US 7,209,600 B2Granted

Synchronization of components for printing

AssigneeEastman Kodak Company

InventorStephen F. Goldberg

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Abstract

The present invention relates to a technique for detecting that all components that make up a completed portion of a form are synchronized. A method is provided for detecting that for a print job, all of the components that make up a completed portion of each form are printed in synchronicity or in the case of an error in synchronicity, an error condition is asserted. The print job comprises at least one form, and each form may contain more than one image, each image may contains one or more image planes and the images on each form of a document may vary. Each image contains a composite image group (CIG) mark comprising the set of image plane coordination (IPC) marks associated with each individual image plane. An IPC mark is printed by each print engine such that it is possible via inspection of these marks to determine if the complete set of image planes that make up a specific image are present. The present invention allows one to confirm, using the CIG marks, that all forms in a print job are synchronized.

Claims29

Dependent claims

A method for detecting synchronization of all image planes that make up a completed form for a print job on a printer, the printer capable of printing on a print media with an associated print engines, the print job including a plurality of forms, each form having a form origin and each form containing a plurality of image planes, where the image planes that constitute an image are referred to as a composite image, and wherein each composite image can vary from form to form, the method comprising the steps of:

applying at least one image plane coordination mark to each of the plurality of image planes that comprise the composite image on each form, the at least one image plane coordination mark for each image plane resulting in a plurality of image coordination marks, each of the plurality of image coordination marks being located at defined positions relative to the image plane coordination marks for the other image planes of the corresponding image in the composite image;
forming a composite image group mark with the plurality of image coordination marks, the composite image group mark including an origin defined as a leading edge of a first of the plurality of image plane coordination marks being offset a known distance, definable as an offset distance, from the form origin;
changing the offset distance from the form origin for each composite image group mark associated with subsequent forms such that an image plane synchronization error will cause relative placement of at least one of the plurality of image plane coordination marks to deviate from its defined placement relative to any other of the plurality of image plane coordination marks;
detecting that the plurality of image coordination marks of the composite image group mark of at least one form are in a proper spatial relationship relative to each other by detecting the absence of an image plane coordination mark from the composite image group mark on the at least one form or by detecting the presence of an image plane coordination mark from the composite image group mark from another form on the at least one form;
and
identifying proper synchronization if all of the plurality of image coordination marks associated with the form are in a proper spatial relationship to each other, or identifying a synchronization error if at least one of the plurality of image coordination marks associated with the form is not in proper spatial relationship with the other image coordination marks associated with the form.

3 more elements

A method for detecting errors in the synchronization of image planes that make up forms in a print job, the method comprising the steps of:

associating an image plane coordination mark with each of the image planes that make up a form;
forming a composite image group mark for each form, the composite image group mark including a plurality of the image plane coordination marks that do not overlap, each of the plurality of image plane coordination marks of the composite image group mark including a readily detectable relationship with the other of the plurality of image plane coordination marks of the composite image group mark;
differentiating the composite image group mark of one form from the composite image group mark of at least one other form such that the readily detectable relationship between individual of the plurality of image plane coordination marks that make up each composite image group mark is intact if the image planes are properly synchronized and the readily detectable relationship between individual of the plurality of image plane coordination marks is broken if the image planes are not properly synchronized;
detecting whether the readily detectable relationship between the plurality of image plane coordination marks is intact or broken by detecting the absence of an image plane coordination mark from the composite image group mark of one of the forms or by detecting the presence of an image plane coordination mark from the composite image group mark of one of the forms on another form;
and
providing a synchronization indication of whether the readily detectable relationship is intact or broken.

3 more elements

A method for detecting synchronization of printed forms comprising:

printing a plurality of forms, each of the plurality of forms including a composite image that varies from form to form, the composite image including a plurality of image planes, each image plane including printed data and an image plane coordination mark, the plurality of the image plane coordination marks forming a composite image group mark, each of the plurality of forms including an origin, the origin being a reference point on each form to which each composite image group mark is related, each composite image group mark of each form being offset by a different distance from the origin on the form;
detecting each of the composite image group marks and identifying placement of the composite image group mark with respect to the origin for each of the plurality of forms;
detecting movement of one of the plurality of image planes from one composite image on one of the plurality of forms to another composite image on another of the plurality of forms by identifying a misplacement of one of the image plane coordination marks from one of the composite image group marks associated with the one of the plurality of forms;
and
returning a synchronization error after the misplacement is identified.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.