Apple's G5 and 64-bit Premedia

Print Action, May 2004 by Bolan, Zac

Fear struck the hearts of prepress managers everywhere, when Jobs announced that every new Mac would boot into OS X as the default operating system. Despite Apple's assurances that software developers would embrace the opportunity to develop new carbon OS X versions of their applications, there were painfully few native graphics applications at that time. Fortunately, Adobe was quick to release OS X native versions of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Acrobat. Macromedia followed with an OS X native release of Freehand - enabling the creative professional to start the transition to Apple's new operating system.

Quark, on the other hand, seemed very resistant to port its mission-critical application, Xpress, to the new operating system. With the memory of the disastrous Xpress 4.0 software upgrade still fresh and a significant increase in the sales of the company's Windows version, Quark seemed to have little to gain by rewriting its software. In the ensuing months, Apple's frustration with Quark became apparent - to the point of Apple suggesting that Quark's reluctance to go OS X native was responsible for sagging sales of that company's newly released G5 workstations among creative professionals. Prepress managers suspected that they would be locked into an OS 9 world for a quite a while longer.

According to Trendwatch Graphic Arts' Fast Facts (summer, 2003) 82 per cent of design and production firms use the Macintosh as their primary operating systems and 65 per cent use Mac OS 9 or earlier. Still forced to compete against their legacy hardware running OS 9, Apple quietly continued to offer build-to-order configurations of its popular G4 desktop workstations. In fact, you can still order one as of press time, should you be so inclined. The question remains, why do prepress departments cling so tenaciously to OS 9? The answer is simple, significant software change has historically led to downtime and workflow interruptions.

Gradually the design community grew frustrated with the technology lag and their aging workstations loaded with antiquated software. The lure of a faster and more productive workflow caused many to reinvest in their workflow. And with the release of Panther (OS X 10.3) and the robust 64-bit G5 workstations Apple finally seemed poised to break the stalemate it had endured with the creative professional. However, as the design community embraces Panther and the G5, prepress departments will be forced to join the migration.

Although I've been using OS X for nearly two years on my personal machines, I've been as reluctant as the next systems manager to install a G5 in the prepress department. The simple fact that OS 9 (re-branded as Classic) must be run in emulation on the new G5s was cause for concern. Or was it? I finally broke down and purchased a 1.8 GHz dual-processor G5 and quickly learned that most of my fears were unfounded.

When I first opened the box I was amazed at the size of the unit. While the trend in computer design seems to be smaller, Apple has produced an industrial-looking brushed aluminum machine with a larger footprint than the G4 workstations. As I started the machine something seemed wrong - the G5 was far too quiet. On closer inspection, the design of the G5's innovative enclosure started to make sense. Gone are the high-speed cooling fans that used to blanket the prepress department in white noise. The G5 sports large, quiet fans that pull air through the aluminum case at a steady rate, silently cooling the dual processors.

The G5 booted quickly and after a round of system software updates (an essential step) and installation of the usual prepress applications the machine was ready to go. The biggest hurdle proved to be font management. Unlike OS 9, Panther stores fonts in multiple locations and many cannot be removed or relocated without affecting the stability of the system.

To address this issue, Apple has included a font management utility as a part of the standard systems software install. Font Book is a usable, albeit simplistic utility capable of rudimentary font management. The demands of the prepress user dictate the need for a more powerful font management utility such as Extensis Suitcase Xl. The majority of font issues became apparent when working and printing in Classic mode. Care must be taken in configuring Classic in order to avoid these problems.

When initially launching Classic, open the extensions manager and ensure that the latest version of Adobe Type Manager is installed. Then remove all but the core system fonts (Charcoal, Geneva and Monaco) from the OS 9 system folder. When installing Suitcase X1, an extension (suitcase bridge) should have installed into your OS 9 extensions folder. This will enable OS 9 applications to recognize fonts open in OS X. You should not install or use the OS 9 version of Suitcase.

In order to print from Classic, you need to ensure that the printer has been set-up through OS X Printer Setup Utility and that the correct PPD has been installed into the Printer Description folder in the OS 9 System Folder. With a little effort you should be printing successfully within minutes.