Abstract: A method for electronic assembly of signatures where individual printed pages are assembled to form a signature. Contents of the printed pages to be assembled are described in a page description language. Contone Contone maps in which the printed pages are described pixel-by-pixel and line-by-line in the form of gray scale values are generated for the individual printed pages by interpretation of page descriptions in at least one interpreter. The contone maps of the individual printed pages are assembled to form an overall contone map in a raster generator such that lines of the overall contone map of the signature are composed from individual lines of the contone maps of the printed pages taking predetermined parameters into consideration. The overall contone map of the signature is converted into a screened bit map in the raster generator. The signature is recorded pixel-by-pixel and line-by-line on a recording medium based on the bit map.

Abstract: In a method for electronic assembly of a printing form with an assembly station, the imposition of pages into a printing form is undertaken with the assembly station, whereby a form PostScript file is generated that contains all data for output of the printing form. Individual PostScript pages are successively stored as a PostScript job in one or more print-to-disk files on the server. The print-to-disk files are loaded into the assembly station via the network. A first form print-to-disk file is generated at the assembly station. This first form print-to-disk file contains include instructions which indicate how the individual pages should be arranged on the printing form and where the individual pages are located within the print-to-disk files, instead of containing the contents of the individual pages of the print-to-disk file or files. The first form PostScript file is transmitted to the server and a second form PostScript file is generated in the server by use of the include instructions.