framing design software

Hi and welcome to the Grumble!

Yes, there are several programs like this. It's still a young and developing technology. Do a scan for "Visual" in this forum, and in the computer forum, for some recent discussions.

Here's a list of ALL frame pricing programs, with and without visualization.
 
The prices, features, and contact info are all listed if you click on the above link. (the word LIST, in blue)

Mike
 
How many framers use a Mac for this type of program or would if it was compatible and available. I need to know really soon so please help by answering.

Thanks in advance for your help
 
The POS systems that still have support for MACS include:

FrameReady
GalleryPro
Royall

I'm curious about the answer to your question as well. Who here uses a MAC for their POS, and which one do you use if so?

Mike
 
Nona,

I’m a Mac addict and occasionally use Illustrator to lay out mat designs, but, although I haven’t seen any programs that Mike has mentioned, I don’t think I’d use one to design frames and mats exclusively.

The frame that one could generate would, I think, have to be scaled to fit the screen, and I fear that calibrating the colors of the moulding and mat samples would be either very difficult or nearly impossible to reproduce accurately.
 
I use my Mac for email. Love the Mac

We use it a bunch to send images to "out of town" customers. Many of our customers are 2nd and 3rd home owners. Or it works well to send a quick image and a quote to our interior designers we work with. We just lay a corner sample and mat or mats take a digital picture the art send them different combos.
We have even sold art for homes via email! It really works well for us.
 
I am curious...and a novice in the field of computers... what are the options? Mac &....? I will be investing in a computer system and want to use the same application as Judy.
 
Apple makes a fine product, which is preferred by graphic designers. The problem is that they only have about 3% of the market and this isn't profitable enough to attract many software or hardware developers. (even in our industry) As a result of the lower production and proprietary architecture, the macs tend to cost twice as much as their PC brothers.
I'm gonna get in trouble.
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If price and being compat with popular programs are big issues, you may also want to consider a PC. There's a Dell mentioned right now in our computer forum for less than $400, including the computer, an LCD flat panel monitor, shipping, a printer, 80gb hd, Windows and Wordperfect software, etc.

Email and internet will work with either platform. Whichever you choose (Mac or PC), it'll be a good tool to organize your business.

Happy hunting
Mike
 
What Mike says is basically true, because of it’s market share (which, I believe, is closer to 5%) there are fewer applications written for the Mac, but …

When I was looking for an accounting package, a search gave me 130 or so for a Windows based PC and only 23 for the Mac. I was still able to find one that met my needs.

Microsoft supports the Mac. The Office suite (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, etc.) is also written for the Macintosh. Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, Dreamweaver is all available for the Mac. All of the documents written for these are cross compatible with Windows based machines.

Although more expensive, a Mac is much easier to use (I get annoyed when I am forced to use a PC at our library) and it is very easy to customize. The Mac OS is, if you read some of the Tech Forums, much more stable than the Windoze platform. My Mac almost never crashes, but when it does, I do not lose data!

Also, (perhaps because of its market share), the Mac seems to be much more secure. With Norton Anti-Virus installed, I have only intercepted two viruses or trojan horses in the last year and one does not need anti-spyware with a Mac. I suspect most PC users worry about becoming infected much more than I do.

If your budget allows and you want to make the paper-to-electronic transition easier, consider a Macintosh. There is a lot of support out there in cyberland.
 
In reference to computers for the shop.

My customers were really impressed with the flat screen I had, more so than with the CPU. At the time I was getting the last possible life out of a Pentium 2, so I'm glad I had the screen to distract my customers! I had the flat screen for 2 reasons; 1 I needed the room on my desk and the flat screen had a "small foot print" and 2 I just wanted it (its "look" impressed me)!

So.... the new Mac is beautiful and impressive looking, but a low price Dell (great on-site service BTW!) with a flat screen is definitely worth looking at. I kept the flat screen and bought a good Dell, no monitor and added a CD Burner for back-ups. Fair trade!
 
That is exactly what we have at our front counter. A dell and flat monitor.

We mounted the flat screen to the wall with a shelf below it that sticks out only 6 inches to hold the keyboard and mouse. The computer and printer are under the design counter, and the barcode scanner sits on a stand. (This is the only item ON the design counter)

Mike
 
WE have 2 Dells out front for POS. I only download Lifesaver updates for the PCs nothing else. I lost a PC due to a "virus" on email once and will never go back to using one for email again.
My Mac in the back is the workhorse for the me.
We do all our ads and graphics ( WE DO NOT LET THE NEWSPAPER DO THEM). Also all the email for customers I mentioned above.

As an aside.. My Sister and I are writing a series of childrens books. She has a Mac in Portland, Or. We are doing our books a little "backwards". I do the drawings "first" and suggest a storyline then she does the writing and we do all our editing back and forth via email. It is so cool!
The Mac is so smooth to use for "Indesign" and Photoshop and all the things we need most for developing our little books.
 
They are both great systems, (PC vs Mac). One consideration that I haven't read here yet is who is going to do your tech support? In my circle of friends and aquaintances I am the tech support. If it is PC based I can help....Mac based , well like I said, they are both great systems. I have to agree that the Mac is a bit more "intuitive" to learn, and might have less problems. I always wonder about this though. If 95% of the people were using Macs (instead of vice versa) would you hear more complaints about them....there would just have to be more volume of users, therefore more potential for problems!

If you have a support person who can help you and understands your needs talk to them.

Oh and by the way, there are way more games for the PC based computers!
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If you have Wizard 5.1 CMC software, you can load in an image. Just use file->Load Image. That way you can visualize your image and mat design. If you ask Wizard Helpdesk to turn on the matboard library, you can select mats by name or number and see the mats in color. Just don't tell helpdesk I told you about the matboard library.
 
OK. MMMM... Well, regarding the previous post, (back pedal fast here) maybe you shouldn't call helpdesk about that matboard library. It'll be available later this year. The Load Image feature is available though. :) ("Danger Will Robinson! Software guy shelfishly promoting features!")
 
Masking tape? Either I forgot, I was was too inebriated to remember... please enlighten..
 
Inebriated? You were at work. Of course, that doesn't necessarily rule that out....

Remember we had those stacks of masking tape rolls all shrink-wrapped together? And you put them on your arms, letting them dangle and flop around. Good times...
 
Ahh.. now I remember. I didn't know if you were referring to Robbie the Robot or Software guys promoting shell-fish.

robbie.jpg
 
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