Apple just released the all-new iMac 27-inch today, along with a 21.5-inch. The 24-inch model has been retired.
The new iMac monitor is crazy good for graphic designers for several reasons:
- LED backlighting – For the time being, nothing is a bright and crisp as LED backlighting. It’s 100% transition free, and consistent all the way around. The old-style backlighting involved shooting in light from the frame of the monitor, creating bright areas and dead areas, especially when viewed from different angles.
- Corner to corner glass – When you are designing all day, getting rid of any extraneous visual garbage is good. The iMac is glass, corner to corner, and also has a black “matte” around the screen, further bordering it from the surrounding visual messiness (especially if the messiness is my office).
- Monitor Resolution – This thing has 2560-by-1440 resolution. What on earth else is there to say? Now I can open everything all at once and leave it open all day. InDesign layout artists are going to love this.
- IPS Technology – What is that? Well, whatever “in plane technology is” it simply means that you can be looking at the screen from any angle whatsoever and see all the details. No more wonky-wobbles of black that turn all manner of inexplicable colors when viewing the screen from various angles. This is fantastic.
As a freelance graphic designer, I need to maximize everything I do in my graphic design process to eek out the most productivity. Processor speed and RAM amount aside, the new 27-inch iMac will find a welcome home in our studio as soon as possible. And you can be we’ll be at the Providence, RI Apple store to take a peek at this and other goodies just release today by Apple.
- 27-inch iMac released
- See the video of the new 27-inch iMac – wow!
- Apple’s new 27 inch iMac designed to also work as a display
Update (tongue firmly planted in cheek)!
I just found a new settings panel on the new iMac 27-inch 
that will boost it’s overall image quality. You can increase Awesomeness to 11 and also turn on the Reality Distortion Field. I’m sure this will come in handy 
…
Awesomeness goes to 11 on the new iMac, along with the ability to toggle the Reality Distortion Field
I think it was Andrew Kelsall (don’t quote me on that) I was chatting with and he used to work for Apple. He said most of the monitor parts are exactly the same as those used in Samsung displays, and the latter are much cheaper. So he’s happy to use those.
Do you know anything about that, Doug?
Hi David: It’s old news that Apple uses Samsung parts but Apple charges more. There are a few other things to consider when doing just about anything Apple: 1) I can walk into an Apple Store with the monitor (or iMac) under my arm and be dealt with on the spot – try that at Best Buy. You’d be lucky to not be frisked on the way in. Apple is the benchmark for customer service and knowing this makes me feel just fine ponying up a few extra quid for that. I utterly abhor “big box” electronics retailer shopping experiences and customer service lines. 2) The rest of the monitor casing (Cinema Display or iMac) has Apple quality and Apple design. 3) The Apple reality distortion field comes free of charge. See the update I just posted with a screen shot of how to “set” this new feature to “on”.
I have always believed that in most cases, going middle of the road (not most expensive, and not most cheap) for most items pro or consumer is the best way to go. But for mission critical items, I go with the best I can possibly afford. As a package deal, for the most part, going Apple is the way to go if you value your time as much as Apple values their product.
Had I known you could update the awesomeness to eleven I wouldn’t have bothered mentioning Samsung!
What about the extreme brightness? It practically burns your retinas! Even at the lowest brightness setting, it’s blinding. How do you deal with that? I’m curious as I really want to get one of these, but don’t want to ruin my eyesight in the long term.
I haven’t seen one in person yet – but my 24′ is certainly bright. I keep mine cooled down a little bit to get more accurate CMYK renderings. I would imagine I’d have to back the new one off as well! Might have to use the wireless setup it comes with just to push the screen back across the desk
Hi Saba, not sure what you mean about the brightness setting? At it’s lowest it’s nearly off completely – so much so that you can see reflections in the glass. (on the 24″ LED ACD anyway)
@Doug – What happens if you turn the Reality Distortion field off? Do all your Apple products start looking really crappy and crash constantly?
Marc. It’s not in the literature, but the iMac includes a free grooming mirror. To access it, press the power button in the back and the screen turns into one. The previous generation includes this feature too, but I’m not sure if getting to it is the same process.
I tried to turn the Reality Distortion Field from “On” to “Off” but instead of “Off”, I see a button that says “View Mac/PC commercials on Apple.com”. I tried that, and now I don’t know why I wanted to mess that setting in the first place.
Nice post, btw, is there any need for calibration or it’s simply ready to use out-of-the-box?. If you do calibrate the iMac, can you share some tips?. Really a novice at LCDs and thinking of getting me the 27″iMac for design works. I spend the entire night learning about LCDs, IPS, PVA and still can’t seem to find the right monitor for a MacBookPro + external monitor setup.
The need for calibration on new LCD technology from Apple is limited for the average user. You’ll find it quite accurate for CMYK jobs right out of the box. Unless you are in a pre-press department, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I’ve managed end to end closed-loop color systems, and I’m thankful that those days are largely behind me. Tell you what I would do though. Print a simple 4 color business card from 2 reputable vendors (nextdayflyers.com, etc.) and compare the results to each other to see how close they print in terms of saturation, etc. Then compare those results to your new iMac. My guess is you’ll be within about 5% of either print source, erring on the side of too much saturation on the monitor for certain colors. That means that what you thought was going to be pale cream might turn out to be a sticky-note yellow. The best thing to do is simply print from a variety of trusted sources and compare.
I just ran a full color newspaper ad designed on the iMac 24″ in Illustrator in CMYK color document mode. I’d say it came out within 3-5% of what I see on my screen, closer to 3% than 5% in general. I have not calibrated the 24″ since getting it in Spring of 2009.
I’m kind of astounded that no-one that I can find anywhere on the net will talk about how inaccurate the color is on the new imacs!!! These PCS are NOT actually for graphic designers, they are an entertainment PC geared towards gamers, internet users, the average jo blo that wants to see a nice pretty bright picture.
They are TOTALLY inacurate in terms of colors – highly oversaturated and this can really cause problems in printing at the other end.
I have an imac, and I LOVE it for everything it does. It’s a beautiful machine, but it just does not cut it in terms of color accuracy.
I know that when I get my prints back from the print shop, they are going to be about 50% out on color. Muddy, desaturated, and not at all like what I am seeing on my screen here.
These machines can’t REALLY be calibrated, let’s face it. I’ve tried everything, and Apple themselves admit it. What you see is pretty much what you get.
So, I find it really annoying that to ensure color accuracy, I need to go out and buy a seperate monitor like an NEC (starting price $700).
If ANYONE has been able to get around this issue, I would LOVE to hear from you. But most designers and photographers I know, they all design on laptops with the non-glare screens.
Do you mean the latest gen, 21.5 and 27? Are you dealing with RGB or CMYK colors primarily? What applications are not matching up with your output? I’ve seen pretty good output compared to the screen going from CMYK Photoshop to even my HP OfficeJet, and I used to manage a closed-loop color calibration system between a color laser, Mac, and Japanese 4-color offset printer when I managed a prepress department.
I have also found printing from the colours on my mac book pro not as on screen and found no trouble with my ProNitron 19/800 crt looking to find the best way around this situation, colour accuracy is important when printing externally and trying to match images to screen isn’t happening for me just purchased a mini display to vga this gives me a chance to work with two colours and hope for the best. I would appreciate if anyone can tell me a really good screen to connect to my macbook mini display. I also found that the mini to vga causes a humming noise from my Tannoy active moitors when working with music maybe the mini to vga isn’t shielded it is an apple product and should be of high standard the image is good but not so sure about what is causing the noise. looking forward to any feedback from proffesionals with more knowledge than myself cheers.