Patent ID: 7702587

Claim:
A system for generating a greeting card and associating a gift value with the greeting card, the system comprising: means configured for generating image data representative of a plurality of card formats on an associated display; means configured for receiving selection data representative of a selected card format from the plurality of card formats; data storage configured for storing theme data corresponding to each of a plurality of preselected gift giving themes, including holiday theme data and birthday theme data; means configured for generating theme image data representative of each of the plurality of preselected gift giving themes; means configured for acquiring theme selection data corresponding to a selection of one of the plurality of gift giving themes; means configured for receiving preselected text data representative of text corresponding to the selected card format; means configured for receiving image data corresponding to at least one selected image; means configured for calculating via processor a tangible output cost of the greeting card in accordance with media cost and toner cost which correspond with the theme selection data, the text data, and the image data; means configured for receiving customized text data from an associated user; means configured for receiving gift amount data representative of a cash value to be encoded on the greeting card; means configured for calculating via processor a content cost of the greeting card in accordance with the theme selection data, the text data and the image data; means configured for calculating via processor charge data as a sum of the cash value encoded on the greeting card, the tangible output cost of the greeting card, and the calculated content cost of the greeting card; means configured for generating a display reflecting the sum; means configured for receiving affirmative approval data corresponding to acceptability of the sum by an associated user; means configured for precluding generation of a tangible greeting card in accordance with receipt of negative approval data indicative of non-acceptance of the sum by the associated user; means configured for receiving payment reflective of the sum in accordance with the receipt of the affirmative approval data indicative of acceptance of the sum; means configured for storing the gift amount data representative of the cash value on a storage of the tangible greeting card in accordance with the receipt of the affirmative approval data; and means configured for generating, in accordance with the receipt of the affirmative approval data, the tangible greeting card in accordance with the selected gift card format, the selected gift giving theme, the received preselected text data, and the received customized text.