Automatic high speed publishing system

• US 5,349,648 A
• Filed: 04/09/1992
• Issued: 09/20/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: George E. Handley
• Original Assignee: George E. Handley
• Inventors: Handley, George E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Herndon, Heather R.
• Application Number:
  US07/847,261
• Time in Patent Office: 894 Days
• Field of Search: 395/144-149
• US Class Current: 715/205
• 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 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text

Abstract

A database publishing system uses a plurality of microprocessors for flowing manuscript material such as text and graphics into predefined entities making up the structure of a publication according to predetermined attributes associated with each entity, and for imaging manuscript material in a sequence of processing stages with each stage including a plurality of processing operations. In operation, the structure and appearance of a publication can be defined in advance before entering the manuscript material making up the publication. Furthermore, manuscript material making up a plurality of publications can be in process at the same time in various processing stages in order to image the publications in assembly line fashion.

Claims

1. A method of imaging a publication composed of manuscript material such as text and graphics, said method comprising the steps of:

defining in a computer system the structure of a publication to be imaged to include a plurality of identifiable entities associable with manuscript material wherein said entities make up at least a portion of said structure, and assigning at least one imaging attribute to each entity;

receiving manuscript material along with entity-identifying information;

associating said material with ones of said entities identified by said information; and

imaging said manuscript material associated with each of said entities according to said attributes assigned thereto, said imaging step further including the steps of

searching the manuscript material associated with predetermined ones of said entities for at least one predetermined manuscript item,

retrieving in response to detection of said manuscript item, predetermined manuscript material stored in said computer system memory and unassociated with any particular publication, and

imaging said predetermined manuscript material in association with said entity having said manuscript item.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1, said predetermined manuscript item including a predetermined word, said predetermined manuscript material including a graphical icon representative of said word.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2, said publication including a cook book, said entity having said predetermined word associated therewith including a recipe title, said predetermined word including a food item, said icon including a graphical representation of said food item.

4. An apparatus for imaging a publication composed of manuscript material such as text and graphics, said apparatus comprising:

a computer system including

means for defining the structure of a publication to be imaged to include a plurality of identifiable entities associable with manuscript material wherein said entities make up at least a portion of said structure, and for assigning at least one imaging attribute to each entity before associating a manuscript material therewith,

means for receiving manuscript material along with entity-identifying information,

means for associating said material with ones of said entities identified by said information, and

means for imaging said manuscript material associated with each of said entities according to said attributes assigned thereto, said imaging means further including

means for searching the manuscript material associated with predetermined ones of said entities for at least one predetermined manuscript item,

means for retrieving, in response to detection of said manuscript item, predetermined manuscript material stored in said computer system memory and unassociated with any particular publication, and

means for imaging said predetermined manuscript material in association with said entity having said manuscript item.

5. The apparatus as set forth in claim 4, said predetermined manuscript item including a predetermined word, said predetermined manuscript material including a graphical icon representative of said word.

6. The apparatus as set forth in claim 5, said publication including a cook book, said entity having said predetermined word associated therewith including a recipe title, said predetermined word including a food item, said icon including a graphical representation of said food item.

7. A method of imaging a cook book for printing, the cook book including recipes with each recipe having a title, ingredient list, and recipe method, said method comprising the steps of:

defining in a computer system entities making up the structure of the cook book to include at least the entities of recipe and associated recipe title, ingredient list and method;

assigning an entity-identifying code to each of said entities and assigning at least one imaging attribute to each of said entities;

receiving manuscript material into said computer system including recipes and associated recipe titles, ingredient lists and methods identified by respective codes without any attribute information included in said manuscript material;

performing at least one processing operation on said manuscript material before imaging in accordance with said attributes; and

imaging said manuscript material according to said attributes into a camera-ready signature page format to include left and right hand pages, said imaging step including the steps of

searching the manuscript material associated with at least one of said recipe title entities for a predetermined food item word,

retrieving in response to detection of said word a predetermined graphical icon stored in said computer system memory and unassociated with any particular publication and illustrative of said food item, and

imaging said icon in association with the recipe of the recipe title having said word on the same page therewith.