Let me tell you how nonsensical libraries can get about figures and plates.
In 1975, I completed a thesis on Mexican Majolica in northern New Spain and
dutifully walked around the campus at San Diego State University to get it signed
by the committee. I then paid a small fortune to have the requisite six
copies bound, but when I went to the Malcolm Love Library to deliver the copy the
librarian would not accept it because the color photographs were pasted to the
pages. That idiot claimed the entire library would fill in double time if they
allowed any books with photos pasted to the pages, so refuse entry of said
thesis until I had paper plates made for each photo! I had to first to the
binder to have the thesis unbound, then find a photographer who would shoot color
photos and make paper plates. This cost twice as much as making the six
requisite copies of the thesis and having them bound. I then went back to the binder,
but they had a rule of only binding three or more copies. So I then had to
have two more copies printed, back when facsimile copies looked like butcher
paper and faded in a week, so this meant finding a printer for the extra copies.
Then the binder bound the ten copies I had to make so he would do the one copy
with the color "plates." After I finally got the librarian to accept the
requisite copy (I always suspected he and the photographer had a racket), I walked
around and gave copies of the thesis to people who helped during the several
years of research and writing. My point here is that I totally agree with Ned
that the profession ought to dispense with plates and figures and simply wrap
the computerized text around internal photos that tell the story and minimize
unnecessary expenses to the authors.

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.