US Patent 7242415 Processing illustrations using stored information

Computer-implemented methods and apparatus for processing a graphical element that has an associated original type, including blending at least part of the graphical element and at least part of one or more other graphical elements to produce a transformed graphical element. The transformed graphical element has an associated transformed type, and the transformed type is different than the original type. Information about the original type is stored, and the transformed graphical element, an adjacent graphical element, or both are processed using the stored information about the original type.