Document creation system and related methods

• US 20060026515A1
• Filed: 07/27/2005
• Published: 02/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Balinsky, Helen
• Granted Patent: US 7,747,947 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/274
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

A method of creating a document having an allocated area in which information is placed, the method comprising: i. providing a set of content-items which contain information to be displayed in the allocated area, and each having a one or more sides; ii. selecting two content-items to be combined; iii. combining the two selected content-items by a side of common length to reduce the number of content-items in the set by one; iv. repeating steps ii. and iii. until one content-item remains that is a composition of the set of content-items; and v. causing a printing means to print the created document.

Claims

1. A method of creating a document having an allocated area in which information is placed, the method comprising:

i. providing a set of content-items which contain information to be displayed in the allocated area, and each having a one or more sides;

ii. selecting two content-items to be combined;

iii. combining the two selected content-items to reduce the number of content-items in the set by one;

iv. repeating steps ii. and iii. until one content-item remains that is a composition of the set of content-items; and

v. causing a printing means to print the created document.

2. A method according to claim 1 in which step iii of the method combines content-items by a side of common length.

3. The method according to claim 2 further comprising, adjusting the dimensions of one or both of the selected content-items to provide both content-items with a side of common length.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein the aspect-ratio of the one or both selected content-items is kept constant while adjusting the dimensions of the one or both selected content-items.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the set of content-items is a sub-set of available content-items.

6. The method according to claim 1 further comprising repeating the combination of content-items in different sequences to provide a plurality of possible solutions for the arrangement of the content items within the allocated area.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the two content-items are selected based on the aspect-ratios of the two content-items.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein one or more content-items have an associated therewith an importance criterion, which is used to influence the size of one of the content-items in the composition relative to other content-items in the composition.

9. The method according to claim 1 further comprising cropping content-items within the composition to adjust the aspect-ratio of the composition of content-items.

10. The method according to claim 9 wherein the dimensions of the cropped content-item are adjusted while maintaining a constant aspect-ratio of a portion of the cropped content-item.

11. The method according to claim 1 wherein one or more content-items have an area of interest that must be included in the composition and a peripheral area that is optionally included in the composition.

12. A document creation system arranged to create a document from a set of content-items containing displayable information for placement in an allocated area of the document, the system being adapted to:

select two content-items to be combined from the set of content-items;

combine the selected content-items to form a new content-item and therefore reduce the number of content-items in the set by one;

check whether all content-items have been combined, and if not all of the set of content-items have been combined, select and combine further content-items until one composition of all of the set of content-items remains.

13. The system according to claim 12 arranged to combine the content-items along a side of common length.

14. The system according to claim 13 further arranged to adjust the dimensions of one or both of the selected content-items to provide both content-items with a side of common length if it is determined that the two selected content-items do not have a side of common length.

15. The system according to claim 14 wherein a constant aspect-ratio of the one or both selected content-items while adjusting the dimensions of the one or both selected content-items.

16. The system according to claim 16 wherein the system is arranged to repeat the combination of content-items in different sequences to provide a plurality of possible solutions.

17. The system according to claim 16 wherein the system is arranged to minimise the number of alignment lines, that can be created from the edges of content-items, within the composition

18. A method of generating a visually assimilable document from a page and at least two content objects bounded by a perimeter, the method comprising the steps of:

(i) selecting two content objects whose perimeters include a straight line;

(ii) aggregating the two selected objects by abutting their perimeters along the straight line;

(iii) repeating steps (i) and (ii) until a single, aggregated content object has been created;

(iv) locating the aggregated content object on the page; and

(v) operating a printer to imprint the aggregated content object on the page.

19. A method according to claim 18 further comprising the step of scaling one of the selected content objects to adjust the straight line of its perimeter, thereby to create two objects bounded by perimeters having a straight line of common length along which they may abut each other.

20. A method according to claim 19 wherein the perimeter for each object is defined initially in accordance with a predetermined set of rules and is not visible on the printed page.

21. A method of generating a data file recording a visually assimilable document from:

a template data item recording a page upon which matter may be displayed; and

at least one content data item recording one or more content objects bounded by a perimeter, the method comprising the steps of;

(i) selecting two content data items each recording content objects whose perimeters include a straight line;

(ii) combining the two selected content data items into a single data item recording two aggregated content objects whose perimeters abut along the straight lines;

(iii) repeating steps (i) and (ii) until a single, combined content data item recording all the aggregated content objects has been created; and

(v) inserting the combined data item into the template data item.

22. A method according to claim 21 further comprising the step of altering one of the content data items to scale one of the selected content objects and thus adjust the straight line of its perimeter, thereby to create two data files each recording content objects bounded by perimeters having a straight line of common length along which they may abut each other.

23. A method according to claim 22 further comprising the step of transmitting the combined data item to a printer and operating the printer to generate a document displaying the aggregated content objects on the page.