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Now that the new millennium has begun, it is time to take a look at your computer system and make sure it is doing the job for graphics computing. We'll go over the hardware, operating system and software that will give you the best results. I think you'll be surprised at how much more efficient you can be when given the right tools.
If you are buying a new computer, you definitely want to look at either a Pentium III or an Athlon chip inside of the computer. And I can't see any reason not to get something running at 800 MHz or better. While the Pentium 4 has been released, it is still a bit pricy unless you like to live on the bleeding edge. By fall, the Pentium 4 is what you want. If you are running a machine whose speed is 200 MHz or less, you'll definitely want to upgrade. Folks at 400 MHz or less should at least start looking at the latest offerings and making plans to upgrade by the end of the year.
There are those who will promote a Macintosh to get the most out of graphics software. Almost all of the major software is available on Mac and PC so there really isn't a software advantage for either platform. The biggest difference could be the hardware devices that one platform or the other supports. I personally think you'll find the PC to be the better choice.
Probably the next most important piece of hardware is the amount of memory. We're talking about RAM here and not the size of the hard drive. There are a lot of folks who got those confused. 128 MB of RAM is an absolute minimum for today's graphics user and I wouldn't suggest getting a new machine with less than 256 MB.
One piece of hardware that is commonly overlooked is the graphics card. If the card is slow, your system will be slow. If the drivers are bad, you'll be crashing constantly. Sadly the most popular cards tend to have the worst drivers. In this area, there are only two cards that should be considered. On the low end, look for the Hercules 3D Prophet II MX Dual-Display Video Card For the absolute fastest card you can buy, check out the Visiontek Geforce3 64 MB. It isn't the cheapest card, just the best out there right now!
Of course your machine should have a hard drive and I wouldn't suggest getting less than 20 GB. If the drive in your current machine is less than 5 GB, you've probably started to run out of room. Getting a 20 GB drive doesn't carry much of a price premium over smaller drives and you might even consider getting more space. If you aren't sure what to do with that extra space, think about putting those clip art and stock photo CDs on the hard drive so you don't always have to search for them. I've done that and just love having all that extra space.
And you've got to have something to read CDs so that you can install new software. But go ahead and get a DVD. Most folks think of this as only a way to watch movies and it certainly is great for that. But you will also see software becoming available on DVD as more users have the drives. For large collections of clip art, it is far better to have a single DVD instead of a pile of CDs.
Again, I think a lot of users just stick with the operating system that came on their computer and that can be a big problem. Windows 95 is nearing its sixth birthday. That is ancient in computer terms. Windows 98 is newer, but it still ancient. But the real problem with Windows 95, 98 and Me is the fact they are still based on DOS. This allows you more backward compatibility with software, but it is also a major cause of system instability. That means crashing!
A much better choice is Windows 2000. It does have a command prompt that looks like DOS, but internally it is all Windows and no DOS. To give you a good example of its stability, I've been using it on all my systems for over a year now (that includes a beta version) and have yet to have a single system crash. None, zero, zip! Sure, other software crashes from time to time, but it does not take the system down with it. Think of how much time you spend rebooting your computer and how much time you would save if you didn't have to do it several times a day.
You'll also find that almost all mainstream hardware is supported including DVD, USB and more. Unfortunately the hardware vendors in some areas have yet to fully embrace Windows 2000. So put the pressure on your hardware vendor to create drivers for Windows 2000. The DOS based versions of Windows have come to the end of their road and all future versions of Windows will be based on Windows 2000.
You obvious know me as a CorelDRAW expert, so we'll start with CorelDRAW. If it is part of your arsenal, you need to be at CorelDRAW 8 or later. Earlier versions are starting to show their age and won't have the time-saving features in the newer versions. So if you've got an older version, go ahead and upgrade to CorelDRAW 10 immediately. Users of CorelDRAW 8 and 9 don't have an urgent need to upgrade, but they should look at the new features carefully. Sometimes it is just a single feature that will make the new versions worthwhile.
If you are in the Adobe Camp, you'll probably want Illustrator 8. Illustrator 9 has had a number of problems that outweigh any of the new features. And Photoshop users should get Photoshop 6 as soon as possible. There are too many great new features to pass up this upgrade.
If you work with bitmaps and need to isolate parts of an image, procreate KnockOut is the best way to do it by far. It is amazing how easy it is to remove the background from an image even if there is fine hair, smoke or water spray.
Regardless of your choice of software, learn how to use it. I'm constantly reading books, attending classes and watching training videos. I'll pick up great time saving tips from even the most basic materials that easily pay for the training. Too many times I've seen powerful software going to waste because users didn't take the time to learn it well. The excuse is that they are too busy when in fact they could get more done if they would learn how to use the software. Find yourself a couple of hours a week to learn more about your software and you'll get those two hours back the next week!
Making the decision to buy a new computer or software is a tough one for business owners. Sure it can all add up to a significant amount of money. But in this case it is an investment that brings more productivity to your business. If you are more productive, you can make more money. Plus, newer computers and software can help you to be more creative. With the extra productivity and creativity, you'll easily pay for the new computers and software.
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CorelDRAW X6 Font List · CorelDRAW X5 Font List · CorelDRAW X4 Font List · The Terms of Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT · CorelDRAW X3 Font List · Cropping and Rotating Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · The Magic of Color Styles · CorelDRAW's Find and Replace Wizard · Shorten Your Design Time with Templates · CorelDRAW's Multi-Faceted Eyedropper Tool · CorelDRAW and Special Characters · The Easy Way to Create Calendars in CorelDRAW · The Wide World of Labels in CorelDRAW · Including Variable Data with Print Merge · Resaving, Resizing & Resampling Files in Corel PHOTO-PAINT · Creating Your Own Fonts in CorelDRAW · The Evils of Using JPEG Files · Speeding Up CorelDRAW 11 and Windows XP · Symbols and Imposition · The Easiest Way to Recreate Logos · A Few Guidelines to Follow · Square Corners Can Be Sticky -- Rounding Corners in CorelDRAW · Creating Complex Shapes Easily with CorelDRAW · Identifying the Mystery Font · Two Ways to Create a Split Front Design · Last Word in Font Management · Calibrating Your Printed Colors with a Color Chart · Graphics Computing in 2001 · Hottest R.A.V.E. In Town · Get the Red Out of Eyes · Secrets of Color Management · Dressing Up Your PDF Files · How Adobe Acrobat Can Make Life Simpler · Why You Want PDF in Your Workflow · Converting a Scanned Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Designing 360 Degrees · Customizing Your Interface in CorelDRAW 8.0 · Fitting Text to a Path · Creating Cool Graphs Without a Spreadsheet · From CorelDRAW to Macromedia Flash, A Simple Example · Getting Rid of That Darned White Box · Converting a Bitmap Logo to Vector in CorelDRAW · Finding Clipart with ROMCAT
Xara Xtreme Pro 5.0
Serif WebPlus X2
Xara Web Designer 5.0
Xara Xtreme Pro 4.1
Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Professional
Fuji FinePix 2800 Zoom Digital Camera
Procreate KnockOut 2
Hemera Photo Objects Volume I and II
Wildform SWfx
Macromedia Fontographer 4.1 and FontLab 4
Caligari iSpace v1.5
Xara X
Macromedia Fireworks 4
Web Site Design Made Easy
Alien Skin Eye Candy 4000
Swish 1.51
Macromedia Flash 5
Corel KPT 6
Dreamweaver Ultradev
1st Page 2000
Adobe Illustrator 9
Corel KnockOut v1.5
Xara 3D 4
Cool 3D 3
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