"… As suggested by the title of an early manual Inside #MacPaint: Sailing through the Sea of FatBits on a Single-Pixel Raft, FatBits was a killer feature for MacPaint. For Susan Kare, Apple’s in-house graphic designer, the mode accelerated the development of Macintosh’s small bitmap icons where every pixel mattered.

"Marketing pushed to rename “FatBits” “Magnify”, but Atkinson won the argument, arguing that the name gave the program some personality (Young 1985).

"FatBits is restricted to a single zoom level and, within the code, is handled via many special-cased changes to the input and output. The single zoom level restriction was due to the limited hardware; an arbitrary scaling factor would have required too much CPU…"
https://ztoz.blog/posts/macpaint-source-code/

“One of two launch applications for the #Apple #Macintosh in 1984, #MacPaint is emblematic of the Macintosh’s early quirky revolutionary branding, focus on ease of use, and appeal to artistic customers. Using the source code, we examine the design and implementation of the application.” https://ztoz.blog/posts/macpaint-source-code/

A Look Inside MacPaint - Usually when we talk about retrocomputing, we want to look at — and in — some old ... - https://hackaday.com/2025/04/05/a-look-inside-macpaint/ #retrocomputing #macintosh #macpaint

A Look Inside MacPaint https://hackaday.com/2025/04/05/a-look-inside-macpaint/ #Retrocomputing #macintosh #macpaint

A great new article by Jeffrey Starr, Investigating MacPaint's Source Code: https://ztoz.blog/posts/macpaint-source-code/

Ok, guys...

I'm not sure I can quite express how bizarrely freeing and enjoyable this incredibly derpy little exercise was.

I'm definitely going to make a habit of drawing more, even though I really don't know how!

Because NoneHitWonder was right! The schlockiest napkin scrawl is better than the most sublime AI slop!

I was thinking about buying a used #Wacom tablet to draw on, because it would be fun to create #monochrome art in #G/IMP (or heck, even #MacPaint via emulation!!), but I think I'll just continue using my fountain pens, and add doodles to my dot-lined paper notebook.

Thanks to the following amazing people for inspiring me:

@nonehitwonder @krishnadraws

I thought it might be fun to see my personal logo as 1-bit in MacPaint

The Macintosh is still at my parents' house!

First time I've seen it in a long time

I have fond memories of MacPaint, Lode Runner, Reversi and other softwares and games.

Too bad my father didn't keep the floppies and boxes

EDIT: Found, see reply!

Anyone know the origin/artist of this Ukiyo-e inspired Mac artwork? I found it in MacWorld Sept 1990 pg 330 in an article about Canvas 2.1.

Reverse image search just shows lots of Tumblr sites, but did give a somewhat pixel art version of it.

I cleaned up the image to try to make it 1:1 (there were duplicate rows/cols).

https://archive.org/details/MacWorld_9009_September_1990/page/n339/mode/2up

Trop drôle, regardez sur quoi je viens de tomber en fouillant dans un album photo familial !
#GraphicDesignIsMyPassion #MacPaint

Did you know that you can "play" (their word, not mine) an emulator with MacPaint 1.5 online?

https://archive.org/details/mac_Paint_2

Search my computer for "Mac Paint" ... it suggests Wikipedia.

Search the internet for "mac paint internet archive" ... it emulates it!
https://archive.org/details/mac_Paint_2

Infinite nostalgia.

Operating Superstars intro — Phantom Piltdown

Phantom is the ghost of Macintosh System 5, the Classic Mac OS version that got skipped. She’s a silly prankster and never had a public debut but she was happy to help her teammates behind the scenes. She also pranked their rivals!

The bg has filters over it but the 1-bit black and white bg was made in #MacPaint