Patent issued to Canon for 'Bookbinding printing system in which a plurality of bound products are generated by a single job' published online Sept. 10

Kendall Sinclair

September 18, 2013 (Computer Weekly News ) – By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Computer Weekly News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews journalists, a patent by the inventor Saito, Kazuyuki (Yokohama, JP), filed on June 21, 2011, was published online on September 10, 2013.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 8531708, is Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo, JP).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, bookbinding printing method, and computer-readable medium for printing and binding images.

"To print one received data by a plurality of copies, a conventional bookbinding technique lays out image data of a single document on a single sheet of paper a plurality of number of times, and performs print processing (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-208573)."

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, VerticalNews editors also obtained the inventor's summary information for this patent: "The conventional technique lays out image data of a single document on a single sheet of paper, and can print one received data a plurality of copies. However, this technique does not consider received data from a user who wants only one booklet, like a photobook. If a plurality of orders, each for only one booklet, are combined to lay out pages of a plurality of received data side by side on a single sheet of paper, a mismatch between designated paper types or a mismatch in the number of pages between booklets may occur, generating a product the user does not want. For an order of only one booklet, only one received data needs to be laid out on paper to create one booklet. This results in wasted paper and poor work efficiency. Therefore, the present invention provides a mechanism to easily generate a printing job to finish a plurality of booklets when laying out pages on a single sheet of paper using a plurality of received data.

"According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus which generates, from received data, a job containing a plurality of image data to be printed, a printing instruction, and a bookbinding instruction, and outputs the job to a printing apparatus and post-processing apparatus for generating a bound product, comprising: a data determination unit configured to determine, using first received data as a reference, whether to add another received data to processing in a single job; a size determination unit configured, when the data determination unit determines to add the other received data in a bookbinding mode in which a plurality of bound products are generated by a single job, to regard, as single tentative image data, a plurality of image data which are generated from different received data and laid out on a single sheet of paper, and to determine whether the single tentative image data fits in the sheet of paper; and a job generation unit configured to generate a job for at least one received data corresponding to image data contained in the single tentative image data determined by the size determination unit to fit in the sheet of paper.

"According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bookbinding printing method of generating, from received data, a job containing a plurality of image data to be printed, a printing instruction, and a bookbinding instruction, and outputting the job to a printing apparatus and post-processing apparatus for generating a bound product, comprising: a data determination step of causing a data determination unit to determine, using first received data as a reference, whether to add another received data to processing in a single job; a size determination step of causing a size determination unit to, when the other received data is determined in the data determination step to be added in a bookbinding mode in which a plurality of bound products are generated by a single job, regard, as single tentative image data, a plurality of image data which are generated from different received data and laid out on a single sheet of paper, and determine whether the single tentative image data fits in the sheet of paper; and a job generation step of causing a job generation unit to generate a job for at least one received data corresponding to image data contained in the single tentative image data determined in the size determination step to fit in the sheet of paper.

"According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as a data determination unit which determines, using first received data as a reference, whether to add another received data to processing in a single job, a size determination unit which, when the data determination unit determines to add the other received data in a bookbinding mode in which a plurality of bound products with different contents are generated by a single job, regards, as single tentative image data, image data with the same page number which are laid out on a single sheet of paper out of a plurality of image data generated from different received data, and determines whether the single tentative image data fits in the sheet of paper, and a job generation unit which generates a job for at least one received data corresponding to image data contained in the single tentative image data determined by the size determination unit to fit in the sheet of paper.

"According to the present invention, a product the user wants can be reliably created even for an order for only one booklet from an individual user, like a photobook. In addition, reduction in waste of paper, an increase in work efficiency, and the like can be achieved.

"Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments (with reference to the attached drawings)."

For more information, see this patent: Saito, Kazuyuki. Bookbinding Printing System in Which a Plurality of Bound Products Are Generated by a Single Job. U.S. Patent Number 8531708, filed June 21, 2011, and published online on September 10, 2013. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=52&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=2588&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=20130910.PD.&OS=ISD/20130910&RS=ISD/20130910

Keywords for this news article include: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha.

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