Re: Switching from Mac to PC questions

Brandons of mass destruction <junkie46@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Please, no Mac vs PC religious wars. I'm looking for pure facts, i.e.
> information that can solve this problem and make this as change as
> smooth as possible if need be.
>
> Background: We're the production department of a weekly newspaper, we
> build ads and layout editorial pages. We send the finished product via
> PDFs to the printer. We've been instructed to make switch from Quark 4.1
> on the Mac to Creative Suite 2 on the PC, so I'm wondering how to do
> this:
>
> 1. How do we transfer our large library of fonts, which are a mix of
> TrueTYpe and Postscript?
>
> 1a. How does Indesign CS2 on the PC open a Quark 4.1 Mac document i.e.
> does the Quark doc need an extension? Can we drag and drop? or only from
> within Indesign?
>
> 2. On the PC side should we stick to Postscript fonts or does it matter?
>
> 3. I know Indesign will open Quark 4 files ok (they'll need to be
> tweaked I know), but is this viable for a massive conversioin, say 3,000
> files? Is there a utility that will do this?
>
> 4. Is there something equal to Applescript on the PC side?
>
>
> 5. Our server is currently running OS X server 10.2.8, used mostly just
> for storing files (no website or email) for everyone to have access to,
> what should we switch to?
>
> 6. What sort of font management software should we use on the PC side?
>
> 7. What type of workstation is good for Design and Production work,
> where we do a lot of heavy duty Photoshop graphics, say tabloid size
> CMYK covers with lots of masks, transparency, layer?
>
> 8. What type of computer is good for a server?
>
> 9. What type of monitor for color correction?
>
> 10. Is it true that Creative Suite 2 is cheaper for the PC, especially
> in volume licenses?
>
> 11. What other concerns/problems might there be?
>
> 12. Working strictly from a cost view, do you think (not feel, but
> THINK) this conversion a good idea, with the goal of making the
> production department more cost efficient (since PCs are cheaper) and
> not wanting to go through Apple's conversion/problems to Wintel
> processors? If so, why or why not? Supporting evidence/links (either
> way) is greatly appreciated.

Good luck!

You have a lot of questions and are in need of some serious system
integration help.

Here's my quick response:

1. The fonts? You're screwed.

2. Opening Quark docs in ID? Scary and fraught with problems.

3. NO. But do it anyway.

4. I don't think so.

5. If you can afford Mac servers use them, In a mixed environment of
Macs and PCs the interoporability of the file servering software to deal
with both file types and present them to both users without confusion is
key. For my money I'd make the adjustments and just use FreeBSD and
netatalk and samba.

6. I hate all font managers. I use Suitcase on the PC and FontBook on
the Mac. (yeah yeah yeah. I already know but the issues I face with
fonts is cruel and unusual punishment handed out by designers who really
don't understand how the fonts got onto their computer.)

7. A really fast computer with a lot of ram, a huge fast disk, a killer
networking interface and the software you need to do what you do.

8. A really fast computer with a lot of ram, a huge fast disk, a killer
networking interface and the software you need to do what you do.

9. Don't buy a CRT. Think of all those forest animals you kill with all
that polution required to run that huge electronic beast. Go flat
screen. They're beautiful.

10. Don't know don't care if you need it just pay up.

11. Giving a monkey a loaded gun.

12. If someone in your company has just decided to switch all the Mac
users to PC and the Creative suite too bad for you. I'd revolt if I was
told to start using a PC after I was used to a Mac. Their logic is
flawed. It's not cheaper. Quality stuff in either platform costs about
the same to configure. But people in newspapers never care about the
human side of users and their personal preferences. Some bosses got
together with the IT department over golf and beers and decided to
squash all that Mac stuff that they don't understand and you are the
unlucky victim. The argument they probably use is to present that you'd
need all high end G5 boxes for every workstation. You don't. I'll bet
you don't need more than a couple Photoshop workstations and the rest
could be much less expensive iMacs or even Minis.

As far as ID vs. Quark they are correct. It will be cheaper to put the
creative Suite on all the computers than to buy Quark and all the other
parts a la carte. You're gonna need Acrobat, Illustrator, Photoshop
anyway.

Too bad Quark has their head up the %$# with the publishing system. If
they'd just release Quark to work in a publishing workgroup out of the
box and not try to squeeze some extra revenue out of another product
they'd kill Adobe in the newspaper business.

I often fantasize that Quark comes with an offline text editor that
works like the old Atex J11 and and Quark would sell a document server
for a little more than the price of one copy of Quark as it stands now.
Then reduce the price of Quark to about 200 bucks and make no difference
between international and US english versions.

Hey Quark, workgroup publishing could save your company.

I don't think they're listening or their meetings are such debacles of
corporate cluster*** that they're going to die of their own failure to
act on anything creative anymore.
.