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I was very excited when my brother-in-law has recently gave us his old macbook (he's one of those guys that needs the latest gadgets), because I had heard you could do all kind of creative things with it. The problem is, now that I have it, I have no idea what I can do with it lol
Can anyone enlighten me as to the advantages of having a Mac for general papercrafting/ scrapbooking/ cardmaking etc? I've played around a bit, but it's been a long time since I've used one. I'm fine with my PC laptop (mostly I use it to look at tutorials, sites like this and get into trouble $hopping), but I just wondered if I was missing out on anything neat or fun I could be doing with the Mac.
I have owned a Mac for years . I did have a PC many years ago, but I am not up on the features of the new Windows operating systems and what is included in them.
On a Mac there are a lot of programs built into the operating system that are used in Graphic design or related projects. If I recall on my PC I had to download programs that are already installed on a MAC
For example if you want to open a PDF on a PC you need to download Adobe reader. On a Mac a PDF reader is included in the operating system. It opens in a program called Preview.
If you want to create a PDF it is also included in the operating system. You bring up the file you want to be formatted as a PDF. Click print ( yes print) and on the lower left side of the print screen it says PDF. There is a drop down menu that has among other choices " save as a PDF" Click that and the document will be saved as a PDF on your desktop. Then just file it or send it where ever you want to.
There are other programs in the operating system of a Mac to open and use other file extensions used mainly in graphic work.
You need to buy some graphic programs for a Mac but the basic ones are included in the operating system.
A good basic book for using a Mac is called the "Missing Manual". There is a version for each operating system. Do you know which operating system is installed on your Mac?
If you don't know go to the Apple icon ( with the bite out of it) at the very top left of your screen and click on it Then click "About this Mac" and it will tell you which operating system you have installed.
It will only show it as OS X 10.6 or such not the name we give it. So OS X 10.5 would be Leopard-- OS X 10.6 would be Snow Leopard-- OS X 10.7 would be Lion and OS X 10.8 would be Mountain Lion. The Missing Manual book titles use the names and the OS X number of the Operating Systems .
I doubt your operating system is older than Leopard, but if it is let me know the number and I will tell you the name of it.
There is also a wealth of information for how to use a Mac on the Apple.com site .
Hope this helps
Barbara
__________________ "I have not failed . I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" --Thomas A. Edison
Another thing that is easy to do on a Mac with no extra software is to use clip art.
I have several clip art books from Dover Publications. They come with a CD-ROM
I usually use the JPEG format. I copy the image I want to my Desktop and drag and drop it into Pages ( which is Word on a PC)
From pages I resize it to any size I want. I don't need Vector graphics to do this.
I just did a card with Clip Art from Dover in my Gallery . I resized it to fit the oval I wanted to use .
This isn't really technical but one thing I have noticed on my Mac is that the colors on the screen are much more accurate, meaning when I print the colors are much closer to what I see. Not so much with my Windows laptop.
Another thing that is easy to do on a Mac with no extra software is to use clip art.
I have several clip art books from Dover Publications. They come with a CD-ROM
I usually use the JPEG format. I copy the image I want to my Desktop and drag and drop it into Pages ( which is Word on a PC)
From pages I resize it to any size I want. I don't need Vector graphics to do this.
I just did a card with Clip Art from Dover in my Gallery . I resized it to fit the oval I wanted to use .
Been following the questions about using a Mac with the card making hobby. I love my Mac so much so that if there was a fire it wouldn't be my sewing machine I would grab it would be my Mac! LOL. All kidding aside, I prefer this Mac HANDS DOWN to any PC. There are so few issues to deal with compared to a PC. But, I have had trouble trying to figure out how to upload pics from my camera to the Mac and then on up to SCS. I guess its easy but I just don't do it enough to give advice. Another thing is when I bought the DVD from Crafty Secrets I had a real hard time adjusting the size to print. They use PhotoShop but I don't think the standard Mac has that loaded. May be wrong here but I don't think so. Therefore my question to Barbara Jay is this: my Mac is 4 years old, Snow Leopard, and are you aware of a program on it to do color adjustments and sizing etc. etc.? I know, I know, I should call Mac but ahhhhh I just don't wanna talk to some guy about this unless its absolutely necessary. LIke I said, I don't spend a lot of time on the computer trying to figure everything out. Rather be cleaning, or in art room or eating chocolate. LOL. Thanks.
Another thing that is easy to do on a Mac with no extra software is to use clip art.
I have several clip art books from Dover Publications. They come with a CD-ROM
I usually use the JPEG format. I copy the image I want to my Desktop and drag and drop it into Pages ( which is Word on a PC)
From pages I resize it to any size I want. I don't need Vector graphics to do this.
I just did a card with Clip Art from Dover in my Gallery . I resized it to fit the oval I wanted to use .
Thanks so much for all the responses guys, I guess really I will just have to play around with it to find out what I can do with it. I will go check out the Mac store some day, I just want to go on a day when there aren't giant lines lol
No computer will come with Photoshop already loaded unless you have purchased it and had the retailer install it for you. Photoshop is an expensive professional level software program.
Snow Leopard comes with Preview installed. It's a basic photo editing program. Here's an article about it:
Or you could buy Photoshop Elements, which is a not so expensive version of Photoshop that serves most people's needs pretty well.
I have no experience with Preview so can't talk about it with any authority. I use Photoshop on my Mac.
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Last edited by Rachelrose; 10-15-2012 at 12:08 PM..
Been following the questions about using a Mac with the card making hobby. I love my Mac so much so that if there was a fire it wouldn't be my sewing machine I would grab it would be my Mac! LOL. All kidding aside, I prefer this Mac HANDS DOWN to any PC. There are so few issues to deal with compared to a PC. But, I have had trouble trying to figure out how to upload pics from my camera to the Mac and then on up to SCS. I guess its easy but I just don't do it enough to give advice. Another thing is when I bought the DVD from Crafty Secrets I had a real hard time adjusting the size to print. They use PhotoShop but I don't think the standard Mac has that loaded. May be wrong here but I don't think so. Therefore my question to Barbara Jay is this: my Mac is 4 years old, Snow Leopard, and are you aware of a program on it to do color adjustments and sizing etc. etc.? I know, I know, I should call Mac but ahhhhh I just don't wanna talk to some guy about this unless its absolutely necessary. LIke I said, I don't spend a lot of time on the computer trying to figure everything out. Rather be cleaning, or in art room or eating chocolate. LOL. Thanks.
I am running Snow leopard too
I use a card reader to upload pictures from my camera to the computer. It saves on the battery
You just plug the card reader USB cable into a port on you computer and insert the SD card from you camera. My camera is a Canon Power Shot and has on screen prompts when it detects a picture.
Caution ! When you finish using the card reader be sure to click on it on your Desktop and then go to File to eject it, or you could lose pictures
As far as reducing font I always drag and drop things into pages and resize things there.
I have never used it but there are a ton of photo editing features in iPhoto which is included with the operating system. Just bring up a picture and look at the bottom of the screen for all the features. There is one to enhance the colors or change the contrast . The only feature I have used once in iPhoto is to crop a picture.
I don't know how to do photo editing so my card go into the gallery just as they come out of my camera :(
My goal for the near future is to learn to do some limited photo editing
My daughter is very involved in Photography and has a super-dooper expensive Adobe Suite for photo editing. She told me she was surprised at all the valuable features in iPhoto
__________________ "I have not failed . I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" --Thomas A. Edison
Last edited by Barbara Jay; 10-15-2012 at 10:24 PM..
I just did a drag and drop into pages for a stamp from Quietfire stamps.
The top verson is the original size then I resized it by dragging the handles for the smaller size
This is a copywrite design and I only used it as a example
I put the link to the stamp in the PDF
__________________ "I have not failed . I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" --Thomas A. Edison
What can I do with a Mac?
