Patent ID: 8086064

Claim:
A method for operating a computer and a printer for generating a tangible surface with a digitally processed image for attaching to an image enhanced output product, the method comprising the steps of: identifying an image enhanceable product having a tangible surface on which a plurality of images can be provided; in a computer memory, storing a plurality of digital images, storing a plurality of images corresponding to a tangible surface of an image enhanced output product for receiving printed images, and storing a plurality of printing maps, said printing maps defining a plurality of window areas in which images are to be printed on an image receiving medium with each window being defined at least by a window shape, and location information defining a location of the window area relative to the tangible surface; from the computer memory, retrieving an image of a tangible surface and a printing map; displaying the retrieved image of the tangible surface on the computer display; determining a printing map that defines a plurality of window areas in which images are to be printed on an image receiving medium with each window being defined at least by a window shape, and location information defining a location of the window area relative to the tangible surface; on the display, overlaying the printing map on the image of the tangible surface; automatically determining at least one selected visual impact characteristic including one or more of the group consisting of colors, including gamma, chrominance, patterns, including intensity, frequency and regularity, contours, including soft and hard, transmissivity, reflectance, including matte, glossy and semi-glossy of the image to be applied to the product, cropping, and positioning for the image enhanced product based upon the appearance of the image enhanceable product and the printing map; from the computer memory, retrieving a selection of a plurality of digital images that are available for use in the image product; automatically selecting at least one image processing method for processing at least one of the plurality of digital images for inclusion in the image enhanced product based upon the determined visual impact characteristic for the image enhanced product; automatically processing at least one of the digital images in accordance with the automatically selected image processing method; and providing at least some of the digital images, including the automatically processed image, on the tangible surface according to the printing map in a form that can be used to create the image enhanced output product.