci, colorptrl)

 Parameter ws identifies the workstation output
device; parameter ci specifies the color index,
and parameter colorptr points to a hio of RGB
color values (r,g, b) each specified in the range
from 0 to 1.
 An example of possible table entries for color
monitors is given

 There are several advantages in storing color codes
in a lookup table.
1."reasonable" number of simultaneous colors
without requiring large frame buffers.
2. For most applications, 256 or 512 different colors
are sufficient for a single picture.
3. Table entries can be changed at any time.
4. Visualization applications can store values for
some physical quantity, such as energy, in the
frame buffer and use a lookup table to try out
various color encodings without changing the pixel
values.

 With monitors that have no color capability,
color functions can be used in an application
program to set the shades of gray, or
grayscale, for displayed primitives.
 Numeric values over the range from 0 to 1 can
be used to specify grayscale levels, which are
then converted to appropriate binary codes for
storage in the raster.

 When multiple output devices are available at
an installation, the same color-table interface
may be used for all monitors.
 with the display intensity corresponding to a
given color index ci calculated as
intensity = 0.5[min(r, g, b) + max(r, g, b)]

 Options for filling a defined region include a
choice between a solid color or a patterned
fill and choices for the particular colors and
patterns. These fill options can be applied to
polygon regions or to areas defined with
curved boundaries, depending on the
capabilities of the available package. In
addition, areas can be painted using various
brush styles, colors, and transparency
parameters.

 Areas are displayed with three basic fill
styles: hollow with a color border, filled
with a solid color, or filled with a
specified pattern or design.
 A basic fill style is selected in a PHIGS
program with the function
 Values for the fill-style parameter fs
include hollow, solid, and pattern.

 Another value for fill style is hatch, which is used to
fill an area with selected hatching patterns-parallel
lines or crossed lines.
 Hollow areas are displayed using only the boundary
outline, with the interior color the same as the
background color.

 A solid fill is displayed in a single color up to
and including the borders of the region.
 The color for a solid interior or for a hollow
area outline is chosen with
 where fill color parameter fc is set to the
desired color code.
 A polygon hollow fill is generated with a line
drawing routine as a closed polyline.

 Solid fill of a region can be accomplished with
the scan-line procedures.
 Other fill options include specifications for
the edge type, edge width, and edge color of
a region.
 These attributes are set independently of the
fill style or fill color, and they provide for the
same options as the line-attribute parameters

 We select fill patterns with
 where pattern index parameter pi specifies a
table position. For example, the following set
of statements would fill the area defined in the
fill Area command with the second pattern
type stored in the pattern table:

 setInteriorStyle ( p a t t e r n ) ;
 setinteriorStyleIndex ( 2 ) ;
 fillArea (n, points);
 For fill style pattcm, table entries can be
created on individual output devices with
 SetPatternRepresentatlon (w s , p., nx, ny, cp)
 Parameter pi sets the pattern index number
for workstation code ws, and cp is a two-
dimensional array of color codes with nx
columns and ny rows.

 Color array cp in this
example specifies a
pattern that produces
alternate red and black
diagonal pixel lines on an
eight-color system.
 When a color array cp is
to be applied to hll a
region, we need to
specify the size of the
area that is to be covered
by each element of the
array.

 We do this by setting the rectangular
coordinate extents of the pattern:
setpatternsize (dx, dy)
 where parameters dx and dy give the
coordinate width and height of the array
mapping.
 A reference position for starting a pattern fill
is assigned with the statement
setPatcernReferencePoint (position)

 Parameter posit ion is a pointer to coordinates
( x p , yp) that fix the lower left corner of the
rectangular pattern.
 From this starting position, the pattern is
replicated in the x and y directions until the
defined area is covered by nonover-lapping
copies of the pattern array.
 The process of filling an area with a
rectangular pattern is called tiling and

 Rectangular fill patterns are
sometimes referred to as tiling
patterns.
 To illustrate the use of the
pattern commands, the
following program example
displays a black-and-white
pattern in the interior of a
parallelogram fill area.

 Hatch fill is applied to regions by displaying
sets of parallel lines. The fill procedures are
implemented to draw either single hatching or
cross hatching.
 Spacing and slope for the hatch lines can be set
as parameters in the hatch table.
 On raster systems, a hatch fill can be specified
as a pattern array that sets color values for
groups of diagonal pixels.

 In many systems, the pattern reference point
(xp,yp) is assigned by the system.
 For any fill region, the reference point can be
chosen as the lower left corner of the
bounding rectangle (or bounding box)
determined by the coordinate extents of the
region.

 If the row positions in the pattern array are
referenced in reverse (that is, from bottom to top
starting at I), a pattern value is then assigned to
pixel position (1, y) in screen or window
coordinates as
 setpixel (x,y , cp(y mod ny + 1, x mod nx + 1) )
 Where ny and nx specify the number of rows and
number of columns in the pattern array

 The pattern and background colors
can be combined using Boolean
operations, or the pattern colors
can simply replace the background
colors.
 How the Boolean and replace
operations for a 2 by 2 fill pattern
would set pixel values on a binary
(black and white) system against a
particular background pattern.

 Modified boundary-fill and flood-fiII procedures
that are applied to repaint areas so that the fill
color is combined with the background colors are
referred to as soft-fill .
 One use for these fill methods is to soften the fill
colors at object borders that have been blurred to
antialias the edges.
 Another is to allow repainting of a color area that
was originally filled with a semitransparent brush,
where the current color is then a mixture of the
brush color and the background colors "behind"
the area. In either case, we want the new fill color
to have the same variations over the area as the
current fill color.

 The appearance of displayed characters is
controlled by attributes such as font, size,
color, and orientation.
 Attributes can be set both for entire character
strings (text) and for individual characters
defined as marker symbols.

 First of all, there is the choice of font (or
typeface), which is a set of characters with a
particular design style such as New York,
Courier, Helvetica, London, 'Times Roman,
and various special symbol groups.
 The characters in a selected font can also be
displayed with assorted underlining styles
(solid, dotted , double), in boldface, in italics.
and in outline or shadow styles.

 A particular font and associated style is selected
in a PHlGS program by setting an integer code for
the text font parameter t f in the function.
 Color settings for displayed text are stored in the
system attribute list and used by the procedures
that load character definitions into the frame
buffer.
 When a character string is to be displayed, the
current color is used to set pixel values in the
frame buffer corresponding to the character
shapes and positions
setTextFont(tf)

 Control of text color (or intensity) is managed
from an application program with
 where text color parameter tc specifies an
allowable color code.
 Character size is specified by printers an
compositors in points, where 1 point is
0.013837 inch.
 Point measurements specify the size of the
body of a character but different fonts with the
same points specifications can have different
character size depending on the design of the
typeface.
setTextColorIndex(tc)

 The distance between the bottom line and the
top line of the character body is the same for all
characters in a particular size and typeface, but
the body width may vary.
 Character height is defined as the distance
between the baseline and the cap line of
characters.

 Text size can be adjusted without changing the
width-to-height ratio of characters with
setChatacterHeight(ch)
 Parameter ch is assigned a real value greater than 0
to set the coordinate height of capital letters: the
distance between baseline and capline in user
coordinates.

 The width only of text can be set with the
function
setCharacterExpansionFactor(cw)
 where the character-width parameter cw is
set to a positive real value that scales the
body width of characters.

 Spacing between characters is controlled
separately with
setCharacterSpacing(cs)
 where the character-spacing parameter cs can
he asslgned any real value. The value assigned
to cs determines the spacing between character
bodies along print lines.
 Negative values for cs overlap character bodies;
positive values insert space to spread out the
displayed characters.

 The orientation for a displayed character
string is set according to the direction of the
character up vector:
 setCharacterUpVector(upvect)
 Parameter upvect in this function is assigned
two values that specify the x and y vector
components.
 Text is then displayed so that the orientation
of characters from baseline to capline is in
the direction of the up vector.

 For example, with upvect = (I, I), the direction
of the up vector is 45" and text would be
displayed

 It is useful in many applications to be able to
arrange character strings vertically or
horizontally. An attribute parameter for this
option is set with the statement
 setTextPath(tp)
 where the text-path parameter tp can be
assigned the value: right, left, up, or down.
 A procedure for implementing this option must
transform the character patterns
into the specified orientation before
transferring them to the frame buffer..

 Another handy attribute for character strings is
alignment. This attribute specifies how text is to
be positioned with respect to the start
coordinates. Alignment attributes are set with
setAlignment(h,v)
 where parameters h and v control horizontal and
vertical alignment.
 Horizontal alignment is set by assigning h a
value of left, centre, or right.
 Vertical alignment is set by assigning v a value
of top, cap, half, base, or bottom

 A precision specifici~tionf or text display is given
with
setTextPrecision(tpr)
 where text precision parameter tpr is assigned one
of the values: string, char, or stroke.
 The highest-quality text is displayed when the
precision parameter is set to the value stroke

 A marker symbol is a single character that can he
displayed in different colors and in different sizes.
 We select a particular character to be the marker
symbol with
 setMarkerType(mt)
 where marker type parameter mt is set to an integer
code.
 Typical codes for marker type are the integers 1
through 5,
 specifying, respectively, a dot (.), a vertical cross (+),
an asterisk (*), a circle (o), and a diagonal cross (X).
 DispIayed marker types are centered on the marker
coordinates.

 We set the marker size with
setMarkerSizeScaleFactor (ms)
 with parameter marker size ms assigned a
positive number.
 Values greater than 1 produce character
enlargement; values less than 1 reduce the
marker size.

 Marker color is specified with
 setPol y mark erColouIndex (mc )
 A selected color code for parameter mc is
stored in the current attribute list and used to
display subsequently specified marker
primitives.

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