Patent Application
20080037066
The invention itself, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objects, and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring now to the drawings and in particular to
As mentioned above, two-dimensional views of virtual sheets of paper are commonly provided by a viewing service such as viewing service 11. The present invention provides a three-dimensional views of virtual sheets of paper by inserting additional information that are pertinent to the front, back and multiple sheets of paper to the same data that are used to present the two-dimensional view.
Specifically, data for providing a two-dimensional view are collected to generate a bitmap representation in a memory, and the data are subsequently applied to a three-dimensional surface with the attributes of a single sheet of paper. An end user may then rotate the stack of paper, rotate pages within the stack to view the front or back of each sheet, fold sheets of paper along the edges of stitch (finishing) marks, etc.
Finishing operations (e.g., staple or punch holes) collected from the data stream format (e.g., PostScript, MO:DCA, PCL, etc.) are applied to a three-dimensional objects that have the attributes of sheets of paper. The three-dimensional objects are then positioned within a viewport for display to an end user. Jog or offset stacking of sheets of paper within a printer tray can be displayed by layering one stack of virtual paper on another stack.
The three-dimensional view allows an end user to preview (or proof) printer output for pamphlets, booklets, stapled duplex pages, etc. The representation of the stack of sheets may include offset pages on the stack, finishing operations, or multi-page output on both the front and back sides of a single sheet of paper.
With reference now to
The pages of the formatted datastream are then processed. Initially, a determination is made as to whether or not data from the print datastream contain finishing (such as staples or punch holes), as shown in block 22. If the data from the print datastream contain finishing, then the finishing are rasterized to a texture map, as depicted in block 23.
A next determination is made as to whether N-up page placement is required, as shown in block 24. If N-up page placement is required, rasterized texture maps are applied to a three-dimensional page object, as depicted in block 25. If N-up page placement is not required, the print pages are layout, and rasterized texture maps are applied to a three-dimensional page object, as shown in block 26.
Another determination is then made as to whether or not a jog (offset stack) is required, as depicted in block 27. If a jog is not required, then the three-dimensional page objects are placed on a virtual stack without offset, as shown in block 28. However, if a jog is required, then the three-dimensional page objects are placed on a virtual stack with offsets, as depicted in block 29. Finally, a three-dimensional view of the print output is displayed on a virtual window of a display device for the end user to view, as shown in block 30.
Referring now to
With reference now to
As has been described, the present invention provides an improved method and apparatus for providing three-dimensional views of printer outputs. With a three-dimensional view of a print datastream, an end user is able to see the potential output from a printing device prior to actually submitting the job. Specifically, the end user can see the back or front side of a sheet by rotating any number of degrees (e.g., 47°, 82°, 173°, etc.) along any axis (including x, y or z). Alternately, the end user can see the jog or offset of sets of sheets when stacked. As a result, the end user can preview and proof the results of potentially expensive finishing or bindery operations prior to submitting jobs to the printing device.
It is important to note that the method of the present invention are also capable of being distributed as a computer program product in a variety of forms, and that the present invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media utilized to actually carry out the distribution. Examples of signal bearing media include, without limitation, recordable type media such as floppy disks or compact discs and transmission type media such as analog or digital communications links.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
