Patent Application
20110109929
Embodiments are generally related to print controls and print governance for the automatic substitution of font. Embodiments are also related to substitution of font with environmentally friendly font in order to reduce toner usage.
Reducing materials utilized during printing is not only economically beneficial, but can also benefit the environment. Current print control policies can enforce environmentally friendly, as well as cost saving, rules on end users when they print their documents by suggesting (or enforcing) printing on both sides of the paper when the document is larger than a specified number of pages. While reducing the use of paper can result in large cost savings, it is not the most expensive component involved in the printing process. Toner is far more expensive than paper and anything that effectively reduces the amount of toner used without affecting output quality can result in substantial savings. Traditional methods involve varying the density of the toner applied to the page (e.g. use of “draft” mode), but this often results in the document looking faded or washed out. One such software program is EcoPrint2™ by CoGen Media©.
Alternative approaches to saving toner, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,791,714 B1, generally involve a post-processing step of analyzing each rendered/rasterized page using an algorithm for determining which pixels can be safely removed without affecting the formatting or layout of the original document. One of the drawbacks of this approach is that, while it does indeed save toner, it usually results in the document looking ‘washed out’ when color is used or ‘grayed out’ when black is used. Additionally, because these algorithms are applied to the entire rendered/rasterized page, any images contained within the page are affected as well. Print speeds may also be reduced in this type of post-processing step that is run against each rendered/rasterized page due to increased system resource usage.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for reducing toner usage while preserving the quality of the printout and without reducing print speed or affecting print layout.
It is one aspect of the disclosed embodiments to provide for an improved method and system for the automatic substitution of font.
It is another aspect of the disclosed embodiments to provide for an improved method of substituting original font with a toner saving font in order to reduce toner usage.
It is yet another aspect of the disclosed embodiments to provide for substitution software configured to determine whether a document print request matches a set of predefined conditions and whether font substitution is selected/mandated at any level of print control.
It is a further aspect of the disclosed embodiments to provide for substitution software being further configured to perform font substitution of a toner saving font when a document print request matches the set of predefined conditions and when font substitution is selected/mandated at any level of print control.
The aforementioned aspects and other objectives and advantages can be achieved as described herein. A method and system are disclosed for the automatic substitution of font with a toner saving font. Substitution software first determines whether a document print request matches a set of predefined conditions and whether font substitution is selected or mandated at any level of print control. Where a document print request matches all of the predefined conditions and where font substitution is selected or mandated at any level of print controls, the substitution software performs a font substitution to replace the original font with a toner saving font.
The accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally-similar elements throughout the separate views and which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, further illustrate the embodiments and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain the embodiments disclosed herein.
It is to be understood by persons of ordinary skill in the art that the following descriptions are provided for purposes of illustration and not for limitation. An artisan understands there are many variations that lie within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims. Unnecessary detail of known functions and operations may be omitted from the current description so as not to obscure the present invention.
The method disclosed herein proposes substitution software to dynamically substitute document specified fonts with a toner saving font to reduce the amount of toner used and to minimize system resource usage that can slow printing speeds. One method for performing font substitution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,013, herein incorporated in its entirety. Toner saving fonts may be alternatively available fonts requiring less toner usage than the originally selected font or an “environmentally friendly” font, which is a font that has small holes, or other omissions, of varying sizes placed within the borders of each character in order to reduce the amount of toner needed to render that character. Because the environmentally friendly font is based on the original font used in a document, substitution will not result in any changes to the original document structure or formatting.
Referring to
Note that as utilized herein, the term multi-function device (including the acronym MFD) may refer to an apparatus or system such as a printer, scanner, fax machine, copy machine, etc., and/or a combination thereof. Preferably, MFD 140 is capable of multiple rendering functions such as printing, copying, scanning, faxing, etc. In some embodiments, MFD 140 may be implemented with a single rendering function such as printing. In other embodiments, MFD 140 can be configured to provide multiple rendering functions such as scanning, faxing, printing, and copying and can be connected to a network. MFD 140 also generally includes a controller (not shown) for loading files from networked sources and processing files to be rendered.
The data-processing apparatus can be coupled to the MFD 140 through a computer network 135. Network 135 may employ any network topology, transmission medium, or network protocol such as, for example, a computer network, Ethernet, Internet, Intranet, etc. Network 135 may include connections such as wire, wireless communication links, or fiber optic cables. The data-processing apparatus includes a graphical user interface (GUI) 125 that displays information and receives data through the display device 110 and/or the keyboard/mouse 131/130 combination. The data-processing apparatus can be, for example, any computing device capable of being integrated within a network such as a PDA, personal computer, cellular telephone, point-of-sale terminal, server, etc. Note also that in
A MFD driver program can be installed on the data-processing apparatus, or on a server 185, and can reside on the host device's hard drive 150. The MFD driver program may be activated through an application interface so that a user may generate a print job with the MFD driver for processing by the MFD 140. Substitution software (not shown) can be installed on the data-processing apparatus, the server 185 or on the MFD 140 itself. The functions of substitution software will be discussed in greater detail below.
The following description is presented with respect to embodiments of the present invention, which can be embodied in the context of a data-processing apparatus, server 185, and MFD 140 depicted in
Referring to
If a document print request 210 is found to contain replaceable fonts, substitution software then determines whether there is a minimum percentage of replaceable fonts contained in the document, as indicated in block 230. Block 240 illustrates where a document print request is found to have a minimum percentage of replaceable font, substitution software then determines whether a minimum percentage of the replaceable font is of a particular character size. Environmentally friendly fonts are generally undetectable by the unaided eye at character sizes of 12 points or less. Therefore, substitution of fonts larger than 12 points may result in decreased print quality. If all of the foregoing conditions are present, substitution software then determines whether the user has selected a print mode below a predetermined level, such as “High” or “Presentation”, as shown in block 250.
Further referring to
Referring to
In order to assess toner savings and the effectiveness of the policy guiding font substitution, print governance logs can be configured to produce a report showing the amount of toner saved over a certain period of time. This report can also include potential savings if the policy were structured differently. Additional reports can then be produced showing the number of toner cartridges saved, the cost savings associated with the reduced toner usage, and carbon emission reduction, as just a few examples.
