Patent ID: 7570376

Claim:
A method of managing workflow in a commercial printing environment including a designer location and a print service provider location, said method comprising: establishing a link to the print service provider location from the designer location and obtaining updated device information including functional capabilities of a desired printing device and at least one production device; automatically pre-flighting a received document file, including automatically checking for common errors associated during a prepress stage, automatically revising incorrect printing instructions and automatically adding missing printing instructions to the received document file; dynamically and automatically creating a document profile for the document file based on specific requirements defined at the designer location and particular capabilities of devices at a print service provider location and applying the dynamically created document profile to the document file; automatically adjusting characteristics of the document file based on the dynamically created document profile; automatically providing a remote proofing function for a customer of the document file to be printed and automatically tracking the printing of the document file by continuously monitoring and updating a status of the document file to be printed; creating a press ready file at the designer location using the automatically pre-flighted and automatically proofed document file and the updated device information from the print service provider location by verifying that required elements for completion of a production of a print job at the print service provider location are present in the print job based on the updated device information; submitting said press ready file to the print service provider location via an electronic network; verifying, at said print service provider location, that said press ready file will print at said print service provider location as designed at the designer location and, if not, correcting said press ready file to ensure printing substantially as designed; and performing automated shipping using, if created, said corrected press ready file, else using said verified press ready file.