FORM 2

THE PATENT ACT (39 of 1970)

1970

The Patents Rules, 2003 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10, and rule 13)
1. TITLE OF INVENTION
A METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MERGING TIFF FILES;

APPLICANT(S)
a) Name :
b) Nationality:
c) Address :

I MEDIA CORP LTD.
INDIAN Company
EL-201, T.T.C. INDL.
MIDC, MAHAPE,
NAVI MUMBAI - 400709
MAHARASHTRA

ESTATE,

PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed : -

A Method and System for merging TIFF files Field of Invention:
The present invention relates to merging several TIFF files into one.
More particularly the invention relates to merging several TIFF files into newly created merged files by use of application software which automatically select the files you want to merge in a single file with the button of click that means it is faster easy to operate and accurate. In the conventional merging of files you have to copy and paste all the files into a folder to get a merge document which is time consuming tedious therefore it has been thought that a quicker method and accurate merging which takes very little time is to be deviced .
The primary object of this invention is therefore to provide an easy and accurate merging of all the TIFF files within a short span of time.
The further object of this invention is to provide a file merging algorithm which converts TIFF file into PDF file and save the files in the application folder.
Prior Art:
TIFF (Tag Image File Format) is a common format for exchanging raster graphics (bitmap) images between application programs, including those used for scanner images. A TIFF file can be identified as a file with a ".tiff" or ".tif" file name suffix. The TIFF format was developed in 1986 by an industry committee chaired by the Aldus Corporation (now part of Adobe Software). Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard were among the contributors to the format. One of the most common graphic image formats, TIFF files are commonly used in desktop publishing, faxing, 3-D applications, and medical imaging applications.
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TIFF files can be in any of several classes, including gray scale, color palette, or RGB full color, and can include files with JPEG, LZW, or CCITT Group 4 standard run-length image compression.
TIFF formats have the following problems due to which its use is avoided:
• TIFF is not supported by Web browsers.
• Extensibility results in many different types of TIFF pictures. Not all TIFF files are compatible with all programs that support the baseline TIFF standard.
• TIFF image is a picture of a document, it can contain images or pictures of text. Yet, it can't be electronically searched without OCR technology. Extra scanning, saving and loading is needed in order to obtain word searching capabilities —TIFF files have to be linked to a database first. Moreover, even if TIFF was used for exchanging textual information, zooming in for better readability would produce poor quality imaging.
• One most notable drawback of the format is that there is a minimum amount of development of the format and as such, the format lacks support for more advanced imaging features developed over the last couple of years. Thus, TIFF is no longer ideal or adequate for distributing converted documents.
PDF (Portable Document Format) is a widely used document exchange format which is readable by anyone using Adobe's freely available Acrobat Reader. It is distantly related to Adobe's popular document language, Postscript. Because PDF is rich in features to support photographic images, graphics and color profiles. It has started the first choice for users who requires accurate reproduction- and are willing to wait for it, for example in the desktop publishing and color print fields. Beginning in the late 20th century, PDF rapidly rose in popularity as a general format for electronic document exchange, primarily due to the availability of Adobe's free reader.
PDF is an open file format. It is suitable for more secure, dependable electronic information exchange which is recognized by industries and Governments around
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the world. It is also supported on multiple platforms. It is viewable and printable on any platforms (Macintosh, Microsoft windows, UNIX and any mobile platforms).
PDF has a unique number of advantages:
• It is a cross platform standard. This means that somebody can create a PDF file on a Unix workstation and you can open it on a Mac or PC and still see the document just like it was intended to be viewed.
• PDF files can be device independent. This means that a PDF file can be printed on a cheap ink jet printer as well as on an expensive image setter. This does not necessarily mean that the output will be optimized for each device. A lot depends on the way the document is created.
• PDF files are compact. PDF supports a number of sophisticated compression algorithms as well as a clever file structure to keep the file size of PDF files down to an absolute minimum.
• PDF files can contain multimedia elements like movies or sound as well as hypertext elements like bookmarks, links to e-mail addresses or web pages and thumbnail views of pages.
PDF supports security. The creator of a PDF file can set various security options. It is possible to lock a PDF so it can only be opened with a password. It is also possible to forbid changing the content of a PDF or disable the option to print a PDF file
From above discussion it is clear that why PDF format is needed over TIFF. Hence by considering this it necessary to provide a method as well as system to convert a file from TIFF to PDF format.
Object of the Invention:
The object of the present invention is to convert a file from TIFF to PDF format.
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Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format.
Another object of the present invention is to provide system for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format which virtually supports all TIFF compressions.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a method and system for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format which can combine multiple TIFF files into one PDF file.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format which supports multi page TIFF file to PDF conversion.
Statement of the Invention:
To achieve the above mentioned objects there is provided a method for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format within a computer system, said method comprising:
storing TIFF file to be converted in to PDF in a computer readable storage medium within said computer system;
storing one or more conversion parameters required for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format in said computer readable storage medium;
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requesting for the conversion of said file from TIFF to PDF format to the conversion software module; retrieving automatically said conversion parameters from said computer readable storage medium by the conversion software module;
performing conversion of said file into PDF using conversion parameters and outputting the resulting PDF file from said conversion software module to application folder.
It is preferable according to present invention to enter conversion parameters manually.
A method of present invention further comprises step of initializing said conversion software module, thereby allowing said conversion software module to be executed automatically.
According to present invention conversion software module consists of a set of instructions capable of being performing the task of TIFF to PDF conversion.
Also there is provided a computer system for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format, said system comprises:
at least one processor being arranged to accept a request for conversion of file from TIFF to PDF format;
computer readable storage medium for storing a TIFF file to be converted and conversion parameters required for converting a file from TIFF to PDF formal-conversion software module consisting of set of instructions capable of being executed by said processor to perform the task of TIFF to PDF conversion.
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In a preferred form of invention a processor includes a computer server arrangement.
The method and system of the present invention virtually supports all TIFF compressions. The compressions are one of ZIP, LZW, CCITT, G4/G3 and JEPG.
According to preferred embodiment of the invention single TIFF file is converted into one PDF file.
According to another preferred embodiment multiple TIFF files are combined into one PDF file.
Brief description of the Drawings:

Figure 1(a) and 1(b) Shows block diagram of a computer system performing task of conversion of file from TIFF to PDF format according to present invention.
Figure 2 Shows flow chart of a method for conversion of file from TIFF to PDF format according to present invention.
Figure 3 Shows flow chart of another preferred embodiment of the invention
Detail Description of the Invention:
The above, and the other objects, features & advantages of invention will become apparent from following description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
According to present invention a computer system for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format comprises: at least one processor being arranged to accept a request for
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conversion of file from TIFF to PDF format; computer readable storage medium for storing a TIFF file to be converted and conversion parameters required for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format; and conversion software module consisting of set of instructions capable of being executed by said processor to perform the task of TIFF to PDF conversion.
One such computer system in its physical form is shown in figures 1(a) and 1(b).
FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b) illustrate a computer system 100 suitable for implementing embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 1(a) shows one possible physical form of the computer system. Of course, the computer system may have many physical forms ranging from an integrated circuit, a printed circuit board and a small handheld device up to a huge super computer. Computer system 100 includes a monitor 102, a display 104, a housing 106, a disk drive 108, a keyboard 110 and a mouse 112. Disk 114 is a computer-readable medium used to transfer data to and from computer system 100.
FIG. 1(b) is an example of a block diagram for computer system 100. Attached to system bus 120 are a wide variety of subsystems. Processor(s) 122 (also referred to as central processing units, or CPUs) are coupled to storage devices including memory 124. Memory 124 includes random access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM). As is well known in the art, ROM acts to transfer data and instructions uni-directionally to the CPU and RAM is used typically to transfer data and instructions in a bi-directional manner. Both of these types of memories may include any suitable of the computer-readable media described below. A fixed disk 126 is also coupled bi-directionally to CPU 122; it provides additional data storage capacity and may also include any of the computer-readable media described below. Fixed disk 126 may be used to store programs, data and the like and is typically a secondary storage medium (such as a hard disk) that is slower than primary storage. It will be appreciated that the information retained within fixed disk 126, may, in appropriate
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cases, be incorporated in standard fashion as virtual memory in memory 124. Removable disk 114 may take the form of any of the computer-readable media described below.
CPU 122 is also coupled to a variety of input/ output devices such as display 104, keyboard 110, mouse 112 and speakers 130. In general, an input/output device may be any of: video displays, track balls, mice, keyboards, microphones, touch-sensitive displays, transducer card readers, magnetic or paper tape readers, tablets, styluses, voice or handwriting recognizers, biometrics readers, or other computers. CPU 122 optionally may be coupled to another computer or telecommunications network using network interface 140. With such a network interface, it is contemplated that the CPU might receive information from the network, or might output information to the network in the course of performing the above-described method steps. Furthermore, method embodiments of the present invention may execute solely upon CPU 122 or may execute over a network such as the Internet in conjunction with a remote CPU that shares a portion of the processing. In a preferred form of invention a system includes a computer server arrangement. Also conversion software module is stored in memory or fixed/ removable disk.
In addition, embodiments of the present invention further relate to computer storage products with a computer-readable medium that have computer code thereon for performing various computer-implemented operations. The media and computer code may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROMs and holographic devices; magneto-optical media such as floptical disks; and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and execute program code, such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs) and ROM and RAM
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devices. Examples of computer code include machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher level code that are executed by a computer using an interpreter.
Figure 2 shows flow chart of a method for conversion of file from TIFF to PDF format according to present invention. According to method of present invention first TIFF file to be converted into PDF is stored in a computer readable storage medium. Along with TIFF file conversion parameters required for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format are also stored in this computer readable medium. These conversion parameters are entered manually. Such computer readable medium includes, but are not limited to: magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROMs and holographic devices; magneto-optical media such as floptical disks.
Then these all i.e. TIFF file and conversion parameters are given to file conversion software module. This conversion module consists of program instructions which are executed by the processor. This conversion module receives the request for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format. Then it retrieves the conversion parameters from the computer readable medium.
After getting conversion parameters conversion module converts the TIFF file into PDF format and output the same to the application folder.
One more embodiment is shown in figure 3. Figure shows flow chart of the embodiment of the invention. Figure shows the flow chart of the method which simultaneously converts plurality of TIFF files in to PDF files. In this the count number which is equal to total number of TIFF files along with TIFF files to be converted in PDF and conversion parameters are feed in to the computer readable storage medium. Then all TIFF files are converted into PDF format one by one by and outputted to application folder by the conversion software module.
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Advantages of the present invention of TIFF to PDF conversion:
• It supports virtually all TIFF compressions, including ZIP, LZW, CCITT, (34/ G3 JPEG, Packbits.
• It has outstanding compression capability.
• It can combine multiple tiff files into one PDF file.
• It supports Multi-page tiff file to PDF conversion.
• It supports sorting on file name when converting batches.
• It supports single file processing, single directory processing, multi-level directory processing and many other processing modes
• It can set automatic skew-correction (of B/W images).
• It makes use of effective compression processing to minimize space occupied by the created PDF files; for example, an A4 size file with a B/W image the output size is about 40KB to 50KB per page; color and gray-scale images are also compressed and optimized.
• It supports drag and drop.
• It supports scanner.
• It can set file permissions to restrict printing, copying, and future modifications to the document.
• It can specify any resolution (DPI) in the generated PDF file.
• It can optimize to increase speed.
• It can set the document information (title, subject, author and keywords, creator).
• It support watermark, viewer setting.
Industrial Applicability:
As PDF is rich in features to support photographic images, graphics and color profiles. Hence it widely used as a document exchange format by the user of any kind of the computer system. It is suitable for more secure, dependable electronic information exchange which is recognized by industries and Governments around the world.
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PDF can be used for:
• creating electronic documents. PDF is as close as you can get to 'the paperless office'.
• exchanging data. More and more applications can read PDF files. Advertisements are often exchanged as PDF files.
• archiving data. There are tools on the market that allow you to index PDF files so you can create and search an electronic library of PDF files.
• interactive documents. PDF can be used for electronics forms in which the filled-in data can be stored in a data base.
The present invention is not limited to the above described embodiments, and various alterations, modifications, and / or alternative applications of the invention may be possible, if desired, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention which can be read from the claims and the entire specification. All these possible alterations, modifications, and / or alternative applications of the invention are also intended to be within technical scope of the present invention.
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WE CLAIM :
1. A method for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format within a computer
system, said method comprising:
storing TIFF file to be converted in to PDF in a computer readable storage medium within said computer system;
storing one or more conversion parameters required for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format in said computer readable storage medium;
requesting for the conversion of said file from TIFF to PDF format to the conversion software module;
retrieving automatically said conversion parameters from said computer readable storage medium by the conversion software module;
performing conversion of said file into PDF using conversion parameters and
outputting the resulting PDF file from said conversion software module to application folder.
2. A method for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format within a computer system as claimed in claim 1 wherein conversion parameters can be entered manually.
3. A method for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format within a computer system as claimed in claim 1 wherein it further comprises step of initializing said conversion software module, thereby allowing said conversion software module to be executed automatically.
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4. A method for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format within a computer system as claimed in claim l wherein said conversion software module consists of a set of instructions capable of being performing the task of TIFF to PDF conversion.
5. A method for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format within a computer system as claimed in claims 1 to 4 wherein said method converts single TIFF file into one PDF file.
6. A method for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format within a computer system as claimed in claims 1 to 4 wherein said method combines multiple TIFF files into one PDF file.
7. A computer system for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format, said system comprises:
at least one processor being arranged to accept a request for conversion of file from TIFF to PDF format;
computer readable storage medium for storing a TIFF file to be converted and conversion parameters required for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format; and
conversion software module consisting of set of instructions capable of being executed by said processor to perform the task of TIFF to PDF conversion.
8. A computer system for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format as claimed in claim 7 wherein processor includes a computer server arrangement.
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9. A computer system for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format as claimed in claim 7 wherein it virtually supports all TIFF compressions.
10. A computer system for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format as claimed in claim 7 wherein said compressions are one of ZIP, LZW, CCITT, G4/G3 and JEPG.
11. A method for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format within a computer system as hereinbefore described and illustrated with reference to accompanying drawings.
12. A computer system for converting a file from TIFF to PDF format as hereinbefore described and illustrated with reference to accompanying drawings.
Dated this 28th day of May, 2007.

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