Page 64 - DCAP504_Computer Graphics

Unit 5: Scan Conversion II

The figure 5.3(b) depicts the interior-defined region of a polygon.

Figure 5.3 (b): Interior-Defined Region

5.3 Glyph

A glyph is nothing but a symbol or a graphical symbol that provides a form of a character. Here,
character refers to any language’s alphabet or number. A glyph can be a numeric or alphabetic font or
some other symbol that pictures an encoded character.

Glyph is pronounced as GLIHF and it originated from a Greek word meaning carving.
Did you know?
An ideal characterization of characters and glyphs and the relation between characters and glyphs can
be understood with the help of table 5.2.
Table 5.2: Relation Between Characters and Glyphs

Characters Glyphs
A character conveys distinctions in meaning A glyph conveys distinctions in form.
or sounds.
A character does not have any type of A glyph has no intrinsic meaning.
intrinsic appearance.
One or more characters may be depicted by One or more glyphs may not be depicted by
one or more glyph representations one or more character representations
In the Unicode standard, a character is stated In the Unicode standard, a glyph is not
to be an abstract entity. stated to be an abstract entity.

Two or more glyphs which have the same importance, whether used interchangeably
or chosen depending on context, are called as allographs of each other.

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