Why Creatives use Macs
Posted on: 31 August 2010
People love to hate on Macs. A lot of 'PC' users have never used a Mac and stubbornly put their foot down because they "just don't get the hype". But the fact cannot be ignored, that in creative industries - print, graphic design and the web (to name but a few), Macs are always preferred.
My current situation gives me a good viewpoint on the Mac vs. PC debate. I currently work as a web developer, and although it's not my number one choice, I do all my work on a Windows 7 machine. Any work or general browsing I do at home is on my late-2008 white Macbook.
I prefer my Macbook. Not a surprising statement, granted, but I hope to explain my reasoning behind it. As I mentioned before, individuals working in the creative industry love their Macs, and - for me - the main reason for this is the beautiful rendering of web-pages. There really is no comparison between the rendering output between, say Firefox on a Mac compared to Firefox on a PC.
I am always surprised by the visual difference after looking at webpages all day on a PC, to when I go home and visit the same websites on my Macbook. Typography is arguably one of the most important aspects of design - and indeed, the web. And Macs are miles ahead of PCs when it comes to typographic rendering. Text looks clearer, yet smoother and more organic. At the risk of developing a fanboy status, it really is a pleasure to browse the web on a Mac.
The other difference I notice when surfing on my Macbook is the display (this is obviously not a Mac-specific factor, however I have yet to use a Mac whose display isn't pristine). The contrast and clarity I get on my 13" Macbook display when compared to the 20" Samsung monitor I have plugged into my machine at work is amazing. To give an example, I can plainly see the difference between #111111 and #000000 on my Mac. Something which I struggle to do at work. Whether this is purely down to the display, or whether the machine has anything to do with is something I can't speculate on. But I am always pleasantly surprised at the crispness and clarity of OS X on my Mac, when compared to the Windows operating system.
I pride myself on my competence of using both operating systems, but since buying my first Mac, I think my allegiance lies solely in the corner of the Macintosh computer.
In other news, my blog celebrated its one year anniversary yesterday. 87 blogs later and I'm still going strong - albeit a little less frequently!