Method and apparatus for generating customized furniture documentation

1. A method implemented on one or more computer servers for generating a customized web page for a furniture item having a plurality of surface material options, the method comprising:

receiving data representing a plurality of images of surface materials which may be applied to at least one furniture item;

receiving data representing label information corresponding to at least one of the plurality of images and the at least one furniture item, the label information including branding corresponding to two or more business entities in one or more layers of a furniture supply chain;

receiving a TCP/IP request identifying one of the business entities;

generating a web page including at least a subset of the plurality of images of surface materials which may be applied to one or more furniture items of the identified business entity together with the branding corresponding to the identified business entity;

receiving input identifying one of the subset of the plurality of images of surface materials to be applied to one of the furniture items;

mapping the identified surface material image onto an image depicting the furniture item;

generating a web page which includes an image of the furniture item having the selected surface material image mapped thereon, and the label information associated with the selected surface material including the branding corresponding to the identified business entity and

outputting the generated web page from the one or more servers, wherein the web page is capable of being displayed on a remotely located user device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the inputs are received over the Internet.

3. The method of claim 1 is additionally comprising generating a portable document format (PDF) file including the image of the furniture item having the identified surface material image mapped thereon.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the mapping comprises color mapping.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the mapping comprises bump mapping.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the mapping comprises texture mapping.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the images of surface materials are presented in a variety of light color temperatures or environmental conditions.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising retrieving the image of the surface material mapped onto the image depicting the furniture item from a computer database.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the surface material comprises a surface finish.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the label information includes pricing information.

11. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising receiving input identifying a furniture item or a catalog of furniture items.

12. A computer system for generating a customized web page for a furniture item having a plurality of surface material options, the system comprising one or more computers programmed and configured to:

receive data representing a plurality of images of surface materials which may be applied to at least one furniture item and store the images into one or more computer databases;

receive data representing label information corresponding to each of the plurality of images and the at least one furniture item, and store the label information in the one or more computer databases, wherein the label information includes branding corresponding to two or more business entities in one or more layers of a furniture supply chain;

receiving a TCP/IP request identifying one of the business entities;

generate a web page including at least a subset of the plurality of images of surface materials which may be applied to one or more furniture items of the identified business entity together with the branding corresponding to the identified business entity;

receive input identifying one of the subset of the plurality of images of surface material to be applied to one of the furniture items;

map the identified surface material image onto an image depicting the furniture item;

generate a web page which includes an image of the furniture item having the selected surface material image mapped thereon and the label information associated with the selected surface material including the branding corresponding to the identified business entity; and

output the generated web page which is capable of being displayed on a remotely located user device.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein one or more of the inputs or outputs are communicated over the Internet.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the one or more computers are programmed and configured to generate a portable document format (PDF) file including the image of the furniture item having the identified surface material image mapped thereon.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the mapping comprises color mapping.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the mapping comprises bump mapping.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the mapping comprises texture mapping.

18. The system of claim 12 wherein one or more of the images of surface materials are presented in a variety of light color temperatures or environmental conditions.

19. The system of claim 12 additionally comprising a computer database for storing the image of the surface material mapped onto the image depicting the furniture item.

20. The system of claim 12 wherein the surface material comprises a surface finish.