Is A Mac Essential For Marketing?

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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A new fellow was hired by my wife's bank to handle marketing. The gal he replaced worked from home, using her own Mac and software. Now he's suggesting the bank buy a Mac and Photoshop suite. He's worried the printer will have trouble with anything else.

My wife said the suite is priced at about $1,000.00. This is a small bank of about 100 employees, so it's a significant outlay. Their part time "PC Guy", is just THRILLED about the prospect of a Mac on board!
rolleye.gif


What would the break down be in cost for a PC VS Mac with comparable speed? Is the software output the same for each, where the printer is concerned?

Thanks
 

Maleficus

Diamond Member
May 2, 2001
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congrats with your mac you can load photoshop 5 seconds faster !!!!!

seriously if your gonna use a mac to just sit and load photoshop over and over you'll gain a few minutes but i've never had trouble in terms of speed with my PC. go talk to ThePresence :D

thats way overboard for such a small bank IMO.
 

notfred

Lifer
Feb 12, 2001
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Our printer (I used to do graphic design) had a room full of both PC's and macs for prepress. I think they preferred macs, but they had several PCs there with Indesign, Quark Xpress, Photoshop, etc and they were all ready to make film.

We always brought them mac stuff, though :)
 

hoihtah

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
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back in mid 90's... having a mac for designing/desktop-publishing was a must.

but now... it's not necessarily the case.
if cost is a factor... pc is a better value.

as for photoshops output... yeah. you won't have much compatibility issue there.
so.. .it's not like you'll get one out put on pc... and another on mac.

perhaps except for the font scenario.

get a pc dual processor ... if you have enough money to get a mac.

mac g4/933MHz/256MB/60GB ATA/Superdrive costs $2300.

Dell 8200 p4/2.53Ghz/256MB/80GB ATA/DVD+RW costs $1717
 

hoihtah

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
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i would've said build one yourself...
and for $2000... you'll get just about everything that you need.

but... i realize that this is for business...
so getting a dell would be in your best interest.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,344
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He's a marketing fruit. He wouldn't know the difference between paint shop pro and photoshop.

Give him a pc.

My apologies to marketing people who know *at least something* about computers. It's in my experience that *REAL* marketing people know DICK about computers.
 

Skyclad1uhm1

Lifer
Aug 10, 2001
11,383
87
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The guy doesn't know what he's talking about, but he heard at MacDonalds that only Macs can work with printers or something :p

I'd be more worried the other way around, it's probably easier to find a printer that isn't supported by/doesn't support Mac than one that doesn't have Windows support. If you already have the software for Macs I'd say consider using a Mac, but if you'd have to buy it all anyway you might as well buy a PC with Photoshop, at least that would make it easier to replace if it breaks down (Can just let the guy use another PC, rather than needing a backup Mac), and it would be easier for the PC guy to manage.

Edit: Get one of those regular PC monitors which look like an iMac, and put it on his desk. He probably won't even notice he isn't working with a Mac.
 

hoihtah

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
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i work in marketing department. :)

database marketing.

and it's true... most everyone don't know JACK.
 

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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Hmmmm, looks like about a $500.00 difference there. There's also the issue of handing this hardware down when it gets too slow for marketing. A PC would fit in well with what they currently use, the Mac would be a white elephant!

I was wondering if you saved a file called Bank-O-Rama.pdf from the Mac and the same file from a PC, what's the difference? Neither will fit on a floppy, right? Couldn't the printer slap the file into a PC or Mac's CD-ROM drive and go, either way?

Edit: One more thing? How could they get abreak on that software? Could they snag an older version for less or something? Coupons? Pricematch?
 

hoihtah

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
5,183
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i have no idea what you're asking for regarding the .pdf file.

while the file system for mac and pc is different in general,
they can be networked... OSX - XP.

so even if you got a mac... file transfer wouldn't be a problem... if that's what you're asking.

a pdf file made in mac can be opened up in pc as a .pdf file.
and if your printer is a network printer... you can print from either one... without problems
 

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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So the PC's Photoshop saves the file as .pdf. What does the Mac save it as? Could the PC save it as a Mac version?

Edit: Uh, what extension does the printer use? Guess that's where I'm confused!
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,344
126
Go to the FS/T forum and buy somebodies unopened copy of photoshop LE for $25. He'll never use 3/4 of the features in it.
 

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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Well, he did want a full suite, so I don't know how much he needs, and it does have to output some kind of "dye separation" or some such. Not sure what all the hoo-ha about being compatible is about.
 

hoihtah

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
5,183
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76
.pdf is a acrobat file extension.

.psd is photoshop.

as for your question...
Could the PC save it as a Mac version?
short answer would be yes.

conversion will be done automatically... just like in word doc.
you can take a word doc from mac to pc without losing format.
 

hoihtah

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
5,183
0
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back in early-mid 90's...
there were lots of printers that were specific to type of computer.

meaning... they had mac printers and pc printers.

obviously this was all before usb/firewire came into picture.

some dye sub printers are still designed in this way.

but i doubt that whatever printer you have now... is not supporting Windows.

some of those printers may use scsi rather than parallel port... to enhance the speed.
in which case you'd need a scsi adaptor.

anyhow... not to confuse you or anything...
pc will work just as well as mac... at a cheaper price.
 

hoihtah

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
5,183
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Originally posted by: Ornery
So the PC's Photoshop saves the file as .pdf. What does the Mac save it as? Could the PC save it as a Mac version?

Edit: Uh, what extension does the printer use? Guess that's where I'm confused!

what kinda printer is there right now?

are they using rip?
 

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,022
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PDF, PSD... same thing! :p

But seriously, what does the printer want? What would float their boat? Do you give them the file on a CD, Zip disk, transfered over the Internet or what? And you say the PC can save in a Mac readable format, so is there ANY concerns at all with buying the PC over the Mac?
 

db

Lifer
Dec 6, 1999
10,575
292
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Probably the guy want the software for his own private use at home, and he's just trying to get as much as he can.
Or he's just ignorant/stupid.

BTW, a Photoshop-outputted file is the same no matter what machine you did it on.
 

hoihtah

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
5,183
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Originally posted by: Ornery
PDF, PSD... same thing! :p

But seriously, what does the printer want? What would float their boat? Do you give them the file on a CD, Zip disk, transfered over the Internet or what? And you say the PC can save in a Mac readable format, so is there ANY concerns at all with buying the PC over the Mac?

dude... you have to first understand certain things here.
if you save a graphic file in tiff (uncompressed) you can take that file anywhere and use it... regardless of OS.
you don't even need a photoshop to read that file.

so... burn a file on iso 9006 standard cd. and it's all there.

is there a network in that bank?
is the printer networked?
or if it's not a network printer... is the printer's local computer networked?

if it is... then you don't have to worry about buring either.
just send it over the network.
 

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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"what kinda printer is there right now?

are they using rip?"


Don't know what rip is. The girl who used to do their marketing had a Mac, and gave the PRINT SERVICE a Mac based file. No idea what kind. They printed flyers, newspaper ads, quarterly statements and stock reports. I suppose all those use different file types, eh? Could a PC based system save those with extentions that Mac loving print services can live with?
 

Skyclad1uhm1

Lifer
Aug 10, 2001
11,383
87
91
Originally posted by: Ornery
Well, he did want a full suite, so I don't know how much he needs, and it does have to output some kind of "dye separation" or some such. Not sure what all the hoo-ha about being compatible is about.

Of course. If he said he had no clue on what version had the functionality he needs he might have had to admit that he didn't know what he was talking about. "I've seen someone play pong on an SGI once, so I'll need at least a $30,000 workstation if I want to play it too!"
A lot of people buy software that way, rather than doing a bit more research and only getting what they need. "The rest may come in handy too once!"... And then, it may just be a waste of money.

It's a 100 man company without a single Mac, but with printers. Do you really think that it is not supported by the PCs there, that they just bought it for the chance that they might want to buy a Mac some day? It will be supported, and as mentioned before you can export perfectly well between PC and Mac Photoshop versions.
 

db

Lifer
Dec 6, 1999
10,575
292
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Contact the print service and ask them what they need. Then make your decisions backward from there.
 

hoihtah

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
5,183
0
76
you really need to be asking that question to the print service people.

it really depends on their machine.
but again, like i said before...
i can't imagine a printer that's useable to current standard.. that doesn't support pc.
file extension is really not an issue here.

you can always use eps if file extension/format is an issue.
 

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,022
17
81
"Contact the print service and ask them what they need..."

Suppose the Mac snob, SOBs say they need some kind of obscure file type from Photoshop? Can't Photoshop for the PC save it to whatever they want? Any chance of strange colors, layer problems or some such?
 

hoihtah

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
5,183
0
76
Originally posted by: Ornery
"Contact the print service and ask them what they need..."

Suppose the Mac snob, SOBs say they need some kind of obscure file type from Photoshop? Can't Photoshop for the PC save it to whatever they want? Any chance of strange colors, layer problems or some such?

i don't know how many times i have to answer this...
but...


YES!

as i said above... if file format is a concern... you can always send over an eps file.