Creating and manufacturing documents that initially exceed equipment finishing capacity

Abstract

Techniques described herein overcome many of the issues that have previously made the printing of a single copy of a book from a digital version unattractive and infeasible. According to one embodiment of the invention, an automated mechanism such as a computer program automatically determines whether the spine thickness of a to-be-printed copy of a digital version of a book will exceed the specified maximum spine thickness that a specified binding or other finishing device can handle. In response to determining that the spine thickness will exceed the specified maximum spine thickness, the automated mechanism automatically splits the digital version of the book into two or more volumes such that, for each volume, the spine thickness of the printed version of that volume will be no greater than the specified maximum spine thickness that the specified binding or other finishing device can handle.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method for ordering a book, the computer-implemented method comprising:
 receiving, over a network, a request that identifies a book;   in response to receiving the request that identifies the book, sending, over the network, data that represents two or more different options for ordering the book, wherein the two or more different options for ordering the book include at least an option for a digital version of the book and at least one of a previously manufactured book or a book that is manufactured on demand;   receiving, over the network, data that indicates a user selection of a particular option for ordering the book from the two or more different options for ordering the book;   determining whether the user selection of the particular option for ordering the book is a book that is manufactured on demand;   in response to determining that the user selection of the particular option for ordering the book is a book that is manufactured on demand, then manufacturing the book in accordance with one or more manufacturing options for manufacturing the book, the one or more manufacturing options for manufacturing the book including one or more of a type of cover, a type of binding, or a size for the book; and   in response to determining that the user selection of the particular option for ordering the book is not a book that is manufactured on demand, then after receiving the data that indicates the user selection of the particular option for ordering the book from the two or more different options for ordering the book, fulfilling an order for the book in accordance with the particular option;   wherein one or more of the steps are performed by one or more computing devices.