SVG Vector Font Generation for Chinese Characters with Transformer

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel Transformer-based network architecture that automatically generates Chinese vector fonts from minimal references, overcoming the complexity of Chinese characters and eliminating the need for differentiable rendering.

Contribution

The study presents the first successful method for automatic Chinese vector font generation using a Transformer architecture and specialized loss functions.

Findings

First Chinese vector font generated automatically with minimal references

Transformer architecture effectively captures structural features of Chinese characters

Method demonstrates potential for scalable Chinese font design

Abstract

Designing fonts for Chinese characters is highly labor-intensive and time-consuming. While the latest methods successfully generate the English alphabet vector font, despite the high demand for automatic font generation, Chinese vector font generation has been an unsolved problem owing to its complex shape and numerous characters. This study addressed the problem of automatically generating Chinese vector fonts from only a single style and content reference. We proposed a novel network architecture with Transformer and loss functions to capture structural features without differentiable rendering. Although the dataset range was still limited to the sans-serif family, we successfully generated the Chinese vector font for the first time using the proposed method.