Macbook for Graphic Design?

I'm seriously thinking about getting a Macbook. I am absolutely blown away by the display quality - it easily outshines any LCD display (desktop or laptop) I've seen on the market. I also think the Dashboard feature is really cool - there isn't a Windows PC that can do anything as well.

My concern is this: The base MacBook has an integrated gpu with 64MB RAM. Will this be sufficient to do graphic design using Corel Draw and Photo-Paint, or should I look to the MacBook Pro?

Otherwise I think the Mac is a really nice, well-built machine for the money.

 

It should be, most design apps (certainly 2D apps like you mentioned) don't use the video card. The one thing to keep in mind is that with integrated graphics, the video memory is shared with the system memory, so you'll really want to upgrade to 2GB, especially if you'll be using software like Photoshop.

However, you might still want to take a look at the MacBook Pro anyway, for its larger screen. It depends on what your tastes are, but you might find the MacBook screen to be a bit on the small side if you like to work with a lot of palettes, etc.

 

The Macbook doesnt offer matte screens as well, where as the MBP does, having a glossy screen isn't exactly good for graphic design because the gloss effects the color, any professional in the graphics art industry will tell you if your going to use an LCD screen at the very least make sure its a matte screen.

 

Aye, get a MBP. I do some graphic design, but I'm not a pro. Though, I wanted the glossy screen since I do a lot of coding and stuff, and glossy is better for ones eyes.
At least thats what I've read and it certainly seems that way
Yeah, 15" is small enough as it is when working in photoshop. Though you could always hook up an external monitor and put your pallets and other stuff on that monitor with your main piece on the MB screen.

 

That'd be really weird - they use the same LCD panel like any other LCD display (let alone the old, crazy pink discoloration problems with first gen alu Apple displays).

Ummm no - in fact Dashboard is nothing but a bald-faced rip-off of the age-old and free Konfabulator for Windows and OS X.

 

App doesn't but the system does and after he found out that 15" is quite useless for any serious work and he will hook up a better, higher rez display then VGA can be a problem...

 

You are right on the spot. In fact I would say that even a 15" or 15.1" isn't good enough for professional design, specially considering the resolution in Apple's current lineup aren't the highest... If you can afford both the bulk and the price, you should go for a 17" MBP. If not, then hollownail's tip is worth considering, you can buy a good 19" or 20" display for a cheap price. Since you mentioned Corel apps, and most people I know that use Corel make jobs for printing, be warned that no LCD has yet the color range and fidelity of a good CRT display. The Macbook's 950 is capable of driving an Apple Cinema 23" display, so unless you need something bigger it is good to go. You'll need an adapter though, it is a shame Apple doesn't include one in the pack.

 

Wait, what adapter would you need? Or did you mean for the regular MacBook? I know that the MBP already has DVI out, and comes with the DVI-to-VGA adapter.

 

Perhaps my post wasn't clear... first I advised him to get a 17" MBP; then I said that if he can't afford it, or want something smaller, that he can buy a Macbook and use an external display, but in that case he would need an adapter.

 

Ahh, gotcha...

 

Actually konfabulator is a ripoff of Apple’s 'Desk Accessories' which is basically widgets, which they used way back in wee Mac OS days, so technically konfabulator ripped off Apple's idea. They took it out, as the time wasn't right for such an idea, and later they reintroduced it to Tiger under a new name. The only one that Desk Accessories left behind was Calculator.

 

I don't really remember apple using the name "applets" back then. They did have little things like a calculator, puzzle, etc. and I think some of those little apps were referred to as Desktop Utilities or similar.

I think the Konfabulator/Dashboard idea is sort of an extension to this, but the innovation really is probably the way that they exist on a separate "layer" and can be shown when you need them and then all easily hidden at once. With the old Apple desktop utilities this didn't really work like that.

Either way, calling any of these things a ripoff of something else kind of misses the point. A lot of UI ideas come from previous work, that's just the nature of UI development. The big thing really is in making improvements to the earlier ideas, polishing them, etc.

 

I was gonna come back and clarify my post and edit it, because my eariler post was right before I had to run off to my class. Thanks for clarifying my post. It was called Apple Desk Accessories which was basically compromised of mini-applications (widgets) but after time it was removed, the only member left by Desk Accessories was calculator. I was also going to mention that all that matters is the implementation and which is more polished, as each day passes there are less and less ideas out there that haven't been used yet.

 

Ahh, that's right, Desk Accessories - I had forgotten what they called them back then (I used a Mac 512ke from 1986-1993 or so, until it finally conked out).

Found a cool article about them by Andy Hertzfeld about them at:

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Desk_Ornaments.txt

Sort of an interesting history; takes you back to think about a time when these guys were having to come up with some of these ideas.

 

That's an interesting story, never heard of that one.

Generally the point I'm getting across is, I could care less who started what, who ripped off who, as long as the software in question is legal and not infriging upon the rights of another than thats where competition shines, it's a matter of who does it best.

 

Yup, cause Apple ripped off the gui and mouse from Xerox, and MS ripped off the gui from apple, and KDE/Gnome ripped it from MS...

 

It was actually Stanford Research Institute that created the mouse, not Xerox.

 

Oppp, your right. I had thought it was Xerox

 

For what it's worth, a lot of the researchers who worked for Douglas C. Engelbert (the inventor of the mouse among other things) left to join Xerox PARC, where they did work on the early GUI stuff there, so the mouse was a natural thing to work with too. And of course, a number of those Xerox PARC people then left later on to work at Apple when they realized Xerox didn't seem to have any idea what to do with the stuff and ideas they were working on.

And the rest is history...

 

Correction: which never been widgets, right...

Seriously.... this is really pathetic. It's not true at all.

Ummm no. they introduced it after Konfabulator. They even changed the name to widget...

 

Well, I'm aware of the fact that things like truth aren't really popular in Steve's little RDF-world...

Khm - interestingly enough as soon as the tale of inventor Apple turned out to be fake you suddenly lost interest in rip-offs...

 

You know what widgets are? they are basically just mini-applications that are limited to doing one type of thing (i.e. calculator, notes). That was the whole concept that desk accessories was built around and that's what it was.

They reintroduced the the concept of mini-applications (widget) back into tiger. Widget means its a mini-application, widgets are not in their own class they are no different, you must think they are because of how they are implemented.

Do your research before you spread your ignorance to others.

a search term in google 'Apple Desk Accessories' will get you on the right track.

Here is a link to a blog where this guy has done his research He even graceiously credits his sources.

If you actually been a more active member of this forum, you would know from the history of since I started here, I've always been active in the whole idea of who implements it best.

 

Correct.

 

Umm really? FYI: if this would be the case - hint: not - than any app that does only one thing, available in various OSes for 30+ years, would be called widgets...

It's always smart to read a little before trying to lecture others, you know...

Before you go further into this misinformation swamp how about really reading a little bit? Apple didn't even call it widgets but gadgets originally, only - magically after Konfabulator was already out - before releasing Tiger they switched to the word 'widgets'.

Well I guess today you have learned enough new pieces about Apple's history and the history of widgets from zadillo and perhaps me to realize how funny it could sound when you call somebody else ignorant...

I believe you - but tonight it somehow didn't come through that way...

 

I'm honestly not sure what exactly you're arguing with here.

Yes, technically any mini-application that only does one thing, and is normally designed to sort of resemble a real-world object (a sticky pad, a notepad, a clock, a calculator, etc.) can be called a widget.

I think the point here is that if you want to talk about "ripping off", then you do have to go back to the source.... and what I was saying is that the original source of the idea for these kinds of mini-apps is something that can be pointed to, and it can be traced back to Andy Hertzfeld, Bud Tribble, and others from the original Mac development team. At the time, it actually was a new idea to actually have a little simple app that did one thing and one thing only and often resembled a real-world object.

So yes, one could argue that subsequent takes on this concept are "rip offs" of the original Apple Desk Accessories. But this would of course be silly, as once a new UI idea is introduced, obviously others will take it and come up with new elements and ideas.

In the case of Konfabulator, the real innovation was really in making them a separate "layer" that could be called up when needed and hidden the rest of the time. But the actual widgets are of course mostly just like those old Desk Accessories. There's nothing wrong with that though, just as it seems to kind of miss the point to call Dashboard a rip off of Konfabulator because it in turn borrowed some of the same UI ideas of a hidden layer of "widgets".

-Zadillo

 

Since no-one has posted it yet that I can see, Ars Technica also did a very good piece on this whole Dashboard/Konfabulator "debate":

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10.4.ars/17

Note that this actually does refute a lot of what has been said here, including my own points about the origins this stuff has in Desk Accessories, etc. - this article makes valid points about that, and I think it basically covers the whole issue pretty well.

One thing I think I would disagree with is the idea that Apple shouldn't have developed Dashboard because it scared off a talented Mac-only developer into developing for Windows as well. I've heard this point before, but I don't think that it really works. Certainly it's valid, and it has come up before (with the old Mac OS Apple bundled some stuff like a little StickyNotes program that made a previous shareware program irrelevant), but if there is something that is a genuinely good UI concept, I think it is warranted to develop it into the OS itself.

 

Why do you state that Zadillo pointed out out all the history information, when in fact I pointed it out before him? The only thing Zadillo mentioned first before me who implements such technology the best is what should be looked upon as a matter of more importance than who ripped it off, and the story of the two that came up with it?

I, do know this issue has been debated extensively over many forums but really I guess it can only end with each going their own way beliving what they feel is true.
After all historians go through this same process everyday.

 

I don't get it either; and generally speaking this seems like a really bizarre thing to even be debating.

 

Amazingly, none of this has ANYTHING to do with the original post. Please, in the future let's try to help answer people's questions/concerns and stay away from bickering. Who cares who invented widgets anyway?

Thread closed.