System and method for separating a print stream into an electronic document print stream and a physical document print stream

DETAILED DESCRIPTION A print stream separator according to the present invention receives print stream data from an associated generator of such information, such as a legacy mainframe computer print stream output.
Such information in a typical application may contain a plurality of customer bills for presentation to the customers of a particular company.
Bill information and accompanying customer account information form at least part of this print stream.
Such information in the past would generally be directed to a high speed, high volume printer in a particular file format such as the AFP file format for generation of the customer bills with insertion of one or more hard copy inserts, typically of an advertisement or informational nature.
Such inserts are put into the customer's bill based upon information concerning the identified customer as derived from a customer preference database and with the specific inserts being determined based upon a prioritization in view of information received from the customer preference database so as to maintain a certain weight limit for the hard copy mailing.
The present invention provides a print stream separator which receives the initial print stream data, as well as information from a customer preference database.
The print stream separator then determines which documents are to be generated in electronic form and which are to be directed to a high speed, high volume printer, such that the data presented to the high speed, high volume is separate and distinct from the data sent for ultimate presentation and viewing in electronic form.
Information within the customer preference file for each customer is the basis upon which a determination is made as to directing the print stream either to the high speed, high volume printer or to an electronic inserter for presentation in electronic form.
If the data is to be presented in electronic form, the print stream separator generates two outputs, a first output representing the customer primary document to be ultimately viewed by the customer, as well as an Electronic Mail Run Data File (EMRDF), which includes a header and fields containing information directed to that customer and the preference of inserts to be generated with the primary document for that customer