Yes, I used to have a Dual 2.7 before it had fluid all over the place. Even then my tasks were getting slower. 3D/rendering and video editing as well as raw photo editing. Being stuck on older software was not helping. With all the newer tools I was feeling gimped considering what I saw was available on Windows.
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The end of PPC
- Thread starter Wildy
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Yes, I used to have a Dual 2.7 before it had fluid all over the place. Even then my tasks were getting slower. 3D/rendering and video editing as well as raw photo editing. Being stuck on older software was not helping. With all the newer tools I was feeling gimped considering what I saw was available on Windows.
Nameci
macrumors 68000
Nobody stops you from moving to Intel if that suits you. Whatever rocks your boat. But saying our grandmas are not able to do things and just slow because of old age is an insult to 'em. I still find it enjoyable to do my "job" on a lowly powerbook. It is not the end yet for powerpc. Because my powerpc macs are not dead, yet. But grandmas gone.
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Indeed! 🙂 Though I'd take one made from OSX any day over a Publisher PDF. Come to think of it, I think today I used a client-supplied, OSX-made PDF, or more accurately one generated from Apple's Pages program.
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Well, at least with a Publisher PDF you still get embedded fonts. Easy enough to convert the colorspace with Pitstop or Quite A Box of Tricks. An OS X generated PDF on the other hand…just depends on what app you're using as to whether you get a solid image or embedded fonts..
Haven't had much luck with customer sent Pages PDFs. I've gotten exactly two and the customer seems not to know how to make the PDF. She uses Pages on her iPad to make an ad and then sends us the Pages file. One, we don't have the latest version so we can't even begin to open that. So, she makes a PDF. Which of course, flattens, is RGB and no embedded fonts. We usually end up rebuilding her ads! 🙁
Wow that sounds like quite an ordeal! To be frank, I haven't to the best of my knowledge worked with very many OSX-generated PDFs, but I have worked with Publisher plenty over the years (ugh, I do not like that program). Didn't know that OSX-made PDFs could be troublesome like that. I guess I assumed that since Apple has had a long-standing relationship with Adobe that Adobe might have helped them with their program-writing where PDF options/controls are concerned.
So OSX PDFs do not give you control over font embedding, huh? I can easily see that being problematic. Though the Pages PDF being RGB is a surprise. Again, I'd have thought that Apple would have written it a little better than that! At least Publisher gives you the option of CMYK (though anymore I leave Publisher layouts as RGB, generate the PDF, place it in InDesign and let InDesign do the CMYK interpolation - looks WAY better than what Publisher would produce).
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Well, it just depends.. The customer's ads tend to be simple so it's not much work. As to OS X generated PDFs, you'd be correct in regards to Adobe, but it just depends on the program. And frankly, anyone making a PDF using the OS X option probably does not know enough to get a proper PDF (which is why I have issues). Like out customer I mention. I get RGB PDFs from Pages because like most clueless customers she'll place RGB PDFs and then just save out a PDF. That of course makes it RGB. Or I assume it does. I don't know Pages that well, but I keep getting RGB PDFs from her so what can I say?
InDesign you can export. QuarkXPress you can export, or make a PS or EPS file and distill. Illy, save a PDF, Photoshop, save a PDF, etc. But those are all options the program gives you. It's not directly written by the OS.
But say, you take a PS or EPS file that has embedded fonts. Open it in Preview and then save out a PDF…you'll get a RGB PDF that's been rasterized.
I hate Publisher! But only because people don't know how to use it. Most have no clue the difference between RGB and CMYK. As to your process, this is something I'd normally do, but we process our ads before they ever get into the newspaper document. So, I tend to just take care of it right there. Oh, I'll export an RGB PDF out of Publisher, but I convert it in Acrobat, then place it in ID.
No surprises on press day because I already know what it looks like. We're way behind the technology curve so we print seps which get pasted up then shot by camera, converted to film and then burned to plate. So, my seps have to be right from the get go. Fortunately, for us that period will be over in the next week as we are getting out of the printing business (but not the publishing business) and sending our papers to a printer from now on.
I'll be able to afford a little less anal retentiveness. 🙂
P.S. I've been in the newspaper business for 14 years, so I've gotten pretty good at ripping apart customer PDFs and repurposing the content. Pitstop, Acrobat, Illy, Photoshop and a few other tools really help. Ovis PDF-Recover is a great tool too as idiot customers sometimes like to pasword protect their PDFs. Ovis can crack them so I can work with them.
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That's right, now I remember reading your post about outsourcing for printing. I guess that will simply things some, huh?
Great to know about Ovis. I see PW-protected PDFs every once in a while. I've been in printing/design in one capacity or another since 1991 myself. Officially (though management has made exceptions), we're not allowed by company policy to edit PDFs at the shop I work at - not even with Pit Stop or Acrobat's Preflight features - so I've had to find ways to work around that limitation, or else tell the customer to fix it or be okay with it as is. It's because of this policy that I rely on InDesign for CMYK interpolation of RGB PDFs.
Wow, I didn't know that about Preview, but then I've always either exported from ID, saved as from IL, or printed to .ps (or .prn out of Publisher) and distilled, as the case may be.
What do you print your seps on that's clean enough to shoot film from? Just curious. Last time I had any exposure to film (pun not originally intended, then thought about, then intended 🙂 ) was maybe 8 years ago or so.
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Yeah, things will be much simpler! Just a matter of making a PDF when done with a page and sending the PDF over. We have a 75 line screen (150dpi) and our press struggles. The printer we are sending to is the local printer for the Wall Street Journal and Barrons so we're in good hands.
I totally get your position. And truth to tell, I'd actually prefer being in that spot. We're a small community weekly and most of the junk we get is from local customers who can barely figure out how to turn their computers on, let alone understand what I'm trying to tell them. They have no design departments and are usually passing along a PDF made by some other paper or outfit. It's usually the wrong size for us and has other problems.
I can't kick it back because there's no one to kick it back to. The newspaper business is also a little odd in the sense that when you buy an ad the design services are free. So, technically, I'm being paid to tear their PDF apart and put it together in the ad space they booked. Eventually, you just learn to deal because you're the only one that can fix it. That's where the apps come in.
Newspapers are also in a special position in that we have lattitude to font substitute. We aren't making coffee table books or print campaigns. Just printing ads. So if I don't have the customer's font because it's now an image or it bitmapped because they didn't embed it I can try and match it as best I can. So, we're less restricted in that respect. Also, we can't guarantee an exact color match because this is newsprint. Except if you're calling for spot color. There are no bluelines, press match proofs or anything like that (and several customers have been told that they CANNOT have proofs before the run because there's no paper to run at that point). The color is adjusted over the course of the run and that's it. 😀
We have two Xante 3G Accel-a-Writers. They are tabloid (11x17) printers. Our format therefore is tabloid (10.33"x16" or 62p x 96p). Pages are printed one by one on 11x17. For color pages we print seps, one 11x17 page per color.
My coworker who's done the pasteup for years and actually started the company on color has gridsheets wide enough for two imposed pages. The press can handle 24 pages max per section so assuming that, one of these gridsheets would have page 1 and 24, then the next would have 2 and 23 and so on. The separations are pasted down on separate grid sheets and the black only pages are just pasted down by themselves.
All of that goes down to camera where the gridsheet is shot in the darkroom and the negative generated. Then we strip together the two negs so we have a full printer spread of four pages. THAT gets put into the plate burner and it spits out the plate which then goes on the press.
The press itself is a Goss Community 300. We've got four stations (3 color, 1 B/W). Once the plates are mounted they forklift a 3000lb paper roll on to the spool, feed it in and start the run.
We usually do two sections and since everyone's been doing this forever we roll out one paper on Tuesday and the next on Wednesday. Our papers are direct mail so they have to be at the post office by Thursday and Friday.
Going with the new printer will allows us to have color on any page (instead of back/front/center spread) and will give us an enormous jump in quality. Right now because of the press and all the generations of getting the output to plate you can see the dot on our photos with the naked eye and our registration is just crap. We've been sending our special sections to the printer as a test for about a month now and the quality is just light years from what we can do ourselves.
Unfortunately for my coworker, she's been stuck with informing our print customers that they have to find an alternative printer.
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Sweet!
Yep been there for sure! Yeah there is a certain freedom in being able to say that we can't edit customer-supplied PDFs. 🙂
I know what you mean. Often the case has been that it's quicker for me to just go ahead and fix an issue (via workaround) than to spend time on the phone or exchanging emails, explaining what needs to be done and possibly having to put the job on hold while waiting for the customer to get in touch with their customer, etc. Why do that when it takes me an extra couple of minutes to fix the folding margins (for example) and move the job along to the proof stage? Doing it this way keeps the job moving and allows the company a lot more flexibility with the jobs that we gang together because there's a larger pool of approved jobs to pick and choose from, which in turn keeps Press and Bindery moving along and not waiting around for things to do.
That's a good deal. Most of the time we don't run color proofs unless client specifically orders them - other than that our jobs get run to density and that's it.
Wow man, that's quite a process. CTP is awesome I have to say. The closest I ever got to stuff that manual was operating a stat camera back in the early 90s. Well, that and doing matchprints back in the mid-90s days of service bureaus.
That's great and better all around for you guys and for the advertisers/customers/readers. Quality is important.
Along those lines, how is the transition going? PM me if you'd like more info about our shop, in case any of your print customers are interested in being referred to a printer rather than having to search for one.
And apologies for the delayed reply! 🙂
I have been a Macintosh owner for many many years, and have been upgrading when required since my first Macintosh in 1995.
Intel Mac's aren't the same, they're Intel - and Intel used to be classed as Wintel - part of the enemy as it were, and now we're sleeping with him.
But needs must and I have my third Intel Macintosh - an iMac i5 with thunderbolt. (I still have my previous two Intel Macs ((white iMac 17" and Core 2 Duo Aluminium iMac)
My route back to PowerPC started with my Macintosh Classic II. I have been using my Classic II for Word/Excel and Chess and it along with the Extended Keyboard is a joy to use. But I have always lusted after a Macintosh SE30 and recently I bought a Mint reconditioned one. And I must say, what a gorgeous work of art - sorry Sir Jonny Ive, but Frog Designs Classic Macintosh's are in a different league entirely, my SE30 is timeless in its beauty and elegance and the Bondi Blue iMac looks crap in comparison, and my SE30 is more precious than any modern Macintosh.
I mant to use my SE30 for Office, along with Chess, and especially Infocom Text Adventures and other adventure games.
My problems arose when I acquired a USB Floppy drive to transfer software from macintoshgarden and other software downloaded onto my iMac onto my SE30. Networking was out of the question - as I installed System 7.1 for speed (it had 7.5.3 previously but that hogged too much space and speed).
I installed Sheepshaver with 7.5.3 onto the iMac but it's next to useless as I cannot mount Drives normally within it.
The biggest pain in the arse was not being able to write to Mac OS formatted Floppy Disks and transfer files from the iMac to the SE30.
I then had to look at getting myself another Mac to act as a go-between the iMac and SE30 - and the logical obvious choice was a Powerbook.
I managed to pick up a Powerbook G4 1.67 with 1 GB of RAM and OS X Tiger. And even though it has the u,o,i, key problems (need to apply pressure on the trackpad to activate the key presses) it's fine!
it solved my problem, I am able to file share between it and the iMac by logging onto my iMac - and I was amazed at the fact that I could web browse pretty normally using Safari. I have experienced no problems so far, ok, it's a tad slower than the iMac but still perfectly usable.
The only issue I have is with streaming video - for this I just use Mactubes, but I prefer playing using software designed for it, rather than modern stuff which is obviously going to be incompatible or geared towards more modern Macs.
The Powerbook is wonderful, looks cool, much cooler and nicer designed than my nephews i5 MBP - the keyboard is also nicer and the only way the MBP trumps is in the fact that it has a modern screen!
I have a question though - how does the Powerbook G4 compare in purely computing power to the ARM chip in an iPhone 4? The iPhone 4 manages to play video flawlessly and mirrors it on Apple TV - I have heard tell that it's not about the CPU/GPU being slow but rather software incompatibility ie. websites and video sites being made for modern machines and not being optimised in any way shape or form for PPC.
I think there is a 'homebrew' future for PPC machines, and long may they survive, and macintoshgarden is fantastic, I'm able to play games, use productivity software for my PBG4 along with my legacy SE30 which predates the PowerPC G4 by many years.
I've just completed Myth II Soulblighter on my G4!
By the way, someone mentioned the Wii U - EA abandoned the Wii U NOT because of the CPU but because of a ridiculous demand they made which Nintendo obviously turned down.
The CPU in the Wii U is very easy to develop for - hence it's choice. XB1 and PS4 have shifted to AMD as they make the GPU and cross developing between PC, XB1 and PS4 is easier - and as devs work with PC's and X86 primarily, shifting to X86 on home games consoles is an obvious choice.
Intel Mac's aren't the same, they're Intel - and Intel used to be classed as Wintel - part of the enemy as it were, and now we're sleeping with him.
But needs must and I have my third Intel Macintosh - an iMac i5 with thunderbolt. (I still have my previous two Intel Macs ((white iMac 17" and Core 2 Duo Aluminium iMac)
My route back to PowerPC started with my Macintosh Classic II. I have been using my Classic II for Word/Excel and Chess and it along with the Extended Keyboard is a joy to use. But I have always lusted after a Macintosh SE30 and recently I bought a Mint reconditioned one. And I must say, what a gorgeous work of art - sorry Sir Jonny Ive, but Frog Designs Classic Macintosh's are in a different league entirely, my SE30 is timeless in its beauty and elegance and the Bondi Blue iMac looks crap in comparison, and my SE30 is more precious than any modern Macintosh.
I mant to use my SE30 for Office, along with Chess, and especially Infocom Text Adventures and other adventure games.
My problems arose when I acquired a USB Floppy drive to transfer software from macintoshgarden and other software downloaded onto my iMac onto my SE30. Networking was out of the question - as I installed System 7.1 for speed (it had 7.5.3 previously but that hogged too much space and speed).
I installed Sheepshaver with 7.5.3 onto the iMac but it's next to useless as I cannot mount Drives normally within it.
The biggest pain in the arse was not being able to write to Mac OS formatted Floppy Disks and transfer files from the iMac to the SE30.
I then had to look at getting myself another Mac to act as a go-between the iMac and SE30 - and the logical obvious choice was a Powerbook.
I managed to pick up a Powerbook G4 1.67 with 1 GB of RAM and OS X Tiger. And even though it has the u,o,i, key problems (need to apply pressure on the trackpad to activate the key presses) it's fine!
it solved my problem, I am able to file share between it and the iMac by logging onto my iMac - and I was amazed at the fact that I could web browse pretty normally using Safari. I have experienced no problems so far, ok, it's a tad slower than the iMac but still perfectly usable.
The only issue I have is with streaming video - for this I just use Mactubes, but I prefer playing using software designed for it, rather than modern stuff which is obviously going to be incompatible or geared towards more modern Macs.
The Powerbook is wonderful, looks cool, much cooler and nicer designed than my nephews i5 MBP - the keyboard is also nicer and the only way the MBP trumps is in the fact that it has a modern screen!
I have a question though - how does the Powerbook G4 compare in purely computing power to the ARM chip in an iPhone 4? The iPhone 4 manages to play video flawlessly and mirrors it on Apple TV - I have heard tell that it's not about the CPU/GPU being slow but rather software incompatibility ie. websites and video sites being made for modern machines and not being optimised in any way shape or form for PPC.
I think there is a 'homebrew' future for PPC machines, and long may they survive, and macintoshgarden is fantastic, I'm able to play games, use productivity software for my PBG4 along with my legacy SE30 which predates the PowerPC G4 by many years.
I've just completed Myth II Soulblighter on my G4!
By the way, someone mentioned the Wii U - EA abandoned the Wii U NOT because of the CPU but because of a ridiculous demand they made which Nintendo obviously turned down.
The CPU in the Wii U is very easy to develop for - hence it's choice. XB1 and PS4 have shifted to AMD as they make the GPU and cross developing between PC, XB1 and PS4 is easier - and as devs work with PC's and X86 primarily, shifting to X86 on home games consoles is an obvious choice.
My old faithful
Howdy,
I still use my single processor 1.8 G5, (2003). I bought it the day Apple put them in the store. I bought my son and wife MacBook Pros lately, and I hate them, or perhaps I should say I hates the OS. I feel like I'm using a big iPhone. 😕 At least 10.5.8 still feels like a computer OS, but then again I hang in the terminal a lot, and was pretty happy when the Internet was all command line, UNIX shell kinda stuff. Ok, the web ain't bad either.
It's interesting to note that all the original stuff is still working, but a second HD that I added just crashed after only 3 years use. And alas I think that the super optical drive is suspect; having issues with burning DVDs.
Howdy,
I still use my single processor 1.8 G5, (2003). I bought it the day Apple put them in the store. I bought my son and wife MacBook Pros lately, and I hate them, or perhaps I should say I hates the OS. I feel like I'm using a big iPhone. 😕 At least 10.5.8 still feels like a computer OS, but then again I hang in the terminal a lot, and was pretty happy when the Internet was all command line, UNIX shell kinda stuff. Ok, the web ain't bad either.
It's interesting to note that all the original stuff is still working, but a second HD that I added just crashed after only 3 years use. And alas I think that the super optical drive is suspect; having issues with burning DVDs.
Intell
macrumors P6
All iOS devices have a hardware decoder and all iOS devices starting with the 3Gs have an hardware encoder. This allows it to play videos without using very much processing power and to send a video stream to the Apple TV. According to GeekBench, the iPad 4 has a benchmark score around that of a mid range dual processor G5. However, the mid range G5 still outperforms the iPad in some tasks and the iPad outperforms the G5 at others. Don't forget, GeekBench scores are an artificial means to determine a device's usability and real world speed.
Jessica Lares
macrumors G3
I have one too. You need to upgrade the SuperDrive firmware most likely. You can do that within Leopard.
Hello All,
For years I tried to keep the PPC Dream alive, I have Powermac G5 Quad Core machine! But I had no choice but to bite the bullet and bought myself second hand Mac Pro. But there is no new software that is being made for PPC's anymore! I am not an Intel person, but I need to run new apps! Now I don't know what to do with my old G5! Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Merv Stent
For years I tried to keep the PPC Dream alive, I have Powermac G5 Quad Core machine! But I had no choice but to bite the bullet and bought myself second hand Mac Pro. But there is no new software that is being made for PPC's anymore! I am not an Intel person, but I need to run new apps! Now I don't know what to do with my old G5! Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Merv Stent
Colpeas
macrumors 6502a
Same thing here. I had to get an Intel machine for my office, so I bought the last gen. 17-inch MacBook Pro. However, I'm going to keep the Quad around, I love that machine so much! Would be better if I had something to use it for, though.
SkyBell
macrumors 604
I'm in sort of the same boat here. I love my eMac to death, but it was just getting to the point of being incredibly frustrating to find work-arounds and coping with outdated software trying to keep up in today's world. I swallowed a bit of my pride back in April and purchased a MacBook. But that 'ol eMac isn't going anywhere, I still try to share the workload between the two machines. 😉
I resurrected a friend's dual G5 a few weeks ago; I installed a terabyte hard drive and 4 GB of RAM (it would have been 8, but a few of the RAM slots are dead). It's snappy running 10.4, and it feels just like a new machine. 🙂
I use it when I'm at my desk and as a backup server for my other macs. It's sad that Apple discontinues support for computers so quickly; a dual or quad G5 with ample RAM is just as capable of running ML as any intel mac.
I use it when I'm at my desk and as a backup server for my other macs. It's sad that Apple discontinues support for computers so quickly; a dual or quad G5 with ample RAM is just as capable of running ML as any intel mac.
Nameci
macrumors 68000
For sure it cannot run ML even if the hardware would suffice. Apple stripped PPC code since Snow Leopard.
Intell
macrumors P6
With Apple moving to 64-bit only with Lion, G5s would have taken a very big performance hit. G5s run 64-bit binaries much slower than 32-bit due to the large overhead and slower memory interface. This would have resulted in even a late-2006 Mac Mini with a 1.86Ghz Core2Duo surpassing a quad with ease when running 10.7 or any other 64-bit native binary. And with Apple's push to make Snow Leopard completely 64-bit, it was then that Apple chose to drop PowerPC support. In summation, a G5 is not as capable due to how it handles 64-bit binaries.
SkyBell
macrumors 604
Finally, a tangible reason behind the relatively quick abandonment of PPC architecture; at least the first one I've ever heard.