Imagex, Inc.

Other

Tijemiksho Data, LLC

Fedex Office and Print Services, Inc.

Kinko's Washington, Inc.

Cory E Klatt

Brent Krum

Timothy A Laverty

Larry G Roy

Thomas P Maliska

Information stored in a corporate database is monitored and used to determine when certain business-related events have occurred. Event information is transmitted over the Internet to a print production facility, where it is used to fire one or more event rules, which in turn automatically generate print requisitions or print production orders. In one variation, print requisitions are routed through an existing and commercially available procurement system before a print production order is generated. The system can monitor and handle events from multiple corporations, each having its own business-related event rules, and each potentially having its own procurement approval system.

System for establishing event rules for sales management databases

System and method of using a sales management system to generate printed products

System and method of using human resources data to generate printed products

An appartus for producing normalized (or 'washed') graphic image files that have a consistent file structure, the graphic image files thereafter being used to produce a consistent print ready file structure. A source, or unprocessed, image file is first converted into a vector-based medium file and stored. This vector-based medium includes a PDF file format, with the conversion routine using Adobe Distiller for producing PDF files. The vector-based medium file is thereafter retrieved and converted into a consistently structured file, which can be used by a variety of applications associated with a printing process. The consistent structure file includes PostScript, and in particular ASCII Level 1 PostScript. The washing routine is intended to be performed as an Prepress operation to creating the overlying print ready file, and can be automated as needed. This Prepress operation can run on a farm service and managed by a master farm server.

Apparatus for washing of graphic image files

An on-line automated printing system quickly produces consistent printed materials. The system includes front-end customer setup and product setup modules available on a web server. A Print Ready File is produced embodying the product to be printed. The Print Ready File is compiled and all operations on the file can be completed via reference to the information contained therein. A state flag is associated with each element of the file, the flag having states such as preview, print, both, or none. The file is stored on an asset management file server. The file (unchanged) may be previewed or printed using internal flags and logic built-in to the PostScript language. A batcher service batches print jobs. A plater service accepts the Print Ready Files and outputs a plate file to a print vendor's ordering system. Over the Internet the plate file is sent to a vendor computer. The plate file is sent to a raster image processor (RIP) which outputs a bitmap to be printed. Included within the system are any number of hosted prepress applications, each a subsystem. A client application requests processing of a file by one of the subsystems. The client sends the parameters along with input and output files to a master service. The master service selects a lower-level service for conversion. A prepress application module (with hardcoded parameters) processes the file and outputs the result.

Automated, hosted prepress applications

An on-line automated printing system quickly produces consistent printed materials. The system includes front-end customer setup and product setup modules available on a web server. A Print Ready File is produced embodying the product to be printed. The Print Ready File is compiled and all operations on the file can be completed via reference to the information contained therein. A state flag is associated with each element of the file, the flag having states such as preview, print, both, or none. The file is stored on an asset management file server. The file (unchanged) may be previewed or printed using internal flags and logic built-in to the PostScript language. A batcher service batches print jobs. A plater service accepts the Print Ready Files and outputs a plate file to a print vendor's ordering system. Over the Internet the plate file is sent to a vendor computer. The plate file is sent to a raster image processor (RIP) which outputs a bitmap to be printed. Included within the system is an imposition subsystem. A client application requests imposition of a file and pulls imposition parameters from an image logic information database. The client sends the parameters along with input and output files to a gateway service. The gateway service places the job in a queue which is monitored by a processor service. The processor service hands the job off to a hierarchy of processing services. An imposition module (with hardcoded parameters) executes the software application Preps to perform imposition of the file and outputs the result.

Imposition of graphic image files

A method for producing normalized (or &ldquo;washed&rdquo;) graphic image files that have a consistent file structure, the graphic image files thereafter being used to produce a consistent print ready file structure. A source, or unprocessed, image file is first converted into a vector-based medium file and stored. This vector-based medium includes a PDF file format, with the conversion routine using Adobe Distiller for producing PDF files. The vector-based medium file is thereafter retrieved and converted into a consistently structured file, which can be used by a variety of applications associated with a printing process. The consistent structure file includes PostScript, and in particular ASCII Level 1 PostScript. The washing routine is intended to be performed as an Prepress operation to creating the overlying print ready file, and can be automated as needed. This Prepress operation can run on a farm service and managed by a master farm server.

Method for washing of graphic image files

An on-line automated printing system quickly produces consistent printed materials. The system includes front-end customer setup and product setup modules available on a web server. A Print Ready File is produced embodying the product to be printed. The Print Ready File is compiled and all operations on the file can be completed via reference to the information contained therein. A state flag is associated with each element of the file, the flag having states such as preview, print, both, or none. The file is stored on an asset management file server. The file (unchanged) may be previewed or printed using internal flags and logic built-in to the PostScript language. A batcher service batches print jobs. A plater service accepts the Print Ready Files and outputs a plate file to a print vendor's ordering system. Over the Internet the plate file is sent to a vendor computer. The plate file is sent to a raster image processor (RIP) which outputs a bitmap to be printed. Included within the system is a trapping subsystem. A client application requests trapping of a file and pulls trapping parameters from an image logic information database. The client sends the parameters along with input and output files to a gateway service. The gateway service places the job in a queue which is monitored by a processor service. The processor service hands the job off to a hierarchy of processing services. A trapping module (with hardcoded parameters) executes the software application Trapwise to perform a trap of the file and outputs the result.

Trapping of graphic image files

The color separation subsystem provides an automated hosted environment to perform the pre-press application of color separation upon a suitable file to produce a resultant plate file. The color separation subsystem is coupled to an image logic information database which includes job color separation parameters for the job and a client application such as a plater service or product setup module that wishes to perform automated color separation. Gateway service and queue processor service are software processes running on a dedicated server computer that assist with automated color separation. The module accepts requests for color separation of a file, retrieves one or more color separation parameters from the image logic information database and transfers one or more color separation parameters. A color separation software tool then accepts the file and performs color separation of the file, using the retrieved color separation parameters, all without user intervention.

Color separation of graphic image files

Apparatus for printing information automatically combined from two different sources

Automated, hosted prepress application

Method of generating print production tasks using information extracted from enterprise databases

An on-line automated printing system quickly produces consistent printed materials. The system includes front-end customer setup and product setup modules available on a web server. A Print Ready File is produced embodying the product to be printed. The Print Ready File is compiled and all operations on the file can be completed via reference to the information contained therein. A state flag is associated with each element of the file, the flag having states such as preview, print, both, or none. The file is stored on an asset management file server. The file (unchanged) may be previewed or printed using internal flags and logic built-in to the PostScript language. A batcher service batches print jobs. A plater service accepts the Print Ready Files and outputs a plate file to a print vendor's ordering system. Over the Internet the plate file is sent to a vendor computer. The plate file is sent to a raster image processor (RIP) which outputs a bitmap to be printed. Included within the system is a PostScript to bitmap conversion subsystem. A client application requests conversion of a file to bitmap format and pulls conversion parameters from an image logic information database. The client sends the parameters along with input and output files to a master service. The master service selects a lower-level service for conversion. A PostScript to bitmap conversion module (with hardcoded parameters) executes the software application Alchemy to perform conversion of the file and outputs the result.

Postscript to bitmap conversion of graphic image files

An on-line automated printing system quickly produces consistent printed materials. The system includes front-end customer setup and product setup modules available on a web server. A Print Ready File is produced embodying the product to be printed. The Print Ready File is compiled and all operations on the file can be completed via reference to the information contained therein. A state flag is associated with each element of the file, the flag having states such as preview, print, both, or none. The file is stored on an asset management file server. The file (unchanged) may be previewed or printed using internal flags and logic built-in to the PostScript language. A batcher service batches print jobs. A plater service accepts the Print Ready Files and outputs a plate file to a print vendor's ordering system. Over the Internet the plate file is sent to a vendor computer. The plate file is sent to a raster image processor (RIP) which outputs a bitmap to be printed. Included within the system is a PostScript to PDF conversion subsystem. A client application requests conversion of a file to PDF and pulls conversion parameters from an image logic information database. The client sends the parameters along with input and output files to a master service. The master service selects a lower-level service for conversion. A PostScript to PDF conversion module (with hardcoded parameters) executes the software application Distiller to perform conversion of the file and outputs the result.

Postscript to PDF conversion of graphic image files

An on-line automated printing system quickly produces consistent printed materials. The system includes front-end customer setup and product setup modules available on a web server. A Print Ready File is produced embodying the product to be printed. The Print Ready File is compiled and all operations on the file can be completed via reference to the information contained therein. A state flag is associated with each element of the file, the flag having states such as preview, print, both, or none. The file is stored on an asset management file server. The file (unchanged) may be previewed or printed using internal flags and logic built-in to the PostScript language. A batcher service batches print jobs. A plater service accepts the Print Ready Files and outputs a plate file to a print vendor's ordering system. Over the Internet the plate file is sent to a vendor computer. The plate file is sent to a raster image processor (RIP) which outputs a bitmap to be printed. Included within the system is a PDF to PostScript conversion subsystem. A client application requests conversion of a file to PostScript and pulls conversion parameters from an image logic information database. The client sends the parameters along with input and output files to a master service. The master service selects a lower-level service for conversion. A PDF to PostScript conversion module (with hardcoded parameters) uses the PDF library to perform conversion of the file and outputs the result.

Growing community of inventors

Edmunds, WA, United States of America

Cory E Klatt