Graphic designers use Macs. All of them. It’s basically the law, and any designer admitting to using a Windows PC is immediately ostracised by their peers.
OK, that might be an exaggeration, but for a long time, graphic designers, and many other types of creatives, have tended to favour Macs. It’s part of the reason we cover Apple products so much on Creative Bloq, from updates and rumours to hands-on reviews (see our new M4 MacBook Air review for the latest, which currently has $150 off at Amazon).
But why do graphic designers use Macs? And are MacBooks still the best laptops for graphic design?
Why do all graphic designers use mac? from r/graphic_design
This question asked on Reddit has elicited a vast array of suggestions, from system reliability and performance to Apple’s ecosystem, clever product placement and a frustration at having to memorise ASCII codes for typesetting on Windows.
As several people point out, the connection between Apple computers and the creative fields goes back a long way. Originally, it was sometimes a question of necessity rather than choice.
In the 80s, Adobe’s Postscript, which used vectors to encode fonts, was licensed for Macs, and some of Adobe’s programs were initially released for Macintosh only, including Illustrator in 1987. QuarkXPress, which was the go-to software for desktop publishing, was also only available for Mac until 1992.
Some long-time Mac users also point to better colour management and WSIWYG on macOS. But today these are less of an issue, and most industry standard software supports Windows. So do graphic designers still all use Macs today?
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Do graphic designers still use Macs?
Designers using Macs (Image credit: Apple)
Several graphic designers have responded to say they now use self-built PCs over Macs for the same or better performance at a cheaper price. Others suggest there’s a myth about Mac performance that may be more to do with users’ experiences of budget Windows laptops while Apple decided not to make cheaper laptops to avoid diluting its reputation.
“When people save up and spend $2,000 on a MacBook Pro after buying the cheapest $400 Windows shitboxes for most of their life, they go ‘wow, Apple is great’ and never look back,” one person suggested.
Speaking from personal experience, one designer who made the switch to Windows agrees: “When I went PC, I went high-end mobile workstations like Dell Precision, at or above the price points of the Macs, and the durability, reliability, and trouble-free life has genuinely been comparable.”
“I swear half the answers I’m reading are people that haven’t touched a PC in like 20 years. I use both Mac and PC for work,” someone else adds.
The new M4 MacBook Air (Image credit: Apple)
Others suggest that while there may not be major performance differences any more (other than battery life), Macs have quality of life features that add up, from a more efficient file system search to easier shortcuts for special characters in typography.
“When you compare the same task on a Windows machine vs a Mac, it’s 13 clicks in UI hell vs 1-click of duh-shit intuitiveness,” one person writes.
Others think it may be more to do with habit, suggesting that Apple had a lot of success from giving college art programs good discounts to encourage them to use Macs in computer labs. “Once you start using Macs its hard to go back to PCs,” one person wrote.
But could it also be to with aesthetics – and status? Designers like things that look nice, and some still think Macs are simply cooler than Windows PCs. “If I’m being honest, there’s a cachet with Macs that I think appeals to designers. They always produce well-designed equipment and OS,” one person says. “Even their advertising is attractive.”
At the end of the day, designers should work with what they’re comfortable with and what meets their needs. What do you think? If you’re a graphic designer, do you use a Mac or a Windows PC, and why? How do you think they compare? Let us know in the comments below.
If you’re unsure of the specs you need, see our guide to requirements for a graphic design laptop. If you decide to go with a Mac, check out the best current MacBook deals below. Amazon US has $150 off the latest M4 MacBook Air.
