Apparatus and method for improved print output

Abstract

An apparatus and method for producing a stack of documents, each having one or more pages, separated into documents. An input mechanism receives printed sheet material, which is cut by a cutter into document pages having a first dimension and flag sheets having a different dimension. A page laying unit stacks pages corresponding to a document in sequence and interposes flag sheets between successive documents. The direction in which the dimension of pages and flag sheets is different lies transverse to the direction of cutting.

I/We claim:  
     
         1 . An apparatus for stacking print output, the apparatus comprising: 
 an input mechanism for receiving printed sheet material from a printer;    a formatter for producing document pages and flag sheets, the flag sheets having a different dimension than that of the pages; and    a page laying mechanism for sequentially stacking pages and flag sheets to produce a stack of documents separated by flag sheets.    
     
     
         2 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the dimension of the flag sheet is greater than the corresponding dimension of the document pages.  
     
     
         3 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the formatter comprises a cutter for cutting the printed sheet material to produce pages and flag sheets.  
     
     
         4 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 3  wherein the dimension of the flag sheet that is different than that of the document pages lies in a direction transverse to a direction of cutting of the cutter.  
     
     
         5 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 3  wherein the cutter comprises a blade that cuts the printed sheet material under tension.  
     
     
         6 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 3  wherein the cutter comprises a laser.  
     
     
         7 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 3  wherein the cutter comprises opposing blades for shearing the printed material.  
     
     
         8 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the input mechanism is adapted to receive the printed sheet material from a print engine and to provide it to the cutter.  
     
     
         9 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 5  adapted to receive printed sheet material in web form.  
     
     
         10 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1  adapted to receive printed sheet material in paper form.  
     
     
         11 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1  adapted to receive sheet material in film form.  
     
     
         12 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1  adapted to receive sheet material in metal form.  
     
     
         13 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1  adapted to receive sheet material in cloth form.  
     
     
         14 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the page laying unit is further adapted to collate document pages.  
     
     
         15 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the page laying unit is further adapted to sort the document pages and flag pages.  
     
     
         16 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the formatter comprises means for retrieving pre-cut flag sheets for provision to the page laying mechanism.  
     
     
         17 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 16 , wherein the flag sheets are of different character than the document pages.  
     
     
         18 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the flag sheets are of different colour than the page sheets.  
     
     
         19 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the flag sheets are of different texture than the page sheets.  
     
     
         20 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the flag sheets are of different thickness than the page sheets.  
     
     
         21 . An apparatus as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the flag sheets are of different consistency than the page sheets.  
     
     
         22 . A method for identifying pages corresponding to one or more documents from a stack of pages, comprising the steps of: 
 receiving printed sheet material;    separating the printed sheet material into groups of pages; and    introducing flag sheets having a different dimension than the corresponding dimension of the pages between consecutive groups of pages.    
     
     
         23 . A method as claimed in  claim 22 , wherein the step of separating comprises the step of cutting the printed sheet material into pages having a first dimension and the step of introducing comprises the step of cutting the printed sheet material into flag sheets having a different dimension.  
     
     
         24 . A method as claimed in  claim 23 , wherein the step of cutting the printed sheet material into flag sheets comprises cutting the printed sheet material in a direction transverse to the direction along which the dimension is measured.