first time mac buyer

[poomoo]

im making the switch from ps to mac and am looking for some advice.

im a web designer and have used laptops and tft screen before when designing. i have found that text is blurred or not as crisp as on crt's. this is particuarly a problem with fireworks and photoshop.

also, light greys and light gradients are sometimes not visible on pc laptops. is this the case with the new macbooks?

finally, i am happy to get the macbook but am concerned that it only has a 13inch screen. appart from the larger screen size of the mac book pro (and its backlit keyboard) there seems very little need for me to get a pro.

reading other threads here you guys seem to say that the main difference is the graphics card which will only benefit gamers and 3d animation/rendering. i dont plan on doing either of this on the mac book but would probably be doing film editing with adobe premier. would the mac book be able to handle that or should i really be looking to get the pro version. in all i would say 5-15% of my time would be working with video.

are any of you guys web designers/developer who can comment on any of these issues?

cheers!

 

[Carl Spackler]

im a web designer and have used laptops and tft screen before when designing. i have found that text is blurred or not as crisp as on crt's. this is particuarly a problem with fireworks and photoshop.

I've never noticed this on an Apple LCD. I'd suggest finding a page that does this then browsing to it at your local seller of Macbooks.

also, light greys and light gradients are sometimes not visible on pc laptops. is this the case with the new macbooks?

Doubtful. Apple uses a different Gamma setting as default from Windows. For my web design I set a "Mac" and a "Windows" profile in my Display Preferences that I'll switch between to determine if my images will look equally pleasing on both.

finally, i am happy to get the macbook but am concerned that it only has a 13inch screen. appart from the larger screen size of the mac book pro (and its backlit keyboard) there seems very little need for me to get a pro.

I played with one at my local Apple store and found there to be plenty of screen room to do most work, you could always get an external monitor to go with it.

reading other threads here you guys seem to say that the main difference is the graphics card which will only benefit gamers and 3d animation/rendering. i dont plan on doing either of this on the mac book but would probably be doing film editing with adobe premier. would the mac book be able to handle that or should i really be looking to get the pro version. in all i would say 5-15% of my time would be working with video.

unless you have an early version of Premire or plan to boot into Windows, you'll need to get a copy of Final Cut Pro or Express depending on your needs, as the latest version of Premiere is Windows only. Readers have commented that the Macbooks run Final Cut Pro quite well. I'd imagine it runs Final Cut Express like a champ. About a year ago, I went from using Premiere on a Windows machine to Final Cut Pro on a Mac. Premiere will not be missed. I liked Premiere, but Final Cut is vastly superior in my opinion. You should consider selling your copy of Premiere on eBay and put that money whichever version of Final Cut you so desire.

Carl Spackler

 

[balamw]

I played with one at my local Apple store and found there to be plenty of screen room to do most work, you could always get an external monitor to go with it.

I'll echo this. Unless you need more work space while on-the-go, save your $ on the MBP and buy a large external monitor. As long as you stay with the LCD's native resolution it should be crisper than a CRT, but even today you will get less dynamic range at the dark end of things (blacks not quite as black).

Remember that Photoshop and Fireworks are currrently not available as Universal Binaries, you you will either need to run them in Rosetta (get more RAM!) or Boot Camp (which means you won't be leaving Windows behind...)

B

 

[poomoo]

thanks for all that.

i didnt realise there were issues with photoshop/fireworks. i presume this extends throughout all of the suite including flash?

i might look into getting 2gb ram if i need to use rosetta. what is the concensus with regard to which is better between running apps like this through bootcamp or rosetta?

bootcamp might be better because it would save me shelling out for new copied of the software.

thanks for the heads up on premier - i have the latest version but yr comments re final cut sound good. ill need to read some more about it.

thanks again

 

[Carl Spackler]

bootcamp might be better because it would save me shelling out for new copied of the software.

thanks for the heads up on premier - i have the latest version but yr comments re final cut sound good. ill need to read some more about it.

Since CS 3 is around the corner, you *may* be able to upgrade from your version to the Mac for the standard upgrade price. When the time comes, this, http://www.apple.com/finalcut/, may help you decide.

Oh, the only downside I see to the Macbook over the Macbook pro is that it does not have an ExpressCard slot. With so much built in you may never need much expansion, but it's something to be aware of.

 

[cyberdogl2]

While the macbook isn't the best environment for web development, it's a pretty good setup that will do the job. I don't forsee any major problems (besides the ability to work on a canvas larger than 13.3 inches) Go for it!