Patent ID: 7272789

Claim:
An iterative method of laying out elements in a defined space using content data and design data, said content data including alphanumeric and/or graphical elements and said design data including rules associated with one or more particular alphanumeric elements and/or graphical elements, said rules defining a scoring system which defines a score dependent on a degree of conformance to said rules, at least some of the rules being associated with a priority representing a positional requirement of the one or more particular alphanumeric elements and/or graphical elements, the method comprising, the steps of: a) arranging geometrically the alphanumeric and/or graphical elements included in the content data, the arrangement being performed within the defined space so as to obtain a resulting layout; b) scoring the resulting layout according to the rules included in the design data, wherein the score of the resulting layout is weighted according to the priority associated with the at least some of the rules; c) storing said score; d) repeating the above steps (a) to (c) to determine scores for a number of different resulting layouts and selecting one of the resulting layouts based upon the scores; and e) displaying the selected resulting layout.