Normally customized business forms and brochures having high resolution color graphics are produced by individuals with layout experience who compose the basic documents and then ship the final document, with high resolution graphics, to a printing facility where multiple copies of the business form or brochure are imaged either using a printing press, or various types of ion deposition or like non-impact printing techniques. This can be a difficult and time consuming process for the individuals creating the brochures or business forms, there can be significant delays as a result of transmission (typically shipment by courier service) of the documents from the creator to the printing facility, and integration of order information with the documents to be produced at the printing facility is not optimized.
According to the present invention a method of producing customized business forms or brochures having high resolution color graphics is provided which is greatly simplified compared to prior art procedures, both at the user station, and at the printing facility. According to the present invention an end user, without layout experience, by using a plurality of design graphic templates of low resolution can replace text, choose low resolution pictures from the graphic templates, and can quickly create customized, quality documents at the end user's convenience. The documents (customized business forms or brochures) in electronic format may then be readily transported (e.g. electronically over phone lines) to a printing facility where physical documents can be automatically created with quick turn around full process color high resolution printing. According to the present invention the entire work flow process from composition to order entry to production at the printing facility may be automated. Composition and order entry are tightly integrated together and customer information is seamlessly integrated into the production work flow. Documents are automatically recreated at the printing facility without requiring the creator to transmit the final document, high resolution graphics, and templates. Also, automation is provided at the printing facility to provide quick turn around full color process printing.
That is the Digital Design Station (DDS) according to the invention automates the composition and manufacture of corporate and commercial documents. It provides inexperienced users with the is ability to dynamically create and modify templated documents. DDS may be made up of five integrated systems: DDS Setup; DDS User, DDS Administration, DDS Order and DDS Production. DDS works in conjunction with commercially available off the shelf composition software, such as Adobe PageMaker and a relational database.
In the following description of the invention, in the specification and claims, the following definitions are used:
"Generic Template": A general-purpose template for any type of document, such as a business form, brochure, or sign. When the user replaces texts and graphics in a generic template, a customized document is created.
"High resolution" with respect to graphics/images: The fineness or coarseness as digitized, measured as dots-per-inch, always over about 100 dots-per-inch and typically 200-800 dots-per-inch, but dependent somewhat on the print device.
"Imposition": In the graphic arts, laying out pages in a press form or flat so they will be in the correct order after the printed sheet is folded.
"Low resolution" with respect to graphics/images: The fineness or coarseness as digitized, measured as dots-per-inch, always under 90 dots-per-inch and typically about 17 dots-per-inch, but dependent somewhat on the display device.
"Postscript": A software published by Adobe Systems that translates graphics created in a computer to language a (Postscript-compatible) printer can understand.[a page description language] Postscript-compatible printers have interpreters in them that create the proper dot patterns to recreate the screen image--text and graphics--to a page of paper.
"Preflight": The process of gathering all images, fonts and specifications necessary to print any document. This also includes correctly preparing the document for printing.
"Prepress": All printing operations prior to presswork, including design and layout, typesetting/imagesetting, graphic arts photography, color separation, image assembly, and platemaking.
According to one aspect of the present invention a method of producing customized business forms or brochures using a plurality of low resolution graphics templates in electronic form, and a plurality of text templates, using a user station including a video monitor, selection device (such as a keyboard and/or a mouse), and processor (typically in a PC or other computer equipment), is provided. The method comprises the steps of: (a) At the user station using the selection device to control the processor, selecting one or more low resolution graphics templates in electronic form from the plurality of templates, and displaying graphics corresponding to the graphic templates selected on the video monitor. (b) Using the selection device selecting text related to the graphics selected from the text templates, and displaying the text corresponding to the text template or templates selected on the video monitor with the selected graphics to provide a customized business form or brochure in electronic format. (c) Using the selection device and processor electronically saving the customized business form or brochure in electronic format. (d) Transmitting the saved customized business form or brochure in electronic format to a printing installation without transmitting a document, physical graphics, or templates from the user station. And (e) at the printing installation imaging a physical copy (e.g. paper) of the customized business form or brochure in electronic format transmitted in step (d), the customized business form or brochure in physical form having high resolution graphics corresponding to the template graphics selected in step (a).
Step (d) may be practiced by using the selection device to electronically transmit a customized business form or brochure in electronic format, e.g. over phone lines. Alternatively, step (c) may be practiced to save via electronic format onto a disk, and step (d) may be transmitted by physically transmitting the disk which--though it requires a courier services or other some other physical transporting procedure--is still simpler than prior art procedure which requires transmission of high resolution graphics "final" type documents. Other transmitting techniques that are conventional and suitable may also be utilized.
The method typically comprises the further steps, between steps (c) and (d), e.g. at an administration station, of collecting multiple customized business forms or brochures in electronic format from a plurality of different user stations, and assigning identifying indicia to each; and step (d) may be practiced by transmitting all of the collected customized business forms or brochures together (e.g. electronically over phone lines).
The high resolution graphics that are imaged in the practice of step (e) are preferably color, and can be effected utilizing a printing press or various types of non-impact printers, such as ion deposition printers such as Midax.RTM., Xeikon.RTM., or Indigo.RTM. imaging equipment.
The text templates may include price templates, and step (b) may be practiced to select at least one price template. Also, preferably at least one of the graphic templates includes multiple and distinct graphic depictions; and step (a) may be practiced to select a graphics template with multiple and distinct graphic depictions, and step (b) may be practiced to select a price template for each of at least two different graphic depictions (and preferably all of the graphic depictions selected).
The customized business form or brochure to be produced may have multiple pages, in which case steps (a) through (c) are practiced for each of a plurality of the multiple pages (possibly all of the pages), and the multiple pages produced are transmitted together in the practice of step (d).
The method may comprise the further step (f) of inputting further, variable, textual data onto the screen during the practice of step (b), the further textual data saved during the practice of step (c) in electronic format as part of the customized business form or brochure. Step (f) may be practiced using a keyboard. The selecting device may be a mouse, and steps (a) through (c) may be practiced using a mouse. Also, especially where step (d) is practiced electronically, step (d) may be initiated by using the mouse.
According to another aspect of the present invention a method of producing customized business forms or brochures is provided comprising the following steps: (a) At the user station using the selection device to control the processor, selecting one or more low resolution graphics templates in electronic form from the plurality of templates, and displaying graphics corresponding to the graphic templates selected on the video monitor, to provide a customized business form or brochure in electronic format. (b) Using the selection device and processor electronically saving the customized business form or brochure in electronic format. (c) Electronically transmitting the saved customized business form or brochure in electronic format over phone lines to a printing installation, without transmitting a document, physical graphics, or templates from the user station. And (d) at the printing installation imaging a physical copy (e.g. paper) of the customized business form or brochure in electronic format transmitted in step (c), the customized business form or brochure in physical form having high resolution color graphics corresponding to the template graphics selected in step (a).
It is the primary object of the present invention to allow the simple yet professional looking creation of customized business forms or brochures at a user location, even by a user without layout experience, using low resolution graphics, and providing transmission of the customized business form or brochure in electronic format from the creator to a printing facility without the necessity of transmitting a final document with high resolution graphics, yet allowing ready production of a final customized business form or brochure in physical (e.g. paper) form at a printing facility, the physical form of the document produced having high resolution color graphics. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention and from the appended claims.