WO2013018064A1

WO2013018064A1 - Page layout process for photographs

Info

Publication number: WO2013018064A1
Application number: PCT/IB2012/053977
Authority: WO
Inventors: Andrea Mainetti
Original assignee: Photosì Spa
Priority date: 2011-08-04
Filing date: 2012-08-03
Publication date: 2013-02-07
Also published as: ITRN20110051A1

Abstract

The present invention refers to an automatic page layout process for photographs, characterised in that it comprises the following steps: - providing at least one page (21, 22, 23, 221, 222) of a book (20), calendar (220), or similar, in which to lay out the photographs, - dividing at least ideally the at least one page (21, 22, 23, 221, 222) into a plurality of pairs of vertically juxtaposed quadrants (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 125, 126, 127, 128), the pairs (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 125, 126, 127, 128) being adjacent to one another in the common reading direction from left to right and/or vertically; - fixing a hierarchical filling order of said quadrants with the photographs that firstly foresees to fill both of the quadrants of a first of said pairs of vertically juxtaposed quadrants, and then to fill both of the quadrants of an adjacent pair, and so on. - providing a plurality of photographs to be laid out, arranged in sequence according to a predetermined order (30, 40, 50, 60, 70) and having horizontal and/or vertical orientation, - inserting into the at least one page (21, 22, 23, 221, 222) the photographs of the sequence according to the predetermined order following said hierarchical filling order and placing each photograph with horizontal orientation in a single quadrant and each photograph with vertical orientation in a pair of juxtaposed quadrants, where the predetermined order of the sequence can be modified to give priority to the hierarchical filling, order.

Description

PAGE LAYOUT PROCESS FOR PHOTOGRAPHS .

DESCRIPTION

The present invention concerns a page layout process for photographs. The process has been developed to allow the creation of books of photographs or calendars of photographs, from photographs provided by a user, although this does not rule out its application to other fields as well.

By "book or calendar of photographs" we mean a book or a calendar the pages of which have photographs printed on them. The content of the book preferably mainly or exclusively consists of photographs, however this does not rule out the presence of other content. Hereafter, for the sake of brevity, we will refer to books of photographs and to calendars of photographs as "photobooks" and "photocalendars" .

In the following description the photographs will, for the sake of simplicity, be called "photos", in any case still meaning representations of static images.

Companies specialised in developing and printing photographs, since the advent of digital photos, have placed a series of services on the market, often able to be used also via internet, which have achieved enormous success due to their ease of use by clients wishing to develop their digital photos. These services comprise internet portals where a user is able to insert their photos, select a product, or example a book or a calendar of photographs, on which they want them to be printed, and send the print order.

The same process for "photo transfer and selecting the product" can also be implemented locally, for example directly on a PC of a photograph shop or of a printing company.

Although the procedure carried out by the user is very simple and intuitive, the next part of the procedure in which the company receives the photos and makes the book of photographs, on the other hand, is very onerous and does not lead to high-quality products. Indeed, the company must take care of laying out the photographs, which come in different formats and orientations, and in order to do this it must select the best arrangement each time. In order to avoid wasting this time the photos are often arranged at random with enormous waste of space and with a poor aesthetic result.

Alternatively, the portal, or the software through which the user transfers the photos, asks the same user to arrange the photos on the pages, which in this way are transferred already laid out. This solution, although it appears more advantageous for the company, in reality has proven disadvantageous and has led to a decrease in sales, or it does not meet the needs of all users that could potentially be interested, since it forces them to carry out a long and boring task.

Some page layout algorithms have also been devised aimed at inserting as many photos as possible in a page to limit the wastage of space and adapting the final layout to the photos. Some examples are described in patent literature in US2002/051205 and in US2004/174544; and non-patent literature in Lodi A et Al "two dimensional packing problems: a survey" European Journal of operational research, Amsterdam NL, Vol 141, n.2 1 September 2002, and in Atkins C B "adaptative photo collection page layout" Image processing, 2004, ICIP '04, International conference on Singapore 24-27 Oct. 2004, Piscataway, NJ, USA, IEEE, Vol. 5, 24 Oct. 2004. In these cases, however, the aesthetic result is often unsatisfactory and above all no relevance is given to the time sequence of the photos or to other narrative priorities selected by the user.

A general purpose of the present invention is to totally or partially solve the problems of the prior art.

A preferred purpose of the present invention is to provide a page layout process that is quick and practical both for a user intending to transfer their photos and for the company that has to print them in a book of photographs, a calendar or similar.

Another preferred purpose of the present invention is to provide a page layout process that can be carried out automatically, for example in the form of an algorithm implemented through a page layout software.

A further preferred purpose of the present invention is to provide a page layout process that optimises the spaces available on pages of predetermined dimensions of a book, calendar or similar, at the same time allowing an excellent aesthetic layout result and making it possible not to shift too far from a time sequence or other narrative priority of the photos laid out .

Yet another preferred purpose of the present invention is to provide a page layout process that makes it possible to make books, calendars or similar, of photographs from sheets of photographic paper of standard dimensions .

According to a first general aspect thereof the present invention concerns a page layout process for photographs according to claim 1, in other words an automatic page layout process for photographs, characterised in that it comprises the following steps:

providing at least one page of a book, calendar, or similar, in which to lay out the photographs,

- dividing at least ideally the at least one page into a plurality of pairs of vertically juxtaposed quadrants, the pairs being adjacent to one another in the common reading direction from left to right and/or vertically;

- fixing a hierarchical filling order of said quadrants with the photographs that firstly foresees to fill both of the quadrants of a first of said pairs of vertically juxtaposed quadrants, and then to fill both of the quadrants of an adjacent pair, and so on.

- providing a plurality of photographs to be laid out, arranged in sequence according to a predetermined order and having horizontal and/or vertical orientation, inserting into the at least one page the photographs of the sequence according to the predetermined order following said hierarchical filling order and placing each photograph with horizontal orientation in a single quadrant and each photograph with vertical orientation in a pair of juxtaposed quadrants, where the predetermined order of the sequence can be modified to give priority to the hierarchical filling order. Each quadrant can therefore contain just one whole horizontal photograph or a part of a vertical photograph.

The Applicant, after long research and experimentation, has found that the rules indicated above are those that make it possible to carry out an automatic page layout process with an excellent aesthetic result and with a good level of adherence to the narrative sequence of the photographs given by their starting order before being laid out.

The process is even easier to carry out automatically when the at least one page is divided exclusively into said plurality of pairs of vertically juxtaposed quadrants, and even more preferably when the number of pairs of quadrants is predetermined and cannot be modified during page layout.

According to some preferred embodiments of the invention the process comprises the step of dividing at least ideally a plurality of pages, preferably all the pages of the book, calendar or similar, into a plurality of said pairs of vertically juxtaposed quadrants, where the number of pairs of quadrants is fixed and the same for all of the pages.

The Applicant has also found that in general the preferred aesthetic results are obtained when the quadrants are all the same.

In general the quadrants can be rectangular in shape and oriented horizontally with respect to the common reading direction of a page from left to right.

This means that when reading the book or calendar the long sides of the quadrants are the ones located at the bottom and at the top.

According to a preferred general rule that optimises the automation of the process, in the case in which by inserting into the quadrants the photographs following the predetermined order of the sequence of photographs it is not possible to fill both of the quadrants of a pair of horizontally juxtaposed quadrants, the predetermined order of the sequence is modified by moving back in said sequence the first photograph yet to be laid out with orientation suitable for allowing the filling of both of said quadrants to be completed.

Preferably, the order of said sequence is only partially modified since just the position of the photograph moved back changes. In this way, the photographs laid out are close together almost like in the starting sequence, thus respecting the preselected narrative order.

In some embodiments such moving back takes place exclusively in such a way as to form a pair of horizontal photographs to fill said pair of quadrants. This method is preferable since it reduces the number of modifications necessary, for example when the number of horizontal photographs is very large, for example greater than the vertical ones, like in most cases. Generally, indeed, the number of horizontal photographs is predominant since people tend to take more of them to match their own binocular vision extending horizontally.

In other embodiments such moving back takes place exclusively in such a way as to fill said pair of quadrants with a single vertical photo. This method, on the other hand, is preferable when the number of vertical photographs is very large, for example greater than the horizontal ones.

In other embodiments such moving back takes place in such a way as to form a pair of horizontal photographs to fill said pair of quadrants or in such a way as to fill said pair of quadrants with a single vertical photo, with the moving back method that allows the photograph least distant in the sequence of photographs to be moved back being used each time. This method makes it possible to limit as much as possible the modification of the starting order of the photographs with respect to the layout order, whatever the percentage of horizontal and vertical photos.

According to another preferred general characteristic, in the case in which the sequence of photographs comprises square photographs they are considered as photographs with horizontal orientation for the purposes of the page layout according to the rules indicated above.

According to a further preferred general characteristic it is possible to lay out a limited number of photos of the sequence in such a way that each one occupies more than one pair of adjacent quadrants, for example all of the quadrants of one page or of two adjacent pages.

Some preferred embodiments foresee that the pairs of juxtaposed quadrants are adjacent to one another in the common reading direction from left to right, where according to the hierarchical filling order firstly the upper quadrant of a first pair is filled, then the lower quadrant of a second pair, then the upper quadrant of the next adjacent pair in such a reading direction, then the lower quadrant of said adjacent pair and so on.

It should be observed that said predetermined order of the sequence of photographs is preferably defined by one from: the time order in which the photographs were taken, the time order in which the photographs were delivered, a progressive number order given to the photographs by a user, an alphabetical order, another order set by a user.

The Applicant observes that the process is suitable for adopting software for its implementation, where said software comprises an application able to be downloaded via internet or a website through which a user can transfer the photos to be laid out.

In this case, said software application and/or said website allow a user who gives in the photos to set the order of the sequence of photographs and/or to select a limited number of photographs to be laid out in such a way that each one occupies more than one pair of adjacent quadrants .

In general, in order to give more balance to their appearance, photographs of the same shape are al laid out with the same predetermined size. For example, rectangular photographs normally have a ratio between the sides equal to 2/3 or 3/4, in which case an intermediate ratio comprised between these two is selected and all of the photos are trimmed to take on such a ratio.

According to a second aspect thereof the invention comprises a system according to claim 19, in other words a system for transferring and printing photographs comprising:

- a photograph printing site,

- page layout software capable of implementing a page layout process according to the present invention, and

- a software application able to be downloaded from the internet and/or a website to allow a user to transfer the photographs to said page layout software.

Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become clearer from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof, made with reference to the attached drawings and given for indicating and not limiting purposes. In such drawings:

figures 1 and 2 respectively schematically represent a horizontally oriented photo and a vertically oriented photo;

- figure 3 schematically represents the pages of a book of photographs according to the present invention ideally divided into quadrants and the hierarchical sequence of use of the quadrants for the layout;

- figures 4a and 4b schematically represent a first sequence of photos and their layout in a page of the book of figure 3, according to an embodiment of the process that forms pairs just with horizontal photos;

- figures 5 to 7 schematically represent other examples of sequences of photos and their layout in the book of figure 3 according to the same embodiment of the process of the previous figures;

- figures 8a and 8b schematically represent an alternative embodiment of layout that creates pairs both of horizontal and vertical photos;

- figure 9 shows a photobook, or photocalendar, which flips up from the bottom to the top instead of from right to left;

- figure 10 schematically represents a square photo;

- figures 11a and lib schematically represent an alternative embodiment of layout where a photo selected in the sequence of photos is laid out in more than two quadrants; and - figures 12a and 12b schematically represent the same embodiment of figures 11a and lib where the starting sequence of photos contains two square photos.

With reference to figure 1, a common photo 10 is shown, which has a rectangular format and in the specific example has "horizontal" orientation, which means that in order to correctly observe the image represented in the photo 10 the long sides of the rectangle must be arranged horizontally. As an example, the photo 10 shows a stylised human figure with the head and the feet at the long sides. Hereafter, for the sake of brevity, the photos with this orientation will be called "horizontal photos" .

With reference to figure 2, a second common photo 15 is shown, of rectangular shape and with "vertical" orientation, which means that in order to correctly observe the image represented in the photo 15 the short sides of the rectangle must be arranged horizontally. As an example, the photo 15 shows a stylised human figure with the head and the feet at the short sides. Hereafter, for the sake of brevity, the photos with this orientation will be called "vertical photos".

With reference to figure 3, a photobook 20 is shown in open configuration. In particular, the pages 21 and 22 of two adjacent leaves are shown, joined together along the binding line 23. The leaves are preferably made from - or comprise - photographic paper.

Each page 21, 22 is rectangular in shape, with the short side preferably coinciding with the binding line. The size of the short side preferably is substantially selected between 10.2; 12.7; 15.1; 17.8; 20.3; 24; 30 cm, or it differs from these values by an amount corresponding to a trimming comprised between [0- 2] cm. Said dimensions are the standard ones in which photographic paper is supplied, normally in rolls of such a width.

Each page 21, 22 is ideally divided into quadrants intended to receive the photos and preferably they are all the same. In the example shown there are 4 quadrants per page respectively marked A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H. The marking matches the hierarchical order in which the quadrants are filled in the page layout process of the photos. The arrows indicate the insertion sequence of the photos in the quadrants according to such a hierarchical order.

In particular, it should be noted that the quadrants can be grouped in pairs of quadrants 25, 26, 27 and 28, each pair comprising two quadrants arranged one under the other, i.e. juxtaposed, for example A and B, and that the pairs are one beside the other proceeding from left to right, according to the common reading direction of a book. Preferably, the quadrants are rectangular in shape and oriented horizontally.

Now with reference to figure 4a, a sequence 30 of photos respectively numbered 1, 2 and 3 are represented, where the numbering matches their predetermined order within the sequence, dictated for example by their date of creation, or by a preference of a user that transferred them for printing. In this case the photo 1 is the start and the photo 3 is the end of the sequence 30.

With reference to figure 4b the layout of the sequence of photos 30 in the photobook 20 is illustrated. The photo 1 is considered to be the first of a first pair of photos with the same horizontal orientation. The photo 1, being horizontal, is inserted in the quadrant A, i.e. the first quadrant in the top right, so as to be totally contained inside of it. In such a quadrant no other photos are inserted. Since the photobook 20 is intended to be flipped from right to left, the photos are inserted with an orientation referred to the binding line 23, and in this case the photo 1 has the long sides perpendicular to it .

The photo 2 has a vertical orientation and therefore cannot form a pair with the same orientation with the photo 1, and for this reason the photo 2 is left "suspended" and the sequence 30 advances, following the order of the sequence itself, until the first photo has the same orientation as the photo 1. Such a first photo with the same orientation is in this case the photo 3.

The photo 3 is then "moved" making it go back into the new photo position after the photo 1, i.e. it is arranged between the photo 1 and the photo 2. As will be observed, the photo 2 has changed its position with respect to the photo 1 just "indirectly" and not actively. For the purposes of the present invention by moved photo we mean just the photos whose position has actively changed, like the photo 3, whereas the photos that change their position "indirectly", like the photo 2, are not considered as such.

The photo 3 at this point, with the photo 1, forms a pair 25a of photos with the same horizontal orientation in the sequence of photos modified for layout. The photo 3 is then inserted in the quadrant B of the page 21, i.e. in the second quadrant according to the hierarchy indicated by the arrows. No other photos are inserted in such a quadrant. The pair of photographs 25a thus occupies the first pair of juxtaposed quadrants 25.

The pair 25a is considered a "closed" pair, i.e. already ready for layout or already laid out, and no longer able to be modified.

At this point it moves on to preparing or laying out the next photos. In the example of figure 3, the next photo of the modified sequence is the photo 2 and it has vertical orientation. It is laid out in the second pair of juxtaposed quadrants 26 - C and D - so as to occupy at least part of both. No other photos are inserted in such a pair of quadrants 26.

The sequence of photos as laid out following the hierarchical order of the quadrants is 1-3-2.

As can be noted, from what has been described and illustrated in general an embodiment of the page layout process according to the present invention is obtained, where the photos with horizontal orientation are laid out in pairs, each horizontal photo occupying a single quadrant of a pair of adjacent quadrants in the vertical direction, whereas each photo with vertical orientation is laid out by itself in a pair of such quadrants, i.e. in such a way as to occupy two adjacent quadrants in the vertical direction, even if it does not form a pair of photos with the same orientation with its next photo. The photos are laid out following firstly a progressive order from the start to the end of the sequence 30 and they are moved with respect to the position of such a starting sequence 30 only to form the horizontal pairs. The evaluation of the pairs is carried out by following the progressive order of the starting sequence 30 progressively modified with the movements, so that if two photos form a pair with the same orientation, they are not taken into consideration to form pairs with subsequent photos of the sequence.

With reference to figures 5a and 5b the same embodiment of the process of figures 4a and 4b is illustrated applied to a predetermined sequence of photographs 40 with a predetermined starting order that is different from the sequence 30.

In the sequence 40, once the photograph 1 with horizontal orientation has been laid out in the first quadrant A, it proceeds until the first photograph with the same orientation is found. Then the photos 2 and 3 are temporarily skipped and before these two the photo 4, which has horizontal orientation, is laid out. The photo 4 is laid out in the quadrant B that is the next one to fill in the hierarchical sequence of the quadrants, and forms the first pair of adjacent quadrants 25.

Thereafter the photos 2 and 3 left suspended respectively in the pairs of adjacent quadrants C+D and E+F are laid out.

The resulting sequence of photos as laid out is 1-4-2-3, whereas the pair of photos 25a with the same orientation, one of which with a modified position with respect to the sequence 40, is formed by the photos 1 and 4.

With reference to figures 6a and 6b the same embodiment of the process already described above is illustrated applied to a sequence of photographs 50 with a predetermined starting order that starts with a photo 1 with horizontal orientation.

In this case, the vertical photo 1 is laid out immediately in the pair of quadrants A+B, the photo 2 is laid out in the quadrant C, whereas the photo 3, not having the same orientation with respect to the photo 2 is left suspended, the next photo 4 is horizontal, so that with the photo 2 it forms a pair 26a with the same orientation. The photo is thus laid out under the photo 2 in the quadrant D. The suspended photo 3, on the other hand, is laid out in the next two quadrants E and F.

The resulting sequence of photos as laid out is

1-2-4-3.

Figures 7a and 7b illustrate the same embodiment of the process already described above applied to a predetermined starting sequence of photographs 60 that has the worst ratio between the number of horizontal photos and the number of vertical photos that it has statistically, i.e. 98% horizontal and 2% vertical.

Figures 1 and 2 of the sequence 60 have the same orientation, so that they form a first pair 25a laid out in the pair of juxtaposed quadrants A+B 25. The photos 3, 4, 5 and 6 are in the same condition as the sequence 40 of figure 5a, so that the photo 3 is laid out in the quadrant C, the photos 4 and 5 are left suspended and the photo 6 is moved back in the sequence 60 to be laid out in the quadrant D of the pair of juxtaposed quadrants 26, given that, with the photo 3, it forms a second pair of horizontal photos 26a. The vertical photo 4 is laid out in the quadrants E and F of the pair of juxtaposed quadrants 27, and the vertical photo 5 is laid out in the quadrants G and H of the pair of juxtaposed quadrants 28.

The photos 7 and 8, being a pair of horizontal photos 29a, maintain their position and are laid out in the quadrants I and J of the pair of juxtaposed quadrants 29.

The resulting sequence of photos as laid out is 1-2-3-6-4-5-7-8.

From this example it can be seen that preferably^■ all of the pairs of horizontal photos, be they derived from movement of a photo or from simply being next in the. predetermined starting order of the sequence, are laid out in pairs of juxtaposed quadrants.

In general, it should be noted that preferably horizontal photos are laid out in such a way as to have a predetermined distance from the edges of the relative quadrant, whereas vertical photos preferably have a predetermined distance from the edge of the pair of juxtaposed quadrants joined together that houses them. In other words, the quadrant or the pair of quadrants are not totally occupied.

The photos preferably are all the same size, whether they are photos with horizontal orientation or photos with vertical orientation.

In the case in which the photos are not the same size, preferably action is taken on the photos to modify their format, for example by cutting a part of photo, preferably at the lower side.

The preferred ratio between the dimensions of the sides of the photos - possibly obtained by cutting - is comprised within the range ]2/3 ; 3/ [ - excluding extreme values, and preferably it is equal to 8.5/12.5. Such a ratio is due to the fact that the majority of photos are taken with size ratio 2/3 or 3/4, however the use of one in page layout would penalise the other, which is why an intermediate ratio between these two values has been selected so that all of the photos can be in relation to it.

Although up to now the preferred embodiment of the process according to the present invention . has been described, where photos are moved with respect to a starting sequence only to form pairs of photos with horizontal orientation, the man skilled in the art will know how to make suitable modifications to implement an alternative embodiment of the process in which pairs just of photos with vertical orientation are formed or where pairs of photos with horizontal orientation are formed and pairs of photos with vertical orientation are formed. In this case, for example, the hierarchical sequence with which the quadrants of figure 3 are filled, and/or the ideal division into quadrants of the pages, can be different from what has been described above.

However, these embodiments are less preferred, since given the lesser number of vertical photos that statistically come in a predetermined sequence with respect to horizontal photos, there is the risk of moving the position of the vertical photos greatly with respect to their original position, and/or of leaving empty quadrants .

Hybrid embodiments are also considered that combine the aforementioned embodiments, in that they ' recognise, for example through software, how much a photo must be moved with respect to the original sequence · according to one of said embodiments, and whether the movement exceeds a predetermined threshold, temporarily applying one of the other embodiments of the process to limit the movement. This can for example be advantageous in the case in which there is a predetermined starting sequence of photos with an anomalous percentage of vertical photos, or with an anomalous concentration of such photos in some parts of the sequence.

Figures 8a and 8b show an example of an alternative embodiment of the process in which pairs both of vertical and horizontal photos are formed. In this case the pages 21 and 22 are divided into six quadrants, which form adjacent pairs of juxtaposed quadrants 125, 126, 127, 128 proceeding in the reading direction from left to right in the page.

The hierarchical sequence for filling the quadrants is unchanged with respect to the case of the previous figures, i.e. it corresponds to A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H where each quadrant can be filled by a single horizontal photo or the pairs of quadrants A+B, C+D and E+F can be filled by a single vertical photo. The example shows the layout of a sequence 70 with many vertical and horizontal photos.

The vertical photo 1 is laid out in the pair of. juxtaposed quadrants 125 formed from A+B, the photo 2 is left suspended since it is horizontal and the photo 3 is moved back to form a vertical pair with the photo 1 and it is laid out in the pair of quadrants 126.

The photo 2 is then laid out in the quadrant E, the photo 4, being vertical, is left suspended, and the photo 5 is moved back to form a horizontal pair with the photo 2 and then laid out under it in the quadrant F.

The remaining vertical photo 4 is laid out in the pair of quadrants 128.

To summarise, the pair of vertical photos 125a containing a moved photo consists of the photos 1 and 3, the pair of horizontal photos 127a containing a moved photo consists of the photos 2 and 5. As can be seen, no photo of the starting sequence 70 has close to the same starting photos once laid out according to the hierarchical sequence of the quadrants, and indeed, the sequence laid out is 1-3-2-5-4.

This, as stated, is less preferred, especially if the photos of the starting sequence have a chronological order, if indeed the embodiment that considers only horizontal pairs were used, the sequence as laid out would be 1-2-5-3-4, where therefore four photos are still close together. However, the embodiment just described is also suitable for being implemented in automatically through software and offers good filling of the page.

Finally, figure 9 shows the preferred hierarchical sequence for filling a photobook 220 - or photograph calendar - in the case in which it is foreseen to flip through the pages 221, 222 not from right to left, like in figure 3 - book-style - but from the bottom to the top - calendar-style. As can be seen, such a hierarchical sequence is unchanged, and only the reference of the binding 223 of the book 220 or calendar changes with respect to which the photos are oriented.

The Applicant notes that the steps of the page layout process according to the present invention, and in particular of the embodiments described here, are particularly suitable for being implemented through software and therefore for providing an automatic page layout .

After layout, the book or calendar containing the photos is printed.

In particular, the page layout process described above can be part of a printing process that uses photographic paper in rolls. The pages of the book 20 or calendar 220 in this case can be ideally identified on the roll, for example through references, the photos can then be printed in the layout sequence continuously on the roll. After printing the roll can be cut to physically make the leaves. In this case cuts along its ^■ width are sufficient.

In the case in which the laying out takes place through software, such a process can be completely ^■ automated, apart from the step of "photo transfer and selecting the product on which to print them" that a user can carry out for example through an internet portal or a local PC.

In this case the predetermined starting order of the sequence can be the order with which the users upload the photos, or their chronological order.

It should be observed at this point that the process described up to now can be used as the basis for more complex processes. For example, the applicant has observed that the spread of mobile telephones has also made the square format of digital photographs common, of which figure 10 shows an example 11. Such photographs can be integrated in the process of the present invention by simply considering them as horizontal photos.

It is also possible to allow users to select a predetermined number of photographs, preferably horizontal or square, to which to give particular emphasis, for example each of them can be laid out as a single photo of an entire page, or of two adjacent pages. This can be carried out for example by enlarging the photo until it occupies all of the quadrants of said pages .

Figures 11a and lib show a layout sequence where the photo 2 has been indicated by the user as a photo for whole-page layout.

In this case, the photo 1 of the sequence is inserted in the quadrant A, then photos are moved back inserting them before the photo 2 until the first page 21 is filled. In particular, the photo 3 is inserted in the quadrant B, and the photo 4 in the pair of quadrants C and D.

At this point the photo 2 is enlarged and inserted in the quadrants E, F, G, H of the second page 22.

Thereafter it continues following the base rule to fill the page 21a. Here the photo 5 is inserted in the quadrants I and J, the photo 6 in the quadrant K and the photo 7 in the quadrant L.

With reference now to figure 12a a starting sequence of photographs is shown where the photo 2 has been indicated by the user as photo for whole-page layout and the photos 3 and 6 are square photos.

Figure 12b shows the insertion of the sequence of figure 12a in the quadrants. The process is identical to that of figures 11a and lib, since square photos are considered as horizontal photos. According to a possible variant the square photos can be enlarged or reduced, to best exploit the space of its own quadrant.

Of course, a man skilled in the art can bring numerous modifications and variants to the embodiments and the variants described up to now and illustrated purely as examples, in order to satisfy specific and contingent requirements, including for example the combination of said embodiments and variants, all of which are in any case covered by the scope of protection of the present invention as defined by the following claims .

Claims

1. Automatic page layout process for photographs, characterised in that it comprises the following steps:

- providing at least one page (21, 22, 23, 221, 222) of a book (20) , calendar (220) , or similar, in which to lay the photographs out,

- dividing at least ideally the at least one page (21, 22, 23, 221, 222) into a plurality of pairs of quadrants (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 125, 126, 127, 128) vertically juxtaposed, the pairs (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 125, 126, 127, 128) being adjacent to one another in the common reading direction from left to right and/or vertically;

- fixing a hierarchical filling order of said quadrants with the photographs that foresees firstly to fill both of the quadrants of a first of said pairs of vertically juxtaposed quadrants, and then to fill both of the quadrants of an adjacent pair, and so on.

- providing a plurality of photographs to be laid out in a page, arranged in sequence according to a predetermined order (30, 40, 50, 60, 70) and having horizontal and/or vertical orientation,

- inserting into the at least one page (21, 22, 23, 221, 222) the photographs of the sequence according to the predetermined order following said hierarchical filling order and placing each photograph with horizontal orientation in a single quadrant and each photograph with vertical orientation in a pair of juxtaposed quadrants, where the predetermined order of the sequence can be modified to give priority to the hierarchical filling order.

2. Process according to claim 1, characterised in that the at least one page (21, 22, 23, 221, 222) is divided exclusively into said plurality of pairs of vertically juxtaposed quadrants (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 125, 126, 127, 128) .

3. Process according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the number of pairs of quadrants is predetermined and cannot be modified during page layout.

. Process according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that it comprises the step of dividing at least ideally a plurality of pages (21, 22, 23, 221, 222) into a plurality of said pairs of vertically juxtaposed quadrants (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 125, 126, 127, 128), where the number of pairs of quadrants is fixed and equal for all pages.

5. Process according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that the quadrants (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 125, 126, 127, 128) are all the same.

6. Process according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that the quadrants (25, 26, 27,

28, 29, 125, 126, 127, 128) are rectangular in shape and are oriented horizontally with respect to the common reading direction of a page from left to right.

7. Process according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that in the case in which by inserting the photographs into the quadrants (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 125, 126, 127, 128) following the predetermined order of the sequence of photographs it is not possible to fill both of the quadrants of a pair of horizontally juxtaposed quadrants, the predetermined order of the sequence is modified moving back in said sequence the first photograph still to be laid out with orientation suitable for allowing the filling of both of said: quadrants to be completed.

8. Process according to claim 7, characterised in that the order of said sequence is only partially modified since only the position of the photograph moved back changes.

9. Process according to claim 7 or 8, characterised in that such moving back takes place exclusively in such a way as to form a. pair of horizontal photographs to fill said pair of quadrants (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 125, 126, 127, 128) .

10. Process according to claim 7 or 8, characterised in that such moving back takes place exclusively in such a way as to fill said pair of quadrants with a single vertical photo.

11. Process according to claim 7 or 8, characterised in that such moving back takes places in such a way as to form a pair of horizontal photographs to fill said pair of quadrants or in such a way as to fill said pair of quadrants with a single vertical photo, the backtracking mode being used each time, allowing the least distant photograph to move back in the sequence of photographs .

12. Process according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that in the case in which the sequence di photographs comprises square photographs they are considered like photographs with horizontal orientation for layout purposes.

13. Process according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that it is possible to lay out a limited number of photos of the sequence in such a way that each one occupies more than one pair of adjacent quadrants .

14. Process according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that the pairs of juxtaposed quadrants (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 125, 126, 127, 128) are adjacent to one another in the common reading direction from left to right, where according to the hierarchical filling order firstly the upper quadrant of a first pair is filled, then the lower quadrant of a second pair, then the upper quadrant of the next adjacent pair in such a reading direction, then the lower quadrant of said adjacent pair and so on.

15. Process according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that said predetermined order of said sequence of photographs is determined by one from: the time order in which the photographs were taken, the time order in which the photographs were delivered, a progressive number order given to the photographs by a user, an alphabetical order, another order set by a user.

16. Process according to any one of the previous claims characterised in that it comprises the step of providing a software for implementing it, wherein said software comprises an application able to be downloaded via internet or a website through which a user can provide the photos to be laid out.

17. Process according to claim 16, characterised in that said software application and/or said website allow a user providing the photos to set the order of the sequence of photographs and/or to select a limited number of photographs to be laid out so that each one occupies more than one pair of adjacent quadrants.

18. Process according to any one of the previous claims characterised in that the photographs of the same shape are all laid out with the same predetermined size.

19. System for transferring and printing photographs comprising: - a photograph printing site,

layout software capable of implementing a process according to any one of the previous claims and of commanding the printing of the photographs laid out in said printing site, and

- a software application able to be downloaded from the internet and/or a website to allow a user to transfer the photographs to said layout software.