Conclusion
Posted on January 27, 2003
Revised on February 10, 2005
Is OS X ready for print production?
Update (Feb. 10, 05): As of this date, I can confidently state that OS X is now ready for print production. Even while running QuarkXpress in Classic, you can get your work done with a minimum of problems.
If you are unfamiliar with OS X, you have a highly fine-tuned workflow in OS 9, you routinely have a fast, heavy workflow with demanding deadlines, and you don't have the budget to purchase new dual-processor G4s, then no.
If you're a home user, or small studio with accommodating deadlines, and you don't mind spending a bit of extra time once in a while trying to find solutions to small problems, then yes.
Although I have been able to do production work on OS X, and I continue to do so, the system is not ideal for professional print production. Those of us who are used to OS 9's speed will be very unhappy with OS X's sluggish performance.
Even if you're an Indesign user, you'll still have to put up with a speed cut if you switch from OS 9 to X.
This performance hit will be most noticed by those of you who take pride in being very fast and efficient. If you are normally a user of average speed, then you may find it acceptable – only you can tell.
Bottom line: If you don't need to switch right now, don't!
Recommendations
- If speed and a smooth workflow are important to you, and you don't have the time to figure out all the little problems that come with a transition to a completely new operating system, then I would suggest waiting until Quark releases an OS X version of QuarkXpress. Hopefuly, by then, Apple will have tweaked OS X to improve its speed. (Update (Feb. 10, 05): Version 6 has been out for a while now, and the current version 6.5 works fine... however, beware of switching right away... make sure your printers, filmhouses, and partners will accept version 6 files.)
- If you have a pre-2003 Mac, you're lucky, because you can still boot from OS 9. If you would like to ramp-up on your OS X skills, and get familiar with the operating system, then by all means install it over your existing OS 9 system. The two can co-exist quite well. If you ever run into performance problems in OS X, simply boot from OS 9 and you're back on track (assuming, of course, that you are using OS 9 compatible applications).
- Prepare for your eventual switch by saving your money to buy the fastest dual-processor Mac you can possibly afford within the year. Update: Having upgraded to such a Mac myself, I can say that even though overall performance has increased to an acceptable level, there are still glitches with OS X that cause "hangs" (spinning rainbow wheel, bouncing icons in dock) for which no explanations have been found. And OS 9 was still faster on my older 733 MHz model. (Update (Feb. 10, 05): Newer versions of OS X have fixed these problems, and you won't notice any performance lag if you're using a fast dual-processor Mac.)
- If you have already taken the leap and switched to OS X, there are things you can do to optimize OS X.
Top two things I hate about OS X
- The User Interface, including the Finder and the Dock, that breaks 20 years of Apple's own Human Interface Guidelines. Sure, we can adapt to it, but it's sad that we have to adapt to an inferior product.
Slow performance overall (compared to OS 9), including the occasional appearance of the spinning rainbow wheel of death (where the system, or an application, will "hang" anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds or more), and very long launch times for applications indicated by the irritating bouncing icons in the dock (sometimes over 80 bounces).(Update (Feb. 10, 05): Fixed in newer versions of OS X.) My newest peeve with OS X has to be UNIX permissions.
Top two things I love about OS X
- Protected memory. Not having to reboot every time an application crashes is a huge time-saver.
- Multi-tasking. Printing in one application while still working in
another application is a much welcome feature.
Unfortunately, this also adds to the performance problem mentioned above(Update (Feb. 10, 05): Fixed in newer versions of OS X).
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