Patent Application
20100178133
Embodiments are generally related to data-processing systems and methods. Embodiments are also related to binding systems and techniques. In addition, embodiments relate to methods and systems for rendering larger books utilizing a multi-substrate hinged media.
Perfect binding can be an ideal solution for books, manuals, magazines and a host of other rendered products due to its attractive combination of versatility and cost-effectiveness. In general, a bookbinding system collects a number of sheets (or pages) into a text body (or book block) that includes a spine and two side hinge areas. The bookbinding system applies an adhesive to the text body spine to bind the sheets together. A cover may be attached to the bound text body by applying an adhesive to the side hinge areas or the spine of the text body or both. As the number of sheets forming a booklet increases, the fold line of the bounded booklet is rounded and bulged, which causes a problem of degradation in appearance and feature of the booklet. A major disadvantage of such typical high volume bindings is that the bound books cannot be opened to lay flat.
Hinged media such as, for example, EverFlat™ media, can be configured as a multi-substrate specialty media that contains a polyester hinge between the binding spine and the remainder of the page. Such media facilitates the production of books that lay much flatter when opened than conventional books. Note that EverFlat™ is a trademark of the Xerox Corporation. EverFlat™ media, for example, with a polyester hinge, can be designed to enable spreads on perfect bound books (whether soft or hard cover) to lie completely flat when opened. This can be achieved because the hinged portion of the media is much more flexible than the paper portion of the media. When the book pages fold, the first and last pages in a book can fold in the outermost portions of the hinge, where the paper portion of the media is under, for example, the polyester. The next set of pages can fold at a place in the hinge closer to the spine since this set of pages has to clear the outermost set of pages.
Each subsequent set of pages can fold closer and closer to the spine until the fold happens on the inner side of the hinge. Additional pages after this will not lie flat since the height from the spine to the top of the already folded pages increases past the height of the hinge when the pages are vertical. Such an approach limits the thickness of books that can be made utilizing hinged media. Hence, the hinge can be made really wide to alleviate this problem, but content imaged on the hinge can show substantial color shifts, so this is not desirable or even acceptable in some cases.
Based on the foregoing, it is believed that a need exists for an improved method and system for enhancing the production of larger books that lay much flatter utilizing the multi-substrate hinged media without manual evaluation and exception programming.
The following summary is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the innovative features unique to the present invention and is not intended to be a full description. A full appreciation of the various aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein can be gained by taking the entire specification, claims, drawings, and abstract as a whole.
It is, therefore, one aspect of the present invention to provide for an improved data-processing method, system and computer-usable medium.
It is another aspect of the present invention to provide for a method, system and computer-usable medium for rendering larger books utilizing a multi-substrate hinged media.
It is a further aspect of the present invention to provide for an improved method for configuring multiple variants of hinged media that contain varying sizes of hinge sections in order to render larger books.
The aforementioned aspects and other objectives and advantages can now be achieved as described herein. A system and method for enabling production of larger books utilizing multi-substrate hinged media is disclosed. Larger books are capable of being rendered utilizing hinged media via the approach described herein. Note that as utilized herein, the term “multi-substrate hinged media” refers to a specialty media that can be configured to contain a hinge between a binding spine and the rest of a page. The hinge may be configured from, for example, polyester, or another appropriate material. Such media allows the pages in an open book to lie completely flat, rather than bowing or arcing up toward the spine. Other types of hinged media may also be implemented in accordance with varying embodiments.
A media definition for a specialty media can be enhanced to include information about multiple variants related to a specific media and a page assignment rule. The set of hinged media variants can be treated as a single media type and the properties of the media type can be utilized to determine sheet thresholds for each variant. The specific media variants can be assigned to specific document pages based on the page assignment rule. The pages in the center of the book utilize larger hinges to allow the pages to lie flat, while pages at the beginning and end of the book utilize smaller hinges to prevent imaging on the hinge area. The sheet thresholds for each variant can be configured either as a percentage of the book size or by numbers of pages. The page assignment rules can be utilized to determine assignment of specific media variants to pages in the document.
A job can be submitted for rendering and a single media can be specified in the rendering job parameters. A determination can then be made if the media selection is associated with the multiple media variants. If the media selection is associated with the multiple media variants, the page assignment rules can be evaluated to determine the required media variants. A determination can then be made whether all the required media variants are available. If the required media variants are not available, then the system can flag the job as ineligible until all required media variants are concurrently loaded and available. If the required media variants are available, the page assignment rules can be utilized to associate specific media variants with specific pages in the document. Finally, the job can be rendered if all document pages are assigned with a media variant.
The system and approach described herein utilizes the single media definition that includes the rules-based assignment of multiple media to specific document pages. The data driven adjustment of the media definition page ranges as a function of the substrate. Hence, it possible to render thicker books utilizing hinged media such as multi-substrate hinged media without manual evaluation of documents and exception programming. Such an approach can be handled in a DFE that enable use of multiple variants of the multi-substrate hinged media in a manner that can allow production of thicker books.
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 present invention and, together with the detailed description of the invention, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.
The particular values and configurations discussed in these non-limiting examples can be varied and are cited merely to illustrate at least one embodiment and are not intended to limit the scope of such embodiments.
As depicted in
Illustrated in
The interface 153, which is preferably a graphical user interface (GUI), also serves to display results, whereupon the user may supply additional inputs or terminate the session. In one particular embodiment, operating system 151 and interface 153 can be implemented in the context of a “Windows” system. In another embodiment, operating system 151 and interface 153 may be implemented in the context of other operating systems, such as Linux, UNIX, etc. Application module 152, on the other hand, can include instructions such as the various operations described herein with respect to the various components and modules described herein such as, for example, the method 300 depicted in
The following description is presented with respect to embodiments of the present invention, which can be embodied in the context of a data-processing system such as data-processing system 100 and computer software system 150 depicted respectively in
The hinge area 560 may be configured from a material such as, for example, polyester. Such a media allows the pages in an open book to lie completely flat, rather than bowing or arcing up toward the spine. The data-processing system 100 can be configured to function as rendering (e.g., printing) or binding system that is “aware” of production details associated with a rendering job. Note that the method 300 can be implemented in the context of a computer-useable medium that contains a program product. Thus, the method depicted in
Programs defining functions on the present invention can be delivered to a data storage system or a computer system via a variety of signal-bearing media, which include, without limitation, non-writable storage media (e.g., CD-ROM), writable storage media (e.g., hard disk drive, read/write CD ROM, optical media), system memory such as, but not limited to, Random Access Memory (RAM), and communication media, such as computer and telephone networks including Ethernet, the Internet, wireless networks, and like network systems. It should be understood, therefore, that such signal-bearing media when carrying or encoding computer readable instructions that direct method functions in the present invention, represent alternative embodiments of the present invention. Further, it is understood that the present invention may be implemented by a system having means in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware as described herein or their equivalent. Thus, the method 300 described herein can be deployed as process software in the context of a computer system or data-processing system as that depicted in
The hinged media can be provided as multi-substrate specialty media with the hinge area 560 designed to enable crossover pages on perfect bound books (whether soft or hard cover) to lie completely flat when opened. The hinge area 560 of the media is much more flexible than the paper portion of the hinged media.
A job can be submitted for rendering by specifying a single media in job parameters, as depicted at block 315. Thereafter, as indicated at block 320, a test can be automatically performed to determine if the media selection is associated with the multiple media variants 410. If the media selection is associated with the multiple media variants 410, the page assignment rules 420 can be evaluated to determine the required media variants, as illustrated thereafter at block 325. Otherwise, the job can be rendered. For example, a 20-page photo book may only require one multi-substrate hinged media variant and a 40-page book may require two media variants.
The hinged media can be implemented from three different variants such as 530, 540 and 550, as depicted in
As depicted at block 330, a test can be performed to determine whether all the required media variants are available. If the required media variants are not available, then the job can be flagged as ineligible until all required media variants are concurrently loaded and available, as illustrated at block 335. If the required media variants are available, the page assignment rules 420 can be utilized to associate specific media variants with specific pages in the rendering job, as described at block 340.
Note that the multiple variants of hinged media include varying sizes of hinge sections. For example, for EverFlat™ media, the number of required sheets can be examined to ensure that it is less than 90 since there are only three variants of the described hinged media. The first variant 530 can be assigned to the pages that can be imaged in the first and last 15 sheets of the rendering job. If there are pages left, the second variant 540 can be assigned to, for example, the next 15 sheets from the front and back of the rendering job. If there are still unassigned pages in the rendering job, the assignment with the third media variant 550 can be repeated. Finally, the job can be rendered once all pages related to the rendering job are assigned with a media variant, as shown at block 345. The job can be rendered to create the desired content of the book layout 500 consisting of text and images, utilizing the rendering device 108. The pages can be bounded together utilizing flexible adhesive.
As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale; some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for the claims and/or as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention. The book 500 can be bound utilizing conventional binding methods such as case binding or perfect binding, the media lies flat allowing the entire page contents to be easily read. The ability of the pages to lay flat in the vicinity of the gutter makes this product more suitable for rendering crossover pages.
The specific variants of the media can be assigned to specific pages related to the rendering job based on predefined rules. The set of hinged media variants can be treated as a single media type and the properties of the media type determine the sheet thresholds for each variant, either as a percentage of the book size or by numbers of pages. The pages in the center of the book 500 utilize larger hinges to allow them to lie flat, while pages at the beginning and end of the book 500 utilize smaller hinges to prevent imaging on the hinge area.
The system and approach described herein utilizes the single media definition 400 that includes the rules-based assignment of multiple media to specific document pages. The data driven adjustment of the media definition page ranges as a function of the substrate. Hence, it is possible to render thicker books utilizing hinged media such as multi-substrate hinged media without manual evaluation of documents and exception programming. Such an approach can be handled in a DFE (digital front end) that enable use of multiple variants of the multi-substrate hinged media in a manner that can allow production of thicker books.
It will be appreciated that variations of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also, that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
