Vistaprint Technologies Limited

Vistaprint Schweiz Gmbh

Cimpress Schweiz Gmbh

Jay T Moody

Jacob A Hyman

Anatoliy V Tsykora

Laban D Eilers

Boris I Paskalev

Terence M Tirella

Henri B Weinberg

William K Doggett

Christian H Hescock

Craig A Fowler

Joshua S Mills

Shawn M Mears

Mark P LaRosa

Koen J M Dijks

Michael P Daugherty

Christain H Hescock

Techniques for automatically adding special effects to an image to be overlaid on a low-contrast background are presented. A stroke or an intervening layer of a color contrasting with the background color is automatically added to provide a contrasting color around the edges of visible image content in an image container of an electronic document. The technique may be applied to entire libraries of images to generate variant images that are visually perceptible when displayed or printed on low-contrast background colors.

Creating images for displaying or printing on low-contrast background

A system and method permits design of customized items on a client device using a web page. The client device receives a web page from a web server that includes, among other things, a design document encoding graphic elements that completely characterize a design image. The client device receives edits to the graphic elements, and sends a modified design document back to the server. The server then uses the design document to render an image, and sends to the client the server-rendered image for display in the web page. The web page may define an area in which to display the server-rendered image. The server may use a database to store the rendered image and use it in completing a customer order.

System and methods for displaying user modifiable server-rendered images

Techniques for generated variable density mono-color under-print layer(s) for printing underneath an image on a substrate to improve the appearance of the printed image.

System and method for printing using variable-density white ink under-printed layer

A method is provided for processing an image to optimize print time of the image by a print apparatus based on the size of the image to be printed and the print pass thresholds of the print apparatus. A dimension of the image corresponding to the dimension along the sub-scanning axis of the image as it will be printed by the print apparatus is obtained, along with the corresponding number of print passes required to print the image. An analysis is performed to determine whether the size of the image could be reduced to require one less print pass by the print apparatus in printing the reduced image based on the proximity of the determined dimension to the range of dimensions that will result in one less print pass by the print apparatus. If the size of the image may be reduced such that the image could be printed in one less print pass while also meeting optional criteria such as enforcement of a maximum image reduction threshold, the image is scaled prior to printing to reduce the number of print passes performed by the print apparatus in printing the image.

Image processing to reduce image printing time based on image dimension and print pass thresholds of print apparatus

System and method for automated scheduling and creation of gang shells specifying gangs of individual jobs for production to be created and produced in the future. Individual jobs and related production parameters and order information are retained electronically in a database of pending jobs awaiting production. Based on production capacity at the production facility and the production parameters of the individual pending jobs in the database, a plurality of gang shells having defined production parameters, but not having specific individual jobs associated therewith, are defined and used for scheduling equipment and personnel at the production facility during a work shift or other desired period of time. The specific individual jobs for a gang are selected from the database relatively shortly prior to the gang's scheduled production time.

Preparation of aggregate jobs for production

A design image is transformed into a projection design image comprising the design image as it will appear when projected onto a physical 3-dimensional (3-D) curved object. In an embodiment, pixels of the design image are mapped into corresponding mapped pixels in a projection design image according to how the design image will appear in a flattened image of the design projected or printed onto the object having 3-dimension curves. The projection design image may be combined with a product image of the object having 3-dimension curves to generate a customized product image of the object having 3-dimension curves incorporating the design image. The customized product image is displayed to a user when customizing a product with a design to ensure that the user understands how the physical product will appear when the design is printed or projected onto the physical product.

Representing flat designs to be printed on curves of a 3-dimensional product

A system and method renders an image on a server and displays it on a client. A server sends to a client a web page that includes a design document encoding graphic elements that characterize a design image. The client receives edits to the graphic elements, and sends the design document back to the server. The server then uses the design document to render an image, and sends to the client the rendered image for display in the web page. The web page may contain an IFRAME markup tag to define an area in which to display the rendered image. The server may use a database to store the rendered image and use it in completing a customer order.

A design image is combined with a product image to create a composite image to illustrate the result of printing the design image onto the product. To create the composite image, the opacity of each pixel in the design image is set according to the brightness value of the pixel such that completely dark pixels are opaque, completely white pixels are transparent, and pixels having intermediate brightness values are assigned intermediate opacity values based on the brightness of the pixel. The design image pixels and the corresponding product image pixel are blended according to the opacity values of the design image pixels to create the composite image.

Representing a printed product using image blending

A customized envelope security tint design is generated based on user-supplied information. When ordering envelopes online, a user is provided with the option of entering characters for use as a custom security tint. A preview image of a custom tint design is displayed to the user for review. The user can place an order for production of envelopes having the custom design printed as the envelope security tint.

Customized security tint system and method

Method for producing multiple small custom envelope jobs using a sheet fed envelope machine. Multiple different envelope jobs are provided as stacks of sheets of envelope stock to a high volume envelope machine for processing into folded envelopes. Each envelope job stack includes a first sheet that, when processed by the machine, yields an envelope with visually distinctive edges. At the output of the envelope machine, the group of envelopes in an envelope job is indicated by the distinctive envelopes formed from first sheets.

System and method for identifying envelope groups

System and method for automated scheduling and creation of gangs of individual jobs for production. Individual jobs and related production parameters and order information are retained electronically in a database of pending jobs awaiting production. Based on production capacity at the production facility and the production parameters of the individual pending jobs in the database, a plurality of gang shells having defined production parameters, but not having specific individual jobs associated therewith, are defined and used for scheduling equipment and personnel at the production facility during a work shift or other desired period of time. The specific individual jobs for a gang are selected from the database relatively shortly prior to the gang's scheduled production time.

In a method and system for facilitating evaluation of the production accuracy of an envelope machine for producing folded envelopes from sheets of envelope stock, a guide of the same size as the envelope stock has indicia printed thereon corresponding to the locations of desired envelope folding operations. By processing a guide with the machine to form an envelope, the deviation of the actual folding location from the desired folding location can be evaluated by reference to the indicia and corrective machine adjustments can be made. Additional indicia printed on the guide facilitate further evaluation, such as accurate cutting of the envelope stock.

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Wayland, MA, United States of America

Jay T Moody