Mechanism for verifying variable print data

• US 8,310,715 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2009
• Issued: 11/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Infoprint Solutions Company LLC (Ricoh Company Limited)
• Inventors: Price, Stephen Goddard
• Primary Examiner(s): Haskins, Twyler
• Assistant Examiner(s): Guillermety, Fred
• Application Number:
  US12/641,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20110149336A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.12, 358/1.18
• US Class Current: 358/1.18
• 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 3/1243 Variable data printing, e.g. document forms, templates, labels, coupons, advertisements, logos, watermarks, transactional printing, fixed content versioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1256 User feedback, e.g. print preview, test print, proofing, pre-flight checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server

Abstract

A printing system is disclosed. The printing system includes a first printer to print to a medium a first type of data and a shadow image of variable data to be printed on the medium, and a second printer to print the variable data to the medium based on the barcode over the shadow image.

Claims

1. A printing system comprising:

a first printer to print to a medium a first type of data and a shadow image of variable data to be printed on the medium; and

a second printer to print the variable data to the medium based on a barcode over the shadow image.

2. The printing system of claim 1 wherein the shadow image is printed as lightly-printed filled characters.

3. The printing system of claim 1 wherein the shadow image is printed as an empty outline of the characters.

4. The printing system of claim 1 wherein the shadow image is printed in color.

5. The printing system of claim 1 further comprising a verification unit to verify that the variable data matches the shadow image.

6. The printing system of claim 1 wherein the first printer prints a barcode on the medium including the variable data to be printed on the medium.

7. The printing system of claim 1 wherein the variable data comprises Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data.

8. The printing system of claim 7 wherein the shadow image is printed as a shadow outline of MICR characters.

9. The printing system of claim 8 wherein the first type of data comprises at least one of text data and image data.

10. A method comprising:

printing a first type of data on a medium at a first printer;

printing a shadow image of variable data on the medium at the first printer; and

printing the variable data on the medium at a second printer over the shadow image.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising verifying that the variable data matches the shadow image.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising verifying that the variable data is aligned with the shadow image.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising printing a barcode on the medium at the first printer including the variable data to be printed on the medium at the second printer.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the variable data comprises Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the first type of data comprises at least one of text data and image data.

16. A printer comprising:

a reader to read data previously printed on a medium; and

a control unit to print variable data acquired from the previously printed data over a shadow image of the variable data.

17. The printer of claim 16 further comprising a verification unit to verify that the variable data matches the shadow image.

18. The printer of claim 17 wherein the verification unit verifies that the variable data is aligned with the shadow image.

19. The printer of claim 16 wherein the shadow image is printed as lightly-printed filled characters.

20. The printer of claim 16 wherein the shadow image is printed as a shadow outline of the characters.