OK.... Macs....

[AndyP & Lenore]

Firstly, can I state from the outset my personal preference is that this thread stays on-topic.:rolleyes:

Macs. Any jibe about Macs I may have made in the past has been borne out of ignorance. Never used one. If I'm being completely honest, I don't even think I've ever seen one in use. Maybe 10 years ago, but I'm assuming things have moved on a tad since then...

I've been encouraged by all the "they just work" comments and the way all you guys seem to talk highly of Apple's support system.

So, if in the future we were to look at replacing one of our PC's in the cinema with a Mac, what would the issues be... I have a list of questions that folk may be able to answer. Don't spend all day on them, 'cos at the moment it's a theoretical exercise. But we do use one PC for a lot of DTP work and as I understand it Mac's are particularly adept at this sort of challenge.

In the office in the cinema we have a LAN running through a Netgear router. The network is essentially wired, but we also have a lap top which when it's switched on is wireless. We also have a network printer also connected to this network.

1. Will a Mac also connect to this network and be able to connect and use image files (usually JPG downloaded from image Media hosting sites on the net) in a shared folder?

2. Will a Mac be able to send jobs to the network printer the same way our PC's do?

3. Will a Mac be able to share our internet connection the same way our PC's do?

4. Will our PC's be able to communicate with the Mac and use any image files stored on it?

5. Am I correct in saying Mac's are particularly good at the DTP stuff? We're currently using Corel Draw 12 for desktop publishing and a very old version of Adobe Photoshop (V3.1 I think) for image processing. Is there one programme for the Mac that would do both jobs? If not, what would be the two similar programs? And what sort of cost would we be looking at for these two programs?

Like I say, don't bust a gut on the answers, ball-park is fine.;) It would just give me an idea of whether it is something we should consider for this one computing task in the office.

A.:D

[The Dogfather]

1 - 4 yes I think, 2 you'll probably need to download the setup software I might be wrong though. 5. Someone like MMM will know best its kind of his area, I believe.

Don't buy an Mac though, you'll only want one at home as well. The new imacs are pretty special especially the 24" one.

[Burple]

*3 - shouldn't be a problem, even using wireless :cool:

[GAJ]

1 - Yes, no problem
2 - Yes, no problem
3 - Yes, no problem
4 - Yes, different procedures depending on the version of windows you are running but it can be done with a wee bit of fiddling about on the PC
5 - TBH there is not a big difference in the abilities of Macs and PCs to handle DTP stuff. This used to be the case but isn't so much anymore - remember they both share the same processor architecture now. And remember that a Mac can now run windows at native speed, straight from the box. It's no longer unusual to see design houses that use mainly PC's with hardly a Mac in sight.

Software wise - Photoshop has always been available for the Mac and there are several DTP programmes out there, but without knowing what you want to do it's hard to recommend one. Plus I'm no expert! There are plenty of open source programmes that seem to be pretty highly regarded. It may be that you could get away with a much lighter weight application. PS is pretty heavy duty, and not cheap. A wee search on google should yield some info on alternatives.

I have a mac and 2 PC laptops connected to my home network, one running XP sp2 and one Vista ultimate, all sharing a printer. The biggest problem I had was setting up the Vista machine to share files on the other two, but i giot there in the end. Obviously, the mac just works without any fannying about! ;-)

[AndyP & Lenore]

Cheers for that Gaj. I spoke with Mark (vintageB3) tonight and he pretty well said the same as you. He was desperately trying to convince me to go out and buy a Mini Mac immediately, if not sooner. :D

Definitely gonna consider a mac for the next time we need a new computer in the cinema or at home.;)

A.

[AndyP & Lenore]

Was just having a look at some open source programmes to see what's out there. Just about anything I do (and pay for programmes for) on the PC seem to be available on open source.

as for the desktop publishing, we use Corel Draw 12 just now, which is more of a vector drawing package than a desktop publishing package (like Inkscape), but it does what we need it to do. But I must admit, our leaflets and pamphlets may well look a bit better if we used a DTP package like Scribus.

A.

[macblob]

Quark express is still the most widely used DTP software in the print industry as far I am aware, however it is something like £1200 per license last time i looked anyway.

Adobe do an application called inDesign a close rival to Quark and a lot cheaper. This can be bought as part of Adobe Creative Suite 3 which includes inDesign, photoshop and other applications.

This is the blurp from Adobe:
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard
Express and print your ideas with Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard software, the indispensable toolkit for professional design and print production. Get all-new versions of Adobe's essential tools for page layout, image editing, illustration, and Adobe PDF workflows-and integrated productivity features-all in a unified creative environment.

Combines Adobe InDesign® CS3, Photoshop® CS3, Illustrator® CS3, Acrobat® 8 Professional, Bridge CS3, Version Cue® CS3, and Device Central CS3.

Price on the adobe site is just over £1000 but for that you get 7 applications compared to quark which is just one application for similar money.

As Gaj said there are also some very good and free open source alternatives out there

[euan]

How good is a mac mini? I looked at them to replace my desktop PC but thought they were expensive for what you got, I'd rather save the cash and get an imac.

Am I wrong?

[Smurf]

I work in Publishing, and we use Macs...

Quark is basically a page-editing and layout tool (we use it), can't comment on In Design as I haven't used it yet.
Photoshop is an image manipulation tool, and we use this too, although not to its full extent, so a lighter weight version would probably be sufficient.
The main software we use for being creative is Adobe Illustrator, probably about 75% of our time, but along with Quark and Photoshop, and a few other things.

I've ALWAYS had a Mac, right since Uni, and I wouldn't have anything else. I'm not particularly computer-minded any more (it gets a wee bit beyond me sometimes), but can manage to do everything I need to on the Mac, I just love the "plug n play" capability for anything new, whether it's hardware or software.

I don't think there's anything really nowadays that a PC does better than a Mac, or vice versa, it's just your personal choice about what you like to use. Macs can definitely be easier to set up!

[macblob]

In Design is pretty much the same as quark, its adobes answers to Quark.

I have used both when I worked in the print trade, mainly quark though

[monsta mo mini admin]

The majority of agencies I'm in and out of still use Quark but there does seem to be a slow shift toward InDesign- better integration with the rest of the CS suite of apps. Quark is still my preferred app for page layout and even web pages (the keyboard shortcuts are second nature). InDesign did have some better features than Quark but since the upgrade to v7, there's no contest - Quark all the way.

Despite what GAJ has said - the creative industries are still very much Mac based. That's more down to the ease of use, swift workflow you can achieve with OSX over the closed architecture of Microsoft systems than the availability of the software.

[BJN]

Quark was always my favourite, anyone remember Pagemaker, but after doing a training course on InDesign through work, I can't sing its praises enough, seemless integration with Photoshop and Illustrator.

[Big Col]

Firstly, can I state from the outset my personal preference is that this thread stays on-topic.:rolleyes:


I just want to ask, who here takes sugar in their coffee?

Gerrit up ye mod boy!!! :D