Abstract: Methods, systems, and software products are disclosed for transforming print jobs. A transform system of the invention includes a segmenting system and a plurality of compute systems. The segmenting system receives a print job comprising logical pages in a first encoding, and segments the print job of logical pages into work units. A plurality (some or all) of the work units each includes multiple logical pages. The segmenting system then transmits the work units to the compute systems. Responsive to receiving a work unit, a compute system converts the logical pages in the work unit to a second encoding thus performing the transform.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method, data processing system and computer program product for providing a data stream transform service, for example for transforming a data stream into a format suitable for printing. A data-stream is divided into one or more work units, each work unit is provided to one or more transform engines to transform the work unit into the required format, and each transform engine is monitored whilst transforming a work unit. By monitoring each transform engine details of, for example, resource usage are obtained which may be used to calculate a fee to charge a client for performing transformation of a data stream, and/or failure of a transform engine can be detected and corrective action taken should a transform engine fail.

Abstract: A method and system for a printing device is disclosed. The method and system comprise printing a test pattern on a print medium and generating a digital image of the printed test pattern by an imaging device. The method and system include analyzing an interference pattern to measure for distortion of the print medium and calibrating the printing device based upon the measured distortion. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention utilizes the reticle patterns, which are printed in the margins of the paper, which are measured real-time during printing. The interference or Moiré patterns created by superimposed reticles may be used to measure image distortion, process direction misalignment, and misregistration caused by web distortion.