By utilizing the extensible nature of browser applications and the standard formatting of structured documents on the World Wide Web, a methodology is provided for reducing the consumption of printing supplies in order to reduce printing costs of relatively expensive printouts of Web-based documents.

By parsing the document and changing the structure, tags, elements, element attribute values, text, graphics, etc., of the document, the present invention creates a modified document that consumes less physical resources during the physical printing process.

[0002] The present invention relates to an improved data processing system and, in particular, to a method and system for processing structured documents

Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method and system for pre-print processing of structured documents.

[0004] The desktop publishing industry developed as personal computers became common business tools during the 1980's.

Desktop publishing software allowed businesses to create documents with in-house personnel that appeared as if they were produced by professional designers.

The availability of laser printers, color printers, and color copiers along with personal computers fostered an environment in which businesses demanded better software and hardware to produce more complex and more colorful publications.

[0005] Early in the development of the desktop publishing industry, it was well-known that the presentation space of a computer monitor had different characteristics than the presentation space of a computer printer, which is still currently true.

In other words, each physical device has its own resolution, color space, and rendering capabilities.

[0006] The creator of a document requires the ability to accurately layout the document on a computer monitor.

When attempting to layout a document that will eventually be printed, if one chooses a particular, esthetic, design parameter for a given document based on its appeal on a computer monitor, the parameter may not be able to be reproduced in the same manner on both a computer monitor and a computer printer because the monitor and the print have different presentation capabilities.

This contention between display capabilities and printer capabilities has been addressed by desktop publishing software through a variety of solutions, although every solution entails some type of tradeoff between advantages and disadvantages.

[0007] To measure the tradeoffs, the concept of WYSIWYG was developed to measure the ability of a document to be laid out in a "What You See Is What You Get" manner, i.e., what is seen on the screen is what will also be seen when printed.

Word processing programs can be considered to be a type of desktop publishing application, and most word processing programs currently provide excellent document processing capabilities such that average users of personal computers do not need to worry about WYSIWYG issues.

[0008] Recently, Web browsers have become a primary tool for accessing published information.

Enterprises and individuals put significant effort into designing Web pages that include graphics, animation, and esthetic layouts, and these Web pages are generally designed to be viewed on a computer screen.

Many word processing programs are currently being updated to provide functionality to publish documents in the latest structured document formats, including markup language formats such as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and XML (eXtensible Markup Language), so that average users can easily publish documents on the World Wide Web.

[0009] Before the development of the World Wide Web, almost all complex publications were designed to be viewed in printed form.

Typically, only persons who designed newsletters and other documents with complex layout requirements were concerned with WYSIWYG issues.

With the widespread use of the World Wide Web and the growing number of tools to publish documents in an electronic, softcopy form, however, many documents are now being published that are intended to be viewed both in softcopy format on a computer display and in hardcopy format on a computer printer.

Hence, many more people have become concerned with WYSIWYG issues, and the contention between display capabilities and printer capabilities has become a much more prominent issue.

[0010] In the context of Web browser applications and Web-based documents, the contention between the differences in displaying and printing a Web-based document is currently being solved through a variety of approaches.

As one example, an author may create two versions of a Web-based document and then link the two versions together.

A first Web page, coded in a markup language, is published within a Web site for general viewing on a computer display by a browser, but the first Web page contains a hyperlink to a second document that has been optimized for printing.

The second document, most likely, is also coded in a markup language and is a text-only version of the first Web page, but the second document could possibly be a document in a native format that provides more control of the appearance of a hardcopy version of the document, such as an Adobe.RTM. PDF (Portable Document Format) file.

This type of solution obviously complicates the publication process because an author potentially must generate two different documents for each Web page.

[0011] As another example of controlling different presentations of a document on a display versus a printer, style sheets have been promulgated for separating the style of presentation of a document from the content of a document.

Different, media specific styles sheets can be applied against a document such that the document would contain the same content but appear differently when rendered on two different media.