Patent ID: 7456990

Claim:
A method for generating a page description language specification for a variable-enabled print job, comprising the steps of: providing a merge file including a plurality of variable data items; and operating a graphics application program to generate a page description language specification representing a print job to be printed; the operating step including the steps of, displaying a representation of an image of the print job on a workstation associated with the graphics application program; creating, using the graphics application program, a data area of the print job; designating, using the graphics application program, the data area as a variable data area to be merged with bitmap representations of the variable data items in the merge file; and generating by the graphics application at least one instruction in the page description language specification defining the data area, and at least one tag in the page description language specification designating the data area as a variable data area to be merged with bitmap representations of the variable data items in the merge file.