System and method for representing and managing pages in a production printing workflow

An interface, implemented in a computer, for representing and controlling a production printing workflow comprising:

• a display;
• a first document entity representing a document, said document further comprising content and formatting, said formatting defining at least one page in said document, said first document entity being associated with a first visual representation on said display;
• a document ticket entity representing global document attributes, said document ticket entity being associated with a second visual representation on said display and capable of being associated with said first document entity;
• a page entity representing a page attribute of one of said at least one page, said page entity being associated with a third visual representation on said display and capable of being associated with said first document entity;
• a first user input device for selectively associating at least two of said first, second and third visual representations;
• and
• a second user input device for creating said page entity, said second user input device operative to allow selection of said page attribute, setting of a value of said page attribute and selection of one or more of said at least one page in said document to apply said page attribute to wherein upon application, one or more of said page entities are created and associated with each of said one or more of said at least one page and said corresponding document entity;
• wherein association of said first, second and third visual representations results in association of said respective entities,
• wherein said association of said page entity with one of said at least one page in said document in said first document entity is operative to cause said page attributes to apply to said one of said at least one page.

A computer executable method of controlling a production printing workflow comprising:

• (a) displaying a first visual representation of a document on a display;
• (b) displaying a second visual representation of global document attributes capable of being associated with said document on said display;
• (c) associating said first visual representation with said second visual representation;
• (d) based on (c), linking said global document attributes with said document such that said global document attributes apply to said document;
• (e) displaying a third visual representation of a page attribute capable of being associated with one of said one or more pages on said display;
• (f) associating said third visual representation with said first visual representation;
• and
• (g) based on (f), linking said page attribute with a corresponding one of said one or more pages such that said page attribute applies to said corresponding one of said one or more pages and wherein manipulation of said one of said or more pages manipulates said page attribute.

A computer executable system for managing production printing workflow comprising:

• a receiver for receiving a document, said document comprising content and document formatting, said document formatting defining at least one page of said content and wherein each of said at least one page is characterized by at least one page characteristic;
• a page attribute comprising a value and capable of being associated with said at least one page and capable of controlling one of said at least one page characteristic of an associated page using said value;
• a page ticket capable of being associated with one or more of said page attributes wherein association of said page ticket with said document associates said one or more of said page attributes with said document;
• and
• an editor coupled with said receiver and operative to allow a user to view and edit said document;
• wherein said editor is further operative to allow association of one or more of said page attributes with one or more of said at least one page of said document, association of one or more of said page attributes with said page ticket and association of one or more of said page tickets with one or more of said at least one page of said document.