Importance

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Abstract

A user of an electronic printing system in accordance with the invention may create custom print designs locally and provide those custom print designs to a local or remote printer for printing. Upon a user creating a custom print design, the electronic printing system may store the custom design information until an order is placed by the user. Every order may have associated design files and an order file (for example, multiple items in an order). The design file(s) may describe the initial layout of a print design and may reflect updates to the initial layout based upon the custom design created by a user. An imaging engine resident on the remote server(s) of the electronic printing system may convert the information in the design file(s) into an image file for on-screen representation as well as a 'ready-to-print' output file that may be retrieved electronically by a remote or local printer facility. The order file may contain user information and product data, such as a user's billing and shipping address, payment information and the media type desired. When an order is submitted, both the design file(s) and the order file may staged for conversion. The files may be converted into printer specific files and may be retrieved electronically by a remote or local printing facility and the user's order may be carried out by the printing facility and may be sent to the user when completed.

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First Claim