International Business Machines Corporation

Ricoh Production Print Solutions LLC

Infoprintsolutions Company, LLC

Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Dwight Ross Palmer

Robert Curt Nielsen

Reinhard Heinrich Hohensee

Leonard Corning Lahey

David Earl Stone

Adam A Swartz

Kyle P Manning

Arthur Ray Roberts

Linda Sue Liebelt

Luana Linda Vigil

Janeen Elizabeth Jahn

Brian William Moroney

John Stuart Walker

Robert William Goings

Deborah Elisabeth Neuhard

Nenad Rijavec

John Thomas Varga

Marquis G Waller

Deborah Elizabeth Neuhard

Carl Michael Dennison

Anthony Franke Stuart

Craig Duray Brossman

Jagdish Mooljee Nagda

Calvin Larry Doescher

Simon P Jones

Lynn Mette Mastie

Eric M Sigler

Matthew M Walli

Jean Margaret Aschenbrenner

Ronald L Heiney

Ronald Dean Parrish

Steven M Scott

Brian G Platte

Jason Robert Nielsen

Marc A Willson

Scott Matthew Jones

Rodney L Sherwood

Chris Samuel Goertz

Kevin J Bodily

Brian Joseph Hogan

Kate Goes Center

Garrett L Thompson

Roger K deBry

Methods and systems disclosed provide for visually displaying a graphical representation of two or more print workflows to a user with a Graphical User Interface (GUI), analyzing the two or more print workflows to determine the differences between them, and visually displays the differences to the user with the GUI.

Print workflow visualization and comparison

An apparatus, system, and process for printing on variable form media are provided. Variable form media has a variety of physical configurations. Each physical configuration may have a unique print target for receiving printing. The apparatus, system, and process include a computer configured to receive text information. The computer organizes the text information as relocatable print data. The relocatable print data may be printed at one or more print targets on one or more variable form medias. Each print target has a distinct position, orientation, and dimensions. The computer further calculates spatial print data directed to a specific variable form media from the relocatable print data. The spatial print data specifies the position, orientation, and dimension of the relocatable print data. The apparatus, system, and process print the spatial print data on the variable form media. In addition, the apparatus, system, and process may render the spatial print data and the variable form media on a display.

Apparatus, system, and method for printing on variable form media

A manufacturing system is disclosed. The manufacturing system may include a personalization mechanism to evaluate personalization information relating to mailpieces, wherein the mailpieces include mail containers and mail content components. The manufacturing system may further include a matching mechanism to compare the containers with their corresponding content components using unique verification codes assigned to each of the containers and content components, wherein the unique verification codes are assigned based on the evaluated personalization information, and a production machine to produce personalized containers and their corresponding content components based on comparison results of the comparison.

Mechanism for generating personalized mailpieces in a manufacturing system

Methods and systems for improved workflow management for a related group of jobs. A group of related jobs are received from a job source and are processed independently and in accordance with an associated job type for each job. The jobs may be processed and reprocessed independent of all other jobs in the group and may be processed substantially concurrently or in parallel. A group workflow manager assures synchronization of the jobs to generate the expected order in the output. The synchronization is defined by synchronization actions processed as part of the workflow processing. The synchronization actions may be defined in the job type of each job, or in a group job type, or defined by user interaction.

Processing a group of jobs substantially independently while synchronizing and maintaining the original order of the jobs at appropriate points in a workflow

Methods, systems, and apparatus for improved ease and flexibility in defining attribute values for jobs in a workflow processing system. The job attributes are presented to a user grouped or organized by their relationship to various elements of the workflow model used to process the job type. Further, default values for job attributes may be flexibly defined based on elements of the workflow model that utilize the job attribute and/or based on dynamic computations of functions involving the various job attributes and other parameters.

Flexible attribute management in workflow processing systems

Methods, systems, and apparatus for flexible, configurable job workflow processing. Features and aspects hereof provide for generating workflow models from configurable templates. The workflow models may include one or more phases, each comprising one or more processes, each process comprising one or more steps. The Phases, processes, and steps may all be defined by configuring parameters of corresponding templates. Information defining the workflow models and all job information for jobs to be executed are entries in an integrated database such that creation and update of workflow model information and job information is performed as simple database queries and updates.

Customer-configurable print workflow system

A method and apparatus for managing complex presentation objects using globally-unique identifiers. Downloaded objects are identified by globally-unique identifiers to maintain object integrity and to facilitate capturing downloaded objects for reuse without additional download time overhead. An object may be referenced by selected indicia, such as a name, a globally-unique identifier or a globally-unique identifier and an object locator, The object is located by the selected indicia. Then, a decision is made whether to allow capture of the object based upon whether the selected indicia includes a globally-unique identifier and is secure.

Method and apparatus for managing complex presentation objects using globally-unique identifiers

A method, computer program product, and system for handling an error that occurs during processing of a job in a manufacturing system are provided. The method, computer program product, and system provide for determining a first location in the job where a first subsystem of the manufacturing system is currently processing, identifying a second location in the job where a second subsystem of the manufacturing system completed processing before the error occurred at the second subsystem, the second subsystem being connected in series to and downstream from the first subsystem, and providing a controller-generated repositioning instruction for the first subsystem based on the first location and the second location.

Downstream error handling in manufacturing systems

Methods, systems, and apparatus for migrating a database of a workflow processing system from a current version to a new version by serializing the data into serialized objects and then deserializing the objects into the new version of the database. The current version of the database may include elements of data associated with base features and extension features of the workflow processing system. The new version of the database is initially generated to include only base features associated with a new version of the programmed instructions of the system. Deserializing the serialized objects into the new version of the database is effective to merge the object types of the information in the current version of the database into the object type of the new version of the database.

Migration of database using serialized objects

A customer record is generated to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected delivery option indicating a method to deliver generated output material on the product. A job record including a status field is added to a job status table and set to a first status. A first worker is invoked if the selected job has the first status to generate output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job. The status for the selected job in the job status table is set to a second status after generating the output material with the first worker. A second worker is invoked if the selected job has the second status to determine whether a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job and transmits the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record.

Database driven workflow management system for generating output material based on customer input

A method, system, and computer program product are provided, wherein the bandwidth necessary to transmit an item of image data is reduced. When items of image data are identified in a datastream, they are extracted from the datastream. The image data item is then divided into a series of subregions of variable size. Where efficiency dictates that the operation is appropriate, the subregions are replaced in the image data item with a unique identifier to produce a reduced image. The reduced image is then packaged into a new data structure containing a header, the reduced image, and a decoding table that will allow the replacement of the identifiers with the extracted subregions. Where subregions are repeated, as they frequently are in images of large size, this arrangement will allow for the compression of the image by the elimination of redundant data that merely represents a repeated subregions. When the image reaches its destination, the it is decoded to reproduce the original image.

Automatic method of identifying image subregions for reuse during datastream transmission

The present invention allows data objects to be tagged with secondary resources that specify rendering attributes, such as color profiles. A method, data structure and apparatus provides object level management using tagged secondary resources. Rendering control (color space selection, in this case) of the primary datastream (AFP, in this case) is provided to heterogeneous objects (PostScript Level 1 color images, in this case). The present invention provides a method for the primary datastream to include the source calibration parameters, i.e., the rendering control, without modifying the heterogeneous object. For example, if the threshold matrix for the halftoning is tagged as a resource to the image object, the rendering process can use this specific matrix when the image is halftoned and presented.

Method, data structure and apparatus for providing object level rendering control using tagged secondary resources

A print job is preferably displayed using a visual job ticketing application. An operator is enabled to create multiple job tickets describing print parameters to be applied to the print job. Using the visual job ticketing application, the operator may select a previously created job ticket to be used to display and/or print the print job. Alterations made to the print job are automatically propagated across all associated print job tickets. When creating new print job tickets, the operator may choose to start with a blank job ticket, a default job ticket, the last active job ticket or any previously created job ticket.

Method, apparatus and program product providing for multiple print job tickets per print job source file

Disclosed is a workflow management system for creating and delivering output material. A customer record is generated to include fields specifying at least one product, customer preferences, and a selected output method to deliver generated output material on the product specified in the customer record. A job record including a status field is added to a job status table for the customer record and set to a first status. A first worker generates output material from processing the product and customer preference fields in the customer record for the selected job, and sets the status for the selected job to a second status. A second worker determines a selected one of a plurality of delivery options from the customer record for the selected job and transmits the output material via the determined delivery option to the customer specified in the customer record.

Growing community of inventors

Longmont, CO, United States of America

Dwight Ross Palmer