Released with the very first Macintosh computer in 1984, MacPaint sold for $195 and included it’s word processor companion, MacWrite. MacPaint was developed by Bill Atkinson. He was one of the original members of the Macintosh development team at Apple. I can still remember when I first used MacPaint in my high school art class. I painted a surfer catching the crest of a wave. It was crude, but MacPaint’s spray paint can sure did beat painting pixel by pixel with the arrow keys on my Commodore 64. Little did I know at the time, but the desktop revolution was just a few years away. First it will revolutionize print, and next it would take hold of compositing and effects for television and feature films.
In 2014 CloudPaint was released online by Martin Braun. It’s an emulator of the original MacPaint program that will transport you back nearly 30 years to the dawn of the original MacPaint. Try it now for free here.
I was pleased to find the spray paint can in its usual place just waiting for me to spray some blocky graffiti just as it did back in the 80s.
ABOVE MACPAINT IMAGE © APPLE USED FOR EDITORIAL AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. ILLUSTRATION BY SUSAN KARE.