New iMacs being used by Illustrators/graphic designers?

[prs986]

What I'm getting at is she created all the tickets for the games, promo items, things at the stands with the team pics/logos and offers with the only improvement given to her was updating Quark before her station.

I totally know what you mean! The company I work for I work on a pc ( 🙁 ) and we use Illustrator 10 and Photoshop 7 and InDesign 2! and only on 512MB of Ram and 32MB of GPU memory! I just recently updated to a 20" widescreen monitor....its ok....nothing compared to my new iMac 20". Oh and yes I'm a designer and I use the new 20" iMac. and I LOVE IT!

 

[Snide]

Rubbish. I have clients and colleagues producing everything from ads to magazines on Macs that are over 5 years old. You'd be amazed how many 'old' iMacs are in use in agencies around the world.

LOL! A friend of mine was doing low-scale pro video-editing/DVD encoding on a
dual 450 Mhz G4 for a good while after G5's were available. There wasn't any big
rush, so he would let the thing encode all night (many, many hours).
Also, another friend has been using a 867 Mhz Ti Powerbook since the day it
was released, in conjunction with the discontinued 22" Cinema Display,
running Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Quark, ect. She finally upgraded to
a 2.4 Ghz Macbook Pro, and was blown away. Still, the old machine got the
job done, 8 to 10 hours a day, for many years...

Surely there's more than a few folks using their top-end machines mainly
for e-mail and web-browsing, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them
use these forums to bitch about all the shortcomings of Apple's latest offerings. 🙄

 

[chaosbunny]

... A graphic designer who knowingly buys a TN panel for their work (assuming they could afford something better) is not a true designer.

A graphic designer who doesn't order proofs when the colour is THAT important for a certain job is no real graphic designer.

 

[IBitePrettyHard]

All the discussion about the iMac's glossy screen baffles me. I have the new 24" iMac, and I have absolutely no issues with glare. This thing is so bright that the light coming through the windows seems to get cancelled out. Seriously, I'm thinking about getting some cheesy clip-on shades to cover my glasses because I've gotten a few headaches from sitting in front of it too long. And that's on the LOWEST brightness setting possible. I keep the brightness bar all the way to the left most of the time.

I go to a tech school where I'm working towards my bachelors in Simulation and Game Design...and we have an entire classroom full of 20" iMac (the white previous model), each with 2gb of RAM installed. Every other classroom has Dell desktops, but they use the iMac room specifically for graphics and design.

I'd hate to know the total value of all the software on those machines, even with the school licensing discounts they get.

Here are some of the ones I can remember:

Maya
InDesign
Photoshop
Illustrator
Flash

 

[PieMac]

All the discussion about the iMac's glossy screen baffles me. I have the new 24" iMac, and I have absolutely no issues with glare. This thing is so bright that the light coming through the windows seems to get cancelled out. Seriously, I'm thinking about getting some cheesy clip-on shades to cover my glasses because I've gotten a few headaches from sitting in front of it too long. And that's on the LOWEST brightness setting possible. I keep the brightness bar all the way to the left most of the time.

Forget the cheesy clip-ons-just download this:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23370/shades

 

[IBitePrettyHard]

Forget the cheesy clip-ons-just download this:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23370/shades

lol thanks! Didn't occur to me to check for software.

 

[PieMac]

lol thanks! Didn't occur to me to check for software.

Glad to help! 🙂

 

[RafMac]

Get over it

C'mon guys and dolls, this discussion is getting carried over, as we all pros and non-pros used Glossy CRTs for years and had better contrast than LCDs. Common sense to place your glossy screen in ideal location with no lighting or window behind you. Remember Lacie monitors came with hoods.
Glossy iMacs are great for print and web, end of story.

 

[idyll]

hahah at some of the comments in this thread

i know well established designers who use macbooks as their main computers

i just got the 24" imac and the display is stunning

 

[BennyK]

That is like saying anyone who is fat and a doctor is not a doctor, or anyone who drives a geo metro and is a mechanic, is not a mechanic.

 

[suneohair]

A graphic designer who doesn't order proofs when the colour is THAT important for a certain job is no real graphic designer.

Great way to add to the list of reason why someone isn't a graphic designer! Kudos!

That is like saying anyone who is fat and a doctor is not a doctor, or anyone who drives a geo metro and is a mechanic, is not a mechanic.

Not quite. It is about the tools you use to do the job. Owning a Geo Metro and being a mechanic are clearly not dependent upon one another. The driving/owning of a Geo does not stop the mechanic from doing his job. Now if the mechanic decides to use cheap tools and parts, that can allow for sub par results. Same thing with a doctor. A doctor being fat is not an issue unless it prevents that person from doing the job properly. Likewise, if the doctor decides to use poor equipment, those things will again lead to sub par results compared to a doctor using top of the line equipment. One could argue that being fat undermines the professional opinion of the doctor since they themselves are considered to be "healthy" but that is a topic for another time.

I see the point you are trying to get at. Which is, you can't really say someone isn't something based on what they use. Even though that doctor uses poor equipment, one would still consider that person a doctor. While I would agree with that. Our society isn't exactly neutral in all cases, for example: art. Some people define art as everything, others nothing. There are rules for art in place, line, form, etc. However, not everyone conforms to that, art is a subjective thing when you approach it from an individual perspective as opposed to a general definition. Subjectivity is also known as opinion. My opinion is that someone who knowingly buys a TN to do graphic work strikes me as odd. The data is there and quite compelling when you compare TN to any other panel on the market, that TN isn't suited for graphic work. While me saying they aren't a REAL graphic designer was more in jest, my underlying point remains.

It really is about what you want to buy. TN panels have too many negatives at the moment for me to justify purchasing them for my work. Some of you might be good with it though. Which is fine. Although I have to wonder if those people have looked into display tech to see what they are missing by going with TN. Color is important, but is more about a pleasant experience. I don't find TN to be pleasant and I find it detracts from my ability to work effectively. Which is why I do not own one.

 

[0007776]

That is a most excellent point that I think more people need to keep in mind. What did all these whiners do when glass-faced CRTs were the only option?

well for one thing CRTs usually had a coating of somesort applied to the glass to reduce glare. and even if they were that reflective is it a good thing to take a step backwards and create the glare when we have advanced so that there is no glare unless we make it?

 

[Iscariot]

If you're a graphics professional whose end product is print, there's no reason you can't use an iMac, even with the glossy display. If you're creating work that requires absolute colour values, you're going to be using PMS colours 99% of the time. The reason being, no matter how well a printer is calibrated, the colours can never be perfectly reproduced from one printer to the next unless you are using pre-mixed inks.

If you're using PMS colours, it won't really matter how the colours come out on the screen if you're capable of visualizing the colours. If you're not using PMS colours, then you're simply not going to get a perfect reproduction ever ever ever ever ever ever evereverevereverevereverEVER.

Professionals that may need a top-notch display are photography professionals, and certain bands of illustrators. Otherwise, the iMac display can be calibrated to suit your needs.

This is not to say that the iMac display is anywhere near the absolute ideal, nor even what I would recommend. But the hyperbole about it's sub-par quality is just nonesense.