Photoshop on an iBook

[hakusai]

Hi:

My dad is thinking about buying a laptop. He's never been an Apple user but I think I'm starting to convince him. He's retired and his main use of a laptop would be to do email, wordprocessing, AND photoshop. He's an avid amateur photographer with a fancy digital SLR (forget which one) and the kind of person who wants his monitor and printers and such calibrated with ICCC profiles and the like.

He *thinks* he would need a PowerBook to do this stuff but he doesn't have the $$$ to shell out on a 15" PB. This means he's leaning towards a PC laptop.

My questions:

- would a new iBook be able to handle photoshop well, not so well, or (I doubt) not at all?

- from other Photoshop users, would a 14" iBook be cramped for photoshop purposes (display wise)?

- would Photoshop Elements work better (assuming he doesn't need the full power of Photoshop)?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Tahko]

if my half-dead 1.4ghz pentium can handle photoshop...

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Photoshop runs well enough on my 12" iBook G4@800 with 640 MB RAM. I think it will run excellently on the new iBook. Just remember to max out the RAM if he's going to work with large files in Photoshop. 1.5 GB is not too much, then...

And get the 12". The resolution on that and the 14" is the same and the 12" is much more portable, and perfect for trips. The 1024x768 resolution is a bit cramped, but perfectly usable.

As to the Elements vs CS2 debate. I would guess he would be able to do ANYTHING he wants with Elements.

 

[hakusai]

Thanks for the comment. Not sure about the 12". It's what I've got, so I hear you about resolution and portability but he likes having a bigger screen to look at (eyesight gets tired) so ideally he would want a 15"+ but iBook only goes up to 14" anymore.

Any other photoshop users out there?

And get the 12". The resolution on that and the 14" is the same and the 12" is much more portable, and perfect for trips. The 1024x768 resolution is a bit cramped, but perfectly usable.

 

[jefhatfield]

photoshop will run on any ibook, and only marginally better on the powerbook line

and both mac laptops are better suited for photoshop than a pc laptop in the same price range

...now a top of the line alien laptop, with its amazing graphics card, may be interesting, but then we are talking about an obnoxious amount of money

actually, i would take a 17" inch powerbook over the alien any day (and save money, too) and i think a heavy duty graphics card like the aliens are known to have are mostly for smooth gaming purposes

 

[hakusai]

and both mac laptops are better suited for photoshop than a pc laptop in the same price range

OK, I'll take your word for it - can you arm me with some reasons why that's the case....if true, this could be the clincher for him.

Here's what he's considering, other than an ibook: Fujitsu N3510B, Fujitsu N3510A, Dell 6000d. I've long since abandonded the pc world for Apple so these names don't mean much to me. I gather they're all pentium-m's with integrated graphics.

My pitch to him was, if you go with an iBook: no more viruses, no more crashing, good support (software, forums) for digital photography.

His concerns: G4 is at the end of line, Apple costs more (he was thinking powerbook), compatibility issues.....I'm not looking for comments on these, I think I've convinced him otherwise. Just a matter now of being able to convince him that an iBook would fit the bill for Photoshop work.

 

[homerjward]

OK, I'll take your word for it - can you arm me with some reasons why that's the case....if true, this could be the clincher for him.

Here's what he's considering, other than an ibook: Fujitsu N3510B, Fujitsu N3510A, Dell 6000d. I've long since abandonded the pc world for Apple so these names don't mean much to me. I gather they're all pentium-m's with integrated graphics.

My pitch to him was, if you go with an iBook: no more viruses, no more crashing, good support (software, forums) for digital photography.

His concerns: G4 is at the end of line, Apple costs more (he was thinking powerbook), compatibility issues.....I'm not looking for comments on these, I think I've convinced him otherwise. Just a matter now of being able to convince him that an iBook would fit the bill for Photoshop work.

the 6000d is a decent laptop, (the d indicates dedicated graphics) but absolutely huge (and heavy) for a 15"er and gigantic amounts of fan noise. just a word of advice. oh, and a lot of people will tell you the ibook's screen quality is really bad for graphics work, but i dont have one so i wouldn't know

 

[mkrishnan]

His concerns: G4 is at the end of line, Apple costs more (he was thinking powerbook), compatibility issues.....I'm not looking for comments on these, I think I've convinced him otherwise. Just a matter now of being able to convince him that an iBook would fit the bill for Photoshop work.

I can't comment one way or the other on how this works on a Windows PC, because I haven't done it, but I have found the Apple color calibration to be outstanding. I followed the built-in calibration routine on my iBook G4's 12" screen, without needing any external software, and found the accuracy of prints made from images take with my DSLR and edited in PS to be very acceptable.

Also, this is a controversial point around here... but you mentioned eyesight concerns. Right now, when you buy a notebook with a higher resolution screen, most of them have very high DPI -- while you can scale the image to be any size you want, and therefore the DPI will have a positive effect on viewing the image, with the high DPI, the other screen elements, such as text, menus, buttons, and the pointer, will be very small.

Apple has accessibility options, but they tend to be oriented towards people with very poor eyesight, not middle-of-the-road eyesight. So, many older individuals whose eyes are very good, but who have some difficulty with small objects on a screen, find 14-15" LCDs and so on, that have a low resolution (XGA - 1024x768) to be a good option. Such screens are widely available on low-end windows desktops. For Apple, the iBook 14" is the only such option (and it *is* a good option), because both of the 12"-ers and the larger PBs have DPIs around 106. So you might take that into consideration too.... He might find a WXGA or SXGA+ or whatever screen to be unpalatable.

 

[hakusai]

oh, and a lot of people will tell you the ibook's screen quality is really bad for graphics work, but i dont have one so i wouldn't know

Oh, oh, that doesn't sound good considering what he wants it for. I saw this post in a separate thread:

I notice that the screen isn't very good in a sense that the bottom area of the screen looks more washed out and brighter than the top area because of the way the monitor needs to be viewed. Does anyone else notice this too? I think the iBook has the most sensitive screen I've ever used in terms of how you need to view it -- if you view it from a slightly different angle, the sharpness and clarity will change fairly dramatically.

Is that what you're referring to? Is the powerbook better? I thought ibook and powerbook's had the same screen....or am I getting all mixed up now?

 

[hakusai]

Also, this is a controversial point around here... but you mentioned eyesight concerns. Right now, when you buy a notebook with a higher resolution screen, most of them have very high DPI -- while you can scale the image to be any size you want, and therefore the DPI will have a positive effect on viewing the image, with the high DPI, the other screen elements, such as text, menus, buttons, and the pointer, will be very small.

You kind of lost me there....DPI - dots per inch, so the iBook with 14" screen and same resolution as a 12" screen would have larger dots. If he went with a higher resolution pc based laptop, he would get higher DPI and could zoom in on pictures just fine (to see detail) but application menus and so on would be teeny tiny?

 

[skubish]

Hi:

My dad is thinking about buying a laptop. He's never been an Apple user but I think I'm starting to convince him. He's retired and his main use of a laptop would be to do email, wordprocessing, AND photoshop. He's an avid amateur photographer with a fancy digital SLR (forget which one) and the kind of person who wants his monitor and printers and such calibrated with ICCC profiles and the like.

He *thinks* he would need a PowerBook to do this stuff but he doesn't have the $$$ to shell out on a 15" PB. This means he's leaning towards a PC laptop.

My questions:

- would a new iBook be able to handle photoshop well, not so well, or (I doubt) not at all?

- from other Photoshop users, would a 14" iBook be cramped for photoshop purposes (display wise)?

- would Photoshop Elements work better (assuming he doesn't need the full power of Photoshop)?

Thanks for the advice.

If he is this kind of not he isn't going to be happy with the iBook screen let alone any LCD. I find that the iBook screens are a little dim and the max resolution on the screen is only 1024 x 768.

Does he really need a laptop? I would suggest a Mini with a good CRT.

 

[mkrishnan]

You kind of lost me there....DPI - dots per inch, so the iBook with 14" screen and same resolution as a 12" screen would have larger dots. If he went with a higher resolution pc based laptop, he would get higher DPI and could zoom in on pictures just fine (to see detail) but application menus and so on would be teeny tiny?

Yes, exactly. Because you can't really zoom in on menus and so on, like you can with the pictures. I'm just saying that, if he thinks 12" screens he has seen are too tiny, then the elements such as buttons and text are going to be as small or smaller, in comparison to the 12" notebooks, on most higher res laptop screens, even if the screens are 15-17" in physical size.

You can go through and make some compromises to make this better, but it will be relatively messy and not everything is user-definable in size.

 

[beige matchbox]

LCDs are fine for your average photo tinkerer,

Anyway, for what you said above and iBook will be more than enough, the only slight problem could be the screen resolution, with the tool windows open there isn't that much space available for the image, having said that i used a 1024x768 screen for years and managed just fine

As i would recommend to most people looking at an apple at the moment (with fairly basic needs) I would grab an ibook, in this case the 14in considering the eyesight, and after applying the screen spanning hack, a 17in LCD that'll display 1280x1024 and has both DVI and VGA, VGA for the iBook and the DVI so it'll work with possible future computers

The iBook will be great on its own when out and about, but when you at home, and sitting at a desk you can't beat having a larger screen available

 

[jefhatfield]

OK, I'll take your word for it - can you arm me with some reasons why that's the case....if true, this could be the clincher for him.

Here's what he's considering, other than an ibook: Fujitsu N3510B, Fujitsu N3510A, Dell 6000d. I've long since abandonded the pc world for Apple so these names don't mean much to me. I gather they're all pentium-m's with integrated graphics.

My pitch to him was, if you go with an iBook: no more viruses, no more crashing, good support (software, forums) for digital photography.

His concerns: G4 is at the end of line, Apple costs more (he was thinking powerbook), compatibility issues.....I'm not looking for comments on these, I think I've convinced him otherwise. Just a matter now of being able to convince him that an iBook would fit the bill for Photoshop work.

i think for the most part that apple's dedication to graphics and art have been what has partially driven their operating system design and office applications/business applications are what have driven the pc side with windows...neither is better as a computer because of that, it's just that they have a different focus

the separate graphics card in an ibook and powerbook, at their price points, is also a plus for graphic design...i have not seen a thousand dollar pc laptop with separate graphics

the ibook and powerbook will probably go through one more incarnation or speed bump before they sport an intel processor so the g4 chip for laptops is not at the end of its line quite yet and may be there another 18 months

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

the 14" IMO will be fine. It's not like Apple would make a bad product, right?

 

[leekohler]

I have to say yes- go for it. I use my 14" 1 GHz with Photoshop CS and it's just fine.

 

[Sean7512]

It'll be more than fine, I use Photoshop CS with a 1.25ghz eMac, and it runs more than great. I have my ram maxed at 1024mb, so I'd recommend that. When I first got my eMac with 512mb, I was using Photoshop 7 perfectly fine with the comp. It is even SIGNIFICANTLY faster than our Pentium 4 1.4ghz laptop.

 

[rkristich]

I have a 12" 1.33 ghz PB with 768 mb RAM. It works great with Photoshop Elements 3.0, and now there's really not much of a difference between my PB and the new iBooks except for the better graphics card. Of course, more RAM is always a must, crucial.com is a great place to get quality RAM at a good price.

With all the responses about why an iBook is superior to Windows based computers for what your dad needs, you shouldn't have any trouble convincing him to get a Mac.

As for what size to get, first of all, does your dad want to burn DVDs? If so, if he wants an iBook then the 14" is his only choice. If he doesn't need a superdrive, then are there any Apple Stores or Resellers around where he could compare the two? Personally, I would go with the 12" and get a nice monitor with the $300 you save, but as I said, it really would be best if your dad could compare and decide himself.

As some people were saying, higher resolution isn't necessarily better, especially when it comes to older people. I have a Dell laptop with an wide aspect ultra sharp screen (WUXGA I think). It has a resolution of 1920 by 1200, and while my 17 year old eyes have no problem with seeing things on the screen, my 52 year old dad finds the computer unusable when the resolution is so high, so I always have to decrease the resolution when he wants to use it, but it always looks kind of rough and unfinished when I decrease the resolution. At least the native 1024 by 768 resolution looks nice and smooth on my PB.

Oh and one last thing: chances are, your dad does not need the full Photoshop. Photoshop CS2 is $600 and Photoshop Elements is only $90. While I've never compared the two, I've heard that Elements can do about 90% of the things CS2 can do, and that the 10% of things it can't do are only usuful to serious professionals. I'm sure Elements would be enough for an avid amateur photographer, so don't worry about him needing to run CS2 on an iBook (even though I'm sure an iBook could handle CS2 just fine)

 

[hakusai]

Thanks

Thanks for all the comments and advice. I'm going to show my dad my 12" iBook so he can play around with it. I'll let you guys know what happens.

 

[hakusai]

Bought the iBook

Hi all:

Yesterday night, I put in an order for the 14" iBook with 100 GB hard drive for my dad. Also ordered 1 GB ram separately.

Thanks again for all your comments.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Awesome machine!

Best of luck with it... to both of you (or aren't you allowed to borrow?)

 

[hakusai]

Awesome machine!

Best of luck with it... to both of you (or aren't you allowed to borrow?)

I've got my own - less capable - iBook: G4 with 30 GB hard drive and 256 MB ram. Although, after trying to demo Photoshop on it for him (not a pretty experience with 256MB - min specs are 384 or something) I've been convinced to up my ram to 768. It'll do me good in general, anyway.

 

[bodeh6]

I just ordered the 14" with 1GB and 60GB Combo model. I can't wait to start using it. Although it has the same resolution as the 12", I liked looking at the 14" more because I figure for longer use it will be more comfortable.