Print Job Recipe Encryption for Outsourced Printing Quality
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing outsourcing process for print jobs between printing companies is manual, lacks quality assurance, and fails to ensure identical printing quality and configuration, leading to potential loss of customer trust and increased operational burdens.
Innovation Solution
An automated system that generates and transmits a secure, encrypted 'print job recipe' containing configuration settings to contracted printing devices, ensuring consistent output and quality, while allowing for exceptions and tracking of print jobs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual outsourcing process is used, then flexibility in job distribution is maintained, but quality assurance and configuration consistency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a digital copy of the print job configuration (the 'recipe') that can be transmitted to contractor devices. This recipe contains all necessary settings, parameters, and instructions to reproduce the exact print output, eliminating the need for manual configuration transfer and ensuring consistency across different devices and locations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary configuration by generating the print recipe in advance, before the actual printing occurs. This pre-packaged recipe includes all configuration details needed for quality reproduction, allowing the contractor device to execute the job without manual intervention or real-time adjustments.
2Productivity
If print jobs are outsourced to different devices, then productivity increases, but manufacturing precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The print recipe is designed as a universal configuration package that can be applied to any contractor device regardless of its specific hardware characteristics. The recipe contains device-agnostic instructions and parameters that ensure consistent output quality across different printing systems, making the outsourcing process universally applicable.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts and specifies precise parameters within the print recipe to account for different device capabilities. By carefully controlling and transmitting specific print parameters, the system ensures that the final output maintains manufacturing precision even when produced on different devices with varying capabilities.
3Manufacturing precision
If detailed configuration settings are transmitted, then quality consistency improves, but information security risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a secure transmission mechanism that acts as an intermediary between the configuring system and the contractor device. This intermediary layer encrypts and protects the configuration data during transmission, allowing detailed settings to be shared without exposing sensitive information to unauthorized access or interception.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of transmitting actual sensitive source files or proprietary data, the system transmits a copied representation in the form of a recipe - a set of instructions and parameters that describe how to reproduce the desired output without containing the original sensitive content. This copying approach maintains configuration consistency while minimizing security risks.
Data Source
AI summary
In one example in accordance with the present disclosure, a system is described. The system includes an outsourcing engine to select a contracting print device to which a print job is to be outsourced. A recipe generating engine of the system generates a recipe for a print job. The recipe includes 1) settings for the print job and 2) settings for the contracting print device that is to generate the print job. The system also includes an encoder to encrypt the recipe and an exception processor to respond to requests from the contracting print device to deviate from the recipe.