Abstract: Systems, methods and packaging for aligning packaged articles of manufacture in pallet.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatus for embroidery thread color management are disclosed. An example method comprises determining a first set of thread colors to be used in an embroidery design, determining a second set of thread colors assigned to a first embroidery machine, determining a third set of thread colors assigned to a second embroidery machine, determining a first difference of the number of thread colors in the first set of thread colors that are not in the second set of thread colors, determining a second difference of the number of thread colors in the first set of thread colors that are not in the third set of thread colors, and assigning the embroidery design to a queue for the first embroidery machine when the first difference is smaller than the second difference.

Abstract: Engraving an article of manufacture by receiving the article of manufacture contained in packaging having a removable portion which covers a targeted engraving area of the article contained therein, removing the removable portion of the packaging to expose the targeted engraving area of the article of manufacture for engraving the exposed targeted engraving area of the article of manufacture.

Abstract: Rendering methods, systems, and computer-readable media for rendering a simulated embroidery design image based on an embroidery design are presented. Given an embroidery design comprising a plurality of stitch representations and a lighting angle for the simulated embroidery design image, embodiments process the stitch representations to determine a stitch length and lighting angle and select from a stitch image database a stitch image corresponding to the stitch length and lighting angle, and place the selected stitch on a rendering canvas in a position corresponding to the stitch position indicated by the stitch representation. When rendered, all of individual stitch image on the rendering canvas appear to be illuminated from the same direction.

Abstract: Methods and systems for tracking product groups associated with orders through an automated packaging system are presented.

Abstract: Pallets for flat-printing multiple areas of a 3-dimensional object, especially in a single print job as received by the printing system, and methods for printing the same.

Abstract: Techniques for automatically adding special effects to an image to be overlaid on a low-contrast background are presented. A stroke or an intervening layer of a color contrasting with the background color is automatically added to provide a contrasting color around the edges of visible image content in an image container of an electronic document. The technique may be applied to entire libraries of images to generate variant images that are visually perceptible when displayed or printed on low-contrast background colors.

Abstract: A configurable web crawler allows a user configure a web crawl by specifying one or more of thread throttling rules, domain restriction rules, and crawling rules. The configurable web crawler crawls the web beginning with a seed uniform resource locator and according to the crawl configuration.

Abstract: Methods and systems are presented for converting an image to a color-reduced image suitable for embroidery and having colors mapped only to available embroidery thread colors. Pixel color values in the image are snapped to a nearest color in a predetermined reduced set of colors that correspond to embroidery thread colors. The image is then color-reduced by iteratively identifying possible pairs of colors in the color-reduced image and merging at least one identified color pair based on color similarity and edge characteristics until the total number of colors in the color-reduced image is not greater than the predetermined maximum color count.

Abstract: Methods and computer programs for automatically creating a text layout in an electronic design for a product to be printed. A number of defined text elements are available for user text entries. The product layout is based a user-selected image, if any, and on the text elements having user-supplied text content. Text elements without text content are disregarded. Positioning of user text entries is determined based on the size of the text entries, defined text element spacing distances, and defined positioning rules. Creating a layout incorporating user-supplied text entries and/or image may include cropping or resizing of other design elements in the product design and wrapping of relatively long text entries onto multiple lines.

Abstract: System and method for the addressing of mail pieces by a variable printing system. Information allowing a mail piece to be associated with a mailing list of address information is printed on the mail piece prior to processing of the piece by a variable printing system. As the piece is processed by the variable printing system, the information printed on the piece is read and used to identify a mailing list from among a plurality of available mailing lists. Address information for that mail piece is obtained from the identified mailing list and printed on the mail piece by the variable printing system.

Abstract: A computerized system, method, and computer-readable media implementing a method for mass producing variable shaped printed products is presented. A set of cutlines defining a shape for the ordered item is associated with each ordered item. A ganging system selects a plurality of ordered items to be simultaneously produced. Individual cutter-ready outline files corresponding to the associated set of outlines for each of the items selected for production are rendered and inserted into a gang template to generate an aggregated cutlines gang file. The gang file and at least one sheet of substrate are submitted to a cutting system. The cutting system cuts the individual finished products from the substrate sheet(s).

Abstract: An apparatus, method and system to enable dynamic replication of Web servers across a wide area in response to access patterns by Web clients as well as in response to customer requests. The method for dynamically replicating one or more parent nodes on a network in response to a user request by a policy manager. The policy manager transmits the user request to an event module. The event module transmits the user request to a data consistency module, wherein the data consistency module maintains integrity of the data on the parent node. The event system communicates with a resource management module to ensure proper utilization of network resources, and transmits the routing request to a request routing module for appropriately balancing the network load. The request routing module is capable of providing optimal routing based on the network resources.

Abstract: Automated electronic document design systems and methods for generating matching customized product designs and preparing images of matching customized products in a montage for displaying to a user.

Abstract: A system and method permits design of customized items on a client device using a web page. The client device receives a web page from a web server that includes, among other things, a design document encoding graphic elements that completely characterize a design image. The client device receives edits to the graphic elements, and sends a modified design document back to the server. The server then uses the design document to render an image, and sends to the client the server-rendered image for display in the web page. The web page may define an area in which to display the server-rendered image. The server may use a database to store the rendered image and use it in completing a customer order.

Abstract: Website optimization methods and tools for optimizing visibility of a website to internet search engines are presented. A website is automatically evaluated against one or more optimization tests based on one or more search terms. A report is generated along with tools that guide and prompt the user for user input that is used by the tools to directly edit content of the website to improve the visibility of the website to internet search engines.

Abstract: Printer driver systems and methods for automatic generation of embroidery designs are disclosed. An example method includes receiving a print command associated with print data representative of a design to be embroidered, and generating embroidery data using a printer driver and based on the print data.

Abstract: A system of arranging images provides for automated scaling, positioning and organizing of a plurality of images on an image display, which may be transferred to a printed or electronic product design. A plurality of images are analyzed to produce image data. Display parameters determine permissible arrangement of the images. Based on the image data and the display parameters, an arrangement on the image display for each of the plurality of images is defined. The arrangement may be further defined to maximize at least one dimension of the images.

Abstract: Take-off strips are adaptively generated based on the color profile of the image to be printed to smooth ink consumption and present a more constant ink coverage and ink flow. Adaptive take-off strips have complementary color profiles to the image being printed.

Abstract: Automated electronic document design systems and method for designing and modifying product templates. When a user initiates a product design session, a product template is presented for user editing and a product description identifier is assigned to the product being designed. Document templates are assembled from individual composite elements. The individual identifiers of the component elements that make up the template being viewed by the user are associated with the description identifier. Tools are provided to allow a user to change one or more of the composite elements of the template. When a user changes an element, the identifier of the newly selected element is associated with the description identifier. Component elements of one template can be individually used, as appropriate, to prepare customized templates for another part of the same document or for different documents.