I seriously recommend upgrading to Win XP. Windows 98 does not have system-wide Unicode support, so your multilingual capacity is pretty slim. MS Office has built in Unicode, but most other apps will have only very limited capability.

Of course, upgrading to Windows XP will probably require upgrading your hardware also

Thank you.

as I said - I have Toshiba Satellite laptop ( Windows 98). so just to buy Win XP (cd), and install it? orI miss the point, and this is more complex?

There have been many models of that laptop. How much RAM do you have? What type and speed of CPU? How big is your hard drive, and how much free space do you currently have?

Worst, although it is quite possible to do an "upgrade install" that leaves your current OS install kind of intact and migrates apps and stuff over to the new one, such installs are often frought with problems. Most experts recommend instead doing a "clean install" which wipes out your OS and basically hoses all your application installations, meaning you need to reinstall all apps. Major pain here if you have a lot of applications.

And if you're going that far, you probably ought to move the hard drive over to NTFS formatting, which means wiping the whole hard drive, including your data files. So you'd need to do a full backup of data first.



Regards,

T

Oh la la. This is complex That is why I like more the Mac. But I'm sure that I'm going to like the PC. One day.

The lap is 4-5 years old. Never used it.

I think the best thing to do is to buy a new computer Win XP.

John wrote/said Dell + XP Pro. What to look for - as far as RAM? hard drive etc etc

A major issue with new versions of Windows on older hardware is BIOS compatibility. Installing Windows XP on a machine that was not designed and built for it can cause problems with power management, speed, and even some application running.

Regarding particular specs, you probably want no less that 512MB of RAM and at minimum a 40GB hard drive. If you can afford to double those, so much the better.

You'd be facing at least some of the same issues if you were moving from OS 8/9 to OS X on the Mac.

How much you need in terms of hardware stats really depends on what software you're going to run. Font editing software is not particularly hardware-intensive, and Microsoft office isn't too bad, though it chews a fair bit of hard drive space.

Which graphics and publishing apps will you run? Will you also be wanting to run current games or anything else that might tax your speed, RAM, video or storage needs?

Cheers,

T

software you're going to run.

Let's say I'm going to buy the Win XP today.... I want to buy FL + Creative Suite Premium. and even more.....


I work with (Mac): Illustrator, Photoshop, FreeHand, InDesign, Quark, Painter, LightWave, Poser, FL.

On the way DTL FontMaster, and Adobe Video Collection.

Video and 3-d imaging are very intensive uses of the computer. Even more so than games.

John's advice is still good, except that even more RAM and especially even more hard disk capacity are big pluses. Also, don't skimp on the CPU too much (although any machine available with 1 GB of RAM and a 60+ GB HD will probably have a fast enough processor) and make sure it has a fast video card. Also for the HD, make sure it's 7200 RPM or better.

Regards,

T

Dell has a helpful laptop advisor at http://catalog.us.dell.com/advisor/advise.aspx

You answer some questions regarding your needs, and it gradually reduces a list of recommended machines. Then, once you've identified a basic model, you can start customising with extra RAM or other options.

I didn't use this service when I bought my Dell, but I just tried it now and it recommended exactly the machine I ended up purchasing.

Many thanks John & Thomas. In your opinion - to pay $1500-2000 +- for a custom PC/Win XP - is too much?


I hear about InDesign ME (and Photoshop ME), but I don't see it as a part of the Creative Suite Premium. Why? The ME is a plug-In?

I paid about $4,000 Canadian for my heavily customised Dell, but that was for the model with the 145dpi screen and RAM and hard drive size both maxed-out.

$4000 canadian - so +- $2000 US, no?


By the way I just saw Nyala - (that is complex script? with VOLT?)

The current exchange rate is approx. 1.30 CAD to 1.00 USD.

The Ethiopic script is not technically complex, just large. Keyboard layouts are complex, because you input the consonant a vowel separately in order to get the single syllable character. I did include one OpenType Contextal Alternate <calt> feature for Nyala Ethiopic: an Ethiopic number feature that draws a line above and below multiple numerals. This is a feature of the script found in manuscripts but, until now, has not been done in type. I used VOLT for this, but it is the sort of substitution feature that can also be done in FontLab.

'Type', InDesign ME is InDesign Middle East, which does Arabic, Hebrew and other right to left languages. It has additional software from WinSoft in France for the right to left flow and other functionality for Arabic, Hebrew etc.

Thanks John

William - do you work with InDesign ME? I have InDesign....can I upgrade to ME? or do I need to buy InDesign ME?

Yes, I broke down and got InDesign ME because I had to for a project - it includes Hebrew with the vowel points - and because John Hudson was singing its praises here. If you want to do Arabic or Hebrew in InDesign, you have to get it.

I think you would call it an add-on rather than upgrade, but in any case you have to pay a lot extra to change to InDesign ME CS from the regular InDesign ME. The only one who handles it in the US, I believe, is FontWorld.

Thanks William. Great link.

Oh, and if you only want to design type for one of these languages, and do not anticipate designing publications in it, you may do with Microsoft Word, as it does Hebrew and Arabic also. John Hudson could give you the info on this; he's the expert.

Thanks William. (Fontworld is the one and only place to buy ID/Illustrator ME? not even Adobe?!)

William is right: if you don't need a professional page layout app for Arabic and Hebrew and only need to test fonts, MS Office on Windows is sufficient. InDesign ME does have more options for turning on and off individual OpenType features, though, and supports stylistic and discretionary justification variants that Office does not.

>not even Adobe?!

As I remember, the Adobe site will link you to Winsoft, which has outlets in the Middle East, and at its home base in France. Evidently Winsoft's add-on functionalities in the Adobe ME line are done in close collaboration with Adobe, but are not Adobe products.

All Creative Suite products come in three language editions: Western/International (the one developed and sold by Adobe), Central European and Middle East (both developed by Winsoft http://www.winsoft.fr/ and sold by its distributors). Note that the CE/ME versions of InDesign or Illustrator aren't just the Western versions with some plugins. Some of the core functionality has been changed/extended. So for example, it is not possible to install "ME plugins" onto a regular InDesign, but instead, you need to install the entire new InDesign ME. BTW, it is very unfortunate that one cannot install InDesign Western and InDesign ME on the same machine.
The Central European version includes tools for working with Central and Eastern European languages (Polish, Russian, Czech, Ukrainian, Hungarian etc.), while the Middle East version includes _everything that the CE version has_ plus support for Arabic and Hebrew.
Adam

Sure would be nice to have a pluggin for the Western version which would allow CE typography. Is it that difficult that a whole new application had to be developed? Sure takes the wind out of Opentype concept. Maybe Adobe will do it for next Rev?

ChrisL

While I