The present invention relates to a method of printing a print job by an image reproduction system. The print job specifies a printing step on an image receiving medium and a finishing step in or on the image receiving medium. The method comprises the steps of receiving the print job by the image reproduction system and receiving a trigger by a controller of the image reproduction system that the finishing step is not to be performed. In such a case for a digital image comprised in print job data of the print job, at least one digital finishing visualization image of a predetermined visual appearance of a result of the finishing step in or on the image receiving medium is obtained as well as a position of the digital image for merging the obtained at least one digital finishing visualization image with the digital image. The digital image is updated by merging the obtained at least one digital finishing visualization image with the digital image at the obtained position. The updated digital image is printed by the image reproduction system.

An application of clear protectant to a printable medium is described that allows for different amounts of protectant to be applied to the medium based on the amounts of colorant that is applied to the medium. Colorant bitmaps are analyzed to calculate an amount of colorant coverage for a medium. Printable features in the colorant bitmaps are replicated into different intermediate protectant bitmaps based on the colorant coverage for the printable features, where the intermediate protectant bitmaps specify different amounts of protectant to apply. Features in the intermediate bitmaps are expanded and replicated into a final protectant bitmap. A determination is made for the amount of protectant to apply to the medium that is based on the different amounts specified by the intermediate bitmaps.

A method and system for rendering rectangle drawing objects using a clip region are provided. For at least a first rectangle drawing object and a second rectangle drawing object, a determination is made if the first rectangle drawing object and the second rectangle drawing object satisfy a predetermined condition. If the predetermined condition is satisfied, one-line raster image data associated with the first and second rectangle drawing objects is generated, and a clip region corresponding to the first and second rectangle drawing objects is generated. Subsequently, the one-line raster image data may be used together with the clip region to fill a clipped drawing region corresponding to the first and second rectangle drawing objects.

A method and system for generating drawing orders are provided. The method involves receiving print data including data representing a plurality of drawing objects including at least a first drawing object and a second drawing object. The first drawing object and the second drawing object are each of one of predetermined object types and meet a predetermined condition. The method further involves (i) rendering the first drawing object to a first plurality of scanlines, (ii) rendering the second drawing object to a second plurality of scanlines, and (iii) generating, at the same time, a drawing order list for the first and second drawing objects based on the first and second plurality of scanlines.

A drawing data generation apparatus includes a first intermediate data generation section that generates first intermediate data from formation image data in which a formation image is indicated as a cluster of drawing components, a second intermediate data generation section that generates, from the first intermediate data, second intermediate data indicating drawing content of each line-shaped region of the formation image, and a drawing data generation section that generates, from the second intermediate data, drawing data indicating drawing content of each line-shaped region in a row of pixel data. The second intermediate data generation section selects, based on the first intermediate data, either a first scheme of arranging an overlap of the drawing components and generating the second intermediate data from the cluster of drawing components or a second scheme of expressing and integrating the drawing components as a cluster of the pixels and generating the second intermediate data.

Methods and systems for identifying cut-out patterns from a scanned raw image file and arranging shapes within a document prior to printing cut-out patterns are described. A printing device may identify and group contents in a page of a print job as shapes to be cut out from the paper after they are printed. The printing device may then detect the grouped page contents as cut-out patterns. For each cut-out pattern, the printing device may detect the white spaces of content of the cut-out pattern and mark them as available for printing other cut-out patterns. Thus, the printing device may print multiple cut-out patterns on a same page based on using the white space within larger cut-out patterns.

Methods and systems for rendering a transparent pantograph pattern. A background path and a foreground path for a pantograph pattern can be determined. An intersection internal to the background path and external to foreground path that is to be marked can be defined. Areas to be masked can be defined with respect to the pantograph pattern. The pantograph pattern can be then rendered as a transparent vector pattern pantograph by writing a background based on the background path and a foreground based on the foreground path and the areas defined as masked.

Methods and systems for rendering a transparent pantograph pattern. A background path and a foreground path for a pantograph pattern can be determined. An intersection internal to the background path and external to foreground path that is to be marked can be defined. Areas to be masked can be defined with respect to the pantograph pattern. The pantograph pattern can be then rendered as a transparent vector pattern pantograph by writing a background based on the background path and a foreground based on the foreground path and the areas defined as masked.

The present invention relates to a device for transforming by digital processing a substrate and preferably a pre-processed substrate. The present invention also relates to a method for transforming by digital processing a substrate, preferably a pre-processed substrate.

Methods and systems for identifying cut-out patterns from a scanned raw image file and arranging shapes within a document prior to printing cut-out patterns are described. A printing device may identify and group contents in a page of a print job as shapes to be cut out from the paper after they are printed. The printing device may then detect the grouped page contents as cut-out patterns. For each cut-out pattern, the printing device may detect the white spaces of content of the cut-out pattern and mark them as available for printing other cut-out patterns. Thus, the printing device may print multiple cut-out patterns on a same page based on using the white space within larger cut-out patterns.