Jun 21, 2011 It creates XML files by default, but can also export to EPS, SVG, XFIG, WMF, PNG and some other graphic file formats. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X. Similar to Adobe's Photoshop, Gimp is a photo manipulation program that's full-featured enough for professional photographers and graphic designers, but user-friendly enough for.
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Price When Reviewed: Base price £799 | Model reviewed £2,419
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The Mac mini may be the perfect desktop for graphic and UX designers who won’t mind its lack of 3D power.
Updated 28/3/19 with Cinebench R20 results
The Mac mini is another engineering marvel from Apple. Garlic bread-box sized, Apple has somehow managed to fit almost a full workstation spec inside that makes it as powerful as leading larger desktops for many tasks – but its lack of one important component limits its appeal to a specific audience.
It’s small size makes you think you could give you desk a Marie Kondo-inspired makeover – paired with a minimalist monitor, Apple’s pared-down keyboard and mouse (which you have to buy separately), a few tastefully chosen books and bits of tech that pack themselves away neatly. In practice though, unless you’re the strictly disciplined type, the Mac mini just gives you more space on your desk to fill with print outs, references, desktoys, too many pens and other junk – all peppered with Post-it notes.
Many small PCs feature laptop processors as they don’t have the cooling capabilities of full-sized chassis – and this is true of the Mac mini too. However, the Mac mini has the kind of laptop chip you’d get in an oversized, 17-inch model processor that delivers much higher performance than kind of chips used in slimline 15-inch models we usually go for such as the MacBook Pro or Dell XPS 15 (a 65W ‘B’ model to the MBP’s 45W ‘H’ model chip-nomanclature/power-usage fans). So an i7 Mac mini can outperform an i9 MacBook Pro, which is a little jarring.
Here we've benchmarked our high-end review Mac mini against an equally high-spec MacBook Pro, plus our choice for the best laptop for designers and artists, the Dell XPS 15. We've used the new Cinebench R20 processor benchmark – which is based on Cinema 4D R20 – plus the older R15 version (which primarily shows just how outdated that benchmark is).
Our review unit has an eighth-generation 3.2GHz, six-core Core i7-8700B processor that can scale up to 4.6GHz using Turbo Boost. Ninth-gen desktop chips were launched in autumn 2018, but laptop equivalents aren’t due to the summer – so we’re not likely to see an upgraded Mac mini straight after the recently upgraded iMac.
The Mac Mini supports up to 64GB of RAM, though pricing goes up dramatically over 16GB. You can save money by getting the 8GB model and installing RAM bought from the likes of Crucial – where 32GB of RAM will cost you £187/US$203, compared to Apple charging you a whopping £540/$600 – but this requires specific tools and some skill (and these instructions).
Storage options are a choice of very fast name drives, but also gets pricey once you get past 512GB – so instead of getting the 2TB you might want to consider getting an external Thunderbolt 3 drive. For less than the price of upgrading the Mac mini from 512GB to 2TB, you can get a LaCie 16TB 2big Dock RAID.
https://admemedi.tistory.com/19. Round the back there are a full set of ports – four Thunderbolt 3 ports (which you can use an adapter with to connect a monitor over DisplayPort for 10-bit colour), HDMI 2.0, two USB 3.0 ports, Ethernet (gigabit as standard, ours has full 10Gb, which adds £90 to the price) and a headphone jack. This is as good as it gets when it comes to connectivity, whether you want to connect fast storage or work on larger projects that live on your network.
So what’s missing? In a word, graphics. The Mac mini doesn’t have a separate graphics chip, instead using the Intel UHD Graphics 630 that’s built into the CPU. Whether this matters depends on what work you do. If you work primarily in graphic design or UX apps such as InDesign, Adobe XD or Sketch – which have no GPU acceleration – it’ll make no difference at all.
Photoshop or Illustrator are GPU-accelerated to some degree. Processing of intricate vector compositions or PSDs with hundreds of layers will benefit from a full graphics chip/card – but as you can see from our Photoshop benchmark tests, the Mac mini gets better results than laptops that do have discrete graphics chips. This is because of the higher-class CPU.
Moving over to mediums where GPU acceleration really helps – 2D and 3D animation, video editing, motion graphics and the like – and the lack of a GPU really hurts the Mac mini’s performance.
Free software mac. Using Cinema 4D R20’s GPU-accelerated ProRender renderer – which can be used as an indicator of both real-time 3D performance with big scenes and GPU-accelerated processing of 2D video filters, effects or output encoding – the Mac mini was three times slower than a MacBook Pro or equivalent Windows laptop.
You can add an external GPU such as the Blackmagic Design eGPU or eGPU Pro, but that can raise the cost and amount of desk space to the point where you might as well consider a full-size desktop.
It’s therefore hard to recommend the Mac mini to anyone who works with video or animation. Though if Apple made a scaled up version about the same size as the current aging Mac Pro – but with the aesthetic of the Mac mini rather than that of a shiny waste paper bin, and accessible components including a full sized graphics card with the option of Nvidia boards for those apps that are tied to its CUDA platform (and 9th-gen desktop chips with an i9 chip option) – we’d likely heartily recommend that.
If, however, your primary tools are Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, XD, Sketch, InVision, Affinity or any other graphic or UX design tools – and you’re in the market for a desktop rather than a laptop – the Mac mini is a powerful, slickly designed system that offers much more than you’d expect from its size. The same is true for its price, as long as you’re content with 16GB of RAM or upgrading to 32GB yourself.
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About the author:This guest article was written by Emma Best from Laptopical - a guide to the latest laptop reviews and laptop related news. You can also follow her on Twitter.
I've been using my MacBook Pro since a while now and I must say: I really love it. The most common app(s) that designers use has to be Adobe Photoshop (Or the full suite). The app(s) are great, but there is a downside: The price tag. Photoshop CS4 costs $699, CS4 extended is $999 and the full Creative Suite starts at an stunning $1799. For many people this is just a little bit too much to 'play around with'.
Luckily, there are also many free applications out there that can do the same kind of job that Photoshop could do for you. This article rounds up the best 15 free Mac Programs for Graphic Designers. Some of these applications can even do stuff that can't be achieved using Photoshop, or are much more simple to use.
Keep your wallet in your pocket, since all these programs will cost you nothing.
GIMP
The most popular of all free photo editing software, GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and is highly-supported and frequently updated. Comparative to Photoshop, users can perform basic tasks such as photo retouching, color correction, and image size, or more complicated tasks like image composition and creation. GIMP has a scripting interface for advance users, as well as plugins, extensions, and filters.
Seashore
If you want GIMP, but don't have X11, then Seashore is the appropriate software for you. Based on GIMP, it has nearly all the settings and functions of the more advanced program without the higher requirements.
Inkspace
An excellent alternative to Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw, Inkscape is a free vector graphics program supporting standard SVG format, as well as XML and CSS standards. This program can do everything you'll need in a vector graphics program - tracing, path operations, direct XML editing, etc. Best mail merge software for mac. Import and export formats include all the common image types, including JPEG, PNG, and TIFF.
Front End Digital Media Workshop
Don't waste time manually resizing individual photos for your various projects. Front End Digital Media is a batch conversion app for images (as well as video and audio), and allows you to mass resize, resample, split, join, and up/down sample JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, PSD, and PICT image files.
Image Tricks
The biggest appeal for the Image Tricks app is the ability to apply dozens of different filters to over 20 different image formats. The finished photos can then be exported as either TIFF, JPEG, or PNG.
Comipro Plus
If you create cartoons of any type, Comipro Plus is an excellent app. Designed in Japanese but usable to English speakers, this program helps create modern-looking comics, including editing and adding word bubbles.
Google SketchUp
Different from a normal vector graphics program, Google's SketchUp allows you to not only create a design, but view it in 3D. It is easier to use than more complicated 3D software, such as AutoCAD, and is free.
Colorate
Colorate is used to change and manipulate the colors in a photo. The Library generates a color swatch based on the photo, then allow you to add a new color pallete, either blending the current one, creating a custom one, or randomizing a completely new pallete.
Goldberg
This program is best used for those times when you're viewing your photos, and notice that a color is slightly off, or a side needs cropped a bit more. Instead of firing up a full photo editing application, you can simply make minor adjustments, including color correction, blurs, noise, and embossing.
NIH Image
If you need to animate one of your photos or designs, this program is for you. It's compatible with a wide array of programs, and in addition to animating images, it can also perform minor tweaks to contrast, sharpening, smoothing, filters, and more. It also analyzes particles, angles, and paths.
Scratch
This program is so simple, it can be used also immediately with no prior instruction. It is used for creating small games, interactive art, and animated stories, and is primarily marketed to children. Despite it's juvenile market, it is an excellent tool for putting together quick interactive banners and images without the learning curve.
DAZ Studio
If you're in need of realistic 3D models, DAZ Studio is an easy-to-learn 3D program for creating 3D objects, including people, animals, and objects (buildings, cars, etc). DAZ Studio is easier to use than other 3D animation tools, and is perfect for creating surrealistic and 3D art.
Bryce
Built to run with the aforementioned DAZ Studio software, Bryce is used to create real-looking landscapes using photos of real landscapes. Take a picture of your yard, a forest, some mountains, or other landscapes, import it into Bryce, and then add all the elements needed to turn it into a new world.
ArchiCAD
If you need a 3D design tool with more power and features than Google SketchUp, ArchiCAD is the right program to you. Similar to AutoCAD in both function and name, this program allows users to design their sketches and ideas into a realistic 3D render.
JAlbum
Every graphic designer requires an efficient way to keep all their photos and images organized. JAlbum is the ultimate photo organizer, as it not only allows you to organize your photos and folders using simple drag-and-drop functionality, but it also creates thumbnails and HTML pages of your photos for easy online publishing. The HTML pages to publish can be made to either export a gallery or a slide show. In addition, there's support for IPTC and EXIF data, lossless editing, image filters, style sheets, and an integrated FTP client.
Bonus: Pixelmator
I've added Pixelmator myself to this list, as Emma didn't include this app to her top 15 list. I really love to use Pixelmator myself and I don't think it should be missing from this amazing list.
Pixelmator, the beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editor for Mac OS X has everything you need to create, edit and enhance your images.
Mac software update 10.12. Oct 18, 2019 If any updates are available, click the Update Now button to install them. Or click ”More info” to see details about each update and select specific updates to install. When Software Update says that your Mac is up to date, the installed version of macOS and all of its apps are also up to date. The OS X v10.8.2 Supplemental Update is recommended for all users running OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2 and includes the following fixes: Resolves an issue that may cause certain Japanese characters. The 10.8.2 update also includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac, including the following fixes: An option to discard the changes in the original document when choosing Save As; Unsent drafts are opened automatically when launching Mail.
Bonus: Blender
Graphic Design For Mac
Just like Pixelmator, I've added Blender myself to this list, as Emma didn't include this app to her top 15 list. Blender is a great open source app for 3d content.
Tripp lite driver. Software Downloads. PowerAlert Local Learn More. PowerAlert Local software is intended for typical home and small business applications. It is installed on a desktop PC or networked server, and allows the computer to communicate with a UPS system through a serial or USB cable connection.
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.
Are there more Mac Apps that you, as a graphic designer, love to use that is missing from the list above? Please share!
This guest article was provided to you by Emma Best from Laptopical.
Graphic Design Software For Mac
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