Administration and search and replace of computerized prepress

• US 6,631,375 B2
• Filed: 12/02/1998
• Issued: 10/07/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Vistaprint Schweiz GmbH (Cimpress Plc)
• Original Assignee: VistaPrint Limited (Cimpress Plc)
• Inventors: Mitchell, Winfield A., Jecha, Steven T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Millin, Vincent
• Assistant Examiner(s): Colbert, Ella
• Application Number:
  US09/204,388
• Publication Number:
  US 20020059235A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,770 Days
• Field of Search: 707/501, 707/506, 707/530, 707/517, 707/5, 707/7, 707/9, 707/100, 707/501.1, 345/435, 345/603, 345/604, 715/501.1, 715/506, 715/517, 715/530
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 client/server prepress using a downloadable document authoring program. A server has stored thereon a document authoring program. The program is adapted to download to a client computer and run in the browser of the client computer. The authoring program allows the client to create an electronic document, view the document in WYSIWYG form, and upload the created document to the server for subsequent translation to a suitable prepress format.

Claims

1. A computerized prepress method comprising:

storing on a server computer system a computerized prepress software system, wherein the prepress software system includes a document authoring program downloadable from the server to a client computer, the program having one or more authoring tools used to create an electronic document;

wherein the downloaded program executes in a web browser of the client computer and displays the electronic document in WYSIWYG form to the user of the client computer, and at least one of the authoring tools has one or more functions that allows a user to select and edit at least one element of the electronic document while at least a portion of the electronic document is simultaneously displayed;

the software system further configured to provide that at least one of the authoring tools is adapted to create an electronic document using the client computer, and that the electronic document is uploaded to the server computer system in a form allowing a translation component to create a prepress format file so that when the prepress format file is used to produce a document the document is consistent with the WYSIWYG form displayed to the user on the client computer, and so that the user need not be concerned with creating a prepress format file, and further so that the authored electronic document can be processed into a prepress format file;

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

the user using at least one authoring tool of the downloaded program at the client computer to create an electronic document;

uploading the electronic document to the server computer system.

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, comprising the additional steps of sending log-on information regarding a user from a client computer to the server computer systems over the Internet and authenticating the user at the server computer system.

6. The computerized prepress method of claim 1, wherein the authoring program downloaded from the server computer system 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 electronic 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 plate area to select a color from 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 computerize prepress method of claim 1, wherein using one of the authoring tools of the authoring program at the client computer to create an electronic document comprises sending desired text from the client computer to the server computer system for translation into an image and sending the image from the server computer system 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 file is selected from a group essentially comprising PostScript, HTML, PDF, and PostScript Extreme.

16. The computerized prepress method of claim 1, further including distributing the prepress format file to a location remote from the server computer system for printing at the remote location.

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 a computerized prepress software system including a document authoring program downloadable from the server to a client computer, the program having one or more authoring tools used to create an electronic document;

wherein the downloaded program executes in a web browser of the client computer and displays the electronic document in WYSIWYG form to the user of the client computer, and at least one of the authoring tools has one or more functions that allows a user to select and edit at least one element of the electronic document while at least a portion of the electronic document is simultaneously displayed;

the software system further configured to provide that at least one of the authoring tools is adapted to create an electronic document using the client computer, and that the electronic document is uploaded to the server computer system in a form allowing a translation component to create the prepress format file so that when the prepress format file is used to produce a document the document is consistent with the WYSIWYG form displayed to the user on the client computer, and so that the user need not be concerned with creating a prepress format file.

19. The computerized prepress method of claim 18, wherein the server, the client and the printer are communicatively coupled to one another through the Internet.

20. The computerized prepress method of claim 18, wherein the server, the client and the printer are communicatively coupled to one another through an intranet.

21. The computerized prepress method 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 and 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 18, 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-wed browser program.

28. The computerized prepress system of claim 18, wherein the authoring program runs on the client in an extranet worldwide-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 electronic 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 file 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 comprising a web browser executed by the processor from the medium; and

an authoring program having one or more authoring tools used to create an electronic document, the program being downloaded from a server to the client through the communications device, wherein the downloaded program executes in the web browser and displays the electronic document in WYSIWYG form to the user, and at least one of the authoring tools has one or more functions that allows a user to select and edit at least one element of the electronic document while at least a portion of the electronic document is simultaneously displayed;

further wherein the authoring program is adapted to provide that the authoring tools create an electronic document and that the electronic document is uploaded to the server computer system in a form allowing a translation program to create the prepress format file so that when the prepress format file is used to produce a document the document is consistent with the WYSIWYG image displayed to the user on the client computer by the authoring program, and so that the user need not be concerned with creating a prepress format file.

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.

38. The client computer of claim 34, wherein the operating environment program comprises an intranet world-wide-browser program.

39. The client computer of claim 34, wherein the operating environment program comprises an extranet world-wide-browser program.

40. A server computer system 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 to a client computer and used by a client computer to create an electronic document, wherein the authoring program includes one or more document authoring tools and further wherein at least some of the authoring tools are adapted to create an electronic document;

wherein the downloadable authoring program is adapted to execute in a web browser of the client computer and display the electronic document in WYSIWYG form to the user of the client computer, and at least one of the authoring tools has one or more functions that allow a user to select and edit at least one element of the electronic document while at least a portion of the electronic document is simultaneously displayed;

the authoring program adapted to provide that the authoring tools create an electronic document and that the electronic document is uploaded to the server computer system in a form allowing a translation program to create the prepress format file so that when the prepress format file is used to produce a document the document is consistent with a WYSIWYG image displayed to the user on the client computer by the authoring program, and so that the user need not be concerned with creating a prepress format file.

41. The server computer system 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 system 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 system and for execution on the client computer within the client'"'"'s web browser, the program comprising means for creating a WYSIWYG document, which is uploaded from the client 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 system, the program comprising:

means downloadable from a server computer to a client computer for creating a WYSIWYG document in the client'"'"'s web browser, 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 system.