Soft Technology Implementation in Print

We have many new technologies developing in print: softproofiing, digital, ink optimization and print verification to name a few. But it is looking more and more like the real advances that can be gained in print hinge on human issues, more than purely technical fixes.

What brought this point home was a recent podcast on web optimization. It was only very recently that search engine optimization or SEO was considered a geek's paradise, requiring lots of obscure knowledge, exotic software programs and so on. In other words, the problem of SEO was seen as a purely technical one, requiring a technical fix. The technology has evolved, however, as has the required approach. Now that the technology has become accessible and easier to use, the purely technical approach no longer delivers results. What does work is the very old fashioned element of actual content: people using their brains to actually extend some real knowledge.

What's the connection to printing? Many of the difficult to use and expensive technologies have become inexpensive and easier to use, but the missing ingredient-continuous human effort to make continuous improvement-are all to often missing. This is bad news for operations who have made heavy capital expenditures for expensive presses and workflow systems that are poorly used but very good for lean operations who have learned to use their existing equipment effectively, and employed smart solutions to leverage what they already have.