Chapter Seven. Cross-Platform Issues

Allegiance to an operating system can be a tribal issue, rivaling politics as a trigger for heated discussions, innuendo, condescension, and insults regarding parentage and one's fitness for procreation. It's part of the fun of using computers.

In the early 1990s, this chapter would not have been necessary. In fact, it would have been fairly pointless. (Depending on your platform preference, you may feel that it's pointless now.) In those days, if you were involved in graphic arts, you were using a Macintosh. Period. End of story. Windows users were treated like second-class citizens when they dared take their jobs to a print service provider. If you wanted to clear out a prepress department in 1992, all you had to do was yell "PC job!" It was much like yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater.

Fast-forward to the present day: It's not a Macintosh-only world. The major graphics applications such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, FreeHand and QuarkXPress are almost indistinguishable across platforms. But while the applications themselves are generally compatible, operating system issues still must be addressed if we're all to get along peacefully. Now, put down that wooden stake.