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 comprising:
 transmitting, over one or more networks to a client device, data that represents two or more different options for manufacturing a book, wherein the two or more different options for manufacturing the book include at least an option for a digital version of the book and at least an option for a printed version of the book that is manufactured on demand;   receiving, over the one or more networks, data that indicates a user selection of a particular option for manufacturing the book from the two or more different options for manufacturing the book;   determining whether the user selection of the particular option for manufacturing the book is a printed version of the book that is manufactured on demand;   in response to determining that the user selection of the particular option for manufacturing the book is a printed version of the book that is manufactured on demand, then manufacturing the book including one or more of manufacturing the book as a multiple-volume book or manufacturing the book as a repaginated book; and   in response to determining that the user selection of the particular option for manufacturing the book is not a printed version of the book that is manufactured on demand, then manufacturing the digital version of the book in accordance with the option for the digital version of the book;   wherein one or more of the steps are performed by one or more computing devices.