Simplicity: It Works in Print, Too

I often visit printers who have dozens (or hundreds) of plate compensation curves in their workflow. In every case, the curves have been created in an effort to extract the best possible quality, and there are plate curves for every possible use: for coated, for uncoated, for particular proofing systems, for particular jobs, for particular printing presses, and so on. On top of that, plate curves are never thrown away, so the list grows longer and longer over the years, until it becomes nearly impossible to find the right on.

Time spent looking for the right compensation curve increases, as does the probbility of something going wrong.

On of my first moves in a printing plant is to make those curves go away, replaced by a small suite of very effective curves. Why? Because it's simple, and it works. Simplicity makes people smarter, while coomplexity, by making things more complicated, has the effect of making people stupider.

Eric Burke, in his Sutffthathappens blog, has a great post on simplicity. A picture is worth a thousand words...check it out.