<strong>...I use dreamweaver for table layout only but it seems to run just fine...</strong><hr></blockquote>
I agree. My Mac runs Dreamweaver MX just fine. I've only got a iBook 700 w/384RAM and I don't see any sluggishness at all. Maybe it's the extra cache or something, not sure what it could be. But I honestly don't have ANY problems with DW.
Hearing printing issues with drivers is now what we want to hear and none of us really wants to move over to InDesign.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
my studio thought that to begin with, but we bought a single copy in indesign 1 when it came out to play with and have not looked back.
now with version 2 it is superb. yes it has its faults, but so has quark. i would recommend getting a trial version and having a play. you will find its like illustrator, but with better page layout tools. well thats the arguement i used to persuade people here to use it...
My advice is to hold off until Jaguar is released .. then run an evaluation version on one of the macs ... possible a single proc G4 500
i believe Jag-wire should help tame many of the CPU-munching, GUI-sapping issues which have dogged some X users. I am using a G4 500 with 768Mb RAM, and i do notice a significant slowdown through the day if i multi-task between various apps. Seem to get big unwieldy swap files and a lack of physical memory to play around with .. which is frustrating. i firmly expect 10.2 to address many of these probs.
as for software availability, well you can now do most stuff in X natively ... i'm still not convinced as many of the apps i have evaluated have been slower in X on my machine than in 9.2.2 ... flash mx, photoshop 7, illustrator 10 (which is a dog) ... and i find the GUI lag is frustrating in many appos with multiple floating palettes. there are various hacks and workarounds to minimise this but right now i think only newer machines (POST MWSF01) can really run design apps properly in a time-constrained workflow
I took the plunge and went X about 4 months ago: for me the decider was my email. When i migrated to entourage X there was no going back ... i need email on at all times when working ... and so i sometimes suffer the performance hit of the GUI and weird memory swaps because i love preemptive multi-tasking, stability and other X-only features.
it is particularly good to combining 2d and 3d work: eg cinema4d, final cut pro, after effects, flash ... truly a joy to get these all working together. but when i need to use QXP 4.1.1 in classic i have issues ... if i switch to another app and then back to my quark pasteboard, often i get a residual image of what was currently occupying that spot in the other app ... kinda like a ghost or artefact... so you have to do the old quark trick of pressing F7 to redraw the whole screen area ...
I don't know what qx5 is like under classic ... i'm sure it is servicable. as the OS evolves and matures it will be what you want to work in ... and i'm sure soon after you move to os x you will yearn for everything to be native.
<strong>Now that Photoshop is out for OS X, all the pieces are in...</strong><hr></blockquote>
How is Photoshop for OS X? I was thinking about purchasing it and haven't heard too much about it. Is the application as responsive in X as it is in 9, or at least close?
<strong> Really I have almoast the exact same setup (1.5 Gb RAM) and I dont really find the perfomance all to bad</strong><hr></blockquote>
I must say:
After I ranted the other day about the terror of Dreamweaver on X, I went over to my PC and played with MX on it. The application is very sluggish in Windows, too, so what i said earlier (that OS X is a poor choice for design in comparison to WinXP) is not entirely correct.
It seems that my bad experience came from the fact the cell i was typing text into already had a lot of text in it (I notice that I've received advice on a better way to do this earlier in the thread- thank you). This problem is not exlusive to DW MX in OS X, but seems to be a problem with MX itself. Dreamweaver 4 is not as bad at this task.
The delay I experience when dragging/re-sizing cells or tables in Dreamweaver MX is also present and about the same in windows and is (of course) determined by the amount of content in the page.
THANKS again to those of you who offered your kind suggestions
Well. I actually can do MORE in OS X than that piece of fu*king sh!t OS 9
Doing image touch up/ painting in PS while rendering in Cinema and burning CDs
or
Compressing QT movie with Cleaner while editing sequence in After Effects / Final Cut Pro.
-ALSO-
All native apps that I have been using (Photoshop 7, Illustrator 10, After Effects 5.5, Final Cut Pro 3, Cinema 4D, BodyPaint, Cleaner 5.12, Dreamweaver MX, Toast, etc....) have been rock solid.
And I have no system level crash at all.
Back to the OS 9 days I just couldn't fu*king see these happening. I really hate it when I see people keep saying how much OS 9 rocks.
<strong>I'm using OS X full-time (and have been since January...can't recall the last time I launched Classic or booted into OS 9...).
Now that Photoshop is out for OS X, all the pieces are in place. For me, anyway.
I do use Suitcase for OS X (essential!), although I'm kinda bummed that Adobe isn't making ATM Deluxe for OS X (that was a very easy, intuitive and transparent font utility!).
I think, at this point, the remaining issues revolve around various printer and scanner drivers from Umax, Epson, etc. That and perhaps some Photoshop filters or third-party plug-ins.
But, speaking for myself and my work habits (I don't use filters or plug-ins, nor do I own a scanner), I've been using OS X blissfully for all of 2002, and routinely putting Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, etc. through their paces.
The monthly Adobe Illustrator column/tutorial I write for Mac Design magazine is done all in OS X (Illustrator 10, SnapzPro X for screenshots, write the text in Word v.X, etc.).</strong><hr></blockquote>
I really agree with what you have to say. I don't run a computer graphics shop but I have done a lot of digital and film photography. I use a dedicated film scanner to scan negatives and I download digital photos into my computer. Printing in Mac OS 10 is a nightmare. Don't get me wrong-I really like Mac OS 10.1. But on my current computer I have to use 9.1 on one hard drive and 10.1.5 on the other one. Photo printers do not have full cabability in 10.1. I hope they will have full capability in 10.2, which I understand is probably not due until September. When it comes to scanners you can pretty much forget about them in Mac 10.1; very few scanners are compatible. I understand this issue is being addressed in 10.2.
<strong>You would have thought Apple would have made the Print Center and printing issues a priority when they first launched OSX.
Afterall, they own the graphic design and publishing markets which in general have been slow to change over.
We all know how we don't want to change if it ain't broke.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I agree with what you have to say. I can't understand why Apple did not put more effort into solving printing problems. But I guess they expected Epson, Canon, etc., to handle those problems. From what I have seen,the printer and scanner makers must be looking at Apple being only 5% of the market. I don't run a computer graphics shop, but I do a lot of digital and film photography. Photo printers do not have full cabability in 10.1.5; I have to use 9.1 on my second hard drive to print photos. Printing of photos is a nightmare in 10.1.5. Don't get me wrong-I really like 10.1. There are almost no scanners that are supported by 10.1. According to what I have heard, 10.2 apparently addresses this problem. The main thing I would like to see at MWNY next month is the release of full capability printer software by Epson, Canon, etc. I have heard a lot of 10.2 and I can't wait for it, but the printer drivers are flat out critical. Do you agree!
<strong>Ok here is the scary news for you Gents....
I am a Senior Designer at HP. Our team of 3 all run dual platforms...G4 towers and HP PCs.
Obviously being HP, we can go ALL HP workstations with P4 processors...but we'd have to buy WIN versions of all our software.
The Macs we have are G4 Dual 450s, and 2 500's. They work fine for web development through DW and print.
We're mostly worried about the print aspect.
Hearing printing issues with drivers is now what we want to hear and none of us really wants to move over to InDesign.
But what it might come down to is using our Macs for print work only and our superfast PCs for web dev.
And I personally find it hard to swallow $3k for a Mac workstation when we can get 2.4 P4's loaded for nearly free.
Thanks for everyone's input!!
-Percy</strong><hr></blockquote>
I agree with what you have to say. What I would like to see happen more than anything else at MWNY is for printer software to be released that makes photo printers fully capabile and compatible with Mac OS 10. I really like Mac OS 10.1, but I have to keep 9.1 on one hard drive so that I can print. Photo printers currently do not have full capability in 10.1. I do a lot of digital and film photography. I have a dedicated film scanner. I have been there and let me tell you, trying to print photos in 10.1 is a nightmare! I don't run a computer graphics shop, but I bet a lot of companies are not going to switch to Mac 10 until the printing and scanning problems are solved. According to what I have been able to find out, Apple is addressing the scanning issues in 10.2. But I have not heard anything about photo printers having full capability and compatibility in 10. If photo printers do not soon become fully useable in 10 I don't know what I am going to do. It is so much easier to do graphics on a Mac. I really don't want to use Windows computers. The graphics people may have to stay with 9.1 for a long while. If there is anything Apple can do to address this situation, they should take care of it. Maybe they will have to build Apple printers. Apple is shooting themselves in the foot if this situation is not taken care of. Walk into a typical newspaper office and what do you see? Macs everywhere. Maybe the reporters are using Windows, but not in the area where the paper is being put together. But what operating system is on those Macs? 9.1. Before the industry peopel who use Macs switch to 10, they must have the scanner, printing, and other problems solved. Probably the other major item is for a certain page layout program to be compatible. When the companies that use Macs decide to switch to Mac OS 10, we are talking major stuff here.
How is Photoshop for OS X? I was thinking about purchasing it and haven't heard too much about it. Is the application as responsive in X as it is in 9, or at least close?
do tell </strong><hr></blockquote>
Photoshop 7 works great in Mac OS10.1. It has some additional neat stuff (like the healing brush) and you probably will find it the same in 10.1 as in 9.1. The big problem is that photo printers do not have full capability in 10. And very few scanners are compatible. I believe that the scanner problems are being addressed in 10.2, but I suppose it is up to the printer makers to make their printers compatible and fully useable in 10. It seems to me that that should not be such a big problem. After all, one or a few people have developed shareware and freeware software. Look at VueScan or GraphicConverter. I have to do my printing on my second hard drive which has 9.1. I would love to go fully to 10, but it is just not possible.
<strong>I have been trying to use OSX since 10.1 on a test machine. It works for the most part. The main problem I have is an inability to print separations to my Agfa imagesetter and to set custom page sizes for anything. (We have an HP 5000ps, and an Aspect thermal imagesetter as well) I really want to switch my whole department, because I actually prefer X to 9. But apparently the hold-up is on Apple's end on the printing problems.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I agree with you. I really like Mac OS 10.1 (not Mac OS X-it was a dog), but the one big remaining problem is printing (and also scanning). There is also a need for a certain page layout program to be compatible. I do a lot of digital and film photography. I have a dedicated film scanner. Photo printers do not have full capability in 10. It seems this problem should have been solved a long time ago-after all, 10 has been out for a year. The one thing I would like to see at MWNY more than anything else is for printer companies to announce that their photo printers are now fully compatible in 10. I can hardly wait for 10.2-it looks great. But 10.2 probably will not be around until September. The printer situation needs to be cleared up now. 10.2 will apparently have some scanner support.I do not believe that the graphics shops are going to switch to 10 until the printing and scanning problems are solved. They are still using 9.1. I use 9.1 on my second hard drive to print photos. I also use 9.1 for scanning. I think the printing problems are mainly the fault of printer companies who look only at Apple being only 5% of the market, and do not realize how important the Mac is in design, computer graphics, industry, etc. It seems to me that in these times, I would want that 5% of the market, no matter what the other printer makers decided to do. If the situation does not get better, maybe Apple can build their own printers. I have fairly fond memories of my old Apple printer.
i've been using os x for webdesign since the public beta which worked fine since i don't really like dreamweaver etc. anyway and the apache features really offer some possibilities.
with 10.1, indesign 2 and photoshop 7 i was finally able to switch to os x for print design and page layouts and it improved everything so much. even though the gui seems somewhat slow sometimes i feel like i'm saving a lot of time because i'm still able to work while using distiller, scanning, saving huge ps files, starting apps etc. all of which used to make my os 9 machine unusable. the only time i have to start classic is for acrobat distiller, but even though my machine is not the fastest (400mhz g4, 700mb ram) it seems to take it quite well. i do not miss quark and os 9 one bit and i have to force myself not to laugh when my OldSchool 9 workmates have to reboot cause the apps don't free their memory etc...
I am a senior designer in a advertising agency in Hongkong, My machine upgraded since the OS X10.1.0 relased.
It is just only 50% of our machine upraded to OS X. There are some issue can't solve out. Half of our machines work for traditional pre-press stuff and others work for web stuff.
There are some issues can't sloved.
SCSI - Most of the SCSI devices can't connect to OSX such as Scanner and CD Burner.
Fonts - TTF work fine but PS fonts don't work.
Aqua interface - works very slow on old G3 machines.
What problems have you had with PS fonts? PS fonts have worked fine for me (using Suitcase for X).
If you're not using Suitcase or some comparable type utility (which seems odd to me), note that you cannot in 10.1 place folders in the Fonts folder. (You can, of course, but X won't see them.) This nuisance appears to be addressed in the upcoming 10.2.
I don't really get all the posts about DW MX being s l o w... I only have a G4/450, and DW MX absolutely flies on it in X, compared to DW4 in OS 9.
I switched over on one computer about 2 months ago, and then my other computer on Monday.
To manage fonts, I'm using Font Reserve, which totally sucks. Half the time it crashes on startup and you have to restart it before using any apps. Besides it is dreadfully slow. It seems that Suitcase is much faster.
I ditched Quark for InDesign, and am in optical character alignment heaven. It is a little slower to use, but I think that is because I don't know all the ins and outs down yet. I send press ready PDFs to the printer. This is the wave of the future. I don't have to worry about forgetting to include a font anymore (but then again, InDesign collects fonts!)
PS7 rocks. All I can say is healing brush. Works great with my new Wacom USB tablet.
Scanning was an issue at first, but I got VueScan, which works great with my Epson Firewire scanner. Now if only TWAIN.org would get its collective act together and release specs so scanner co.s could write drivers.
New Logitech Mouse Beta works flawlessly. I have all my custom buttons again. It'd be nice if scrolling works in ALL apps.
Printing SUCKS. Enough said. Should be fixed in Jagwire. It is usable for proofing on Epson Photo printer
Flash is great, a lot faster than OS9 version.
Powerpoint, while being a pile of worthless sh!t on its own accord, is STILL a *buggy* pile of worthless sh!t, even after the latest service update. Expect massive color shifts, and the usual pain in the ass quirkiness from this monstrosity. For serious previewing and presenting PPT2001 is the way to go (or better yet, do a Flash presentation and be done with it).
Although I have AE 5.5, I still use it in OS9, because I haven't updated some very expensive effects yet.
All in all a GREAT experience. Computer NEVER crashes, and I only restart when I install new software. My only beef is with the dock and a couple of other minor interface things that can be fixed with LiteSwitch, TinkerTool, WindowShade and Default Folder.
BTW, I forgot to mention AI 10. Illustrator 10 totally sucks in both 9 and 10. I have never been so disappointed with an Adobe Product. I've even considered switching to Freehand, since it came free with Studio MX.
To fix the page setup page randomly positioning itself around the layout area, just double click on the little page tiling tool in the toolbar (it is grouped with the hand). That should fix it.
A really "fun" thing about AI 10 in OS 9: Ocassionally when I drag an eps or pdf file on an alias of AI 10 to open them, the files will just disappear. Poof Gone. If you double click on the AI icon after that, it gives you an error that the package was damaged, and you need to reinstall the program...
Printing in our mixed platform environment was quite frustrating to set up (mainly because of some bad setup on our print spoolers), but once we got it working we didn't have to think about it again.
As far as actually getting work done, everyone who has been switched over loves it.
Everyone in our shop is on X now. There's a wide variety of hardware (speed wise) and it works like a charm on all of them. When I made the move, I moved to InDesign as well, haven't looked back. I was just waiting for Photoshop and Quark. Got Photoshop, forgot all about Quark, I was so busy hanging every bit of punctuation in sight.
No real issues there.
Printing is awful, but we have a separate "print server" of a machine that we send PDF to and spit it out that way. Seems to help a bit.
A particularly emotional problem I have is that my trusty ol' SCSI scanner that I had had handed down through generations of wily pre-press veterans doesn't work.
I loved that scanner. Worth bundle (admittedly, in it's day), and really don't fancy making a serving tray out of it. Yes, yes, I should get a Firewire one, but I could squeeze colours out of that thing the negatives didn't know they had.
Overall, well worth the learning curve.
Biggest Issue: I had to get a separate piece of software to print folder contents. That was the single handiest thing from 9.
Comments
<strong>...I use dreamweaver for table layout only but it seems to run just fine...</strong><hr></blockquote>
I agree. My Mac runs Dreamweaver MX just fine. I've only got a iBook 700 w/384RAM and I don't see any sluggishness at all. Maybe it's the extra cache or something, not sure what it could be. But I honestly don't have ANY problems with DW.
<strong>
We're mostly worried about the print aspect.
Hearing printing issues with drivers is now what we want to hear and none of us really wants to move over to InDesign.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
my studio thought that to begin with, but we bought a single copy in indesign 1 when it came out to play with and have not looked back.
now with version 2 it is superb. yes it has its faults, but so has quark. i would recommend getting a trial version and having a play. you will find its like illustrator, but with better page layout tools. well thats the arguement i used to persuade people here to use it...
My advice is to hold off until Jaguar is released .. then run an evaluation version on one of the macs ... possible a single proc G4 500
i believe Jag-wire should help tame many of the CPU-munching, GUI-sapping issues which have dogged some X users. I am using a G4 500 with 768Mb RAM, and i do notice a significant slowdown through the day if i multi-task between various apps. Seem to get big unwieldy swap files and a lack of physical memory to play around with .. which is frustrating. i firmly expect 10.2 to address many of these probs.
as for software availability, well you can now do most stuff in X natively ... i'm still not convinced as many of the apps i have evaluated have been slower in X on my machine than in 9.2.2 ... flash mx, photoshop 7, illustrator 10 (which is a dog) ... and i find the GUI lag is frustrating in many appos with multiple floating palettes. there are various hacks and workarounds to minimise this but right now i think only newer machines (POST MWSF01) can really run design apps properly in a time-constrained workflow
I took the plunge and went X about 4 months ago: for me the decider was my email. When i migrated to entourage X there was no going back ... i need email on at all times when working ... and so i sometimes suffer the performance hit of the GUI and weird memory swaps because i love preemptive multi-tasking, stability and other X-only features.
it is particularly good to combining 2d and 3d work: eg cinema4d, final cut pro, after effects, flash ... truly a joy to get these all working together. but when i need to use QXP 4.1.1 in classic i have issues ... if i switch to another app and then back to my quark pasteboard, often i get a residual image of what was currently occupying that spot in the other app ... kinda like a ghost or artefact... so you have to do the old quark trick of pressing F7 to redraw the whole screen area ...
I don't know what qx5 is like under classic ... i'm sure it is servicable. as the OS evolves and matures it will be what you want to work in ... and i'm sure soon after you move to os x you will yearn for everything to be native.
<strong>Now that Photoshop is out for OS X, all the pieces are in...</strong><hr></blockquote>
How is Photoshop for OS X? I was thinking about purchasing it and haven't heard too much about it. Is the application as responsive in X as it is in 9, or at least close?
do tell
<strong> Really I have almoast the exact same setup (1.5 Gb RAM) and I dont really find the perfomance all to bad</strong><hr></blockquote>
I must say:
After I ranted the other day about the terror of Dreamweaver on X, I went over to my PC and played with MX on it. The application is very sluggish in Windows, too, so what i said earlier (that OS X is a poor choice for design in comparison to WinXP) is not entirely correct.
It seems that my bad experience came from the fact the cell i was typing text into already had a lot of text in it (I notice that I've received advice on a better way to do this earlier in the thread- thank you). This problem is not exlusive to DW MX in OS X, but seems to be a problem with MX itself. Dreamweaver 4 is not as bad at this task.
The delay I experience when dragging/re-sizing cells or tables in Dreamweaver MX is also present and about the same in windows and is (of course) determined by the amount of content in the page.
THANKS again to those of you who offered your kind suggestions
-mike
[ 06-28-2002: Message edited by: JDraden ]</p>
Doing image touch up/ painting in PS while rendering in Cinema and burning CDs
or
Compressing QT movie with Cleaner while editing sequence in After Effects / Final Cut Pro.
-ALSO-
All native apps that I have been using (Photoshop 7, Illustrator 10, After Effects 5.5, Final Cut Pro 3, Cinema 4D, BodyPaint, Cleaner 5.12, Dreamweaver MX, Toast, etc....) have been rock solid.
And I have no system level crash at all.
Back to the OS 9 days I just couldn't fu*king see these happening. I really hate it when I see people keep saying how much OS 9 rocks.
[ 06-28-2002: Message edited by: Leonis ]</p>
[QB] I really hate it when I see people keep saying how much OS 9 rocks.
[QB]<hr></blockquote>
It's not that it rocks ... but snappy and feature complete.
<strong>I'm using OS X full-time (and have been since January...can't recall the last time I launched Classic or booted into OS 9...).
Now that Photoshop is out for OS X, all the pieces are in place. For me, anyway.
I do use Suitcase for OS X (essential!), although I'm kinda bummed that Adobe isn't making ATM Deluxe for OS X (that was a very easy, intuitive and transparent font utility!).
I think, at this point, the remaining issues revolve around various printer and scanner drivers from Umax, Epson, etc. That and perhaps some Photoshop filters or third-party plug-ins.
But, speaking for myself and my work habits (I don't use filters or plug-ins, nor do I own a scanner), I've been using OS X blissfully for all of 2002, and routinely putting Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, etc. through their paces.
The monthly Adobe Illustrator column/tutorial I write for Mac Design magazine is done all in OS X (Illustrator 10, SnapzPro X for screenshots, write the text in Word v.X, etc.).</strong><hr></blockquote>
I really agree with what you have to say. I don't run a computer graphics shop but I have done a lot of digital and film photography. I use a dedicated film scanner to scan negatives and I download digital photos into my computer. Printing in Mac OS 10 is a nightmare. Don't get me wrong-I really like Mac OS 10.1. But on my current computer I have to use 9.1 on one hard drive and 10.1.5 on the other one. Photo printers do not have full cabability in 10.1. I hope they will have full capability in 10.2, which I understand is probably not due until September. When it comes to scanners you can pretty much forget about them in Mac 10.1; very few scanners are compatible. I understand this issue is being addressed in 10.2.
<strong>You would have thought Apple would have made the Print Center and printing issues a priority when they first launched OSX.
Afterall, they own the graphic design and publishing markets which in general have been slow to change over.
We all know how we don't want to change if it ain't broke.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I agree with what you have to say. I can't understand why Apple did not put more effort into solving printing problems. But I guess they expected Epson, Canon, etc., to handle those problems. From what I have seen,the printer and scanner makers must be looking at Apple being only 5% of the market. I don't run a computer graphics shop, but I do a lot of digital and film photography. Photo printers do not have full cabability in 10.1.5; I have to use 9.1 on my second hard drive to print photos. Printing of photos is a nightmare in 10.1.5. Don't get me wrong-I really like 10.1. There are almost no scanners that are supported by 10.1. According to what I have heard, 10.2 apparently addresses this problem. The main thing I would like to see at MWNY next month is the release of full capability printer software by Epson, Canon, etc. I have heard a lot of 10.2 and I can't wait for it, but the printer drivers are flat out critical. Do you agree!
TeriMystic
<strong>Ok here is the scary news for you Gents....
I am a Senior Designer at HP. Our team of 3 all run dual platforms...G4 towers and HP PCs.
Obviously being HP, we can go ALL HP workstations with P4 processors...but we'd have to buy WIN versions of all our software.
The Macs we have are G4 Dual 450s, and 2 500's. They work fine for web development through DW and print.
We're mostly worried about the print aspect.
Hearing printing issues with drivers is now what we want to hear and none of us really wants to move over to InDesign.
But what it might come down to is using our Macs for print work only and our superfast PCs for web dev.
And I personally find it hard to swallow $3k for a Mac workstation when we can get 2.4 P4's loaded for nearly free.
Thanks for everyone's input!!
-Percy</strong><hr></blockquote>
I agree with what you have to say. What I would like to see happen more than anything else at MWNY is for printer software to be released that makes photo printers fully capabile and compatible with Mac OS 10. I really like Mac OS 10.1, but I have to keep 9.1 on one hard drive so that I can print. Photo printers currently do not have full capability in 10.1. I do a lot of digital and film photography. I have a dedicated film scanner. I have been there and let me tell you, trying to print photos in 10.1 is a nightmare! I don't run a computer graphics shop, but I bet a lot of companies are not going to switch to Mac 10 until the printing and scanning problems are solved. According to what I have been able to find out, Apple is addressing the scanning issues in 10.2. But I have not heard anything about photo printers having full capability and compatibility in 10. If photo printers do not soon become fully useable in 10 I don't know what I am going to do. It is so much easier to do graphics on a Mac. I really don't want to use Windows computers. The graphics people may have to stay with 9.1 for a long while. If there is anything Apple can do to address this situation, they should take care of it. Maybe they will have to build Apple printers. Apple is shooting themselves in the foot if this situation is not taken care of. Walk into a typical newspaper office and what do you see? Macs everywhere. Maybe the reporters are using Windows, but not in the area where the paper is being put together. But what operating system is on those Macs? 9.1. Before the industry peopel who use Macs switch to 10, they must have the scanner, printing, and other problems solved. Probably the other major item is for a certain page layout program to be compatible. When the companies that use Macs decide to switch to Mac OS 10, we are talking major stuff here.
TeriMystic <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
<strong>
How is Photoshop for OS X? I was thinking about purchasing it and haven't heard too much about it. Is the application as responsive in X as it is in 9, or at least close?
do tell
Photoshop 7 works great in Mac OS10.1. It has some additional neat stuff (like the healing brush) and you probably will find it the same in 10.1 as in 9.1. The big problem is that photo printers do not have full capability in 10. And very few scanners are compatible. I believe that the scanner problems are being addressed in 10.2, but I suppose it is up to the printer makers to make their printers compatible and fully useable in 10. It seems to me that that should not be such a big problem. After all, one or a few people have developed shareware and freeware software. Look at VueScan or GraphicConverter. I have to do my printing on my second hard drive which has 9.1. I would love to go fully to 10, but it is just not possible.
TeriMystic <img src="graemlins/embarrassed.gif" border="0" alt="[Embarrassed]" />
<strong>I have been trying to use OSX since 10.1 on a test machine. It works for the most part. The main problem I have is an inability to print separations to my Agfa imagesetter and to set custom page sizes for anything. (We have an HP 5000ps, and an Aspect thermal imagesetter as well) I really want to switch my whole department, because I actually prefer X to 9. But apparently the hold-up is on Apple's end on the printing problems.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I agree with you. I really like Mac OS 10.1 (not Mac OS X-it was a dog), but the one big remaining problem is printing (and also scanning). There is also a need for a certain page layout program to be compatible. I do a lot of digital and film photography. I have a dedicated film scanner. Photo printers do not have full capability in 10. It seems this problem should have been solved a long time ago-after all, 10 has been out for a year. The one thing I would like to see at MWNY more than anything else is for printer companies to announce that their photo printers are now fully compatible in 10. I can hardly wait for 10.2-it looks great. But 10.2 probably will not be around until September. The printer situation needs to be cleared up now. 10.2 will apparently have some scanner support.I do not believe that the graphics shops are going to switch to 10 until the printing and scanning problems are solved. They are still using 9.1. I use 9.1 on my second hard drive to print photos. I also use 9.1 for scanning. I think the printing problems are mainly the fault of printer companies who look only at Apple being only 5% of the market, and do not realize how important the Mac is in design, computer graphics, industry, etc. It seems to me that in these times, I would want that 5% of the market, no matter what the other printer makers decided to do. If the situation does not get better, maybe Apple can build their own printers. I have fairly fond memories of my old Apple printer.
TeriMystic <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
with 10.1, indesign 2 and photoshop 7 i was finally able to switch to os x for print design and page layouts and it improved everything so much. even though the gui seems somewhat slow sometimes i feel like i'm saving a lot of time because i'm still able to work while using distiller, scanning, saving huge ps files, starting apps etc. all of which used to make my os 9 machine unusable. the only time i have to start classic is for acrobat distiller, but even though my machine is not the fastest (400mhz g4, 700mb ram) it seems to take it quite well. i do not miss quark and os 9 one bit and i have to force myself not to laugh when my OldSchool 9 workmates have to reboot cause the apps don't free their memory etc...
It is just only 50% of our machine upraded to OS X. There are some issue can't solve out. Half of our machines work for traditional pre-press stuff and others work for web stuff.
There are some issues can't sloved.
SCSI - Most of the SCSI devices can't connect to OSX such as Scanner and CD Burner.
Fonts - TTF work fine but PS fonts don't work.
Aqua interface - works very slow on old G3 machines.
[ 07-02-2002: Message edited by: Obi-Dun ]
[ 07-02-2002: Message edited by: Obi-Dun ]</p>
If you're not using Suitcase or some comparable type utility (which seems odd to me), note that you cannot in 10.1 place folders in the Fonts folder. (You can, of course, but X won't see them.) This nuisance appears to be addressed in the upcoming 10.2.
I switched over on one computer about 2 months ago, and then my other computer on Monday.
To manage fonts, I'm using Font Reserve, which totally sucks. Half the time it crashes on startup and you have to restart it before using any apps. Besides it is dreadfully slow. It seems that Suitcase is much faster.
I ditched Quark for InDesign, and am in optical character alignment heaven. It is a little slower to use, but I think that is because I don't know all the ins and outs down yet. I send press ready PDFs to the printer. This is the wave of the future. I don't have to worry about forgetting to include a font anymore (but then again, InDesign collects fonts!)
PS7 rocks. All I can say is healing brush. Works great with my new Wacom USB tablet.
Scanning was an issue at first, but I got VueScan, which works great with my Epson Firewire scanner. Now if only TWAIN.org would get its collective act together and release specs so scanner co.s could write drivers.
New Logitech Mouse Beta works flawlessly. I have all my custom buttons again. It'd be nice if scrolling works in ALL apps.
Printing SUCKS. Enough said. Should be fixed in Jagwire. It is usable for proofing on Epson Photo printer
Flash is great, a lot faster than OS9 version.
Powerpoint, while being a pile of worthless sh!t on its own accord, is STILL a *buggy* pile of worthless sh!t, even after the latest service update. Expect massive color shifts, and the usual pain in the ass quirkiness from this monstrosity. For serious previewing and presenting PPT2001 is the way to go (or better yet, do a Flash presentation and be done with it).
Although I have AE 5.5, I still use it in OS9, because I haven't updated some very expensive effects yet.
All in all a GREAT experience. Computer NEVER crashes, and I only restart when I install new software. My only beef is with the dock and a couple of other minor interface things that can be fixed with LiteSwitch, TinkerTool, WindowShade and Default Folder.
To fix the page setup page randomly positioning itself around the layout area, just double click on the little page tiling tool in the toolbar (it is grouped with the hand). That should fix it.
A really "fun" thing about AI 10 in OS 9: Ocassionally when I drag an eps or pdf file on an alias of AI 10 to open them, the files will just disappear. Poof Gone. If you double click on the AI icon after that, it gives you an error that the package was damaged, and you need to reinstall the program...
Fun, huh? At least it doesn't do that in OSX
As far as actually getting work done, everyone who has been switched over loves it.
No real issues there.
Printing is awful, but we have a separate "print server" of a machine that we send PDF to and spit it out that way. Seems to help a bit.
A particularly emotional problem I have is that my trusty ol' SCSI scanner that I had had handed down through generations of wily pre-press veterans doesn't work.
I loved that scanner. Worth bundle (admittedly, in it's day), and really don't fancy making a serving tray out of it. Yes, yes, I should get a Firewire one, but I could squeeze colours out of that thing the negatives didn't know they had.
Overall, well worth the learning curve.
Biggest Issue: I had to get a separate piece of software to print folder contents. That was the single handiest thing from 9.
Make the switch.