Steve Jobs And The Ink To Data Ratio

THIS AFTERNOON I was describing "ink-to-data ratio" to some clients: the ratio of ink on the page / screen to the amount of meaningful information on the page / screen when conveying information visually. You want the ratio to be as close to 1:1 as possible, with every dot of ink / pixel helping to convey some relevant information to the reader / audience.

An example I often use when describing the ITD ratio is the default three-dimension bar charts presentation software (PowerPoint being the greatest offender) often creates -- in a simple graph showing a trend or comparisons along the x axis the depth of the bar conveys no meaningful information, but it does add ink (increasing the ratio of ink to data).

So I get online tonight and -- lo and behold -- Garr Reynolds has written a post about this very topic, but using Steve Job's recent MacWorld keynote as a case study. Many fine and illuminating illustrations, and as usual with Garr, an intelligent point of view. I won't bother presenting the matter further -- go read Garr's take.

Update: What do you know -- Garr points to a full post on the ink-to-data ratio here at MasterViews International.

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