Colored region barcode printing
OwnerDavid L. Geeringinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for automatically replacing selected content within an electronic document is disclosed. The system includes the superimposition of a geometric shape (e.g. a rectangle) over textual or other human-readable content within an ordinary word processing document that is to be replaced with a barcode or other machine-readable content. Thereafter, a print driver automatically detects the human-readable content underlying the detected geometric shape and converts that into the desired barcode type. Then, the document may be output physically or electronically, now including the barcode in place of the human-readable content.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- a computing device including:
- a processor;
- a display device coupled to the processor;
- a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing program instructions that, when executed, cause the computing device to perform actions, comprising:
- accessing an electronic document including printable content visible on the display device;
- receiving interaction from a user instructing the computing device to draw a geometric shape of a selected color in an area identified by the user within the printable content of the electronic document;
- transmitting the document including the geometric shape within the area to a printer driver;
- detecting, using the printer driver, the printable content within the area defined by the geometric shape;
- encoding, using the printer driver, the printable content within the area defined by the geometric shape, as a print job for output in a machine-readable format using a barcode printer;
- and
- transmitting the print job to the barcode printer for output, the print job encoded so as to replace the printable content within the area defined by the geometric shape with the machine-readable format.
A non-volatile machine-readable medium storing a program having instructions which when executed will cause a processor to:
- access an electronic document including printable content visible on the display device;
- receive interaction from a user instructing the computing device to draw a geometric shape of a selected color in an area identified by the user within the printable content of the electronic document visible on the display device;
- transmit the document including the geometric shape within the area to a printer driver;
- detect, using the printer driver, the printable content within the area defined by the geometric shape;
- encode, using the printer driver, the printable content within the area defined by the geometric shape, as a print job for output in a machine-readable format using a barcode printer;
- and
- transmit the print job to the barcode printer for output, the print job encoding so as to replace the printable content within the area defined by the geometric shape with the machine readable format.
(canceled)
(canceled)
(canceled)
(canceled)
(canceled)
A system comprising:
- a computing device including:
- a processor;
- a display device coupled to the processor;
- a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing program instructions that, when executed, cause the computing device to perform actions, comprising:
- accessing an electronic document including printable content within the electronic document visible on the display device;
- receiving interaction from a user instructing the computing device to draw a geometric shape of a selected color in an area identified by the user within the printable content of the electronic document;
- transmitting the document including the geometric shape within the area to a printer driver;
- detecting, using the printer driver, the printable content visible within the area defined by the geometric shape;
- and
- performing an action, based upon at least one of a color of the geometric shape within the area or the printable content within the area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.