Virtual Press Run

A method of providing a virtual press run (VPR) for a document comprising:

• establishing a VPR publishing applet on a host content production application;
• initiating a VPR session, the VPR session comprising:
• gathering content from one or more content sources;
• gathering visualization tools from one or more editing sources;
• gathering printing options from one or more printer;
• merging the content, visualization tools and printing options;
• providing a user with a visualization of the content;
• providing the user with printing options, wherein the user selects printing options;
• adjusting the visualization to reflect the selected printing options, forming an adjusted visualization;
• and
• printing the content on the printer corresponding to the selected printing options.

A computer architecture for providing a virtual press run for content applications comprising:

• a virtual press run (VPR) publishing applet coupled with a processor, a memory and a computer display;
• one or more content applications having a plug-in for transferring content to the VPR publishing applet;
• one or more visualization engines having a plug-in for providing visualization of the content to the VPR publishing applet;
• one or more printers having a plug-in for providing printer capabilities to the VPR publishing applet;
• a graphical user interface (GUI) configured display dynamic content visualization on the display;
• wherein the VPR publishing applet uses the one or more visualization engines to provide visualization of the content on the GUI, wherein the visualization is configured to change in light of selected printer capabilities.

A computer apparatus, comprising:

• a publishing module coupled to a processor, a memory, and a graphical user interface;
• at least one content source coupled with the publishing module;
• at least one visualization engine coupled with the publishing module;
• and
• wherein the publishing modules further comprises:
• a means for gathering content from the at least one content source;
• a means for gathering visualization protocols from the at least one visualization engine;
• a means for gathering printing protocols and printer capabilities from at least one printer;
• a means for merging the content, visualization protocols and printing protocol, forming merged data;
• and
• a means for delivering the merged data to a user via the graphical user interface, wherein the user visualizes the merged data and can edit the content in light of the printing capabilities, thus forming a virtual press run and a print job.