Mac Buyers Guide for Graphic Artists and Designers

Refurbished Mac Buyers Guide for Graphic Artists

Since they were first introduced, Macs have been the favorite tool for graphic artists and designers. The only trouble with Macs is that they are expensive. But who wants to settle for a PC? Especially when there is a cost effective alternative – refurbished used Apple Macs from GainSaver.

Our super low prices and excellent customer service are the reason so many graphic artists, commercial designers, image editors and other graphics professionals shop GainSaver for their refurbished Apple Mac computers. You can get the refurbished Mac you really want from GainSaver and stay within your budget!

Refurbished iMacs for designers

Image quality and color accuracy are of utmost importance to designers. And there is no better display than the ones used on a refurbished iMac. Apple is famous for its crystal clear screens and high contrast output.

As a graphic artist, you'll want to get a refurbished iMac introduced in Mid 2009 or later. These iMacs have the best image quality, and come in two screen sizes, 21-inch and 27-inch. Along with physical size, the primary difference between the 21-inch iMac and the 27-inch iMac is the screen resolution. The 21-inch iMac has a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, and the 27-inch iMac has a 2560 x 1440 pixel display.

The resolution is the number of pixels that can be displayed on the screen. The more pixels, the more detail you get when viewing an image. Also, with a higher resolution screen, you can see more of an image at one time. If your image has a resolution of 72 dpi, you can see a full 35 inches across at a zoom level of 100% when viewing it on a 27-inch iMac. On a 21-inch iMac, you can see 26 inches across.

If you select a 27-inch refurbished iMac, you'll also appreciate the additional resolution when you are viewing the Mac desktop. You'll see it's a lot bigger. So if you are running multiple applications with several windows open at once, it's nice to have the bigger screen of the 27-inch refurbished iMac.

Refurbished Macbook Pros for designers

GainSaver has a huge range of Macbook Pros available in all processor types and speeds. Depending on the type of design projects you are doing, a 15-inch Macbook Pro may have a high enough resolution to support your work.

GainSaver has 15-inch Macbook Pros with non-Retina displays that have a resolution of 1440 x 900. We also have more recently introduced refurbished 15-inch Macbook Pros with Retina displays. The Retina display Macbook Pros were introduced in Mid 2012, and have an amazingly high screen resolution of 2560 x 1600.

Remember that even though the refurbished 15-inch Retina Macbook Pros have a very high resolution, the physical screen size is still just 15 inches. If you are working on images all day, the size may turn out to be too small for you.

With this in mind, one popular option is to go with a refurbished Macbook Pro, either a 13-inch or 15-inch, and then connect a separate monitor to it. You can get up to 2560 x 1600 pixels per inch resolution on an external monitor. This way you separate your Mac from your monitor, and you are then free to use any monitor you want for your design work.

With your design work on a refurbished Macbook Pro, you can easily take it with you should you need to go out to visit with clients.

Refurbished Macbook Airs for designers

One inexpensive option you may not have considered for design work is a refurbished Macbook Air. Macbook Airs are even lighter and easier to carry with you to client meetings, and you can find refurbished Macbook Airs at GainSaver for even less than refurbished Macbook Pros.

The available screen sizes are smaller on Macbook Airs. They come in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes. And the resolutions are lower also. So what you'll want to do is connect your refurbished Macbook Air to an external monitor. The Macbook Air will give you a resolution of 2560 x 1600 to an external monitor, which is just the same resolution as a Macbook Pro.

Make sure to shop for a refurbished Macbook Air introduced in Mid 2011 or later. These models have the Intel Core i5 and i7 processors. You'll need that performance to make sure that your editor doesn't get bogged down when running filters on large image files.

GainSaver Custom Configuration

GainSaver technicians are experts at customizing the refurbished Mac laptops and desktops we sell with additional memory and higher capacity hard drives. You really should consider the custom configuration options when you check out.

Many times, the only difference you'll notice between a refurbished Mac and a new one is the hard drive size or the amount of memory installed. You can really boost the performance by upgrading these components, especially if you are manipulating large files, or storing a lot of design projects on the hard drive.

Custom configuration is another advantage to shopping GainSaver for your refurbished Mac.

We're happy that we can be of service to so many designers and artists who buy from GainSaver. Thank you for shopping with us!