Desktop Publishing, is it worth buying a Mac?

H

Hale

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 8, 2004
Messages
150
To get started, I'm a journalism major, and also I'm in the Army National Guard as a journalist.

My grandfather runs a billiards (pool) league and has been wanting to try to get some sort of publication going as a supplement for the league. He generally has 6-8 divisions running twice a year, so there would be somewhat a demand for it. And there are a few other leagues around the area, another BCA and an APA. He has been talking to me about trying to get it started early next year. I would leave the business aspect (getting ads, finding a publisher, etc) of it up to him, and I would be doing the page layout for each issue, and he's been talking about a bi-monthly or quarterly magazine.

Is buying a used Mac going to be worth it for such a small-scale project? From what I know, I'll only need Quark and Photoshop on the Mac for layout and photo editing. And both are available on PC and I already own a PC and I'm going to be building another one towards the end of the year anyway, because mine isn't really playing new games that well ;)

Thanks for any advice,
Daniel

edit: Also I would prefer if I did get a Mac to get a laptop, and do you think this would work well for the project?
 
for what you are planning on doing, either a low/mid-range Mac or PC will be fine. Careful, there are various MacFanatics out there who will tell you that you need a Mac, but really, it just depends on what you want.


[one thing i will say: ditch quark!!! get a real app, like Illustrator! :D :p :D ]
 
Stick with a PC. Adobe apps are optomized for the PC anyway. They used to be faster on Macs but this changed when Apple screwed them.
 
Apple certainly did not screw Adobe over, and I really don't think their applications are much more optimized for Windows PCs. Admittedly, I've only used Photoshop, but it seems to run about equal on about equal computers, regardless of the OS.

For a small-scale project, you might even get by with Pages. ;) Anyway, what you should do is borrow, rent or whatever a Mac for a while. Try to get used to it enough to not judge it prematurely. See if you like it. Then you buy one. ;)
 
I know many freelance graphics designers who use PC exclusively for work. They may have old Macs there too, but their production work is done on Windows. Most printing companies will accept either format.

I'd shy away from getting a used Mac. New Macs are already expensive. Used Macs will be older and slower, but their price/value ratio still won't be better than a new PC. You can get a used Mac G4 for about $300 on ebay. a 350MHz G4... yuck! You'd be better off sticking to a PC. Plus, you can use that PC for other things than just your publishing work.

If you already have a PC, and are considering building another soon anyway, you should stick with the PC for the publication. There's no sense in buying a cheap used, slow Mac just to do a small publication. Your PC can handle that fine. And your new PC will too!

I'm using my Celeron 466 EMachine to do ads for a dance recital program book for a for the Miss Teen SC Pageant. My finished pages are 300 dpi grayscale TIFF files which I send to the printing company. This computer had no problem doing it. If my computer can handle publishing, YOUR computer certainly can too!
 
Thanks for the fast advice, and I might consider sticking with a PC.

Cost is a major factor here. I'm sure it could be profitable but I'm not sure how much net profit I would see. Hell, it might only generate a net profit of a dollar. And I don't like doing anything on slow computers. And the software itself will be rather costly.

Isn't Illustrator the vertex graphics program?

Regards,
Daniel
 
I think what the previous poster meant is that Quark is somewhat outdated on both the Mac and PC. Adobe Pagemaker was the next step in publishing, and now Adobe has InDesign for print publishing.

You could do it in Adobe Illustrator... but it's not exactly a desktop publishing app.

While not exactly cutting edge, I know people who use Microsoft Publisher for small publishing jobs. It's cheap enough, and I think you can output it to files that a publishing house can read. You'll wanna find out from your publisher what files they can read. Most will accept PC and Mac, but it's still good to know exactly what files they can take.

Are you doing color or black and white? Is this a booklet/magazine, or a newsletter? You'll wanna check prices from different publishing companies. Their prices vary according to number of pages, a thicker cover, type of paper, color, etc. Bigger printshops have digipresses, which are similar to laser printers. Or they will run it on a traditional printing press.

I've worked on projects ranging from 60 page booklets... all the way up to a 500 page recital book!

book1.jpg

book2.jpg

book3.jpg
 
I agree with several other posters, go for InDesign and a PC. It's far more cost effective.
 
i'd say it's definately not worth it... if the only reason you want a mac is for simple tasks like that... stick with your pc... no reason to spend a ton of money.
 
i think more important than the platform you are using should be your skill with whatever software package you're going to use, since you're a journalism major, use what your school uses if you are familiar with it and can use it well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top