(12) United States Patent ao) Patent No.: us 6,538,760 Bi
deBry et al. (45) Date of Patent: Mar. 25,2003
(54) METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR
GENERATING A PRODUCTION PRINT
STREAM FROM FILES OPTIMIZED FOR
VIEWING
(75) Inventors: Roger K. deBry, Orem, UT (US);
David E. Stone, Longmont, CO (US);
Reinhard H. Hohensee, Boulder, CO
(US); Dwight R. Palmer, Longmont,
CO (US); Arthur R. Roberts, Boulder,
CO (US)
(73) Assignee: International Business Machines
Corp., Armonk, NY (US)
( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.
(21) Appl. No.: 09/149,341
(22) Filed: Sep. 8, 1998
(51) Int. CI.7 G06F 3/12; G06F 13/00
(52) U.S. CI 358/1.15; 358/1.14; 358/1.13
(58) Field of Search 358/1.15, 1.13,
358/1.17, 1.16; 707/103, 102, 527, 526,
542, 517
(56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
5,684,934 A * 11/1997 Chen et al 395/113
A conversion program selectively decomposes viewable files, such as PDF files, and generates a print-structured, bi-directional stream composed of print data objects, resource objects and command objects. The conversion program uses a mapping table to determine which resources have already been sent to the printer so that redundant resources are not re-sent to the printer. The resources and page data for each page are assembled in order and sent to the printer so that the resources necessary to render a page precede the page data. In this manner the printer always has the resources necessary to print each page. The print data, resource and command objects are sent from a print server which controls the print system to a printer by means of a containerized data stream which is bi-directional. A reply object is used to provide information concerning processing of the data from the print server to the printer.
30 Claims, 10 Drawing Sheets
