Digital BW, The Print

It seems to me as long as we discuss computers on printing forum the most important question is: what computer is easier to print with and to get better quality from?
I'm not sure myself but it looks like Mac can print colors in 16 bit, PC can only print 8 bit. They have different print engines, Mac is based on Unix engine.
What do you think about the difference between Mac and PC printing?

Regarding operating system choice there is no one that fits everybody.
The most practical is PC with Vista64 which allows to use a lot of memory, memory is cheap now. When you resize image for printing sometimes it can reach 1 gig in size, my PC with with 16 gig of RAM handles it easily.

Not all programs run under Vista64, so I've installed Vista32 and Windows XP  on my machine and use multi boot manager. This way I can use any software I need.

But sometimes PC is not enough, so I added to my system print server based on Mac Mini. Mac Mini is pretty powerful now, Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4 gig of RAM and up to 500 gig hard drive. It also supports dual monitor setup. To avoid clutter on my desk I use the same keyboard and mouse for PC and Mac switching them with USB switch (cheaper than KVM), my monitors have two inputs so I just switch source on them. Also Mac Mini is pretty cheap.

This way I can run software that is for Mac only and print in 16 bit.

If somebody has information to compare printing engines of Mac and PC it would be interesting reading.

Jacob Mann
http://www.photo3dart.com