HK1154425B - Method of embedding optical security feature using virtual printer and security feature service - Google Patents

Description

Method for embedding optical security features using a virtual printer and security feature service

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to embedding security features in print jobs.

Background

Current approaches to security for printed documents rely primarily on custom applications that use Application Program Interfaces (APIs) provided by vendors to embed visible and/or invisible optical security features into intermediate digital data streams and/or files with print data for the document. The processed data stream and/or file is transmitted to a local or networked printer to print the document.

Digital documents generated by commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software applications, such as word processors or spreadsheets, cannot be easily embedded with optical security features prior to printing due to the need to integrate into the workflow through proprietary APIs. Furthermore, customer applications developed on design-level coupled proprietary optical security feature solutions require implementation changes in the event of migration to other forms of printed security features.

COTS applications may be customized to incorporate proprietary APIs for selected technologies. However, the feasibility of this approach depends on the design of the application and, therefore, is not an extensible solution. This approach is particularly less feasible and more costly in an enterprise setting using a variety of industrial applications.

Therefore, there is a need to alleviate the problem of embedding optical security features in documents to be printed.

Disclosure of Invention

One aspect of the invention is a method of printing, the method comprising: providing a print job to a hardware printer, wherein the print job includes print data for printing a document and is in a print format; sending the print job to the virtual printer; reformatting the print job from the print format to an intermediate format using the virtual printer; sending the print job in the intermediate format from the virtual printer to a security feature service; embedding an optical security feature into the print job in the intermediate format using a security feature service; reformatting the print job with the embedded optical security feature from the intermediate format into a print format; sending a print job with an embedded optical security feature from the security feature service to the virtual printer; sending a print job having an embedded optical security feature in a print format from the virtual printer to the hardware printer; and printing a document based on the print job having the embedded optical security feature in a print format using a hardware printer, wherein the printed document includes print data and the embedded optical security feature.

In embodiments, the embedded optical security feature in the printed document may be visible or invisible. The hardware printer may be a local printer, a remote printer, a dedicated printer, or a network printer. Also, the hardware printer may be a laser printer or an ink jet printer. The print format may be a printer job language, and the intermediate format may be different from the printer job language. For example, the intermediate Format may be Postscript or a Portable Document Format (Portable Document Format). The print format may be suitable for a hardware printer but not for a security feature service, and the intermediate format may be suitable for a security feature service but not for a hardware printer.

In an embodiment, the method may comprise: reformatting the print job with the embedded optical security feature from the intermediate format into a print format using the security feature service; and sending the print job with the embedded optical security feature in the print format from the security feature service to the virtual printer. Alternatively, the method may comprise sending the print job with the embedded optical security feature in an intermediate format from the security feature service to the virtual printer, and reformatting the print job with the embedded optical security feature from the intermediate format into the print format using the virtual printer.

In an embodiment, the method may comprise: sending the print job from the virtual printer to the security feature service and from the security feature service to the virtual printer using the first transport link; and sending the print job from the virtual printer to the hardware printer using the second transmission link. The first transmission link may use a TCP/IP protocol and the second transmission link may use a TCP/IP protocol. Also, the first transmission link may include the internet, and the second transmission link may not include the internet. Similarly, the second transmission link may include a USB cable, and the first transmission link may not include a USB cable.

In an embodiment, the method may comprise: the print job is provided using a commercially available off-the-shelf software application, such as a word processor or spreadsheet, that does not have a virtual printer. The method can comprise the following steps: the optical security feature is embedded into the print job independent of a user providing the print job, independent of print data, and independent of a hardware printer. The method may exclude the use of a virtual printer to print any print job and exclude the use of a hardware printer to print any print job without the use of a virtual printer and selected feature services, thereby preventing the use of a hardware printer to print documents without embedded optical security features.

In an embodiment, the method may comprise: providing an operating system; installing a software application in an operating system; installing a virtual printer in an operating system; providing a print job using a software application; sending the print job to the virtual printer using the operating system; sending, using the operating system, the print job from the virtual printer to the security feature service; sending, using the operating system, the print job from the security feature service to the virtual printer; and sending the print job from the virtual printer to the hardware printer using the operating system. The operating system may be a desktop operating system such as Windows, Linux, or Macintosh.

In an embodiment, the method may comprise: providing a network comprising a network printer, wherein the network printer comprises a hardware printer; identifying available printers from the network printers; selecting a hardware printer from available printers; and providing the print job to the hardware printer in response to selecting the hardware printer.

Drawings

For a complete and clear understanding of embodiments of the present invention, by way of non-limiting example, reference is made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals designate similar or corresponding elements, regions and sections, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 illustrates an embodiment 10 of the present invention, which includes: COTS application 12, virtual printer 14, security feature service 16, and hardware printer 18. COTS applications will print digital documents of interest using a virtual printer installed in a desktop Operating System (OS), such as microsoft Windows, Linux, and Macintosh. MICROSOFT and WINDOWS are trademarks of Microsoft corporation of Washington, USA. LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. MACINTOSH is a trademark of apple ltd, california, usa. Because printer subsystems typically support virtual printers, an OS having a printer subsystem that communicates with a hardware printer via a software driver provided by the vendor of the hardware printer would benefit from the present invention. The virtual printer processes the entire incoming data stream submitted to the virtual printer by any COTS application that supports printing (first phase). Furthermore, the OS with the access control mechanism may be configured to ensure that the user can print only via the licensed virtual printer and not any other printer in the OS running the COTS application.

The virtual printer communicates with one or more security feature services by formatting the incoming data stream from the COTS application into an appropriate intermediate format such as Postscript or portable document format that can be processed by the selected security feature service (second phase). POSTSCRIPT is a trademark of Adobe systems, Inc. of California, USA. The data stream in the intermediate format is passed to the security feature service through an associated private API. The data stream may be communicated to the security feature service via a network protocol such as secure socket layer/transport layer security or other inter-process mechanism.

The security feature service processes the intermediate data stream from the virtual printer by adding one or more visible and/or invisible optical security features to the page rendered in the data stream. Typically, the processed data stream is in a format that can be readily printed by hardware printers that may be readily based on laser or inkjet technology. The processed data stream is transmitted from the security feature service back to the virtual printer (stage 3).

The virtual printer, after receiving the processed data stream, then redirects the data stream to the actually pre-configured hardware printer for printing (stage 4). The OS access control mechanism is configured to allow only print jobs initiated from the virtual printer to reach the designated hardware printer. The hardware printer may be a local device or a networked device in bidirectional communication with the printing subsystem of the OS. The virtual printer uses the OS standard print API to submit the processed data stream as a print job to the hardware printer via the print subsystem.

The hardware printer is in bidirectional communication with the OS printing subsystem. Accordingly, the virtual printer performs administrative and/or audit tasks, for example, to update the audit index based on responses from the hardware printer (stage 5).

Depending on the capabilities of the destination hardware printer, the security feature service can process data streams in both the intermediate format and the printer format. The processing format is configured by the configuration of the security feature service. Security features are typically represented in the same format as the incoming data stream and are added at different points in the data stream as appropriate. The security features may be static or dynamic in nature. By static, it should be understood that the feature does not depend on dynamic information. An example of a static feature is a visible watermark representing a static company logo. Dynamic security features are generated during runtime and rely on information that changes from print job to print job. An example of a dynamic security feature is the user's unique account name that is transferred with the data stream from the virtual printer to the security feature service after the user initiates a print job.

It should be understood that embodiments of the present invention may provide that any COTS application that supports printing uses one or more security feature services to embed one or more visible or invisible optical security features in a print job. Applications are loosely coupled with security feature services and new technologies can be ported or deployed without further customization of their COTS or client applications. With the present invention, access control of printing resources can be managed more efficiently.

While embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it will be understood by those skilled in the technology concerned that many variations or modifications in details of design or construction may be made without departing from the present invention.

Claims (23)

1. A method of printing, comprising:

providing a print job to a hardware printer, wherein the print job comprises print data for printing a document and is in a print format, and wherein the print format is in a printer job language and is adapted for use with the hardware printer;

sending the print job to a virtual printer;

reformatting the print job from the print format to an intermediate format using the virtual printer, wherein the intermediate format is not a printer job language and is not applicable to the hardware printer;

sending the print job in the intermediate format from the virtual printer to a security feature service via a transport layer security network protocol, wherein the print format is not applicable to the security feature service and the intermediate format is applicable to the security feature service;

embedding an optical security feature into a print job in the intermediate format independent of a user providing the print job using the security feature service, the optical security feature being dynamically generated during runtime;

reformatting the print job with embedded optical security features from the intermediate format into the print format;

sending the print job with the embedded optical security feature from the security feature service to the virtual printer via a transport layer security network protocol;

sending the print job having the embedded optical security feature in the print format from the virtual printer to a hardware printer; and

printing, using the hardware printer, the document based on the print job having the embedded optical security feature in the print format, wherein the printed document includes the print data and the embedded optical security feature.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the embedded optical security feature is visible in the printed document.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the embedded optical security feature in the printed document is invisible.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the intermediate format is a Postscript or a portable document format.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware printer is a laser printer or an inkjet printer.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reformatting the print job with the embedded optical security feature from the intermediate format to the print format using the security feature service; and

sending the print job having the embedded optical security feature in the print format from the security feature service to the virtual printer.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the print job in the intermediate format with the embedded optical security feature from the security feature service to the virtual printer; and

reformatting the print job with the embedded optical security feature from the intermediate format to the print format using the virtual printer.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing the print job using a commercial off-the-shelf software application that does not have the virtual printer.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the software application is a word processor or spreadsheet.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: embedding the optical security feature into the print job independently of the print data.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: embedding the optical security feature into the print job independently of the hardware printer.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: excluding the use of the virtual printer to print any print jobs.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: excluding the use of the hardware printer to print any print job without using the virtual printer and the selected feature service, thereby preventing the use of the hardware printer to print documents without the embedded optical security feature.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an operating system;

installing a software application in the operating system;

installing the virtual printer in the operating system;

providing the print job using the software application;

sending the print job to the virtual printer using the operating system;

sending, using the operating system, the print job from the virtual printer to the security feature service;

sending, using the operating system, the print job from the security feature service to the virtual printer; and

sending, using the operating system, the print job from the virtual printer to the hardware printer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the operating system is a desktop operating system.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the operating system is any one of: WINDOWS, LINUX, or MACINTOSH.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a network comprising a network printer, wherein the network printer comprises the hardware printer;

identifying available printers from the network printers;

selecting the hardware printer from the available printers; and

in response to selecting the hardware printer, providing the print job for the hardware printer.

18. A method of printing, comprising:

providing a print job to a hardware printer in response to a user interfacing with a software application, wherein the print job comprises print data for printing a document and is in a print format, and the print format is in a printer job language;

sending the print job to a virtual printer;

reformatting the print job from the print format to an intermediate format using the virtual printer, wherein the intermediate format is not a printer job language;

sending the print job in the intermediate format from the virtual printer to a security feature service via a transport layer security network protocol;

embedding an optical security feature into a print job in the intermediate format independent of the user providing the print job using the security feature service, wherein the optical security feature is dynamically generated during runtime, and wherein the intermediate format is applicable to the security feature service and the print format is not applicable to the security feature service;

reformatting the print job with the embedded optical security feature from the intermediate format to the print format;

sending the print job with the embedded optical security feature from the security feature service to the virtual printer via a transport layer security network protocol;

sending the print job having the embedded optical security feature in the print format from the virtual printer to a hardware printer; and

printing, using the hardware printer, the document based on the print job having the embedded optical security feature in the print format, wherein the printed document includes the print data and the embedded optical security feature, the print format is applicable to the hardware printer, and the intermediate format is not applicable to the hardware printer.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the embedded optical security feature in the printed document is visible to the user.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the embedded optical security feature in the printed document is not visible to the user.

21. The method of claim 18, comprising:

reformatting the print job with the embedded optical security feature from the intermediate format to the print format using the security feature service; and

sending the print job having the embedded optical security feature in the print format from the security feature service to the virtual printer.

22. The method of claim 18, comprising:

sending the print job with the embedded optical security feature in the intermediate format from the security feature service to the virtual printer; and

reformatting the print job with the embedded optical security feature from the intermediate format to the print format using the virtual printer.

23. The method of claim 18, excluding:

printing any print job using the virtual printer; and

printing any print job using the hardware printer without using the virtual printer and the selected feature service, thereby preventing printing a document without an embedded optical security feature using the hardware printer.