Computerized prepress

• US 20010029514A1
• Filed: 06/08/2001
• Published: 10/11/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cimpress Schweiz GmbH (Cimpress Plc)
• Original Assignee: Digital - Net Incorporated
• Inventors: Jecha, Steven, Mitchell, Winfield A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,120,634 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/526
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1208 resulting in improved quality of the output result, e.g. print layout, colours, workflows, print preview
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1214 at the submitting node
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1222 Increasing security of the print job
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1238 Secure printing, e.g. user identification, user rights for device usage, unallowed content, blanking portions or fields of a page, releasing held jobs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1256 User feedback, e.g. print preview, test print, proofing, pre-flight checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 in client-server-printer device configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

Computerized prepress is disclosed. In one embodiment, a computerized prepress system includes three components: a server, a client and a printer. The server has stored thereon an authoring program to create a document, and a translation program to translate the document to a suitable prepress format. The client downloads the authoring program from the server to create the document, and then uploads the document to the server for translation to the suitable prepress format. The printer receives the document as translated to the suitable prepress format from the server.

Claims

1. A computerized prepress method for comprising:

sending log-on information regarding a user from a client computer to a server computer;

authenticating the user at the server computer;

downloading an authoring program from the server computer to the client computer;

using the authoring program at the client computer to create a document;

sending the document from the client computer to the server computer;

saving the document in an internal format at the server computer;

translating the document from the internal format to a different suitable prepress format; and

,

sending the document in the different format to a printer.

2. The computerized prepress method of

claim 1

, wherein the client computer and the server computer are communicatively coupled to one another through the Internet.

3. The computerized prepress method of

claim 1

, wherein the client computer and the server computer are communicatively coupled to one another through an intranet.

4. The computerized prepress method of

claim 1

, wherein the client computer and the server computer are communicatively coupled to one another through an extranet.

5. The computerized prepress method of

claim 1

, wherein authenticating the user at the server computer comprises associating the user with at least one of a particular directory on the server computer 1, a set of defaults regarding fonts, colors, images and commands available to the user, and an authorization level selected from the group of authorization levels essentially comprising normal, administrator, and demonstration.

6. The computerized prepress method of

claim 1

, wherein the authoring program downloaded from the server computer to the client computer is coded in a language selected from the group essentially comprising Perl, Java, C++, C, and ActiveX.

7. The computerized prepress method of

claim 1

, wherein the document is selected from the group essentially comprising a business card, a letterhead, an envelope, and a brochure.

8. The computerized prepress method of

claim 1

, wherein the authoring program comprises a color palette area to select a color from a palette of colors.

9. The computerized prepress method of

claim 8

, wherein the palette of colors comprises the palette of colors available from one selected from the group essentially comprising Pantone, Toyo, Focaltone, and Tru-Match.

10. The computerized prepress method of

claim 1

, wherein using the authoring program at the client computer to create a document comprises sending desired text from the client computer to the server computer for translation into an image and sending the image from the server computer back to the client computer.

11. The computerized prepress method of

claim 10

, wherein the image is in a format selected from the group essentially comprising GIF, TIFF, and JPEG.

12. The computerized prepress method of

claim 10

, wherein the image has a maximum resolution of 4:

1.

13. The computerized prepress method of

claim 1

, wherein the document includes one or more images, at least one of the images being in a format selected from the group essentially comprising encapsulated PostScript, TIFF, GIF, and JPEG.

14. The computerized prepress method of

claim 13

, wherein at least one of the images has a maximum resolution of 1:

1.

15. The computerized prepress method of

claim 1

, wherein the different format is selected from a group essentially comprising PostScript, HTML, PDF, and PostScript Extreme.

16. The computerized prepress method of

claim 1

, wherein sending the document in the different format to the printer comprises generating an electronic mail for submission to the printer including an attachment comprising the document in the different format.

17. The computerized prepress method of

claim 16

, wherein the electronic mail is MIME-compliant.

18. A computerized prepress system comprising:

a server having stored thereon an authoring program to create a document and a translation program to translate the document to a suitable prepress format;

a client downloading the authoring program from the server to create the document, which is uploaded to the server for translation to the suitable prepress format; and

,

a printer receiving the document as translated to the suitable prepress format from the server.

19. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the server, the client and the printer are communicatively coupled to one another through the Internet.

20. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the server, the client and the printer are communicatively coupled to one another through an intranet.

21. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the server, the client and the printer are communicatively coupled to one another through an extranet.

22. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the server comprises an Internet world-wide-web server.

23. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the server comprises an intranet world-wide-web server.

24. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the server comprises an extranet world-wide-web server.

25. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the authoring program runs on the client in an Internet world-wide-web browser program.

26. The computerized prepress system of

claim 25

, wherein the browser program is selected from the group essentially comprising Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

27. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the authoring program runs on the client in an intranet world-wide-web browser program.

28. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the authoring program runs on the client in an extranet world-wide-web browser program.

29. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the authoring program is coded in a language selected from the group essentially comprising Perl, Java, C++, C, and ActiveX.

30. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the document is selected from the group essentially comprising a business card, a letterhead, an envelope, and a brochure.

31. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the authoring program comprises a color palette area to select a color from a palette of colors.

32. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the suitable prepress format is selected from a group essentially comprising PostScript, HTML, PDF, and PostScript Extreme.

33. The computerized prepress system of

claim 18

, wherein the printer receives the document from the server via an electronic mail to which the document is included as an attachment.

34. A client computer comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable medium;

a communications device;

an operating environment program executed by the processor from the medium; and

,

an authoring program downloaded from a server through the communications device and executed by the processor from the medium within the operating environment program,

such that the authoring program is used to create a document, which is uploaded to the server through the communications device for translation to a suitable prepress format and submission to a printer.

35. The client computer of

claim 34

, wherein the computer-readable medium is selected from the group essentially comprising memory and a nonvolatile storage medium.

36. The client computer of

claim 34

, wherein the communications device is selected from the group essentially comprising a modem and a network card.

37. The client computer of

claim 34

, wherein the operating environment program comprises an Internet world-wide-web browser program.

38. The client computer of

claim 34

, wherein the operating environment program comprises an intranet world-wide-web browser program.

39. The client computer of

claim 34

, wherein the operating environment program comprises an extranet world-wide-web browser program.

40. A server computer comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable medium;

a communications device;

an authoring program stored on the computer-readable medium for downloading through the communications device and use by a client to create a document; and

,

a translation program executed by the processor from the computer-readable medium to translate the document to a suitable prepress format and send the document as translated to a printer through the communications device.

41. The server computer of

claim 40

, wherein the computer-readable medium is selected from the group essentially comprising memory and a nonvolatile storage medium.

42. The server computer of

claim 40

, wherein the communications device is selected from the group essentially comprising a modem and a network card.

43. A computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon for downloading to a client computer from a server computer and for execution on the client computer within an operating environment program, the program comprising means for creating a document, which is uploaded to the server through a communications device for translation to a suitable prepress format and submission to a printer.

44. A computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon for execution on a server computer, the program comprising:

means downloadable to a client computer for creating a document; and

,

means for translating the document to a suitable prepress format and for sending the document as translated to a printer through a communications device of the server computer.