Patent ID: 8885181

Claim:
A computer apparatus, comprising: a publishing module coupled to a processor, a memory, and a graphical user interface; at least one content source coupled with the publishing module; at least one visualization engine coupled with the publishing module; and at least one printer coupled with the publishing module; wherein the publishing modules further comprises: a means for gathering content from the at least one content source; a means for gathering visualization protocols from the at least one visualization engine; a means for gathering printing protocols and printer capabilities from the at least one printer; a means for merging the content, visualization protocols and printing protocol, forming merged data; a means for receiving from a user a selection of one of a plurality of final layouts; a means for automatically determining, based on the user selection of a particular final layout, a plurality of printer options from the printer capabilities gathered for the at least one printer, said printer capabilities supported by the at least one printer when printing a document using the user-selected particular final layout; wherein the automatically determined plurality of printer options are presented to the user for selection; wherein the plurality of final layouts includes at least a plurality of different booklet styles; wherein each of the automatically determined plurality of printer options includes responding to a command that specifies one of a plurality of: stapling location; hole punching; booklet binding; number of pages per sheet; number of printed sides per sheet; page orientation; image rotation; or image scaling; a means for delivering the merged data to a user via the graphical user interface, an image of the merged data forming a virtual press run, wherein the virtual press run visualizes on the graphical user interface a three-dimensional display and a two-dimensional display adjacent to a plurality of document options, the three-dimensional display and the two-dimensional display visualize an identical N-UP format booklet that contains the content and conforms to the selected automatically determined plurality of printer options, where N is greater than 1; and wherein, when a modification is made to one of the three-dimensional display and the two-dimensional display, the modification is reflected on the other of the three-dimensional display and the two-dimensional display; means for forming a print job based on the virtual press run, wherein the user prints the virtual press run on the at least one printer, forming a printed document substantially identical to the virtual press run.