EP-4305516-B1 - SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXCHANGING AND PREFLIGHTING DOCUMENTS FOR PRINTING AND PUBLISHING

EP4305516B1EP 4305516 B1EP4305516 B1EP 4305516B1EP-4305516-B1

Inventors

SILVA, Joana
Fransen, Wim Jan C.
OLBRECHTS, Liesbet

Dates

Publication Date: 20260506
Application Date: 20220308

Claims (15)

A computer implemented method for enabling a customer service representative (CSR) to review a print job including a digital graphics file intended for printing on a predetermined printing system, the method comprising: a. receiving an incoming electronic communication from a customer containing job instructions in text, and the digital graphics file as an attachment; b. providing a user interface configured with one or more job instruction presets to permit the CSR to select at least one job instruction preset corresponding to the job instructions; c. performing, with a computer processor, a preflighting operation on the digital graphics file based upon the job instruction presets and information about the predetermined printing system, including determining if the digital graphics file contains information required for printing the job with the selected job instruction presets on the predetermined printing system, if the digital graphics file is within a predetermined resolution range, and if graphics embodied in the digital graphics file meet predetermined bleed criteria; d. providing a user interface comprising a display screen having a first area, a second area, a third area, and a fourth area, with the information about the graphics file and annotations relating to results of the preflighting operation displayed in the first area, a page of the print job displayed in the second area, selectable thumbnail images of pages of the print job displayed in the third area, and selectable job instruction presets displayed in the fourth area, wherein user selection of a thumbnail in the third area is operable to cause the page displayed in the second area to correspond to the selected thumbnail in accordance with the selectable job instruction presets selected by the user in the fourth area; e. if the preflighting operation contains rejection determinations, providing a prepopulated outgoing electronic communication addressed to the customer and containing information about the preflighting operation rejection determinations; and f. if the preflighting operation contains no rejection determinations, saving the job instructions and the digital graphics file to computer memory, and providing an automatic notification to a prepress operation address indicating that the job is ready for further processing.
The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user interface includes providing the first area as a sidebar located on a left side of a display screen, the third area as a sidebar located on a right side of the display screen, the second area as a center region located between the left sidebar and the right sidebar, and the fourth area as a toolbar positioned above the first, second, and third areas.
The method of claims 1 or 2, further comprising providing a user-selectable option to prepare an electronic communication to the sender of the incoming communication, the electronic communication comprising text with information corresponding to the annotations relating to results of the preflighting operation.
The method of claim 3, wherein preparing the electronic communication comprises the processor providing automatically prepopulated text that is user-editable.
The method of claim 3 or 4, including providing the user with user-selectable options to save the electronic communication to a clipboard, or create an email using a preselected email option.
The method of any one of claims 3-5, wherein the text of the electronic communication appears in a fifth area of the user interface, preferably wherein the fifth area is a pop-up box, and optionally wherein the fifth area pop-up box is positioned on a left side of the second area.
The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising providing a user-selectable option to save the job file and a user-selectable option to prepare an electronic notification to a prepress group comprising text.
The method of claim 7, wherein preparing the electronic notification comprises the processor providing automatically prepopulated text that is user-editable.
The method of claim 7 or 8, including providing the user with user-selectable options to save the electronic notification to a clipboard, or to create an email using a preselected email option.
The method of any one of claims 7 to 9, wherein the text of the electronic notification appears in a sixth area of the user interface.
The method of claim 10, wherein the sixth area is a pop-up box and optionally wherein the sixth area pop-up box is positioned on a right side of the second area.
The method of any one of the foregoing claims, including providing the user with a user-selectable option to add a preset; and/or wherein each preset includes user-definable criteria including minimum image resolution and bleed requirements, including minimum bleed size.
The method of any one of the foregoing claims, further comprising one or more areas of the user interface comprising visual displays of usage statistics relating to the software tool.
A system for enabling a customer service representative (CSR) to review a print job including a digital graphics file intended for printing on a predetermined printing system, the system comprising a computer processor and a non-transitory computer memory medium accessible by the computer processor, the computer memory medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions for causing the computer processor to perform the steps of: a. receiving an incoming electronic communication from a customer containing job instructions in text, and the digital graphics file as an attachment; b. providing a user interface configured with one or more job instruction presets to permit the CSR to select at least one job instruction preset corresponding to the job instructions; c. performing, with a computer processor, a preflighting operation on the digital graphics file based upon the job instruction presets and information about the predetermined printing system, including determining if the digital graphics file contains information required for printing the job with the selected job instruction presets on the predetermined printing system, if the digital graphics file is within a predetermined resolution range, and if graphics embodied in the digital graphics file meet predetermined bleed criteria; d. providing a user interface comprising a display screen having a first area, a second area, a third area, and a fourth area, with the information about the graphics file and annotations relating to results of the preflighting operation, a page of the job displayed in the second area, selectable thumbnail images of pages of the job in the third area, and selectable job instruction presets in the fourth area, wherein user selection of a thumbnail in the third area causes the page displayed in the second area to correspond to the selected thumbnail in accordance with the selectable job instruction presets selected by the user in the fourth area; e. if the preflighting operation contains rejection determinations, providing a prepopulated outgoing electronic communication addressed to the customer and containing information about the preflighting operation rejection determinations; and f. if the preflighting operation contains no rejection determinations, saving the job instructions and the digital graphics file to computer memory, and providing an automatic notification to a prepress operation address indicating that the job is ready for further processing.
A non-transitory computer memory medium having stored thereon machine-readable software instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of: a. receiving an incoming electronic communication from a customer containing job instructions in text, and the digital graphics file as an attachment; b. providing a user interface configured with one or more job instruction presets to permit the CSR to select at least one job instruction preset corresponding to the job instructions; c. performing, with a computer processor, a preflighting operation on the digital graphics file based upon the job instruction presets and information about the predetermined printing system, including determining if the digital graphics file contains information required for printing the job with the selected job instruction presets on the predetermined printing system, if the digital graphics file is within a predetermined resolution range, and if graphics embodied in the digital graphics file meet predetermined bleed criteria; d. providing a user interface comprising a display screen having a first area, a second area, a third area, and a fourth area, with the information about the graphics file and annotations relating to results of the preflighting operation, a page of the print job displayed in the second area, selectable thumbnail images of pages of the print job in the third area, and selectable job instruction presets in the fourth area, wherein user selection of a thumbnail in the third area causes the page displayed in the second area to correspond to the selected thumbnail in accordance with the selectable job instruction presets selected by the user in the fourth area; e. if the preflighting operation contains rejection determinations, providing a prepopulated outgoing electronic communication addressed to the customer and containing information about the preflighting operation rejection determinations; and f. if the preflighting operation contains no rejection determinations, saving the job instructions and the digital graphics file to computer memory, and providing an automatic notification to a prepress operation address indicating that the job is ready for further processing.

Description

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The present technology relates to reviewing a print job including a digital graphics file intended for printing on a predetermined printing system. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In preparing documents for printing, print customers may encounter one or more issues that would require the customer to have to resubmit the job file, such as the file not matching specifications, such as with respect to image resolution. Low-resolution images must be replaced or approved to print as-is. For example, screengrabs and internet images typically do not meet print production standards. Small images stretched to large dimensions become poor reproductions. Sometimes, the print customer may use a low-resolution placeholder image to lay out text in a production file (to minimize file size), but may inadvertently fail to replace the placeholder with the corresponding high-resolution image after the layout has been finalized. A job file may be printable, but may not match the job ticket specifications for other reasons, such as job type, number of pages, expected color separations, font problems, and the like. Missing fonts have historically frustrated printers. Fonts that are not embedded may print incorrectly or not at all. One best practice is to embed the fonts rather than asking for fonts later. Flagging missing fonts at on-boarding (the step when a print shop accepts a file for printing) prevents the need for font substitution by a prepress group or by the raster image processor (RIP), and ensures text will appear as expected and without reflow. Insufficient bleed in a file does not stop it from being printed, but may be needed for a clean trim appearance and, ultimately, a satisfied customer. Checking bleed amount with production standards avoids a need for later file manipulation to create "fake" bleed in the file, and ensures accurate reproduction at trim edges. Aside from RIP-related issues, an incorrect trim size in a document submitted for printing (e.g. typically in Portable Document Format, commonly referred to as a "PDF document" or "PDF") generally needs to be flagged as early as possible. Checking trim size in the file versus the job ticket and checking for inconsistent trim sizes from page-to-page within the PDF is desirable for page-orientation consistency. Customers are often frustrated by printers hindered by long turnaround times getting feedback from prepress groups before they can reply to a customer. Thus, there is a need in the art to be able to easily analyze a job file and respond to a customer within minutes instead of hours or days." Thus, there is a need in the art to check files prior to printing (often referred to as "preflight checking" by analogy to checking soundness of an airplane by pilots and/or crew before taking off). In particular, there is a need to enable less skilled operators to implement the preflight process without having to get highly skilled prepress specialists involved. Thus, there is a need in the art for a software tool usable by lay people (not skilled prepress technicians) for analyzing documents (e.g. PDFs) submitted for a printing job, that allows the lay user to implement a basic preflight check and provide feedback to the customer, and transmit an approved job file to a prepress group for printing. Further, US 2003/179407 A1 describes a process to prepare production data for a print job. The production data includes an electronic document defined by a page description language (PDL). The electronic document is stored in a PDL image file, such as a Postscript file, a PDF file, or the like. A still image format proxy, which may be a JPEG file, a GIF file, a PNG file, or the like, is created of the PDL image file. The still image format proxy is electronically manipulated. In addition, production specifications may be appended to the still image format proxy. Information about the manipulations and production specifications are recorded and subsequently used to revise the PDL image file so as to match the PDL image file to the manipulations made to the still image format proxy and to match the production specifications appended to the still image format proxy. The production specifications may also include print job instructions that are used for preparation of the print job, but which do not physically alter the PDL image file. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One aspect of the invention relates to a computer implemented method for enabling a customer service representative (CSR) to review a print job including a digital graphics file intended for printing on a predetermined printing system. The method comprises receiving an incoming electronic communication from a customer containing job instructions in text, and the digital graphics file as an attachment; providing a user interface configured with one or more job instruction presets to permit the CSR to select at least one job instruction preset corresponding to the job instructions; and performing, wi