Patent ID: 7599088

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: (a) accepting structural information relating to a carton constructed of a planar substrate that will be cut and folded to yield a three-dimensional carton having surface regions that will be printed with graphics on the substrate to form the carton; (b) creating a three-dimensional computer-generated image of said carton on a computer monitor; (c) accepting said graphics or interacting with a user to design said graphics to cover said surface regions of said carton; (d) interacting with said user to superimpose said graphics accepted or designed at step (c) wherein said three-dimensional computer-generated image includes said superimposed graphics; (e) interacting with said user to manipulate, as required, said graphics accepted or designed at step (c) to cover relevant said regions as viewed on said three-dimensional computer-generated image on said computer monitor; (f) receiving from said user, said user confirming from visualizing said three-dimensional computer-generated image created at step (c), an indication of acceptability of graphics covering relevant said regions, and modifications, if required, of said graphics; (g) determining and outputting computer-readable data containing said accepted or designed graphics whose acceptability was received at step (f), said computer-readable data usable for printing of said graphics upon at least some surface regions of said planar substrate, wherein the method further comprises at least one of the steps of generating at least one clipping mask to avoid printing on a surface of said carton that is not visible when fabrication of said carton is complete, and/or the step of identifying regions of graphics to be printed on said carton that are likely to experience printing ink bleeding and compensating for such bleeding in laying out said regions of said graphics.