Patent ID: 6961717

Claim:
A method for controlling a digital printer to print an indicium on a surface of a substrate, said surface comprising a fixed reserved clear area, a variable unprintable area and a printable area, said method comprising the steps of: a) determining a digital representation of said indicium, said representation comprising a plurality of portions; b) determining said variable unprintable area as a function of said dimensions of said substrate and characteristics of said printer; c) determining a position in said printable area for said indicium to be printed; d) determining if printing said indicium in said position will cause one or more of said portions to overlap said fixed reserved clear area, and if not, downloading said representation to said printer for printing in said first position; and if so e) modifying said representation to shift portions in a predetermined manner in relation to each other so that none of said portions overlaps said fixed reserved clear area, and downloading said modified representation to said printer for printing in said position; whereby f) said indicium can be printed by different types of printers on substrates having different dimensions without overlap of fixed reserved clear areas despite variation in unprintable areas.