Design and production of print advertising and commercial display materials over the Internet

• US 6,167,382 A
• Filed: 06/01/1998
• Issued: 12/26/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: F.A.C. Services Group, L.P.
• Original Assignee: F.A.C. Services Group, L.P.
• Inventors: Tremel, Wally, Sparks, Don R., Scott, M. James
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel Todd
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hayes, John W.
• Application Number:
  US09/088,173
• Time in Patent Office: 939 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/10, 705/14, 705/1, 283/56, 707/517, 707/520
• US Class Current: 705/14.73
• 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: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A client at a remote site may order each of a series of images from a low resolution image database, and may then assemble these images and text into a marketing piece. Once assembly is complete, the client orders the system proprietor to produce the marketing piece according to the client'"'"'s specifications. The client communicates to the system proprietor via a web site on the Internet, which has associated with it a pair of applications for the ordering of images and the assembly of marketing pieces. The client assembles the marketing piece according to one of a series of predefined templates, which constrains the choices which the client has such that the produced marketing piece will have the look and feel dictated by the client'"'"'s company. The templates, each of which has associated with it a series of slots for the placement of image or text, also permit easy assembly of a marketing piece by simply specifying the material which goes within the slot. A catalog of low-resolution images are sent over the Internet to the client for his or her consideration, and a corresponding set of high-resolution images are used to produce the marketing pieces.

Claims

1. A method for designing and producing a marketing piece as ordered by a client from a remote location, comprising the steps of:

establishing a web site on a host computer, the client having access to the web site from the remote location;

organizing an object database to have a plurality of objects, each of the objects having an address and a row in a record table, the objects including content objects, shell objects and slot objects, the content objects including image objects, each image object having associated therewith a low-resolution image file and a high-resolution image file;

storing the object database in a memory associated with an image processor;

using search logic associated with the web site and search criteria supplied by the client, searching for one or more images for use in assembling the marketing piece, the search logic returning image search results;

selecting at least one image from the search results for inclusion in the marketing piece;

transmitting a low-resolution image file to the client in response to the step of selecting;

using design logic loaded on the web site, permitting the client to select among a plurality of shells, each of the shells corresponding to a shell object stored in the database, the shells each having at least one slot for the insertion of a content object, said at least one slot corresponding to a slot object stored in the database;

inserting a selected image into said at least one slot;

responsive to the step of inserting, forming a completed marketing piece design;

transmitting parameters of the completed marketing piece design as a marketing piece order to the image processor through the web site;

responsive to the image processor receiving the marketing piece order, creating a marketing piece design using at least one high resolution image file corresponding to the image inserted into said at least one slot; and

using the completed marketing piece design to produce one or more copies of the marketing piece.