My apologies - just needed to get it out of me. I've been doing some work with several printers over the past year trying to do some testing of a new, innovative, press characterization system. Cheaper, faster, and more effective than current methods. But it's been like talking to a brick wall. The level of complacency is astounding. It appears that printshops just want to carry on as they've done in the past - even when a better method is available - and even when there is no cost to them to try it for themselves. They just don't want to know.
oK, rant over. :-(
One needs an imagination and some level of education to see any potential. Even without those abilities if one was really curious, one would want to try something they don't understand. That maybe the heart of the problem in this industry. You ARE talking to a brick wall. There is nothing behind that facade to help you in what you might want to try.
There is also the problem that what might seem like a great idea to a technical support group could also be a faulty concept. The history in the industry is full of ideas that technical groups thought were great ideas but were actually big mistakes. How can a printer know the difference from a future success and a flop?
I would not blame the printers too much. The blame for this situation, where new ideas can not be trusted, has been caused by the technical community and its failure to understand and solve technical problems that lead to real and practical solutions. For the most part, the industry attracts engineers and scientists that know that they don't have to solve major issues since the industry does not expect them to do so. Any engineer or scientist, who actually wanted to make a difference would not stay in an industry where their ideas are not supported. The only ones who stay don't really innovate much.
The general problem with printing is that in order to really solve problems, one can not just take a narrow view of a specific problem and try to solve it without any understanding of its context in the whole problem. There are so many issues in printing and they are interrelated and that means that a very wide view of the issues in the process needs to be understood in order to know what actually needs to be corrected and in what order.
Even after all these years, the graphic arts institutions, methods and standards organizations have failed to understand what to do. Instead they market themselves as being capable and this just perpetuates the problem into the future. They will not change because it is not in their perceived social status and financial interest to change. For them, marketing is more important than knowledge.
Let's look at the general problem of printing.
First the printing device. The desired goal is that the device consistently, repeatably and predictably outputs print.
Secondly is the prepress method. An predictable prepress method is ONLY possible if the first goal is met. So if the first goal is met, then the second part of the problem is solved because the solution is to map the output to the inputs of the device and then all the information one needs is available.
Lastly the technology is needed to make that simple to do.
So I agree that the solutions for printers can be made much more predictable, repeatable, less costly and simple for them but what has the industry done.
They have not fixed the issues in the press. They don't want to. They complicate the prepress colour management process with methods that do not predict performance in any mathematical sense which has created an industry for consultants.
The Dark Ages still exist in some industries where experience outweighs rational thought.
I still don't see any leadership out of this mess. I don't expect to see any. :-( now my rant too is over.
