Mixed format document finishing system responsive to a single page having an encoded document assembly specification

Abstract

A hybrid mixed format document that contains document portions prepared by different format sources, such as both black and white and colored pages, prepared by separately printing the colored pages on a color printer, and the black and white pages on a black and white printer. The two document portions are then put in separate locations within a mixed format finishing device. One of the document portions, for example the black and white document portion, includes a cover sheet that provides encoded information, which tells the finishing device how to merge the two document portions into a complete publication. One advantage of the mixed format finishing device is that those pages that contain only text may be printed on a faster, and less costly black and white printer. In a preferred embodiment, the cover sheet controls the document merging process in such a manner that if one document is misprinted or mismerged, the mismerged document may be shuttled aside and merging may continue with the next complete document set.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.