Why are Mac's preferred for graphic design?

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Windows font rendering is better for low resolution output, OS X is better for high resolution output.

It may not matter with the large majority of fonts, but if you're trying to get perfect alignment with a font for print output, you won't get it with Windows (since it changes the font to render well on your low DPI screen), unless you're using another font API, like FreeType.

Edit: Ahh, the GDI version of ClearType gets crappy at large sizes because it only does X direction anti-aliasing, WPF version of ClearType does X and Y direction, so it looks "purdy".

Edited June 6, 2008 by The_Decryptor

[+Fahim S. MVC]

Three reasons:-

1) Colour representation/calibration

2) Font Rendering

3) General ease of use - Macs get the job done, designers are not geeks and therefore don't like messing with their machines.

[evo_spook]

from what i've seen they aren't better... most people i know in that field, the companies they are working for are doing away with MAC's since PC can do just as good a job for 1/3 the cost.

Not that I know and looking at your sig I'm not sure I'd trust your opinion

The reason macs really took off in Graphics is because a long long time ago, Apple, Adobe and Aldus got together and produced what was unable at on a PC at that time

Apple, the Mac

Adobe, Postscript, Postscript Fonts and Photoshop

Aldus Pagemaker and wysiswyg

Laserprinters

This enable the Mac to be THE desk top publishing computer, there was a little more to it then that but thats it right at the core. essentially Adobe Postscript, Pagemaker and the Mac

[betasp]

"Decreased time and effort spent on technical problems (The Macintosh platform has much lower overall support and maintenance requirements than the Windows platform.) Increased efficiency and a smoother, more efficient graphic development process (Designers using Macintoshes are 42% more productive, according to a recent GISTICS study."

- Trade-Off Analysis of Macintosh and Windows Platforms, GISTSCS ROI Technology Brief, Volume II, Issue 1, Number 1, Revision 4.8

[evo_spook]

Name one of the UN sanctions that The US Violated. To the best of my knowledge the US has never been sanctioned so it would therefore be hard to break something that did not exist.

well on PC being used in Design houses and Printers, dunno about any other designer but if I go to one, and see they're all using Dells I'll probably feel they're amateurs or tight, might be a elitist but thats the feeling.

It probs similar if you was a office worker and went to a place that was using Macs and numbers, you'd feel it wasn't right.

[starmatrix]

I've used CS3 on Vista and Leopard (x86), and I found it easier to use with vista.

Don't get me wrong, they seemed to perform just as fast as each other, and a lot of the short cuts were similar, it was just the layout that I didnt like.

I'd never seen the point in being able to see behind photoshop at your other open windows...in fact it just annoyed me as it would distract me.

But now that people here have mentioned it, I can see how if you want to be looking at something in the background as a reference, or have another image open to look it, how it could be useful.

Apart from that though, both seemed fairly similar

[osirisX]

I'd never seen the point in being able to see behind photoshop at your other open windows...in fact it just annoyed me as it would distract me.

Drag and drop between Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign?

[starmatrix]

Drag and drop between Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign?

Ahh...can see how that would be quite useful

[-Dave-]

if you've ever tried using CS3 on a mac and pc, you'll realise the answer.

altho there are the **Same** the mac one feels a lot less clunky.

plus expose is a god send!

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I would argue that Macs were doing colour calibration while PCs were still fiddling with VGA cards.

[digitalsoft]

I have this issue constantly with my tutor at college, we use Macs there and he has a real hate for PCs - when i bring the subject up he cant find 1 reason why a Mac would be better for Graphic Design over a PC... I use both but i 100% prefer to use Vista over OSx for my designing, just things such as windows taskbar - couldnt live without that and the position of minimize buttons etc...

I personally feel Macs make designers very big-headed, purely my personal opinion but from my experience from college working with Mac users its extremely clear.

[Volatile]

When I serviced Mac's and PC's I asked the same question because I did all my graphic design on a PC. The Macies told me that the only reason they used the mac was because of the file format the programs spit out which were supported by the newspapers. Other than that.. they could easily be working on a PC.

I'd support other mentions on here like the font rendering and such..

[ScottKin]

Being the old codger that I am in this Computing Industry, I can remember when the first Macintoshs were beginning to be used in businesses, and all the way up to the OS9 releases and OS X up to today; I think that one of the reasons for Macs being more preferred by graphic artists & designers has more to do with the history of the Mac product line, and basically being boiled down to the superior rendering of PostScript versus HP's PCL rendering in the early years of the Mac. Hands-down, PostScript was vastly superior to PCL back in the days of the early HP LaserJet printers and Canon Printer Engines back then. Rendering PostScript on-screen set the Mac ahead of the PC in graphics use very early on.

Today, Macs still are the kings & queens of graphics rendering, Pantone matching & calibrated colors - but that distinction is becoming even more blurred these days.

--ScottKin...whom is eyeing a Mac G4 over at one of the local PC Recyclers (who woulda thought?!?!) :woot:

[dyn]

YES I do believe it is easier... Just by the way you can label files/sub label them and manage your files,but it is getting better on Windows Platforms.... Though I still laugh when I see the commercial for Mac's Vs. PC. Especially the one where the PC has a virus and the MAC does not. Though I know of about 30 viruses that have infected MAC ... Mostly because by default they are installed with Quick time. Or the one where they say Microsoft PC's are built with different Parts... Though If your Hard drive goes bad you just can't goto the all night Walmart at 3am and buy a new one. Proprietary components.

You may have owned a Mac but that doesn't mean you know stuff, 'cause you clearly do not. There are no 'proprietary' harddrives: there's just a harddrive that goes in a pc, in a Mac, in a Sun SPARC machine, in a IBM PowerPC supercomputer, etc. The harddrive from your pc can be put into your Mac and vice versa. For example, the drive in the Macbook is very easy to swap, so going to any store (like Walmart) and get a replacement drive is absolutely no problem whatsoever. There were some different parts from pc's because Mac used to be based on the PowerPC processor from IBM/Motorola. Nowadays they are the same x86 Intel machines as pc's are. So that may have been an old Mac vs PC commercial.

The viruses for OS X are nearly nonexistent, they are only PoC's (Proof of Concept). For earlier versions there were quite some viruses but they are all taken care of with a virusscanner. And no, they are not installed with Quicktime. You'd know that if you had some sense and if you check various security bulletins. There were some security bugs in Quicktime as are with most software. I think you meant to say bugs and not viruses.

[se7en.hu]

^ hilarious that people think macs use proprietary hardware, also funny that they call them MAC :rofl:

[giga Veteran]

From what I remember, it was colour management and fonts look like they will when they print. (and something about screen vs. print layout that I can't remember so I won't mention it)

These days, Vista supports colour management right through the OS, but it's still lacking in font rendering.

Edit: ClearType seems to completely break as the font gets larger, it's quite odd.

Yet--it's not system wide. Preview has been color managing since forever and I can't even put my finger on which image viewer color manages on the other side.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

The default picture viewer :p

[maplecookie Veteran]

Thread Cleaned

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Being the old codger that I am in this Computing Industry, I can remember when the first Macintoshs were beginning to be used in businesses, and all the way up to the OS9 releases and OS X up to today; I think that one of the reasons for Macs being more preferred by graphic artists & designers has more to do with the history of the Mac product line, and basically being boiled down to the superior rendering of PostScript versus HP's PCL rendering in the early years of the Mac. Hands-down, PostScript was vastly superior to PCL back in the days of the early HP LaserJet printers and Canon Printer Engines back then. Rendering PostScript on-screen set the Mac ahead of the PC in graphics use very early on.

This guy know's what he is talking about!

[Boz]

They used to be preferred because Adobe created Photoshop for Mac way back in the day. Obviously it was ported and now I believe Windows actually performs better using CS3. At least in my experience it has been.

Correct.. I mean everything works and Macs have their own advantages that have kind of less to do with the actuall apps but more with less hassle with OS for designers.

I have extremely powerful computers as I do a lot of stuff in design, after effects, coding and stuff and I can tell you Adobe apps and Flash and stuff works faster on PC then on Mac. And I just got the latest 8-core Mac Pro with 10gb of ram.

CS4 should work great on Macs too again due to huge improvements in the actual underlying things. Not that it doesn't work great now but it's still a bit clunky when compared to PC.

The reason why designers choose Mac platform are two-fold.

One reason is as some others here explained. It's a tradition. The first graphical applications were developed on Apple hardware and for a LONG time the best results in both print design, prepress and overall any graphics work were superior to PC. That obviously changed as PC platform matured, got stronger graphics, better OS etc etc. All piece fell in place.

Now, the reason why designers pick Macs is because of no-hassle approach. This means, that OSX no matter how you look at it is a much simpler system, everything just works and it crashes and has incompatibilities much much less then PC. This allows you to concentrate more on work then trying to figure out why my Photoshop on PC stalls for 10 secs for absolutely no reason and it happens totally randomly.

I've been using PCs for A LONG time as a primary platform and just recently switched back to OSX, especially because today if you buy a Mac you actaully a get sick fast PC that can run both platforms with no problems, and I realized how smooth and great OSX is.. sure there are issues that are annoying to me but that's just because I got accustomed to PC too much so things are done slightly differently.

[Huleboeren]

To me its the way you can organize windows and folders with expose etc - its all so fluid and clean with one click of a button

The default picture viewer :p

Really? I find it annoying you have to mark all the images in a folder and open all of them in order to scroll through them with the keyboard arrows etc :(

Been using my brothers mac a few times, so novice-novice mac user here :p

[giga Veteran]

To me its the way you can organize windows and folders with expose etc - its all so fluid and clean with one click of a button

Really? I find it annoying you have to mark all the images in a folder and open all of them in order to scroll through them with the keyboard arrows etc :(

Been using my brothers mac a few times, so novice-novice mac user here :p

Quick Look! (fun fact: even Quick Look is color managed. ColorSync!)

[Huleboeren]

Quick Look! (fun fact: even Quick Look is color managed. ColorSync!)

Quick Look?

Where do I find that? :(

[Cara Veteran]

Quick Look?

Where do I find that? :(

Highlight any file in finder and press the Space Bar on your keyboard. :)

[michaelof36]

Have you ever tried to open multiple windows in XP or vista?! Its a hugh pain switching among the windows in this environment. You have to click the taskbar and usually you have several windows open that your currently using. Its so much easier with the Expose, move the mouse to a particular corner of the screen and all the windows come up to the screen for you to choose from. Move the mouse to the opposite side and it clears the screen of windows revealing the desktop. This is all done in a fluid manner, no hiccups or stutters. I work as a graphic designer for a print company where I live (3yrs). When I was hired I had no prior knowledge about Macs and was completely clueless. I learned quite a bit over the first few weeks and now I refuse to work with anything related to Microsoft and the PC. They are just so much easier to use. I could go on and on about this but I won't.

Mike