System and method for printing postage indicia directly on documents
AssigneeE-Stamp Corporation
InventorSalim G. Kara
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for printing a postage meter stamp, including a desired postage amount and a personalized postage indicia onto a label or onto a document directly. A processor based system is programmed to interact with a customer to produce individualized documents, printed address labels, and a printed postage meter stamp having in one embodiment, a customized postage indicia. The processor based system automatically calculates the postage due for a specific document, prints that postage amount as a meter stamp, interacts with the customer to generate a personalized stamp indicia, encrypts selected information into a machine readable format, and prints the information entered by the customer in a selected format, all on the document for transfer to the outside of a mailing envelope.
Claims29
A processor based word processing system having a program running on said processor, said program operable for controlling document creation by a user giving input data and instructions to said processor, comprising:
- means controlled by said word processing system and responsive to input data from a user for creating a document, said document having a section thereof containing the address of a document recipient;
- means for establishing a transfer section on said document;
- and
- means for printing within said transfer section postage indicia pertaining to said document recipient.
The method of operating a processor based word processing system having a program running on said processor, said program operable for controlling document creation by a user giving input data and instructions to said processor;
- said method comprising the steps of:
- creating a document under control of said word processing system and responsive to input data from a user, said document having a section thereof containing the address of a document recipient;
- establishing a transfer section on said document;
- and
- printing within said transfer section postage indicia pertaining to said document recipient.
An automated system for generating a document, said system comprising:
- means for interfacing with a user to generate selected documents;
- means for determining the correct postage for mailing each said selected document;
- means for generating a personalized postage indicia for each said selected document, wherein said generating means includes means for selecting one of a plurality of graphical configurations of a postage indicia;
- means for printing said selected document;
- and
- means for generating and printing said personalized postage indicia including said correct postage together with said printing of said selected document.
A method for generating a document under control of a general purpose processor, said method comprising the steps of:
- interfacing with a user to generate a desired document;
- determining the correct postage for mailing said document;
- generating a personalized postage indicia for said document, wherein said generating step include the step of selecting one of a plurality of graphical configurations of a postage indicia;
- printing said document under control of said general purpose processor;
- and
- printing said personalized postage indicia including said correct postage together with said printing of said document under control of said general purpose processor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.