Why do designers use Macs?

Lately I have been on a college search, looking for the best Graphical Arts design schools in my area, and it seems that every one of them use Macs in their Graphic Design labs. Why is that? I know a TON of designers who use macs as well. I can't seem to find a straight answer as to why.

 

Because the come with an impressive software array when bought.

I guess its also the "in" thing to do.

 

Macs are more stable for Graphic Design work. Is what graphic designers tell me.

 

Because they're great machines. I hated using them for the longest time, until I played with a friends Macbook pro.
Really though, it seems the average OS X user has a lot less problems than XP (even though XP is pretty stable). Plus it's industry standard. Most companies and stuff started off using Photoshop for Mac, and they probably don't want to change licenses over to Windows.

Plus mac has always been big into having machines that have a high color accuracy. Their displays are probably about the best in the industry (without paying $1000 for a pro monitor).
I believe it also had to do with macs better memory management. I'm not that familiar with the workings of the OS, but I know it used to be able to put a lot more system memory toward a single app than windows could.

But really, they're just great to use for designing

 

The sheer amount of graphic, music, and video software for the Mac is a big reason. Photoshop always seemed to be more powerful running on OSX than XP- even moreso when they release the recompiled version for multicore Intel CPUs.

It's hard to pinpoint just why it's such a standard today, it just kind of evolved steadily becoming the standard designer's tool for so many years. From what I remember, a lot of that is due to the old Quadra series- many of which are still in use today! It had a ton of add-in cards and could accept a whopping 64mb of RAM.

It also helps that Apple offers steep educational discounts and a uniform technical support structure.

 

That's what many tell me as well. Even over 10 years ago when I was responsible for "modernizing" our high school's yearbook process the publisher told me to go Mac because there were less problems compared to PC's using PageMaker. Today, many graphic artists and shops "accomodate" PC users, but would really prefer to have Mac stability and abilities.

 

Its probrably because Photoshop..."fits" more into Mac OS X. And Final Cut Studio, Aperture and Logic Pro, all the "industry-standard" software for video, photo and music editing, is for Mac.

 

When I talked to Apple about an iMac, they told me Adobe products run to their full potential on Macs and on Windows they just run enough to use.

That could be the person's opinion I talked to too.

 

Never heard anyone mentioning the software, and i have many designer friends. For CAD/Industrialdesign i guess PC is still the way to go.

The only reason my designer co-workers bought macs (for private use, we're using PC at the office) is becouse the look good.

Vanity is the main reason.

I've been in contact with macs my whole life, and i cant stand em as a machine to work on. I think it suts better as a family Computer.
First off i didnt like the 1 button mouses i came in contact with. I never liked the operating system and closing and minimizing windows buttons are on the wrong side.

And since mac and all the "i" products became so popular i really don't want it. There's not even personality too it.. Apple's Product line is too narrow, and it all looks too similar to be any fun at all.

If i bought a product i wanted it should be becouse i liked it and thought it looked good, net becouse everyone else thinks so.. It's so Mainstream it's hilarious.

And to the question why do they use it?

I have no idea and i dont see any reason why they should. Everyne i know that owns the newer mac's with Intel Processors is Running windows XP anywyas

 

So because other people like a product, that means you can't? Thats pretty close minded. In fact, thats pretty mainstream thought. So I think you're being a bit hypocritical there.
And you use windows? Isn't that a bit main stream since it's what, 90% of consumer machines use windows? You're judging a product with little experience.
I was also in the "Mac's f---ing suck camp" until I actually sat down for a few hours to use the MBP. Then I bought one, and have had so much fun with it.

The 1 mouse button is kind of a thing of the past with apple, at least on their notebooks. I swear, people who see me magically right clicking without using the keyboard at all, about have a heart attack. It's great

Yar, I wish they did put the minimize, 'close', and maximize buttons on the other side. But you get used to it.

But you're right, CAD is heavily based in the PC world. But mac has such a huge background in A/V apps, it's pretty insane. Sure, PC has caught up pretty well, but they still don't have a lot of good, pro level apps like Logic, Final Cut Pro and a few others I've seen.

 

The whole stability argument is a joke. I haven't had one crash or freeze-up on my crappy old pc since I installed xp pro. I push it hard too, but in several years I have not had one crash.
Also, just about the only "pro-level" apps that cannot be had for the pc just as easily as for mac are Apple's own products such as Logic and Final Cut. At least on the audio side, pro-tools, which is available for pc, is more the "industry standard" than logic.
I think the designers buy macs more to fit in the clique than for any tangible reasons.

 

Yes, the days of the BSOD and Frozen Screen are Almost 100% completely over on every OS. So it's hard to compare a OS on the fact of being stable anymore, Besides the use of RAM factor.

I sometimes do extra work on Movie & Tv films. ALL of Production Staff use Mac Books. I'm takling about NBC, Universal, etc: Bigtime production teams. So there has to be something to it. I heard EASE OF USE is the number 1 reason.

I don't now much about Macs so I can't speak on it much, but I plan on getting one on SALE for the holidays. I plan to boot windows on it too.

 

Not really. Since the industry standard is mac, and has always been mac, people will not switch due to licensing. If a large amount of designers have Adobe CS2 Creative Suite, why would they pay to buy the whole CS3 Creative Suite for windows when they can pay a much smaller upgrade fee?
Plus, it's what people get used to when they're going through school.

That and buying a mac pro is cheaper than buying an equivelant Dell workstation.

But you are right, windows is much more stable. But generally, they are a bit more complicated to do things. As I'm a long term windows users, this is the first experience that I've really had with a mac (not counting demo's in stores and such) and I have to say now I understand why they're great. It's not something thats easy to explain, you just have to use it. Its just... fun to use!

Plus, gotta love that BSD kernal

 

I am a long time windows user and hopefully soon going to be a Mac user and I am looking forward to it.

 

photoshop, etc. etc. isn't any more stable on a mac than it is a PC, just to let you all know, I use photoshop on a mac and photoshop on a PC basically everyday and I have many more problems when using it on a MAC even if it is a G5 workstation.

honestly i think the reason is mainly Apple pushing their products so that it remains the industry standard, they give schools great discounts, especially ones with design programs.

and for the people that mentioned Final Cut etc. Adobe has exactly the same software available for PC's in Premiere Encore etc. if not better software.

the argument of one being better at it or more convenient will never hold water. it is all about marketing and saving money in my opinion.

i enjoy using both OS's but I think that advanced windows users will be much happier with Windows than OSX.

 

i find the whole arguement of one OS being easier to use is just the general public's lack of knowledge. I can use both Mac and PC equally well, and I prefer PC. But to me it seems, most people that I sell macs to have this arguement, "i don't get viruses, i don't get spyware, etc" while its a valid arguement, it proves that most people just a) don't know where to get windows software, b) are cheap and don't want to buy it, or c) lack common sense not to download strange files. And of course, the look is always a plus. My Thinkpad destroys Macbooks/Macbook Pros, but it's not sleek and shiny like the Macs, but then again, I like the color of Matte Black and not that glossy crap that gets fingerprints all over it and crap :X

 

i have to agree with the glossy screen its hard to clean it i found and even when you clean the screen theres still streaks no matter what lol

 

he is talking about the glossy ass cases, you can easily clean a glossy screen and not have streaks, just get any basic screen cleaning solution and a microfiber cloth.

 

lol circa got it i use screensavrz, which ironically were made for macs. seems like all the innovated cool stuff are being made for macs which makes me a sad thinkpad user

 

I agree 100%. I think that because so many people have in the past for whatever reasons, the new waves of designers tend to follow the trend instead of making it. Weird for a designer IMO. But after talking to many designers and hearing everyones' responses, I think that the previous statement pretty much sums it up from what I can tell.

 

In the past, they look good, now they can run window too.
Well.. that's my reason of getting a mac.

 

A designer pays attention to and likes things that are... well designed. It is undeniable that Apple pays much more attention to the design of their notebooks and computers than most PC manufacturers. The same goes to the OS aspect; stability and performance issues notwithstanding, OS X has a more consistent and put together design than Windows - Luna is downright ugly, Vista's Aero is way better but in my opinion is overdone.

 

With Vista Microsoft tried to make it like the Mac OS in many ways.

 

I m not ugly... haha.. just kidding. Anyway a lots of freebie USEFUL tools that designer comes with mac, that's not the case with window machine. That's the main reason of all the reasons.

 

Maybe 10-12 years macs were advanced over PCs for graphics.

Macs led the way in 24 bit color display and postscript fonts and font handling in general.

So, it is mostly history. OS X does multitask and does handle memory better than Windows. But, Adobe and Macromedia software have been better written for Windows for a while now. 3d Studio Max is PC only.

I know a lot of apps "unexpectedly quit" on me under OS X. Both OSes are pretty stable these days, but it was not until XP matured that this was the case. OS 7, 8 and 9 widely varied in their stability as well. Mac 7.5.3 was the worst OS I've ever used.

I'm a designer that has largely moved to PC. I love the fact that I can build my own desktops for $1200 that are equal to $3000 Macs, and I got tired of Mac switching things up. Change from 604 to PPC, from OS9 to OSX, from PPC to Intel. Adobe/Macromedia apps are still not running on Intel on OS X until May of next year except under emulation. I just used that as an excuse to... "switch" as it were.