System and method for representing and managing pages in a production printing workflow

• US 7,003,723 B1
• Filed: 05/17/2000
• Issued: 02/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Original Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Inventors: Kremer, Karl Heinz, Hansen, David R., Holzwarth, Robert K.
• Primary Examiner(s): BASHORE, WILLIAM L
• Application Number:
  US09/573,368
• Time in Patent Office: 2,106 Days
• Field of Search: 715/527, 715/517, 715/525, 358/1.15, 358/1.12
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A system and method for managing production printing workflow is disclosed. The system includes workflow management software which manages and facilitates the procedural stages of the workflow including job origination, job preparation, job submission and job fulfillment. The workflow management software provides an integrated object oriented interface which visually reflects and interacts with the workflow. The software further provides functionality for efficient page level modifications to documents at the job preparation stage. This functionality allows such modifications to be easily made to selected pages, shared among different documents, and collected into standardized libraries.

Claims

1. An interface, implemented in a computer, for representing and controlling a production printing workflow comprising:

a display;

a first document object representing a document, said document further comprising content and formatting, said formatting defining at least one page in said document, said first document object being associated with a first visual representation on said display;

a document ticket object representing global document attributes, said document ticket object being associated with a second visual representation on said display and capable of being associated with said first document object;

a page object representing a page attribute of one of said at least one page, said page object being associated with a third visual representation on said display and capable of being associated with said first document object;

a first user input device for selectively associating at least two of said first, second and third visual representations; and

a second user input device for creating said page object, said second user input device operative to allow selection of said page attribute, setting of a value of said page attribute and selection of one or more of said at least one page in said document to apply said page attribute to wherein upon application, one or more of said page objects are created and associated with each of said one or more of said at least one page and said corresponding document object;

wherein association of said first, second and third visual representations results in association of said respective objects,

wherein said association of said page object with one of said at least one page in said document in said first document object is operative to cause said page attributes to apply to said one of said at least one page.

2. The interface of claim 1, wherein said page attribute includes attributes selected from the group consisting of annotation, imposition, media type, media source, media characteristics, plex, binding and masking.

3. The interface of claim 1, further comprising:

a page ticket object representing a collection of one or more unassociated of said page objects, said page ticket object being associated with a fourth visual representation on said display and capable of being associated with said first document object.

4. The interface of claim 3, wherein an association of said page ticket object with one of said at least one page in said document in said first document object is operative to cause association of each of said collection of one or more unassociated of said page objects to associate with said one of said at least one page.

5. The interface of claim 3, wherein an association of said page ticket object with one of said at least one page in said document in said first document object is operative to cause said page attributes of each of said collection of one or more unassociated of said page objects to apply to said one of said at least one page.

6. The interface of claim 5, wherein said association creates a duplicate of each of said page objects in said collection and associates said duplicate with said one of said at least one page, leaving said page objects in said collection unassociated.

7. The interface of claim 5, wherein post-association modifications to said page attributes of one or more of said page objects in said collection results are applied to said one of said at least one page.

8. The interface of claim 1, wherein said page object is further capable of being associated with one of said at least one page in said first document object wherein, when said page object is associated with said one of said at least one page, manipulation of said one of said at least one page manipulates said associated page object.

9. The interface of claim 8, wherein said manipulation includes actions selected from the group consisting of cut, copy, paste, delete, store and print.

10. The interface of claim 8, wherein copying of said one of said at least one page also copies said associated page object.

11. The interface of claim 1, wherein said document is encoded in a ready for printer format.

12. The interface of claim 11, wherein said ready for printer format is a format selected from the group consisting of Portable Document Format, PostScript and Printer Control Language.

13. An interface, implemented in a computer, for representing and controlling a production printing workflow comprising:

a display;

a first document entity representing a document, said document further comprising content and formatting, said formatting defining at least one page in said document, said first document entity being associated with a first visual representation on said display;

a document ticket entity representing global document attributes, said document ticket entity being associated with a second visual representation on said display and capable of being associated with said first document entity;

a page entity representing a page attribute of one of said at least one page, said page entity being associated with a third visual representation on said display and capable of being associated with said first document entity;

a first user input device for selectively associating at least two of said first, second and third visual representations; and

a second user input device for creating said page entity, said second user input device operative to allow selection of said page attribute, setting of a value of said page attribute and selection of one or more of said at least one page in said document to apply said page attribute to wherein upon application, one or more of said page entities are created and associated with each of said one or more of said at least one page and said corresponding document entity;

wherein association of said first, second and third visual representations results in association of said respective entities,

wherein said association of said page entity with one of said at least one page in said document in said first document entity is operative to cause said page attributes to apply to said one of said at least one page.

14. The interface of claim 13, wherein said page attribute includes attributes selected from the group consisting of annotation, imposition, media type, media source, media characteristics, plex, binding and masking.

15. The interface of claim 13, further comprising:

a page ticket entity representing a collection of one or more unassociated of said page entities, said page ticket entity being associated with a fourth visual representation on said display and capable of being associated with said first document entity.

16. The interface of claim 15, wherein an association of said page ticket entity with one of said at least one page in said document in said first document entity is operative to cause association of each of said collection of one or more unassociated of said page entities to associate with said one of said at least one page.

17. The interface of claim 15, wherein an association of said page ticket entity with one of said at least one page in said document in said first document entity is operative to cause said page attributes of each of said collection of one or more unassociated of said page entities to apply to said one of said at least one page.

18. The interface of claim 17, wherein said association creates a duplicate of each of said page entities in said collection and associates said duplicate with said one of said at least one page, leaving said page entities in said collection unassociated.

19. The interface of claim 17, wherein post-association modifications to said page attributes of one or more of said page entities in said collection results are applied to said one of said at least one page.

20. The interface of claim 13, wherein said page entity is further capable of being associated with one of said at least one page in said first document entity wherein, when said page entity is associated with said one of said at least one page, manipulation of said one of said at least one page manipulates said associated page entity.

21. The interface of claim 20, wherein said manipulation includes actions selected from the group consisting of cut, copy, paste, delete, store and print.

22. The interface of claim 20, wherein copying of said one of said at least one page also copies said associated page entity.

23. The interface of claim 13, wherein said document is encoded in a ready for printer format.

24. The interface of claim 23, wherein said ready for printer format is a format selected from the group consisting of Portable Document Format, PostScript and Printer Control Language.

25. A computer executable method of controlling a production printing workflow comprising:

(a) displaying a first visual representation of a document on a display;

(b) displaying a second visual representation of global document attributes capable of being associated with said document on said display;

(c) associating said first visual representation with said second visual representation;

(d) based on (c), linking said global document attributes with said document such that said global document attributes apply to said document;

(e) displaying a third visual representation of a page attribute capable of being associated with one of said one or more pages on said display;

(f) associating said third visual representation with said first visual representation; and

(g) based on (f), linking said page attribute with a corresponding one of said one or more pages such that said page attribute applies to said corresponding one of said one or more pages and wherein manipulation of said one of said or more pages manipulates said page attribute.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said page attribute includes attributes selected from the group consisting of annotation, imposition, media type, media source, media characteristics, plex, binding, and masking.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein said document is encoded in a ready for printer format.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein said ready for printer format is a format selected from the group consisting of Portable Document Format, PostScript and Printer Control Language.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein said (a)–

(g) are implemented using a graphic user interface.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said graphic user interface is object oriented.

31. A computer executable system for managing production printing workflow comprising:

a receiver for receiving a document, said document comprising content and document formatting, said document formatting defining at least one page of said content and wherein each of said at least one page is characterized by at least one page characteristic;

a page attribute comprising a value and capable of being associated with said at least one page and capable of controlling one of said at least one page characteristic of an associated page using said value;

a page ticket capable of being associated with one or more of said page attributes wherein association of said page ticket with said document associates said one or more of said page attributes with said document; and

an editor coupled with said receiver and operative to allow a user to view and edit said document;

wherein said editor is further operative to allow association of one or more of said page attributes with one or more of said at least one page of said document, association of one or more of said page attributes with said page ticket and association of one or more of said page tickets with one or more of said at least one page of said document.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein said editor is further operative to allow setting said value of said page attribute.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein modification of said value of an associated of said page attribute results in modification of said at least one page characteristic of the corresponding associated page.

34. The system of claim 31, wherein said page attribute includes attributes selected from the group consisting of annotation, imposition, media type, media source, media characteristics, plex, binding and masking.