MacPaint
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| MacPaint | |
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 Screenshot of MacPaint 1.0 |
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| Developer: | Apple Computer, Claris |
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| Latest release: | 2.0 / 1988 |
| OS: | System Software 6, System 7 |
| Use: | bitmap-based image editing |
| License: | Proprietary |
| Website: | N/A |
MacPaint is a bitmap-based image editing computer program that was produced by Apple Computer for bundling with their Macintosh personal computer. Apple eventually formed Claris to market updated versions of MacPaint and other early Apple software after third-party developers complained of unfair competition.
Despite a short life span, MacPaint was many people's first GUI-based bitmap editing experience, and as such became the seminal work by which similar efforts were measured.[citation needed] The original Mac bundle also included MacWrite, a similarly easy-to-use word processor, and pictures from MacPaint could be placed inside MacWrite documents in a few keystrokes. The pair defined user expectations of a GUI-based computer.
Since the original Macintosh had only a black-and-white monitor, MacPaint only edited monochrome bitmaps with a fixed size of 576 x 720 pixels — the size of the ImageWriter's standard 8 x 10 inch (203 x 254 mm) sheet of paper at 72 DPI.
Xerox PARC researcher and Apple Fellow Alan Kay made a seminal home videotape showing his one year-old daughter starting a Macintosh 128K computer, inserting a floppy disk containing MacPaint, starting the program, and proceeding to paint with it. MacPaint, in part, represented a paradigm shift where computing had become a useful (and even entertaining) part of ordinary people's lives.
The first real improvement was FullPaint by Ann Arbor Softworks, then SuperPaint by Silicon Beach Software (the first combined vector and painting program), PixelPaint by Supermac Technology (the first color-capable paint program) and eventually Adobe Systems introduced Photoshop around the same time Apple debuted the Macintosh IIfx.
[edit] Development
MacPaint 1.0 was written by Bill Atkinson, a member of Apple's Macintosh development team. Early beta versions of MacPaint were called MacSketch, still retaining part of the name of its roots, LisaSketch. In 1988, David Ramsey made some improvements resulting in version 2.0. Both versions came in at around 45 kilobytes for the full application. The original MacPaint consisted of 5,804 lines of Pascal source code, augmented by another 2,738 lines of 68000 assembly language. (In Cringely's NerdTV interview, Andy Hertzfeld reports that eventually the source code will be made publicly available through the computer history museum.)
Somewhat curiously, the original MacPaint in fact broke many of the user interface guidelines then being pushed by Apple as the key to consistency between applications. MacPaint's interface did not consist of separate windows (also true of Atkinson's later HyperCard), but used a full screen approach, with fixed tool palettes in a dedicated area on the left and below the editing area. The window title bar shown above the editing area is fake — it cannot be moved. Whilst this approach was reasonably well suited to the single-tasking nature of the original Mac OS, the later addition of MultiFinder meant MacPaint 1.0 did not "play well with others". This was one of the main issues addressed by MacPaint 2.0, which adopted "normal" windows and floating tool palettes.
This was because Atkinson complained that it was a mistake to allow users to specify their own desktop patterns (in early Macintosh Operating Systems, there was a Pattern Editor for the desktop), because, as he put it, it was "harder to make a nice one than it looked". He could not bear the thought of people creating ugly desktop patterns. In order to avoid potentially hideous patterns marring MacPaint, he made it so MacPaint allocated a window the size of the screen when it started up, and then filled it with the standard 50% gray pattern, covering up the real desktop pattern, protecting users from their "rash aesthetic blunders, at least within the confines of MacPaint."[citation needed]
The original MacPaint did not incorporate a zoom function. Instead, a special magnification mode called FatBits was used, which showed each pixel as a clickable rectangle with a white border. Editing in this mode was extremely easy, and set the standard for many future editors.
As can be seen in the screenshot, MacPaint included a "Goodies" menu that included the FatBits tool. This menu was named the "Aids" menu in prerelease versions, but was renamed "Goodies" as public awareness of the AIDS epidemic grew in the summer of 1983.
[edit] External links
| Apple Inc. software | |
|---|---|
| OS: | Mac OS X • Mac OS 9 |
| Consumer: | .Mac • iLife • iTunes • iWork • AppleWorks |
| Prosumer: | Final Cut Express • Logic Express |
| Pro: | Aperture • Final Cut Studio • Logic Pro • Shake |
| Bundled: | Front Row • iChat • Photo Booth • QuickTime • Safari • TextEdit |
| Server: | Apple Remote Desktop • Mac OS X Server • WebObjects • Xsan |
| Discontinued: | HyperCard • MacDraw • Mac OS • MacPaint • MacProject • MacTerminal • MacWrite |
