Methods and apparatus for analyzing electronic documents and digital printing systems
View Patent ↗Methods and apparatus are provided for receiving a PDL File that describes a print job, processing the PDL commands in the file, identifying print settings and printer factors that may affect the entire print job, and reporting such print settings and printer factors. Methods and apparatus are also provided for receiving a PDL File that describes a print job, processing the PDL commands in the file, identifying any objects in the print job that have associated predetermined attributes, and reporting the print objects that have any such predetermined attributes.
1. A method for analyzing a print job comprising an object having an associated print attribute, the method comprising:
arranging at least one print controller in a printing environment, said printing environment comprising a plurality of client computers and a plurality of printers, wherein at least one printer from among said plurality of printers is not capable of processing at least one print attribute;
determining, by said at least one print controller, at least one print attribute of interest, said print attribute of interest comprising an attribute that is incapable of being processed by at least one printer in said printing environment;
associating, by said at least one print controller, a corresponding unique marker to the determined print attribute of interest, wherein associating an attribute with a unique marker comprises changing a color value of a portion of the print job containing the attribute that is not capable of being printed;
receiving, by said at least one print controller, page description language (“PDL”) commands that describe a print job;
interpreting, by said at least one print controller, the PDL commands;
determining, by said at least one print controller, if said at least one print attribute of interest is present in said print job; and
reporting to the user of a client computer, by said at least one print controller, whether said print job includes at least one print attribute of interest by using the corresponding unique marker to indicate the presence of said at least one print attribute of interest by displaying the matched object on a display device in the changed color.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the PDL commands comprise PostScript commands.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the PDL commands comprise PCL commands.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the object comprises text.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the object comprises an image.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the object comprises a graphic.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined print attribute of interest comprises a font name.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined print attribute of interest comprises a font size.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined print attribute of interest comprises a color space.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the color space comprises a red, green, blue color space.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the color space comprises a cyan, magenta, yellow color space.
12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the color space comprises a device-dependent color space.
13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the color space comprises a device-independent color space.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined print attribute of interest comprises a color value.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the color value is selected from among a group of color sets consisting of:
a red, green, blue color value set;
a cyan, magenta, yellow color value set;
a spot color value set; and
a proprietary color space value set.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined print attribute of interest comprises an orientation.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein reporting further comprises printing the matched object in the changed color.