Manual and automatic alignment of pages

• US 20040181754A1
• Filed: 03/01/2004
• Published: 09/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Original Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Inventors: Schultz, Karl, DeYoung, Jennifer S., Kremer, Karl Heinz
• Granted Patent: US 7,454,697 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/526
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3873 defined only by a limited number of coordinate points or parameters, e.g. corners, centre; for trimming

Abstract

A printing machine has a computer program for aligning pages in a book and printing the book. A user scans pages of a book into a controller or computer where the pages are converted into a file that is independent of the platform that created the documents such as portable document formatted (PDF) pages. Each PDF page comprises content areas of text or graphics or both and non-content areas surrounding the content areas. The program does not remove the non-content area for any placement purposes and temporarily crops the page to determine the size (and position) of the content area. During automatic alignment, the program operates on the files to temporarily crop or remove peripheral, non-content areas and generate cropped PDF pages of the content areas on the pages of the book. The cropped PDF files include one image although it may encompass text and graphics. The program may operate in automatic or manual mode.

Claims

1. A method for aligning pages in a book comprising the steps of:

generating portable document format (PDF) pages corresponding to pages of a book wherein the PDF pages comprise content areas of text or graphics or both and non-content areas surrounding the content areas;

removing from the PDF pages peripheral, non-content areas to generate cropped PDF pages of the content areas on the page; and

selecting a feature of the cropped PDF pages common to all the cropped PDF pages and aligning all cropped PDF pages to the selected feature.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the selected feature is a corner of the content of the pages.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the page comprises text content and image content and the cropped PDF pages comprise areas enclosing the text and image content.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the non-content portions correspond to white space comprising the borders around content

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the method generates one cropped PDF page comprising all the content on the page.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting one or more groupings of PDF pages of pages from the book and performing the steps of claim 1 on the selected grouping(s).

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the selected grouping(s) include odd and even pages.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein a common feature for each grouping is a header or footer.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the common feature is the page number.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the common feature is automatically selected.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein further comprising the step of comparing the cropped PDF pages to each other to show their relative correspondence to each other.

12. The method of claim 11 comprising the further step of selecting one or more of the compared PDF pages and manually aligning the selected PDF page to the common feature of the other PDF pages or to another feature common to the selected PDF pages.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of displaying the PDF pages as aligned.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of printing the aligned PDF pages.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

selecting one or more grouping(s) of PDF pages;

previewing one of the PDF pages of the selected grouping(s);

placing a first cursor on a feature of the content of the previewed PDF page; and

aligning other PDF pages in the grouping(s) to the location of the selected feature.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the steps of:

previewing other PDF pages of the grouping(s);

placing a second cursor on the corresponding feature in the other displayed PDF pages;

displaying the location of the first cursor on the other PDF pages; and

moving the content area of the displayed PDF page to align the second cursor to the first cursor.

17. A method for aligning pages in a book and printing the book comprising the steps of:

scanning the pages of a book to create portable document formatted (PDF) pages wherein the PDF pages comprise content areas of text or graphics or both and non-content areas surrounding the content areas;

removing peripheral, non-content areas to generate cropped PDF pages of the content areas on the pages of the book;

selecting a feature of the cropped PDF pages common to all the PDF pages;

aligning all PDF pages to the selected feature; and

printing the book.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the selected feature is a corner of the content of the pages.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the page comprises text content and image content and the cropped PDF pages comprise areas enclosing the text and image content.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the non-content portions correspond to white space comprising the borders around content

21. The method of claim 17 wherein the method generates one cropped PDF page comprising all the content on the page.

22. The method of claim 17 further comprising selecting one or more groupings of PDF pages from the book and performing the steps of claim 17 on the selected grouping(s).

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the selected grouping(s) include odd and even pages.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein a common feature for each grouping is a header or footer.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the common feature is the page number.

26. The method of claim 17 wherein the common feature is automatically selected.

27. The method of claim 17 wherein further comprising the step of comparing the cropped PDF pages to each other to show their relative correspondence to each other.

28. The method of claim 27 comprising the further step of selecting one or more of the compared PDF pages and manually aligning the selected PDF page to the common feature of the other PDF pages or to another feature common to the selected PDF pages.

29. The method of claim 17 further comprising the step of displaying the PDF pages as aligned.

30. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

selecting one or more grouping(s) of PDF pages;

previewing one of the PDF pages of the selected grouping(s);

placing a first cursor on a feature of the content of the previewed PDF page; and

aligning other PDF pages in the grouping(s) to the location of the selected feature.

31. The method of claim 30 further comprising the steps of:

previewing other PDF pages of the grouping(s);

placing a second cursor on the corresponding feature in the other displayed PDF pages;

displaying the location of the first cursor on the other PDF pages; and

moving the cropped image of the content area of the displayed PDF page to align the second cursor to the first cursor.

37. The apparatus of claim 32 further comprising means for selecting one or more groupings of PDF pages of pages from the book and performing the steps of PDF claim 17 on the selected grouping(s).

38. The apparatus of claim 37 wherein the selected grouping(s) include odd and even pages.

39. The apparatus of claims 38 wherein a common feature for each grouping is a header or footer.

40. The apparatus of claim 39 wherein the common feature is the page number.

32. An apparatus for aligning pages in a book and printing the book comprising:

a scanner for scanning the pages of a book to create portable document formatted (PDF) pages wherein the PDF pages comprise content areas of text or graphics or both and non-content areas surrounding the content areas;

a software program for operating on the PDF pages to remove peripheral, non-content areas to generate cropped PDF pages of the content areas on the pages of the book;

means for selecting a feature of the cropped PDF pages common to all the PDF pages;

aligning all PDF pages to the selected feature; and

printing the book.

33. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the selected feature is a corner of the content of the pages.

34. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the page comprises text content and image content and the cropped PDF pages comprise areas enclosing the text and image content.

35. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the non-content portions correspond to white space comprising the borders around content

36. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the method generates one cropped PDF page comprising all the content on the page.

41. The apparatus of claim 32 wherein the common feature is automatically selected.

42. The apparatus of claim 32 further comprising means for comparing the cropped PDF pages to each other to show their relative correspondence to each other.

43. The apparatus of claim 42 further comprising means for selecting one or more of the compared PDF pages and manually aligning the selected PDF page to the common feature of the other PDF pages or to another feature common to the selected PDF pages.

44. The apparatus of claim 32 further comprising means for displaying the PDF pages as aligned.

45. A method for aligning pages in a book comprising the steps of:

generating a plurality of files corresponding to cropped pages of a book;

grouping the files according to size;

selecting standards for each grouping; and

,

aligning the pages according to the selected standards.