12. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the second layout includes a non-overlapping placement of the document image objects while maintaining relative positioning of the document image objects with respect to aesthetic layout criterion.
1. A method for automated document layout creation comprising: receiving a first layout of document image objects; creating relative positioning constraints from the document image objects based on the first layout of document image objects; and creating, with a processor, a second layout of document image objects subject to the relative positioning constraints corresponding to a non-overlapping placement of the document image objects in the second layout while maintaining a relative positioning of the document image objects from the first layout, at least one of the relative positioning constraints being based on object content in one or more of the document image objects, the relative positioning constraints corresponding to the relative positioning of the document image objects with respect to each other, wherein creating the second layout comprises setting up an optimization framework that formulates design of the second layout as a convex optimization problem and uses a convex optimization algorithm to seek a solution to at least one cost function, wherein the optimization framework includes one or more constraints and one or more costs, and wherein at least one of the constraints is dependent upon placement positions of document image objects in the first layout and attributes derived from the individual document image objects, and further wherein creating the relative positioning constraints comprises creating a structure to capture logical positioning of groups of objects that imposes a hierarchy of ordering on the document image objects.