Patent ID: 7365870

Claim:
A method for providing collated, face-up printing in a duplex printer, said method comprising: creating a spool data file comprising spool data corresponding to a print job; from said spool data file, creating a page-independent index file comprising a first plurality of records, wherein each record in said first plurality of records comprises location information and extraction information for an associated portion of said spool data in said spool data file; manipulating said first plurality of records in said page-independent index file to define a collated, face-up print job, thereby producing a manipulated page-independent index file; from a print processor, accessing said manipulated page-independent index file to determine portions of said spool data in said spool data file required for said collated, face-up print job; from said spool data file, extracting said portions of said spool data in said spool data file required for said collated, face-up print job, thereby producing combined spool data for said collated, face-up print job; and converting said combined spool data to printer-ready data.