Operating Systems > macOS

Still the official OS of design

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worker201:
For a long time, the conventional wisdom was that Macs were great for graphic design.  Originally, that's because important programs like Quark and Macromedia Director and Adobe Photoshop were only available on the Mac.  Eventually, these programs were brought to the Windows platform - but the Mac OS was designed from the ground up for drag and drop between programs, something that Windows was late to cash in on.  Now that Windows can do drag&drop, it seems like there is no particular advantage to using a Mac for design.  If you can stand the viruses and the crashes and the childish inteface, a Windows system is just as viable as a Mac.  Right?

Wrong.  After watching a recent documentary about typefaces, it seems clear that Helvetica is the most used font/typeface on the planet.  Everything, from street signs to Microsoft's logo, is done in Helvetica.  At various times over the past 50 years, designers have cycled between love and hate for the typeface.  It's not unreasonable to say that you can't be a professional designer unless you have Helvetica.

Apple and OS X provide Helvetica.  By purchasing a Mac, you are purchasing a license to use Helvetica in your designs.  Windows does not provide Helvetica.

Admittedly, it's not a big thing - you can buy Windows versions of the 4 Helvetica fonts that a Mac provides for $104 direct from Linotype.  But it is something.

Refalm:
Windows has Arial, and it's Helvetica's mutant half-brother.

Aloone_Jonez:
There's virtually no difference

worker201:
Pretty big difference, actually.  In the sample image Refalm shows, there are significant differences in all 6 letters.

Interesting article about how Arial came to be, and why it is popular, and why it is not used by professional designers:
http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html

Aloone_Jonez:
I disagree, I can hardly tell the difference, the letter R is the only letter with a big difference in the example posted above, followed by g a and t. The letters C and r are nearly identical apart from the odd pixel.

I quickly read through the article and it just looks like someone whining about Microsoft doesn't something they don't like. Microsoft have done much worse that ship their OS with a very slightly different font than one which they would've had to pay licence to use.

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