[erlang-questions] best idiom for pretty printing "data" modules OO style

[Eric Newhuis]

Given a set of modules that encapsulate some nifty data with complexity above the threshold of nearly immediate human reunderstanding,
When a developer wants to log a network of such data,
Then what is the best means to weave a system of print functions throughout said modules?

Is there a clever trick to optimize I/O, but really just O(utput)?  Or should these functions all call io_lib:format?  Any novel approaches to this?