Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
213133X
TITLE OF INVENTION
HANDLEABLE CARD AND METHOD OF MANU~ACTURE
LD OF lNVENTION
The present invention relates to cards and more particularly
S to a method of manufacturing souvenir cards displaying images of for
example amateur ball players, hockey players, school graduates and the
like .
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Photo or sports cards have been in existence for some time
and the quality and the manufacturing processes are quite varied. The
quality of the cards range from, using state of the art printing processes
producing collectors cards of professional athletes to the rather crude
method of sticking a peel off label onto a photograph. These two
processes are far apart in quality.
The cards printed for professional athletes are manufactured
and sold in high volumes and therefore much more investment can be
undertaken to obtain a high degree of quality. The less expensive
souvenir card is custom made in minimum quantities, such as runs of as
few as five or twelve cards.
2 0 In the past couple of years some custom cards have been
produced with the use of digital computer imaging. Even here the
quality, while it is much improved over the peel off label cards, is still
somewhat less than the professionally produced cards. These latter
cards use a process of either printing the images through the use of laser
2 5 printers or copiers, on laser paper or a thin card stock, and then gluing
various thickness of paper together to produce a card of the acceptable
thickness and firmness.
Examples of various manufacturing methods of cards and
the like are disclosed in United States Patents 5,282,651; 5,270,101;
- 2 - 213I33`~
5,229,190, 4,773,677; 4,259,391; 4,070,774, and 4,086,379. These prior
art patents generally teach a card where papers containing computer
generated image are glued to each other. However, these prior art
patents don't provide a simple mechanism for protecting the card from,
becoming dog-eared from constant handling, the cracking of the toner
on the image with handling of the cards, the smudging, smearing and
tearing of the card. These prior art cards are made from "card stock" or
multiple sheets of paper glued together to give it acceptable thickness
and firmness and are subject to cracking when they are bent back upon
1 0 themselves. Cracking will also occur when the card is handled over a
period of time. The cracking is due to the fact that the toner, being
situated on the outside layer of the thickened card, cannot stretch and
therefore must crack, or separate in the direction of the bend.
It is therefore, a primary object of this invention to provide
1 5 a method of manufacturing a card of high quality providing protection
against smearing, smudging, tearing and cracking, the card. It is a
further objects of this invention to provide a method of manufacturing
a handleable card which is protected from being dog-eared through
constant handling and use thereof, and the card thereof
2 0 Further and other object of this invention will become
apparent to those skilled in the art when considering the following
summary of the invention and the more detailed description of the
preferred embodiments illustrated herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
2 5 According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a
method of manufacturing cards (for example, sports related cards,
graduation cards, and baby picture cards) having images on front and
back surfaces of the cards, the method comprising preparing variable
information consisting of graphics and text data on a computer file (for
3 2I31338
example, the Corel DrawTM program exemplified in the detailed
description of the embodiment) having front and back card template
files, preferably said card template files further comprising at least nine
template copies prepared for each of said front and back templates (in
S one embodiment the front and back templates include a master
template for controlling the design of the remaining template copies),
placing said valuable information on the card template (preferably on
the back of the template) scanning at least one photographic image into
computer legible format and saving said image in a file, importing said
10 image from said file into the front card template, printing the front and
back card template images (for example, on a colour printer which is
capable of depositing color toner particle on a paper) onto a single sheet
of material having a front and back surface (in one embodiment the
back template image is printed first with a maximum of 30% toner
15 coverage and the front template image is printed last such that a thin
layer toner coverage is obtained in order to prevent smearing and
smudging of the front or back card), said front sheet containing the
image of the front template and said back sheet containing the image of
the back template wherein when printed the images are aligned and
2 0 correspond to each other; covering the printed sheet of material with
said images thereon with a substantially transparent plastic laminate
film, said transparent plastic laminate film having been treated with a
dry thermal adhesive layer on its inside surface (in one embodiment the
laminate film has a thickness of 6 to 12 mil, preferably 10 mil), passing
2 5 said covered sheet of material through a laminator, wherein said sheet is
strengthened and cut into separate card portions, wherein when
subjected to folding or bending the separate card portion will spring
back to its original condition without significant adverse degradation.
4 21~13~8
In one embodiment said handleable card is further
characterized in that the card ranges in dimensions from 2 to 5 inches
on each side and 3 to 8 inches in length, the card comprising a single
sheet of material having a front and back image bearing surfaces, a
5 printed image of the front template (for example a baseball player) and
back template having graphics (for example a baseball glove) and
information corresponding to the front image (for example position of a
player), a protective transparent plastic laminate film covering over the
image bearing sheet of material front and back surfaces being bounded
10 to said sheet of material by an adhesive layer. In another embodiment
said card includes a margin varying in width from substantially one-
twentieth of an inch to substantially one-half of an inch left devoid of
toner particles during printing to ensure that the transparent plastic
laminate film adheres strongly to the fiber of said sheet material and
15 thereby reducing the effects of separating of the laminate film from the
sheet material.
According to another aspect of the invention there is
provided a method of manufacturing cards (for example, sports
related/cards, graduation, real estate, photo ID, baby or other collector
2 0 cards) having images and textual information displaying on both front
and back surfaces. The method comprising the preparation of two
computer composite images, one each for the fronts and backs of the
intended cards. Each composite image contains information for
multiple cards, depending on the size of the paper used to contain the
2 5 composite images nominally the composite image for a regular letter size
paper (8 1/2" x 11") would contain nine cards, larger papers could
contain more. The text and images for each of the indi~idual cards in a
composite image is achieved through the use of specialized
computerized tools.
2131338
For images such as photographs and company logos,
graphical software such as Corel Photo PaintTM, Corel TraceTM and Adobe
PhotoShopTM are used to render these images into a form usable by these
parts of this process used to combine text and graphics into the
5 composite images to be printed.
Before combining into the composite image, the original
individual images which may be scanned into computer format or
drawn free hand can be retouched or modified by the aforementloned
software. The intent of such modification is to correct colour
10 imperfections in scanners and printers as well as to smooth and simplify
the images of logos and similar art work converted to computer form
Textual data containing such information as a persons name or
statistics, or item's specifications is usually supplied as the above has
limited textual capabilities. The software generates typed textual
15 information in a format usable in forming the composite image.
Further, the software may be customized routinely to provide
application specific fill in the blanks style, data verification and error
checking, For instance, in the case of sports cards, the software would
allow a player's position to be entered only in one specific manner
2 0 regardless of how it is typed in.
An alternative version of this method allows text to be
manually input into computer format using a text editor such as the
Notebook program supplied in Microsoft windows or the Vi editor
supplied with UnixTM. The format of the textual computer data
2 5 placement and sizing of the text and graphics to create multiple cards
within the composite image, is determined by the Corel DrawTM program.
Corel DrawTM is used to create a "template", which uses graphic elements
called guidelines to pre-determine the placement of all images and text.
The template is also used to duplicate textual and original graphic
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elements which are repeated across multiple cards on the composite
i mage .
Separate templates are created for the front and back of
each planned composite image. Using the Corel DrawTM "Import"
5 facility, graphic computer images such as logos and scanned photos are
brought into the templates. Another facility of Corel DrawTM known as
"Extract" is used to determine the file format used by the customized
textual software described above. Yet another facility of Corel DrawTM
known as "Merge Back" is used to incorporate the modified text file to
10 reflect the data entry required for a particular composite image. Having
incorporated the necessary graphical and textual elements, the
composite image is generated either directly to a printer or onto a disk
drive .
Both front and back composite images are generated in this
15 manner and the positioning of the templates, at the time the templates
are created, ensures proper front to back registration of the individual
cards within the composite image to be printed. Finally the front and
back composite images are printed on each side of a single sheet of
suitable paper.
2 0 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will now be illustrated with respect to the
following drawings illustrating embodiments of the invention of which:
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of front and back of image
bearing handleable cards in accordance with a preferred in embodiment
2 5 of the invention.
Figure 2 is an exploded view of figure 1 showing the plastic
laminate film prior to being adhered to the sheet material.
Figure 3 is a sectional view showing the details of the
lamination process, illustrated in a preferred embodiment of the unit.
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Figure 4 is a front view of one of the card cut from the sheet
material, illustrates in a preferred embodiment of the unit.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODlMENTS OF THE INVENTION
Referring now to the drawings, the handleable card of the
present invention is indicated generally at 5; and is shown in Figure 1
comprising a front (7) and back (8) image bearing surfaces. The images
of the front surface (7) and back surface (8) are first prepared on a
computer file (not shown) using Corel DrawTM Software. Through Corel
DrawTM a number of different style templates are prepared such that
each style has two template files, one for the front and one for the back.
The front template may be designed to be usage (sport) generic, for
example baseball, hockey, basketball, soccer, football, baby pictures. The
front template may or may not contain any refercnce to any specific
activity. The back template, however is event and/or sport specific, for
example the back template may include graphics and motifs which are
sport specific, such as a baseball glove, a swinging batter and each sport
or event can be identified with a specific graphic or motif. The front
and back templates for example may consist of designs of 9 or 18 image
2 0 templates which contain a control or master template, measuring 2.5 " x
3.5" in the first position. This control or master template is then
cloned 8 times for a design of 9, or 17 times for a design of 18 images
and the cloned items are placed in their respective positions. The
templates are prepared in such a way that one may change the color
2 5 arrangements of the text, the font size or type, the background, or any
other element of the internal design of the card by simply making
changes on the control or master template and these changes will be
made for the entire template in question. The master or control
template could be designed for each sport or event and saved for future
- 8 - 2131338
use wherein a copy of this template is used for the actual production of
the cards.
The next step is to input the text data to the front template.
This is accomplished through an extract and merge-back method which
5 is available on the application program mentioned earlier. Having
prepared the front template, the file is saved in a computer printable
form (a .PRN file format). The back template, which contains data
pertinent to the card front is then prepared, the graphics and motifs are
selected, the colors are assigned and the text data is input again using
10 the extract and merge-back method. When this file is complete it is
saved in a computer printable form. After the templates are prepared,
photographic images are scanned using a scanner (not shown) into
digital computer legible format. The photographs used can be either 3"
x 5.5", 4" x 6", or 5" x 7" in size. One entire set having 9 photographs
15 may be scanned at once with the scanner through the "TWAIN" utility
software provided with the scanner. After scanning the photographic
images, color bit maps are color corrected, if necessary, again through
Photo Shop. The bit maps are then saved.
Once the images have been scanned and modified they are
2 0 imported into the front template and assigned a location (for example
from A to I for a 9 card template and from A to R for an 18 card
template). Preferably there is no photographic image to be imported
onto the back of the card, however should the need arise, this would be
done in the same manner as described above. Corel Draw contains an
2 5 extract and merge-back function. With this function it is possible to
extract all the TEXT information in a Corel Draw file and convert it to a
.TXT file format which is legible by a word processing program such as
NotePadTM. Once the extract has been done, the .TXT file is called up
into the NotePad program, the TEXT information required to be changed
-9- 213I:~8
is made, the modified file is then saved as an extension file (a .TXT file).
The motifs mentioned above are preferably placed in the template in a
layered array. This permits to selectively print or hide any or all of the
motifs, for example some of the motifs may be shown in a faint
5 silhouette form. Any combination of graphic or motif may be displayed.
When ready, the front and back template files are sent to the
printer (not shown) to be printed front and back onto a single sheet of
material (10) (preferably the sheet material is a thin flexible paper)
shown in Figure 2. The front and back template images are placed on
1 0 the sheet material ( 10) by a color photocopier which deposits toner
particle (15) onto said sheet of material. The sheet material (10)
contains the entire set of images prepared in the template files, for
example nine photographic images which correspond to the same
number of cards. The images on the sheet material (10) are provided
15 with a minimum of 0.25 inch of spacing (9) between individual images
such that the spacing (9) will provide a margin of error that could be
encountered during printing step and the cutting of the sheet material
into individual cards. The back template image is preferably printed
first such that the back surface of the sheet material ( 10) contains less
2 0 toner coverage (preferably a maximum of 30 %) than the front surface of
said sheet of material which is printed on the second pass through the
photocopier when the sheet of material is reversed and reinserted into
the photocopier.
The next step in the production process is to cover each
25 sheet of printed material (10) with a plastic laminate film (30) and
passing through a laminator (not shown) wherein a plurality of heated
roller (35) fuses the front and back sheet material (10) to the plastic
laminate film (30) in order to ensure sufficient bonding between them
such that when the sheet material (10) is cut into separate card (5) and
lo- 2131338
subjected to folding or bending, the card (S) will spring back to its
original condition without significant adverse effect. The process can use
either hot or cold laminate, however the adhesive on the laminate film
should have high adhering capabilities. The cold laminate does not
S need any application of heat to melt the adhesive, simply a strong and
steady application of pressure which is supplied by rollers (35) is
sufficient. The hot laminate requires that the laminate film be heated
prior to its use in order to melt the adhesive and a strong and steady
pressure from rollers (35) is also required. Either hot or cold laminate
10 will suffice, however it is recommended that the hot laminate be
employed since it is more cost effective. A variety of different thickness
laminate film was tested. The 3 and 5 mil laminate film did not
provide enough thickness and firmness for the photo (sport) cards,
however it would be ideal for 8 x 10 photographs and bookmarks. A 10
15 mil plastic laminate film is found to be ideal for the photo card of the
present invention which provided a proper feel and look to the card.
The front and back templates of the present invention are
designed so that each individual card (S) is 2.5" x 3.5" in size. It is to be
noted that this is the standard size for the professional sports cards on
2 0 the market. The printed area (25) of the image on each card is
preferably 2.25" x 3.25" and is centered on the card (5) as shown in
Figure 4. This leaves a one-eight of an inch of margin (20) around the
front and back of the card (S) devoid of toner particle (15). This is
important for two reasons: first, the card is more aesthetically pleasing
2 5 with a margin (20) around it; second, since the margin (20) is devoid of
toner particle ( 15), the plastic laminate film (30) covering the sheet
material ( 10) adheres quite strongly to the unprinted surface (non toner
containing border) thereby enabling the card (S) to withstand cracking
at the tip and staining of the image on exposure to water and the like.
2131338
Thus, the cumulative bond between all three components of the card
(5): the sheet material (10), the toner particle (15), and the plastic
laminate film (30) are sufficient to provide a quality and flexible card.
It also has the advantage of providing protection against smearing,
S smudging of the card, preventing tearing and cracking, and as the front
and the back of the card (5) is covered with plastic it could be washed
with a damp cloth without damaging it. Finally, it also protects the
card from becoming dog-eared with handling.
As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, various
10 modifications and adaptations of the invention described above may be
made without departing from the scope or sprit of the invention; the
limitation of the scope of the embodiment of the invention are to be
construed in accordance with the accompanying claims and not in a
limiting sense.
