Patent Application
20060224403
The field of the invention relates to online postage systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for establishing the colors of a customized stamp purchased through an online postage system.
Known online postage systems, such as Endicia™ Internet Postage (www.endicia.com), enable computer users to purchase U.S. postage and apply individual postage indicia to a wide spectrum of envelopes and labels using standard computer printers. These systems are based on the relatively new concept of Information Based Indicia (“IBI”), wherein information to uniquely identify a particular postage indicium, e.g., postage meter account number and meter piece count, is presented in barcode and/or human readable form on each mailpiece. These user-controlled systems have historically focused on producing complete mail pieces, i.e., these systems produce complete envelopes or labels, which contain the destination address, return address, the postage indicium, the date of mailing, the class mail, optional graphics and branding, and mail processing barcodes, e.g., POSTNET or Delivery Confirmation.
Turning to
Significantly, the United States Postal Services (“USPS”) published regulations have historically prohibited the positioning of text or graphics within a certain distance of the indicium area of mail pieces produced with the aforementioned IBI technology. The USPS rationale has been that the indicium area of the mail piece should not suggest that the USPS endorses other entities that might be represented by the text or graphics. That is, the indicium (or “stamp”) area should only present information relevant to the evidencing of US Postage. An exception has been made for postage meter marks created by conventional mechanical postage meters. Provided that the text and/or graphic information has been explicitly approved by the USPS or one of its authorized postage vendors, e.g. Pitney Bowes, Neopost, this information may be printed to the immediate left of the indicium area. The area adjacent to and to the left of the postage indicium area is officially referred to as the “ad-plate area”.
The improved security and revenue-protection characteristics of IBI (discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,319,562 and 6,005,945)—coupled with successful customized postage stamp programs in countries such as Australia and Canada—have lead the USPS to consider other forms of IBI postage that resemble conventional postage stamps. For example, the USPS has considered the concept of closely tying a color graphic image with the postage indicia to create a “customized stamp”.
Because the postage stamp 100 is purchased in electronic form, functionally, the only restriction placed on the appearance of the stamp 100 is that identified by the postal authority, e.g., the USPS. In other words, in addition to customizing the image 110, the software program may enable a user, which can be the individual purchasing the stamp or the individual managing the online postage system, to customize the shape, color, font, size, and layout in accordance with postal regulations. For example, the USPS will permit the selection of complementary colors for the indicium area 120, or panel 120, behind the indicium IBI 130 barcode as well as the indicium-related text, e.g., “U.S. Postage”, “37”, piece count, vendor identification, and postage account indicator. An approved USPS postage vendor, such as Endicia or Pitney Bowes, will be responsible for creating the IBI barcode 130 for each stamp and reviewing all image content submitted for potential use in a stamp design.
The customer applying for the custom stamps will typically choose a photograph or graphic and upload this to a Web-based design platform. Alternatively, the user might open the image with specialized stamp design software running on a local PC. The image might also be selected from an array of “stock” images which have been pre-approved for use. This image will be cropped and framed to fit into the available space on the stamp.
The next user task is to select a complementary background color for the IBI panel 120. Virtually all computer/Web-based systems have a color selection dialog similar to that shown in
Accordingly, an improved system for establishing the colors of a customized stamp purchased online is desirable.
The field of the invention relates to online postage systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for establishing the colors of a customized stamp purchased through an online postage system. In one embodiment, a method is employed for customizing the colors of a customized stamp having a panel and an image. The method includes the steps of enabling a user to select a region of the image, retrieving a color value corresponding to the region of the image, and applying the retrieved color value to a visual feature of the panel, such as the background and text of the panel. The method also maintains a minimum amount of contrast in brightness and color between the background and the text of the panel.
Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims.
In order to better appreciate how the above-recited and other advantages and objects of the inventions are obtained, a more particular description of the embodiments briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views. However, like parts do not always have like reference numerals. Moreover, all illustrations are intended to convey concepts, where relative sizes, shapes and other detailed attributes may be illustrated schematically rather than literally or precisely.
As mentioned above, for a postage stamp 100 such as one shown in
If the selected area of the image 110 encompasses more than a single point, a variety of weighted RGB averaging computations can be performed over the selected area, which will reveal an “average” color value for the panel 120.
In addition, in order to maintain the readability of the text within the panel 120, it is preferable that the colors of the background and the text maintain a minimum amount of contrast in brightness and/or color (action block 440). For example, if the designer selected a very light blue background color and then chose a white text, the result might be difficult to read with the human eye and/or USPS imaging systems that process the mail. Thus, it may be preferable to have the program exclude color combinations that result in unreadable color combinations. In one embodiment, if RGB values are used, the contrast in brightness and color are calculated in accordance with the World Wide Web Consortium. For example, the color brightness, CB, is determined by the following formula:
CB=((Red value×299)+(Green value×587)+(Blue value×114))/1000 (1),
wherein CB provides a perceived brightness for a color, and the color difference, CD, is determined by the following formula:
CD=(maximum (Red value 1, Red value 2)−minimum (Red value 1, Red value 2)+(maximum (Green value 1, Green value 2)−minimum (Green value 1, Green value 2))+(maximum (Blue value 1, Blue value 2)−minimum (Blue value 1, Blue value 2)) (2).
(This approach is equally applicable to HSL values.). Thus, during operation, if a user selects a color for the text of the panel 120, then the program automatically establishes a color for the background of the panel 120 that has sufficient contrast with the color of the text, preferably using one or more of Eqs. 1 and 2 above. Likewise, if the user selects a color for the background of the panel 120, then the program automatically establishes a color for the text of the panel 120 that maintains the desired contrast. If the user/designer chooses colors for both the text and the background, the program can present the contrast values, e.g., results from Eqs. 1 and 2, to the user.
In an alternative embodiment, instead of having the program identify a color that matches the selected region of the image 110 to be applied to the panel 120 (action block 420), the program calculates one or more colors, in accordance with Eqs. 1 and 2, that produces a desirable contrast with the selected region of the image 110 to be applied to the panel 120.
Turning to
In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention. As an example, each feature of one embodiment can be mixed and matched with other features shown in other embodiments. Additionally and obviously, features may be added or subtracted as desired. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents.
