PURPOSE: To allow the easy performance of an edition operation by storing the edition data for edition of outline font data and displaying the edition information corresponding to the stored edition together with outlines on a screen.

CONSTITUTION: An edition control section 12 investigates the outline font data stored in a font data memory section 13 and judges the direction where the closed outlines constituted by this outline font data are defined when the intruction to execute displaying of the direction of the closed outline is inputted from an intruction input section 11. The data for plotting the direction of the closed outlines is sent to a plotting section 14. The plotting section 14 plots the image indicating the direction of the necessary closed outlines on a display memory 15 in accordance with the data for plotting the direction of the closed outlines. The image indicating the directions of the closed outlines concerning the respective closed outlines are displayed on a display section 16 in this way.