AU760440B2 - Automatic adjustment of document styles for different media - Google Patents

Description

AUTOMATIC ADJUSTMENT OF DOCUMENT STYLES FOR DIFFERENT MEDIA Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the presentation of documents using different media and, in particular, to the automatic adjustment of the presentation style of documents based upon the output media.

Background Documents are traditionally published in a hard copy form whereby information is printed upon a medium such as paper which is subsequently handled for reading and viewing purposes. Typically, the paper medium is white and, for text, printing on the paper is formed using black ink or other agent, such as powder in the case of some printing and copying apparatus. In some instances, colour printing occurs typically for images and coloured paper may be used to achieve a particular stylistic effect. In each instance however, the creator of the published document has knowledge of the information to be conveyed and the particular medium by which that information is to be conveyed.

The explosion of electronic publication of documents over computer networks as evidenced by the Internet and World Wide Web, has presented numerous difficulties relating to the reproduction of documents. For example, with electronic publishing, such documents are generally intended for viewing via some form of electronic display, such as a cathode ray tube, plasma display typically associated with a personal compuiting system or the like. Other forms of display include projection television screens and liquid crystal displays. Often however, having displayed such documents in an electronic form, users desire to reproduce the document in a hard copy form typically by printing onto paper. Invariably, such paper is usually of a white substrate, although some users may have other colours handy for use in particular circumstances.

A significant problem arises when users desire to print electronic documents in a hard copy form in that the electronic presentation style created by the author of the document to achieve a particular visual effect on the electronic display, often lacks a corresponding effect when reproduced in a hard copy form.

Summary of the Invention It is an object of the present invention to substantially overcome, or at least ameliorate, one or more deficiencies with existing arrangements.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is disclosed A method of document reproduction comprising the steps of: 540883.doc:ldp receiving an electronic document intended for display using an electronic display apparatus, (ii) interpreting a presentation style of said electronic document to identify a level of colour contrast between various components thereof, (iii) identifying a hard copy output medium onto which said electronic document is to be reproduced and the colour range of hard copy reproduction available for impression onto said medium, and (iv) adjusting the presentation style of said electronic document during reproduction on said hard copy medium so as to maintain a predetermined level of contrast between said components of said document when reproduced on said hard copy medium.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a system for document reproduction, said system comprising: a computer device for receiving an electronic document having a presentation style intended for reproduction using an electronic display; an electronic display coupled to said computer device for displaying said electronic document in a first colour format defined by said presentation style; a printer device coupled to said computer means; and an application program configured for operation by said computer device to make said computer device, upon forwarding said electronic document to said printer device for hard copy reproduction thereof, to modify said presentational style of said electronic document so as to maintain at least a minimum level of contrast between text contained in said electronic document and a background colour over which said text is to lay in said hard copy reproduction to thereby provide for said electronic document to be reproduced by said printer in a second colour format.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a computer readable medium, having a computer program recorded thereon, said computer program being configured to make a computer execute a procedure to reproduce a document, said program comprising: code for receiving an electronic document intended for display using an electronic display apparatus, code for interpreting a presentation style of said electronic document to identify a level of colour contrast between various components thereof, 540883.doc:ldp code for identifying a hard copy output medium onto which said electronic document is to be reproduced and the colour range of hard copy reproduction available for impression onto said medium, and code for adjusting the presentation style of said electronic document during reproduction on said hard copy medium so as to maintain a predetermined level of contrast between said components of said document when reproduced on said hard copy medium.

Brief Description of the Drawings A number of preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, in which: Fig. 1 A depicts an arbitrary document as viewed using a video display; Fig. 1IB depicts the same document as printed in accordance with the preferred embodiment; Fig. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a general purpose computer system upon which the preferred embodiment of the present invention can be practiced; Fig. 3 shows a graphical user interface for selection of the print media colour; Fig. 4 shows a parse tree and related contrast levels; Fig. 5 shows selection ranges for modified text and background colours; and Fig. 6 is a flow chart showing a method of document reproduction in accordance with the preferred embodiment.

Detailed Description including Best Mode The preferred embodiment finds particular application in relation to the sourcing of documents over the Internet or the World Wide Web and their subsequent reproduction. Such a process often occurs using so-called Internet browser software which provides an interface for document sourcing and hard copy reproduction. Usually, a browser will first fetch a document from the Internet, parse the document, layout the document in a format suitable for reproduction on a print device, and finally render the content to the print device.

The display and hard copy reproduction method of preferred embodiment is preferably practiced using a conventional general-purpose computer system 200, such as that shown in Fig. 2 wherein the processes to be described may be implemented as software, such as an application program executing within the computer system 200 during the render process mentioned above. In particular, the processed are effected by instructions in the software that are carried out by the computer. The software may be divided into two separate parts; one part for carrying out the processing method, and 540883.doc:ldp another part to manage a user interface between the latter and the user. The software may be stored in a computer readable medium, including the storage devices described below, for example. The software is loaded into the computer from the computer readable medium, and then executed by the computer. A computer readable medium having such software or computer program recorded on it is a computer program product. The use of the computer program product in the computer preferably effects an advantageous apparatus for document style adjustment in accordance with the embodiments of the invention.

The computer system 200 comprises a computer module 201, input devices such as a keyboard 202 and mouse 203, output devices including a printer 215 and a display device 214. A Modulator-Demodulator (Modem) transceiver device 216 is used by the computer module 201 for communicating to and from a communications network 220, for example connectable via a telephone line 221 or other functional medium. The modem 216 can be used to obtain access to the Intemrnet, and other network systems, such as a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN).

The computer module 201 typically includes at least one processor unit 205, a memory unit 206, for example formed from semiconductor random access memory (RAM) and read only memory (ROM), input/output interfaces including a video interface 207, and an I/O interface 213 for the keyboard 202 and mouse 203 and optionally a joystick (not illustrated), and an interface 208 for the modem 216. A storage device 209 is provided and typically includes a hard disk drive 210 and a floppy disk drive 211. A magnetic tape drive (not illustrated) may also be used. A CD-ROM drive 212 is typically provided as a non-volatile source of data. The components 205 to 213 of the computer module 201, typically communicate via an interconnected bus 204 and in a manner which results in a conventional mode of operation of the computer system 200 known to those in the relevant art. Examples of computers on which the embodiments can be practised include IBM-PC's and compatibles, Sun Sparcstations or alike computer systems evolved therefrom.

Typically, the application program of the preferred embodiment is resident on the hard disk drive 210 and read and controlled in its execution by the processor 205.

Intermediate storage of the program and any data fetched from the network 220 may be accomplished using the semiconductor memory 206, possibly in concert with the hard disk drive 210. In some instances, the application program may be supplied to the user encoded on a CD-ROM or floppy disk and read via the corresponding drive 212 or 211, or alternatively may be read by the user from the network 220 via the modem device 216.

540883.doc:ldp Still further, the software can also be loaded into the computer system 200 from other computer readable medium including magnetic tape, a ROM or integrated circuit, a magneto-optical disk, a radio or infra-red transmission channel between the computer module 201 and another device, a computer readable card such as a PCMCIA card, and the Internet and Intranets including e-mail transmissions and information recorded on Websites and the like. The foregoing is merely exemplary of relevant computer readable mediums. Other computer readable mediums may be practiced without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

Fig. 1A depicts the display of an electronic document on the video display 214 of the computer system 200. For example, the electronic document 100 may be an HTML document sourced from the computer network 220, such as the World Wide Web.

Alternatively, the document 100 may be any document from which a corresponding layout engine produces a parse tree with styles on the nodes of the tree. The document 100 includes a major background portion 102 of a relatively dark colour (eg. green) and a smaller section 104 of substantially darker colour such as blue or black. Within the section 104 is a portion of text 106 having a light colour (eg. white) which provides substantial contrast to the section 104 and thus provides for appropriate visibility of the text 106.

Where the user desires to create a hard copy reproduction of the electronic document 100 using a standard printer device such as those typically associated with the personal computer system 200 and wherein only white paper substrate is available for printing, reproduction of the document 100 may be sub-optimal due to the extensive dark areas requiring corresponding large dark areas of printing on the paper substrate. With ink jet printers, this can result in a paper medium that is quite wet or "soggy" to touch and can assume substantial quantities of ink.

In accordance with the preferred embodiment, whereas the image of Fig. 1A is displayed on the video display 214, when the user of the computer system 200 selects printing of the document 100 on the printer 215, the preferred embodiment operates to automatically adjust the document style to reproduce a document 110 seen in Fig. IB which alters colours of the various components of the document to provide for an optimal reproduction using the printer 215.

As seen in Fig. 1 B, the background 112 is changed to a substantially light colour which may be a shaded colour of grey, where the printer 215 prints black only, or a light colour shade such as yellow, where the printer 215 is a colour printer. The background 112 may alternatively be displayed as white (ie. without any printing by 540883.doc:ldp either a black or colour printer). A section 114 corresponding to the section 104 is also modified in colour as is the text 116 to provide a substantial level of contrast and yet optimise reproducability. In this example, the text 116 is reproduced as the colour black and the section 114 may be reproduced as a lighter colour upon which black has sufficient contrast, such as medium shade of grey as illustrated for a black printer or, in a colour printer example, a light blue.

In the preferred embodiment, the adjustment of style for printing is an automated adjustment that occurs without user interaction and is performed at a time the user selects the printing of the electronic document displayed on the display 214. In this regard, through an examination of the printer driver software used to configure the printer 215 within the system 200, the application program of the preferred embodiment can determine a colour range of the printer 215, and particularly whether a black printer or a colour printer is in use. Information also returned by the driver can include the resolution (in dpi) of the printer.

Where appropriate, the user may provide information to the system as to the colour of the print medium (the paper colour) that is currently available. Such examples of common paper colours include yellow, green and orange. This may be performed for example using a simple graphical user interface providing a pick list of substrate colours, such as that shown in Fig. 3. For example, where the paper colour is cyan any reproduction by a colour printer operating with cyan, magenta, yellow and black colour, may act to disable the cyan colour from printing. With knowledge of the particular paper colour, the preferred embodiment is able to automatically select modified colours for the various portions of the electronic document that enhance its reproducability when printed in a hard copy form using the selected medium colour.

In operation, the preferred embodiment sources an electronic document in HTML form from the Internet, which is then parsed to convert the document into a parse tree with styles attached to each node in the tree. An example of a parse tree is shown in Fig. 4. When the parse tree is determined, the nodes of the tree usually include a set of styles and associated values. Nodes include elements that represent HTML tags (eg. <A> or The styles for an element can be inherited to any corresponding child nodes.

The leaf nodes are content nodes such as text or images, while non-leaf nodes have styles to indicate the layout format. Examples of styles of elements include background colours and text colours. The combination of the background and text colour, or background colour of a node and background colour of the corresponding child node (ie. the P tag and I tag as shown) form a colour pair which, as prepared by the author of the electronic 540883.doc:ldp document, provide a desired level of contrast when reproduced on the electronic display 214. However, when converted for printing on, for example, a black and white printer 215, the contrast between the colours in the colour pair may not clearly show text component.

Depending on the nature of the display device (video display or printer), a threshold can be set for testing the background colour and the text colour. For example, if grey is to be printed on a black on white printer, the text colour Tc and background colour Bc may thus be arranged to fall within a range of colours predefined by the system or set by the user. This is illustrated in Fig. 5 where Tc and Bc are each shown broken into their source red, green and blue (RGB) components as they are provided according to HTML.

If the corresponding colours are not within the desired range, it is necessary for the colours to be changes so that the colours then fall within the range and then may be used for printing. Further, the contrast between Tc and Bc must exceed a predetermined value of contrast D such that, with reference to Fig. 4, dl>D, d 2 and so forth, depending upon the number of node levels in the parse tree. It is further notes that d 2 may be interpreted as the contrast between Tc for a leaf node TXT and Bc for background colour in node I (italic tag).

A database may be formed to retain the colour thresholds for different print devices, and also for different coloured print media. When the print device is selected, the corresponding colours are brought up to be compared with each colour in the node from the parse tree.

In the preferred embodiment on selecting the print function, the colour pair is adjusted depending upon the nature of the printing device and print medium. For example, any text colour can be set to black and any background colour can be set to white thus complementing the particular form of reproduction asserted by the printer 215.

Fig. 6 is a flow chart 600 showing a method of document reproduction in accordance with the preferred embodiment. The process begins at step 601, where an electronic document 100) intended for display using an electronic display apparatus (eg. 214, 215), is received. As discussed above, the electronic document 100 may be an HTML document sourced from the computer network 220, such as the World Wide Web.

Alternatively, the document 100 may be any document from which a corresponding layout engine produces a parse tree with styles on the nodes of the tree. At the next step 603, a presentation style of the electronic document 100 is interpreted to identify a level of colour contrast between various components of the electronic document 100. The process of flow chart 600 continues at the next step 605, where a hard copy output 540883.doc:ldp medium onto which the electronic document 100 is to be reproduced is identified. As discussed above, the hard copy output medium may be yellow, green, orange etc, paper The colour range of hard copy reproduction available for impression onto the medium is also identified. At the next step 607, the presentation style of the electronic document 100 is adjusted during reproduction on the hard copy medium so as to maintain a predetermined level of contrast between the components of the document 100 when reproduced on the hard copy medium. As discussed above, in the preferred embodiment, the adjustment of style for printing is an automated adjustment that occurs without user interaction and is performed at a time the user selects the printing of the electronic document displayed on the display 214. However, where appropriate, the user may provide information to the system as to the colour of the print medium (the paper colour) that is currently available. This may be performed for example using a simple graphical user interface providing a pick list of substrate colours, such as that shown in Fig. 3.

A specific advantage obtained from examining the presentation style of the source electronic document is that an extent of colour modification upon printing may be limited to certain parts of the document, as opposed to other processes by which the same modification is applied to all components of the document. By examining nodes in the parse tree, it may transpire that some note may require no colour modification upon printing, whereas other nodes may require substantial modification.

Industrial Applicability It is apparent from the above that the embodiment(s) of the invention are applicable to the computer and data processing industries and particularly in document production where the source and destination of the documents differ in their style of document presentation.

The foregoing describes only one embodiment of the present invention, and modifications and/or changes can be made thereto without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, the embodiment(s) being illustrative and not restrictive.

In the context of this specification, the word "comprising" means "including principally but not necessarily solely" or "having" or "including" and not "consisting only of'. Variations of the word comprising, such as "comprise" and "comprises" have corresponding meanings.

540883.doc:ldp

Claims (14)

1. A method of document reproduction comprising the steps of: receiving an electronic document intended for display using an electronic display apparatus, (ii) interpreting a presentation style of said electronic document to identify a level of colour contrast between various components thereof, (iii) identifying a hard copy output medium onto which said electronic document is to be reproduced and the colour range of hard copy reproduction available for impression onto said medium, and (iv) adjusting the presentation style of said electronic document during reproduction on said hard copy medium so as to maintain a predetermined level of contrast between said components of said document when reproduced on said hard copy medium.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein step (ii) comprises interpreting a parse tree representation of said document and step (iv) is performed at each node of said parse tree to maintain at least a minimum level of contrast between components of said document described at said node.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein step (iii) comprises examining a printer driver of a printer device upon which said hard copy of said document is to be reproduced.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein step (iii) comprises presenting for selection by a user a pick list of colours of media upon which said hard copy reproduction is to be performed.

A method according to claim 1 wherein said document comprises an HTML document.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein said presentational style comprises a plurality of colour styles each corresponding to at least one of said components, said components comprising at least a background colour and a corresponding text colour, said text colour being applicable to text to be displayed over said background colour, and step

540883.doc:ldp (iv) comprises adjusting at least one of said background colour and said text colour to obtain at least a minimum level of contrast therebetween and using said adjusted colour during hard copy reproduction of said document.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein step comprises displaying said electronic document upon said electronic display apparatus in a first format defined by said electronic document, said apparatus comprising a means for receiving a print instruction relating to said electronic document whereupon on receipt of said print instruction, steps (iii) and (iv) are performed to print said electronic document in a second format defined by said adjusting whilst said first format remains displayed by said display apparatus.

8. A method according to claim 7 wherein said means for receiving comprises a graphical user interface displayed by said electronic display apparatus.

9. A system for document reproduction, said system comprising: a computer device for receiving an electronic document having a presentation style intended for reproduction using an electronic display; an electronic display coupled to said computer device for displaying said electronic document in a first colour format defined by said presentation style; a printer device coupled to said computer means; and an application program configured for operation by said computer device to make said computer device, upon forwarding said electronic document to said printer device for hard copy reproduction thereof, to modify said presentational style of said electronic document so as to maintain at least a minimum level of contrast between text contained in said electronic document and a background colour over which said text is to lay in said hard copy reproduction to thereby provide for said electronic document to be reproduced by said printer in a second colour format.

10. A system according to claim 9 wherein said application program acts to identify a colour of media upon which said hard copy reproduction is to be performed and a colour range of said printer, said media colour and said colour range contributing to the modification of said presentational style. 540883.doc:ldp -11

11. A system according to claim 10 wherein said application program examines a printer driver of said printer device upon which said hard copy of said document is to be reproduced.

12. A system according to claim 10, wherein application program interprets a parse tree representation of said document and the modification is performed at each node of said parse tree to maintain at least a minimum level of contrast between components of said document described at said node.

13. A system according to claim 10 wherein said application program presents for selection by a user a pick list of colours of media upon which said hard copy reproduction is to be performed.

14. A system according to claim 10 wherein said document comprises an HTML document. A system according to claim 10 wherein said presentational style comprises a plurality of colour styles each corresponding to at least one of said components, said components comprising at least a background colour and a corresponding text colour, said text colour being applicable to text to be displayed over said background colour, and said application program adjusts at least one of said background colour and said text colour to obtain at least a minimum level of contrast therebetween and using said adjusted colour during hard copy reproduction of said document. 16. A computer readable medium, having a computer program recorded thereon, said computer program being configured to make a computer execute a procedure to reproduce a document, said program comprising: code for receiving an electronic document intended for display using an electronic display apparatus, code for interpreting a presentation style of said electronic document to identify a level of colour contrast between various components thereof, code for identifying a hard copy output medium onto which said electronic document is to be reproduced and the colour range of hard copy reproduction available for impression onto said medium, and 540883.doc:ldp -12- code for adjusting the presentation style of said electronic document during reproduction on said hard copy medium so as to maintain a predetermined level of contrast between said components of said document when reproduced on said hard copy medium. 17. A computer readable medium according to claim 16, further comprising code for interpreting a parse tree representation of said document and adjusting the presentation style of said electronic document at each node of said parse tree to maintain at least a minimum level of contrast between components of said document described at said node. 18. A computer readable medium according to claim 16, further comprising code for examining a printer driver of a printer device upon which said hard copy of said document is to be reproduced. 19. A computer readable medium according to claim 16, further comprising code for presenting for selection by a user a pick list of colours of media upon which said hard copy reproduction is to be performed. A computer readable medium according to claim 16, wherein said document comprises an HTML document. 21. A computer readable medium according to claim 16, wherein said presentational style comprises a plurality of colour styles each corresponding to at least one of said components, said components comprising at least a background colour and a corresponding text colour, said text colour being applicable to text to be displayed over said background colour, and said program further comprises code for adjusting at least one of said background colour and said text colour to obtain at least a minimum level of contrast therebetween and using said adjusted colour during hard copy reproduction of said document. 22. A computer readable medium according to claim 16, further comprising code for displaying said electronic document upon said electronic display apparatus in a first format defined by said electronic document, said apparatus comprising a means for receiving a print instruction relating to said electronic document whereupon on receipt of said print instruction. 540883.doc:ldp -13- 23. A computer readable medium according to claim 16, wherein said means for receiving comprises a graphical user interface displayed by said electronic display apparatus. 24. A document reproduction method substantially as described herein with reference to the drawings. A document reproduction system substantially as described herein with reference to the drawings. 26. A computer readable medium, having a computer program recorded thereon, said computer program being substantially as described herein with reference to the drawings. DATED this SECOND Day of MARCH 2001 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Patent Attorneys for the Applicant SPRUSON FERGUSON 540883.doc:ldp