Just wanted to get some opinions my current situation. I went from designing on a PC for 4 1/2 years to a new job which has an iMac. My concerns are that I'm off the network, am the only one on an Apple, have less functionality than people have with a PC (outlook meetings, lync, internal docs manager access, etc.) and don't have a dedicated Mac specialist in IT.If I switched to a pc, would the Apple InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop files open on the PC with minimal issues?I do use a Font Manager now, so that may be the biggest problem with a transition. Open Type is the only "universal font" that will move over without any issues correct?Any obvious benefits to working on a Mac vs. PC? Time Machine is the biggest one I can think of.Thanks!

Known Participant

Question

Graphic Design on a PC vs Mac

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
April 19, 2013
3 replies
17966 views

Just wanted to get some opinions my current situation. I went from designing on a PC for 4 1/2 years to a new job which has an iMac. My concerns are that I'm off the network, am the only one on an Apple, have less functionality than people have with a PC (outlook meetings, lync, internal docs manager access, etc.) and don't have a dedicated Mac specialist in IT.

If I switched to a pc, would the Apple InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop files open on the PC with minimal issues?
I do use a Font Manager now, so that may be the biggest problem with a transition. Open Type is the only "universal font" that will move over without any issues correct?
Any obvious benefits to working on a Mac vs. PC? Time Machine is the biggest one I can think of.

Thanks!

This topic has been closed for replies.

EdduVaz

Inspiring

I had a good dell lap top, but nw macbook pro i7 2.4ghz 16 gb ram, ati radeon 1gb .. so .. i didnt go back windows... i work with large files .. and my system doesnt crash ..

MichaelKazlow

Legend

To add to John's comments. Outlook is available on a Mac and Mac Mail is a good Exchange Client. The Mac Calendar can subsribe and work with Exhange Calendar without issue. Lync works with Macs as well. I cannot comment on the internal document manager, siince I do not know what it is. I work equally well with Mac and PCs. It is a personal choice. For the most part, while Macs are now more vulnerable to attacks than in the past, it still is not the target Windows are. You can run Windows on a Mac so you can use some of the Windows software you do not have at the same time you run your other software on a Mac.

As to cross-platform compatiblity, there are no issues except for font issues. Not all fonts found on one platform are available on the other, but for most standard open type fonts this is a non-issue.

L

LuisRMAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks John and Michael for the detailed feedback. It will help in making a decision. It's been a while since I used a Mac, and I'm trying to weight the pros and cons of staying with it or making the switch to a pc. Have a good one!

I'll take any other thoughts if anyone has them though just generally speaking on mac vs. pc with designing.

fogharty

Known Participant

LuisRM, have you checked out this site? http://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/pctomac/

It might help with some of your keyboard shortcuts, etc. You can also remap some of your modifier keys if you want to make your keyboard more like the PC.

I've worked on Macs for years, then had to go to a PC last August. I have to say I'd prefer the Macs. My iMac at home is supposedly less powerful than the Dell I use at work, but the rendering time is so much faster. I'm very frustrated with the amount of time it takes the Dell to render a simple effect.

Apart from that, once you are an adobe program, the interfaces are mostly identical from PC to Mac. There are a few small menu differences, mostly the location of preferences, but that's about it.

All in all, I much prefer the Mac.

A

Anonymous

Let me see if I can address each one of your concerns...

"My concerns are that I'm off the network, am the only one on an Apple, have less functionality than people have with a PC (outlook meetings, lync, internal docs manager access, etc.) and don't have a dedicated Mac specialist in IT."

As far as I know, you can connect to the network if you have the IP address: Go menu > Network.

If I switched to a pc, would the Apple InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop files open on the PC with minimal issues?

No, but you might get a migrate deal from Adobe for a PC version of what you have now.

I do use a Font Manager now, so that may be the biggest problem with a transition. Open Type is the only "universal font" that will move over without any issues correct?

Yes. Open type fonts work on both PC and Mac. I prefer to still use legacy Mac fonts that are Open Type.

Any obvious benefits to working on a Mac vs. PC? Time Machine is the biggest one I can think of.

Just productivity. There are more operations to doing a basic command on a PC, whereas a Mac can do 2 things at once and is a much more streamlined interface, more intuitive and faster. This is my personal opnion having worked on both the Mac and PC and still do.

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