Macbooks and photoshop

[macbandwagon]

With Vista being a disappointment (was supposed to be "revolutionary", not that I expected it to be but anyways...), I've pretty much decided to get a Mac laptop. The Macbook looks great to me but I'm worried about how well I'll be able to use Photoshop with the small screen. I'm not some hardcore graphic designer but I do use it a lot for web design for which a large screen is pretty important. Right now I'm using a 19" screen for my desktop but my desktops a piece of crap (2.2ghz celeron, 512mb ram) so I plan on having the macbook as my main computer. I have looked at the Pro obviously but it is too expensive for me.. Even with the rebate from Amazon, it is too much. Plus, I don't really need many of the other features the Pro has other than the screen. The graphics card would be nice to have but not something I really need too much.

I'm planning on purchasing around May/June by the way so I can get Leopard/iLife 07/Santa Rosa(hopefully) and I am desperately hoping that they'll release a new model, something in between a Macbook, and a Pro. So anyways, what I'm asking is if other people have been using photoshop a lot on their macbooks and how the small screen did for them.

 

[Guy Incognito]

The Macbook looks great to me but I'm worried about how well I'll be able to use Photoshop with the small screen. I'm not some hardcore graphic designer but I do use it a lot for web design for which a large screen is pretty important. Right now I'm using a 19" screen for my desktop but my desktops a piece of crap (2.2ghz celeron, 512mb ram) so I plan on having the macbook as my main computer.

Why not simply hook your existing monitor up to the Macbook?

 

[macbandwagon]

Because I'm still going to be using my desktop somewhat and it would be too much of a hassle to switch the cable each time.

 

[dswoodley]

Because I'm still going to be using my desktop somewhat and it would be too much of a hassle to switch the cable each time.

kvm switch?

 

[Icewind]

I use Photoshop on my Macbook 2.0Ghz C2D 1Gb RAM. The physical screen size is a bit limiting, but it's not that bad. What I do notice though is that Photoshop on the Macbook runs a lot slower than it does on my 1.5 year old 15" Powerbook. I think this is because Photoshop is not Universal Binary, so it's running under Rosetta emulation and hence takes a little performance hit.

I'm no expert though.. just my two cents

 

[DrBunsenHoneyde]

MacBooks are brilliant little machines and run very well with photoshop. I work with both photoshop and illustrator on my CD Macbook (not CD2) and it works so nicely, most of them time I am sitting in my graphics class on battery power and it pretty much gives me the pace i need from the little bugger.

While saying that i am running CS2 and it is just a ltl sluggish at times but rarely. The good thing is with a release of CS3 on the way soon (and beta to existing CS2 owners atm) it means that the speed of photoshop will get much better once it doesnt have to run under rosetta.

go for a macbook they are perfect for most needs and as people said you could easy get a switch and then you even have two monitors to work on instead of the one.

 

[macbandwagon]

Thanks for the kvm switch.. I hadn't known about those. I just researched some and I will probably buy one if I end up buying a Macbook. Anybody have any suggestions for which one to buy?

I know that CS2 runs pretty slow right now on Macs but since I'm waiting to buy for awhile, CS3 should be out by then which would solve that.

 

[Icewind]

I know that CS2 runs pretty slow right now on Macs

I forgot to say.. It's CS2 I'm using, so that would explain the sluggish-ness.

KVM's are great things. I use one at work (PC Windows crap). Never bought one myself, but someone on the forum will no doubt be able to recommend a good one