Unit 30 P1/Unit 1 P4

Unit 30 P1/Unit 1 P4

Computer system:

Apple Mac OS X computers are especially useful for designers, and many creative professionals choose to regularly update to the latest Mac hardware. Most graphic designers automatically veer towards the Mac OS X platform as a matter of course. Partly this is a result of Apple's graphic design heritage. (Apple pretty much created the desktop publishing market back in 1985 with the original Apple Macintosh computer, combined with PageMaker and the first LaserWriter printer.)

These days most designers work in a purely digital format, and will be using very different software to that created back in the 1980s. However, Apple is still the choice for designers thanks to its more comfortable Mac OS X operating system and wide software support.

Hardware:

A big monitor is important because the tools do not get in the way of image you are illustrating. other hardware tools such as printers, scanners, digital camera etc. A printer such as the HP Designjet Z3200ps GP 24" Printer (£2,939) because the printer will allow you to print large images in great detail, as this printer contains spectrophotometer to enable easy calibration and profiling, minimise bronzing on most glossy photo papers with HP Gloss Enhancer and the embedded spectrophotometer which helps you generate custom ICC profiles. The Vinyl Cutter Plotter / 28 inch Cutting Plotter Printer Sign Maker & SignCut Pro (£220) is also important as this would enable you to computer control the machine. Small vinyl cutters look like computer printers. The computer controls the movement of a sharp blade. This blade is used to cut out shapes and letters from sheets of thin self-adhesive plastic (vinyl). A Plustek OpticPro A320 - 1600 dpi x 1600 dpi - Flatbed scanner would also be useful as the scanning device can scan an A3 size document with high quality - resolution as high as 1600 dpi and scanning area as large as 12" x 17" (304.8 mm x 431.8 mm) - in just 11.2 seconds.

Software:

Adobe Creative Cloud: Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign (the latter ousting QuarkXPress as the creative's layout tool of choice in the early 2000s) have always been the software applications graphic designers rely on to convert their ideas and concepts into projects for themselves or clients.

The latest versions of these apps can no longer be purchased in a box, you'll need to take out either a single software subscription (£17.58 per month per app) or (and this is much better value) a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud costing £46.88 per month.

With the latter you'll be able to download not only Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign but also every single one of Adobe's creative tools. The mac also contains quick look, which allows you to view -almost instantly- preview huge Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.