NO312984B1 - Electronic publishing system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to electronic and printed publishing and provides a mechanism by which text and images for publication can be prepared and/or edited.

In particular, but not exclusively, the present invention is aimed at the drawing of news fields.

The present invention finds its application within electronic and printed media, for example newspapers, magazines and computer text systems.

The design of a newspaper conveys a special style and taste that the reader can notice.

As used in this context, "design" refers to the graphic rules or guidelines that determine how elements (such as headlines, images and text) are to be used to build up news fields, including the number of elements and the type of element that can or cannot be used in certain contexts, the size and location of these elements in each case, guidance on suitable typography and the use of other graphic devices such as borders and colour.

The design style in a newspaper is often considered to be decisive for a number of reasons. For example, it has a big impact on how the newspaper appeals to different readers (such as big heavy headlines in a tabloid newspaper, or smaller, "worthy" headlines in a "quality" standard newspaper). Readers are drawn to buy the newspaper, and this obviously contributes to determining the newspaper's market. Designs also serve the purpose of giving the newspaper a unique and distinctive appearance, so that it stands out from its competitors. For these reasons, newspapers often spend a lot of time, effort and money on establishing their own design style.

In many publishing environments today, the design of a newspaper is controlled by just a few people, and it is passed on - often orally - from one person to another. These people may or may not also be responsible for the design of the newspaper (that is, putting their own design into practice), but the design is typically done by people who did not determine the design style, but who have to learn it and put it into practice so faithfully as possible.

As a result, a number of problems and issues with newspaper design can and do arise: 1. It is possible that the design is carried out incorrectly in some cases due to a misunderstanding or that its requirements are overlooked, or due to work pressure or lack on the skill of the person making the drawing. This can lead to a glaring and unwanted deviation from the style. 2. It is possible with the current arrangements that the design and style of a newspaper will be changed over time due to a changed interpretation of how they should be used, and/or a number of minor stylistic inaccuracies may build up. Although this change may be small and may occur over a period of several years, any change will often be felt by the newspaper's readers with the possible negative effects this may have on the newspaper's readership. 3. A layout may, although it may be faithful in form to the guidelines for design, be inefficient in its use of space, which results in costly waste of space, and/or less news being included in the newspaper. 4. There are computer systems with electronic tools such as

makes the construction of drawings easier. However, these systems require that the drawing be built up manually using these tools, which is labor- and time-consuming. Moreover, these systems provide little or no guidance in the style of the newspaper, and do not help the drawing operator to decide what design the drawing should have. They only make it possible for the drawing operator to build up the drawing when the operator himself has decided what is to be built up.

US 5,390,354 and GB 2,246,102 discuss how news fields can be arranged to fill a given area (such as a page). However, they would not be able to be used to create the news fields themselves.

US 4,829,470, US 5,287,443, US 5,113,488, US 4,755,955 and

US 5,079,724 relates to all different aspects of handling type and/or images to fit into a given form. These writings do not go so far as the idea of rules for publication design, and they would not contribute in any way to really help build or determine the design of news fields. These inventions are aimed at mechanical problems that may arise, only when it becomes necessary to fill in text and/or images in these forms to complete them.

The publishing business suffers from a lack of standard terms to describe common features within the subject; the jargon varies greatly, not only from country to country, but even between publishing companies. To clarify this description, this short glossary will indicate what certain key terms used mean: Page: This term is standard, but can sometimes be confused with "news field" which is explained below. A page refers to the physical, printed page or a representation thereof, such as a paper or electronic "proof" page used for planning and preparing the printed edition.

Design: Denotes the graphic rules or guidelines that govern how elements (such as headlines, images and text) are to be used to build up news fields, including the number and type of elements that can or cannot be used in certain contexts, the size and location of these elements in in each case, guidance on suitable typography and the use of other graphic devices such as borders and colour.

News field: This term is used to describe a constituent part of a page, such as an article or an advertisement (typically it is used in the sense of "article" as an editorial reference, but conceptually "advertisement" also fits). A news field refers to a part of a page, which part has been used for a common purpose or means (such as presenting an article). A page can contain one or many news fields which are usually separated from each other. A news field can itself include many elements; an article can contain headlines, images and text that together make up the news field for that article.

Drawing: Shows how these design guidelines are put into practice and really put to use in any case.

Layout element (or news field element): This refers to the individual elements within a news field, such as headlines, images, graphics, text, chapter headings and so on.

Thus, pages contain news fields, news fields contain elements, and design is the rules, and drawing is the execution of the design.

The present invention aims at least to alleviate a problem associated with prior art.

The purpose is achieved by constructive features as stated in the following description and in subsequent patent claims.

The present invention provides a system, apparatus and/or method for preparing or editing text for publication where a news field is filled in accordance with a design, and there is a change in the size of the news field if the coverage is not in accordance with the predefined criteria.

It is an advantage that if the size of the news field is changed, the size of any number of drawing elements can also be changed.

In another form, the present invention makes it possible to arrange (size and position) and format (styles, using devices such as typography, color and borders) the various elements in a news field in a way that: I. fits or matches with a publication's special design rules for news fields (presentation), and/or II. allows the special size and area of the news field to be adapted (or filled) automatically in accordance with these design rules by: A. allowing the user to predetermine relationships between the news field's various components, which conditions determine the size and position of each component in relation to the others, and /or

B. to allow automatic recalculation of each component's size and location, so that the news field can be filled.

The present invention determines the shapes that form a news field and/or what these shapes are (what they represent) and/or how big each one is, and/or what position each has within the news field.

For the sake of simplicity, the present invention is called NAILS, an acronym that stands for "Newspaper Automated Intelligent Lay-out System". (However, the present invention is not limited to use in newspapers, but can be used for any electronic or printed medium where material is drawn or presented according to a certain style.) NAILS shows how the various elements in a news field can be arranged (large -relation and placement) and is formatted (stylistically, using devices such as typography, color and borders) in a way that: I. fits or agrees with a publication's particular design (presentation), and/or II. uses a change of size so that the special size and area of the news field is automatically covered (or filled) in accordance with these design rules.

NAILS achieves these goals by providing any number of the following opportunities: III. it enables the definition of the publication's design style by providing the means by which the publication can: A. pre-define suitable drawings and store them in a database, and/or B. determine and pre-define the conditions or situations where each of these drawings can be considered suitable for use , and/or C. define, for each of these layouts, rules that govern how each layout element should behave with regard to size, placement and typographic style and so on. This option allows the publication to pre-define relationships between the various components of the news field, which conditions determine the size and position of each component in relation to the others. IV. it facilitates the selection and use of drawings (from a database) in accordance with the predefined design style. To achieve this: A. the system allows the user of the database to specify the general drawing type and style desired for the relevant news field, in a fast, simple and intuitive way, and/or B. the system determines which drawings are or are not is suitable or correct for use in the relevant news field, in accordance with the predefined rules, and takes into account the database user's stated wishes, and/or C. the system provides the user with a graphical display of the correct or suitable drawings and allows the selection of one of them, and/or D. the system prevents the database user from selecting unsuitable or incorrect drawings, and/or

E. the system automatically builds up the final drawing, including transparent resizing of the selected drawing and its elements to fit the new size specified by the user, in accordance with the rules laid down for that drawing, and/or

F. the system automatically displays on the screen any further edits that the user can make of this drawing after it has been drawn, and measures these against the predefined design rules. Depending on the nature and circumstances of these changes and what the predefined design rules prescribe, the present invention can also help the user by automatically adjusting the drawing (or its elements) so that it fits or is suitable for the user's manual edits; and/or suggest that a completely different layout would be more correct according to the predefined design style; and/or allow the user to accept the proposal whereby the software can automatically build up the new drawing and/or use it to replace the previous one.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, where: Fig. 1, 2 and 3 show examples of the display of drawings;

Fig. 4 shows fig. 1 where the size has been changed; and where

Fig. 5-7 show fig. 1, 2 and 3 with addition of lines for article author.

The NAILS system provides a separate "workspace" for each publication issued by a newspaper (such as separate daily and Sunday papers). The present invention uses one database for each of these publications.

Within each publication, the database is preferably programmed in a hierarchical structure, as follows:

Publication

Department

Drawing style

Drawing family

Sign-up child

First cousins

Department refers to the publication's various departments such as news, sports, business and so on.

(The publication defines this according to its needs.) Department was chosen as the decisive division in this database because it is between different departments that the design style in a newspaper is most likely to vary. In other words, the design style (drawing and typography) will probably be more consistent within a department, but different departments may have slightly different styles or design needs. The present invention makes this easier, although the newspaper can also decide that each section should be the same.

There are drawing styles within each department, and these are defined by the publication. Each department has its own set of drawing styles, although these may be copied to many departments if they are in common use. The number of styles within a department is not limited. Typically, the styles are set up to reflect common features of the layout, indicative of the department's needs, for example: main spread, image articles, filler, secondary main spreads and so on.

The drawing families exist within each drawing style and are defined by the publication. Each family represents a layout variant or option within that style: for example, a style called "image articles" may contain options where there can be both horizontally and vertically aligned images, and options such as placing the image in certain places within the article layout. There are no restrictions on how these variants and possibilities can be.

The subscription children are included in each family and are again defined by the publication. Each child within a family must have its own size (width and height), and two children cannot overlap in size; within a family, two or more children can have the same width or height, but no two can have the same width and height. Typically, the children in a family will together form a continuous size range, such that one child's maximum limit will be defined by the next child's minimum size. Although the software will introduce this by default, it is preferred as it is not mandatory. The publication may specify a different maximum size (width or height or both) for any child (if only one dimension has a specified maximum, the software will use the default for the other dimension) as long as the resulting combination of width and height is less than the next child's minimum size.

The step-siblings represent "alternative children". Although they are not part of the primary selection process, they are used to give tender operators greater opportunities. Their use is described later. An outlining cousin is related to an outlining child; they are both the same size. A draft child can have more than one cousin.

It should be noted that while many newspapers will be familiar with the term "Departments", the terms layout styles (as used herein), layout families, layout children and layout cousins are unique to the present invention. As far as is known, newspapers today do not use such devices or terms to organize their design styles.

The present invention provides in one form tools for configuring, handling and populating the database. These tools are preferably, but not necessarily, provided through menu lines and other computer functions of the program. They allow the publication to store/remove departments, styles, families, children and cousins in/from the database.

The publication can draw (graphically) each child in the basic drawing program used with the present invention. Since one form of the present invention is based on the theory that drawings will always be selected and sized upwards (made larger than the original size, not smaller), the child will be drawn in the smallest intended size.

The publication will then define, for each child or sibling, the relationships between its various elements (such as headings, images, chapter headings, body text and so on). This is done by using the expressions for size change specified below.

When a child or cousin is saved in the database, the publication points out which department/style/family it belongs to (and can create new departments/styles/families as needed). The present invention then examines whether existing children within that family may have a conflicting size range, and automatically resolves the conflict by setting the existing child's maximum size (width, height or both, as the case may be) to the new child's minimum dimension(s).

It is also expected that all children within a family will show what can be called a "genetic match" in that they will resemble each other in appearance. This means that if one child has a picture above the main heading, everyone must have it. This is because a family represents a special drawing variant or type within a drawing style; its children represent executions of the drawing in various distinctive sizes.

For example, the layout of the heading can and usually will change as the size of the drawing changes; a short article over one column 10 cm high (4 inches) may have a two-line headline in a point size of 14 pt with a column of body text as the only other element; but this heading layout would not be used if the same layout were to be used over six columns wide and 30 cm (12 in) high; instead, the publication could choose to use a one-line headline in a 42 pt point size and perhaps also change the body text from one column to six separate columns. Although the details of the heading and body text are different in each case, the drawing can still be said to be "genetically consistent" in that both have the same solution of heading over body text. Fig. 1-3 shows how a certain layout style can be implemented in different ways in different sizes according to the general kind of design rules that newspapers typically follow.

This illustrates the concept of families and children. It would be completely confusing if, in the case described above, one child contained a subtitle, image and chapter heading that did not exist in other children within the family. Instead of using these completely different designs as different children within the same family, the idea behind the present invention dictates that the publication should establish two different families, one with a heading above the main text, the other with the use of main heading, subheading, image, chapter heading and body text.

When children are stored in the database, one child within a family will also be designated as the "head of the family" for purposes that will be described later.

The expressions for resizing make it possible to define relationships between the various elements in a drawing (children or cousins), such as heading, subheading, images, chapter headings, lines with article author, body text and so on.

These conditions are defined by using a "dialog box" within the computer program (a small "window" on the screen opened via a menu bar or other command, which window gives the user different options).

The options available allow the publication to define, for any element, one of four different relationship types: A proportional relationship. In this case, relations are derived that from what currently exists. For example, a image already occupy 60% of the total drawing height; if the height is set to remain proportional, the image will continue to be 60% of the total outline height, even if the outline is later resized. • A fixed-difference relationship. In this case, the computer program measures the real difference between two values and maintains it. For example, an image may be 5 cm (2 inches) shorter than the overall drawing; if the height is set to remain a "fixed difference" from the drawing's height, the image will remain 5 cm smaller than the drawing's height, even if the drawing's size is changed.

• No relationship. The specified value does not change.

• A separate expression or an algorithm that the user enters. In this case, the user can enter a mathematical and/or logical expression that will be used to calculate a new value when the drawing's size changes. For example, the user can set an image's height to 50% of the newsbox's height, plus 2 cm.

Each of these expressions can be applied completely independently to an element's width, height, horizontal position or vertical position. In each case (with the exception of the manually entered expressions), the specified values used for proportional or fixed-difference calculation are derived from the values found in the drawing as it is drawn up at the moment.

In each case, the relationship can be specified to be in relation to any other element in the drawing or to the dimensions of the drawing itself. For example, the publication may define an image's vertical position (in a particular child) to be a "fixed-difference" relative to a header's position.

An element's width or height can be set relative to any other element's (or drawing's) width or height by using "proportional" or "fixed-difference" calculations, or by using a specified expression, or nothing. A maximum limit can also be set for an element's width or height, which will not be exceeded.

An element's horizontal or vertical placement value has additional options. First, the placement reference point can be set to be the element's top, center, or bottom point (for vertical placements) or its left, center, or right point (for horizontal placements). Second, this can be specified to be relative to the designated reference element's (or drawing's) top/middle/bottom position (or left/centre/right, as the case may be).

Thus, the image's vertical position (described above) will be specified not only to be relative to the header's position. It will also be defined as placing the top, middle or bottom of the image in relation to the top, middle or bottom of the headline.

By using these expressions for size change, the inventors have found that in reality any desired relationship can be easily and quickly defined, and as a result of this, in reality any effect through size change can be achieved.

As an example, a drawing can contain a heading at the top (for example over three columns) with three single columns of body text below. At the top of the second column with body text, but still below the heading, there may be a small image (see fig. 2).

By using these expressions for resizing, it will be possible to specify that: The heading should still extend over the entire drawing same width (its vertical size and vertical and horizontal position do not need to be changed, but its width could be specified as either proportional to the outline's width, or with a fixed difference from the outline's width since both expressions in this case would give the same result). If the outline were made wider, the heading would thus still extend over its full width. The first column of body text could be set as: width, proportional to the width of the drawing; height, a fixed difference from the drawing's height; h location, none; v-position, the top of the body a fixed difference from the bottom of the header. The second column of body text could be set as: width, proportional to the width of the drawing; height, a fixed difference from the drawing's height; h-location, the left point is a fixed difference from the first body column's right point; v-position, the top of the body a fixed difference from the bottom of the image. • The third column with body text could be set as: width, proportional to the width of the drawing; height, a fixed difference from the drawing's height; h-location, the left point is a fixed difference from the right point in the second body column; v-position, the top of the body a fixed difference from the bottom of the header. • The image could be specified as: width, proportional to the width of the second body text column; height, a fixed difference from the drawing's height; h-position, left point is a fixed difference from other body column's left point; v-location, the top of the image is a fixed difference from the bottom of the header.

In this case, as the outline was made wider, the heading would still extend over the full width of the outline; the individual columns of body text would still occupy about a third each of the layout's width (we say roughly, because there is a space between each column of text, so that each column is slightly less than 33% of the total layout width); the second and third columns of body text would move to the right, so that they would still have the correct distance to the first column and to each other, evenly spaced across the width of the news field; and the image would still have the same width as the second column of body text, it would still be positioned in line with this column, and it would still be below the heading and on top of the second column of body text.

It is also noted that in the above example the width and horizontal position of the image could have been specified using different variations of the resizing expressions to achieve the same result.

The drawing editor uses the present invention once the database has been set up with drawings (children) for which an expression for size change has been defined.

The present embodiment of the present invention allows for various methods of use. Only one is described here.

The subscription editor can, on the electronic version of the page to be subscribed, define a total size for the special article subscription. The procedure for achieving this may vary depending on which program is used as the basic drawing program (the present invention can work with many different drawing programs), but typically this would involve graphically drawing a route to indicate the overall drawing's desired width and height. The specified size on the drawing is referred to as the "target" size.

The drawing editor can then retrieve the present invention, as it exists in a computer program embodiment, by using a menu line or other computer command.

This will open a separate computer window. If the computer system for drawing which is used in connection with the present invention is able to tell the present invention which department the page in question belongs to, the present invention will choose that department by default. If not, or if the relevant department's drawings are in reality not desirable, the user can select the department manually.

When the desired department has been entered, the user selects the drawing style. The possibilities, as they are indicated in the database, are listed in the window of the present invention.

When this is done, the present invention reads the size of the "target" drawing, takes into account which department and style of drawing is desired, and searches for families within the department/style that contain children whose minimum size is less than or equal to that of the target , and whose maximum size is equal to or greater than that of the target.

Due to the restriction that each child within a family must have a unique size (width-Zheight combination), only one child can be selected from each family. It is possible that some families may not have a child that fits the target size.

Since the possible children are known, the present invention displays them within its window as a series of icons - small, representative images of what each drawing will look like.

At the same time, it will change the size for each child so that it covers the target, using the expressions for size change that are defined and entered with each child.

Thus, the layout editor is shown a number of layouts that all fit the target size, and all of which also fit the publication's particular design style for that department (since the database is set up and the page searched in a way that excludes "unsuitable" layouts from being displayed).

To complete the work operation, the drawing operator simply selects the drawing that looks the most desirable. The present invention "instructs" or "controls" the underlying drawing program to build up the selected drawing according to the rules set for it.

Thus, instead of having to build up the drawing manually in each case, the drawing operator is simply able to work by selecting from a set of possibilities, and the computer is able to do all the "leg work" required to actually build the drawing.

This provides enormous benefits in the following areas: speed, faithful (consistent and accurate) implementation of design style, avoidance of design style errors and easier work. It should be noted that the same sequence of actions is used for the construction of any layout, no matter how complex it is, while with manual layout functions the workload increases as the layout becomes more complex.

The present invention provides a number of additional features, functions and methods of use, including (but not limited to): The invention is not limited or restricted to the fact that a "target" drawing size must necessarily be defined before a selection of possible drawings is requested. In this case, the procedure is the same except that a measure is not specified, and the present invention does not search for a specific drawing size within the designated department/drawing style. Instead, it retrieves the children within the families in the selected department/outline style that are marked as "head of family". The layout editor can choose one of these, and it will be placed on the page in standard size. It can then be given a different size. • If a drawing that has been picked out and placed on the page is given a different size, so that one or both of its maximum dimensions are exceeded, the present invention will show this on the screen and offer the drawing editor several options where one (the default) is to replace the child with the child that has been specified for use in a new size. • The present invention can work with any known commercial drawing program. • Furthermore, its database of stored drawings provides a convenient means of "translation" of drawings between one program and another, so that a database of drawings designed for use with one drawing program can easily be reshaped to work with any other drawing program . • A feature is provided whereby a particular department/drawing style/family can be associated (or "mapped") to a "hotkey", a key on a keyboard arranged to execute a particular computer command. This seems like a kind of computer shorthand. It allows a certain style or drawing type to be associated and then applied with a single command. In this case, it would not be necessary for the user to open the window of the present invention and make any selections: the user could only enter a target and press the key associated with a department/style/family; the present invention would then automatically scan that family for the correct child and fill in the outline efficiently with a one-touch command (or if no target was specified, it would place the "head of family" child in that ward/style /family on the page).

A function is provided whereby a user can select, on the page, a layout that was already created using the present invention, and then "scroll through" alternative layouts. In this case, the alternative drawings are selected from the same department/style as the drawing you currently have. Each of the alternative designs is selected from the other families within the department/style. This provides a suitable means of revising or changing a drawing that has already been drawn up, in the light of further developments relating to the overall design of the page.

When the completed drawing has been drawn up in the target on

since, the drawing is structured as a series or set of objects that are in the "inherent" format used by the underlying program. This means that the nature of the objects may vary depending on the underlying program's needs, but that the objects will in any case be editable within the program.

The assignment cousins referred to throughout this document allow the assignment editor to select variants of a particular child, where the variation is not significant enough to justify the inclusion of the cousin as a child in its own right in a separate family. For example, the drawings on fig. 1-3 are also thought to include lines with the name of the journalist or the agency the article came from. Although some publications have a policy of always (or mostly) including bylines, others allow bylines to be included or excluded based on certain criteria (sometimes even at the whim of the submissions editor). And even in those publications that typically include bylines, alternative byline styles may be needed to accommodate, for example, the difference between listing a journalist belonging to the publication, or listing a journalist from an agency. In all these cases, families could be set up to provide drawings with different author line layouts (including no author lines), but this would hardly be worth the trouble. It can also create some confusion to give the selection editor too much to choose from, especially since the features that would distinguish the various families would be so insignificant. In these cases, the publication would set up outlining cousins that would mirror the outlining in the primary child, but would display the different author-line layouts. The layout editor can then select the particular layout desired, but modify it using a simple command to include different author line styles. The author line could, of course, be added manually, but its automated inclusion again makes the operation easier, and enables the publication to ensure that when the author line is included in the layout, it follows the desired design style. Fig. 5-7 show the same drawings as fig. 1-3, but after author lines have been added using the outlining cousins who are related to (or associated with) these children. Another example of out-drawing cousins would be to allow easy implementation of changes that do not affect the out-drawing at all, only the typography. The drawings on fig. 1-3 all have bold headings, and although this is not shown, they could have body text in antiqua. An alternative edition could be headings in antiqua with bold text, and this could also be easily achieved through the use of outlining siblings.

From fig. 1, 2 and 3, it can be seen that the three drawings have different overall size and shape, and that details in each drawing also vary to a certain extent: • The specific heading layout is different in each drawing. Fig. 1 has a three-line heading. Fig. 2 and 3 both have two lines. Furthermore, each heading's point size is different in each drawing. • Each outline contains a small image and chapter heading, but the specific placement and relative placement of this varies. In fig. 1 is the proportional placement in the 1st column. In fig. 2 and 3 is the proportional location in column two, but its specific location is different since the columns of fig. 3 are wider than those in fig. 2. • The number of columns with body text varies between the drawings, and the columns in fig. 3 is wider.

However, it can also be seen from these illustrations that from a design point of view, the publication could actually regard all these drawings as variants of a single drawing style or type. This is because the general "appearance and impression" of the drawings are consistent with each other; the only reason that particulars differ between them is that they are of different sizes.

For example, if it were really required that this outline be four columns wide, it would not normally be considered satisfactory simply to enlarge the outline of FIG. 1 so that it covers, thereby obtaining a drawing that looks like fig. 4.

Although the layout was adjusted to have three columns of text instead of one enormously wide column, it can be seen that the header layout is completely wrong. Instead, it would be understandable that the newspaper would prefer a layout similar to that shown in fig. 3. This is what the present invention enables.

By using traditional methods of creating outlines manually (using a computer program), the outline editor would have to be familiar with this style as used by the publication, and he would also need to understand how the style is to be implemented in these various sizes. Finally, the layout editor would have to build up the desired layout manually, also ensuring that the style is precisely adapted to the particular size required. This would require the layout editor to manually draw each box for each element in the layout, size and position each box correctly, and then apply the correct typographic style to each box.

According to the present invention, these three drawings (and probably other similar drawings) would be stored as different children within the same family.

The layout editor would then set the target size (which requires simply drawing a single square on the page) and bring up the window of the present invention. If the default section (for the page in question) was suitable, and it almost always will be, the feature editor would proceed by selecting a feature style, such as "news articles with small images". (If the default department was not correct, the issue editor would select the correct one from a list.)

The program would then display drawings that are suitable for the size of the target drawn, one drawing (child) from each family within the selected drawing style (except families that have no children of a suitable size). The layout editor would expect to see a series of graphical icons, each representing a layout. If the drawings on fig. 1-3 had been stored as children in a family within the "news articles with small pictures" style, and the target was of sufficient size, the drawing in fig. 3 be displayed in one of the icons.

The layout editor would then simply select that layout, and the present invention would instruct or control the underlying program to pull up the complete layout in the target page.

This would complete the draw operation. Note that the drawing was carried out in just a few simple steps, that throughout the process the drawing editor was guided as to what the suitable drawings could be, and that the final build-up was fully automatic.

Advantages of the example:

1. It is much faster to create drawings. Initial tests on existing newspapers show that the present invention could be used on average in approximately 80% or more of the news fields, and that in each of these the use of the present invention would eliminate or alleviate between 70% and 95% of the existing manual work that is necessary with today's computer programs. This gives newspapers the opportunity to make significant production gains in an area (subscription) which today requires a large number of specialists and highly paid staff. 2. System training is a significant expenditure item for newspapers.

On average, it turns out that a layout editor needs two weeks of full-time computer training before he can start creating pages: most of this training (7 out of 10 days) is devoted to learning how to create typical layouts with the layout computer program. It is believed that with the present invention the average draftsman will be completely familiar with, have had sufficient practice and be able to begin their actual work in less than four hours, and that many days of additional training (which in many cases may not be necessary ) will then be able to take place while the editor is at full time.

3. Layout training: A layout editor who is unfamiliar with layouts requires extensive training just in being able to design layouts. This time is typically measured in months, some

times year. Even an experienced subscription sub-editor may, starting in a new and unfamiliar newspaper (or even in a new department within the newspaper he works for), have to

spend weeks learning the "style of the house" before he can work without being "held by the hand". Since the present invention "knows" what the "house style" is, can show the layout editor the style (graphically) and handles and controls its execution, this time would be effectively eliminated.

cf

4. When a newspaper embarks on a "design change", this is an expensive and lengthy process, where a completely new design is invented and then implemented. This is of such a nature that it typically requires the change to be "all or nothing". There are very great difficulties associated with retraining the existing staff in preparation for this. The present invention removes this struggle since the design team can simply set up a new, alternative database. At the design stage, it will also be possible to carry out extensive test trials in "real life". Then, when ready to use, the newspaper simply switches (overnight) to the new database. All that is needed is to make it known to the tender editors through a short (less than 1 hour) introduction, or perhaps through a short written overview of the changes. 5. Conveys consistency in publication style and taste to readers. 6. In many cases more efficient completion of news fields.

Claims (18)

1. Electronic publishing system for producing and/or editing one or more publications via a computer, characterized in that the system includes a database where the database includes at least the following: at least one publication to be created and/or edited, the publication having a plurality of departments; at least one layout style for each department, so that each layout style includes a plurality of different layouts, where the layouts in each layout style form one or more layout families, where the layout families define layout variants for publication elements such as text and images, and where the layout family/s are structured so that they contain outset children, where each outset child in an outset family in format is genetically consistent with all other children in that outset family and has a size that differs from the other children in the outset family. 2. Electronic publishing system for producing and/or editing one or more publications via a computer, characterized in that the system comprises a database, where the database is designed to store a plurality of drawings in accordance with the following structure: the plurality of drawings are linked to at least one publication to be produced and/or edited, said at least one publication is divided into a number of departments, where each department is linked to at least one drawing style, each drawing style includes a plurality of drawings, the drawings in each drawing style are arranged in drawing families where the drawing families defines outlining variations for publication elements, the outlining families are structured to contain outlining children where each outlining child in an outlining family is designed genetically consistent with all other children in the outlining family. 3. System according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it further includes subscription cousins that define alternative subscriptions. 4. System according to claim 1, characterized in that each drawing style can be linked to a plurality of departments. 5. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises size change means for defining a relationship between the publication elements in each drawing. 6. System according to claim 5, characterized in that the relationship defined through the size change means includes: a) a proportional relationship b) a fixed-difference relationship c) no relationship, or d) a relationship defined through a specific expression or a algorithm. 7. Procedure for producing and/or editing a page in a publication, characterized in that it makes use of the system according to claim 1 or 2 and includes the steps: - defining a department to which the page belongs, - defining a drawing style within the defined department with which the page conforms, - to search the layout families within the defined department and layout style for suitable layouts, - to display suitable layout children, and - to allow selection of one of the displayed layout children for use as a format for the page. 8. Method for producing and/or editing one or more publications via an electronic publishing system in a computer, characterized in that the method comprises the steps: - arranging the publication to have a plurality of departments, - arranging each department to have in at least one layout style, where each layout style consists of a plurality of different layouts, - to arrange the different layouts in each layout style in one or more layout families, so that the layout families define publication element variations such as text or images, - to arrange the layout families so that they include drawings where each drawing within one drawing family in format is genetically consistent with all other children in the drawing family and has a size that differs from the other children in the drawing family, - to define a section to be created, - to define a drawing style as the section that is made, must agree, - to search the subscription family e within the defined department and layout style according to suitable layouts, - to display the suitable layout children, and - to allow selection of one of the displayed layout children for use as a format for the page. 9. Method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that it further comprises the step: defining a common page size, so that the suitable drawing children are those which essentially agree with the defined page size. 10. Method according to claim 9, characterized in that the drawing families are only searched if they contain children whose minimum size is less than or equal to the defined size, and whose maximum size is equal to or larger than the defined size. 11. Method according to claim 9, characterized in that it further comprises the step: changing the size of the drawing elements before the suitable drawing children in accordance with defined relationships between the drawing elements within the suitable drawing children are displayed. 12. Method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that one child in each family is marked as the head of the family, and that only children who are marked as such are searched with regard to conformity with the defined department and style of marking. 13. Method according to claim 9, characterized in that it further comprises the steps: - to monitor all changes made to the selected drawing by a user, - to determine whether the changes result in a drawing that exceeds at least one maximum dimension for the selected drawing, - if a maximum dimension is exceeded, to propose an alternative drawing. 14. Procedure for using a computer, which stores a plurality of drawings, to create an information drawing for a publication with the intention of giving the information drawing a substantially identical style, characterized in that the drawing is made for at least one news field, and the method comprises the steps: a) selecting a first drawing from the plurality of stored drawings which has a size and/or shape close to said at least one news field, and b) if applicable, changing the size of the first drawing in according to rules set by the user. 15. Method according to claim 14, characterized in that the step to change size is implemented when the first outline in size and/or shape does not substantially correspond to said at least one news field. 16. Method according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that the step for changing the size leads to the first outline having a size and/or shape which essentially corresponds to said at least one news field. 17. Method according to claim 14, characterized in that it further comprises the step: (c) selection of a second drawing if the size of the first drawing changes outside of predefined criteria. 18. Method according to claim 17, characterized in that it further comprises the step: (d) selection of the first and the second drawing according to a predetermined pattern.