getting a mac

[Chojin]

Originally Posted by ziggytrix

Choj, what you said about Mac vs PC color - that's a bit incorrect. Macs use OS-level color management, so you have more consistent color reproduction on various output devices, or something. I dunno, I'm not a press guy. Talk to someone who owns a $20,000 4 color process printer about the difference.

Yeah, but see, this is all I ever hear. "Macs have better color, really. I hear. From some people that I don't know. And I don't remember what they said."

Any good image program forces you to use color profiles which make it a moot point.

[ziggytrix]

It's hardly a moot point.

If you'd ever been involved in any step of catalog production, you'd know color management is a fucking nightmare headache monster with the power to devour the weak and tired.


Let me try to give a quick example. Let's say I'm looking on my Mac's screen at an image with a Adobe RGB (1988) profile, and you are looking at the same file on your PC's screen. We each make proofs which we match to our displays, printing 2 copies when we are satisfied that they match. We then mail the 2nd copy to each other and compare each others proofs to our originals.

Problem: Will they match?

Bonus: Why or why not?

[Immortal Goat]

I wasn't just repeating what they said in the store

The applications I was referring to were the movie maker, dvd maker, garageband (I know it isn't the best, but I didn't know exactly what he needed. I don't make music), and the like. And the other stuff, you actually can buy. Audio, video, photo, it's all better on Mac. That isn't pure regurgitated store-clerk fodder, that is pure hard fact.

Oh, and you can right click on a mac. They are coming programmed standard so that a right click with a regular mouse equals a control click, so you don't have to go through the agonizing two minute process of assigning a button to a certain action.

[Chojin]

Zigs are you talking Apple brand monitors being better or Macintosh computers being better for color management. I do not dispute that Apple brand monitors are good pieces of equipment and tend to be more true than other brands.

[ziggytrix]

Actually, I'm not even talking about the hardware aspect at all.

It's at the OS level that Apple has better color management. That's not to say you can't do color critical work on a PC. We're running our RIP and our LVT off PC boxes. But on the PC boxes you pretty much have to keep your processes in one application (in our case we're only printing proofs and finalized images). If you're doing anything where you're moving files between applications, you are better off with an OS level color management system like ColorSync, rather than relying on 3rd party developers like Quark and Adobe to make their color management systems perfectly compatible with each other.


Ok, so we're kinda off on a tangent here. Most people aren't printing proofs for onoxiously anal art directors. For personal use, or for single application use (e.g. you do everything in Photoshop and print from there) it's really just a preference issue.

You shouldn't choose between two cars based on their top speeds when you don't plan to take either over 75 mph. Maybe its more important that the driver's seat is comfy, eh?

So, let's say you do a LOT of work in Photoshop. Trying to go back and forth between the PC and Mac versions is a bit awkward, in my experience. It's better to just decide which setup you find the most comfortable and to stick with it.