Macpaint, Macdraw and Superpaint

[paultilling]

Does anyone know what happened to these programs, particularly Superpaint ? In the good old days these were on everyone's Mac. They were easy to use and learn and as far as I can recall were free. Does anyone know what they morphed into? Is there a basic, easy to use graphics program for the occasional user available? If so please advise. Many thanks. Paul

 

[pigoo3]

Yes…but the "Good Old Days"…were 25+ years ago. That's like 100 years in "computer years"!

As you probably know…MacPaint, MacDraw, and Superpaint were Mac apps from the 1980's & early 1990's. They were not free when they were current apps. But they might have become free after they became "ancient"!

It's probably possible to run them in emulation mode on Apple computers that support "Classic"…until around 2005 or so. There's an app called "Sheepsaver" that may be able to run "classic apps" in emulation on Mac's running 10.6.

What did these apps "morph" into. Probably hard to say. Pretty much the default paint & draw apps that now make up the Adobe Suite are used by many. But there's probably tons & tons of apps created by lots of developers to do paint & draw "stuff" on modern Mac's.

- Nick

 

[harryb2448]

You may like to try Paintbrush from SourceForge. it was last updated November last year so should be reasonably okay on later OS X operating systems:-


https://sourceforge.net/projects/paintbrush/files/

 

[chscag]

Is there a basic, easy to use graphics program for the occasional user available? If so please advise. Many thanks.

Pages in layout mode, and Preview are two apps that are free with a new Mac. And as Harry pointed out, Paintbrush is available for free from SourceForge. And if you don't mind paying for a really nice graphics program, there's "Pixelmator" which you can purchase from the Mac App Store.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Does anyone know what happened to these programs, particularly Superpaint ? In the good old days these were on everyone's Mac. They were easy to use and learn and as far as I can recall were free. Does anyone know what they morphed into? Is there a basic, easy to use graphics program for the occasional user available? If so please advise. Many thanks. Paul

As Kermit would say, those programs are "gone with the Schwinn." Apple considers these to be "third party opportunities." And third parties haven't let us down! Here is what I know of that's available in the easy-to-use free-to-inexpensive category:


PaintBrush (free)
Paintbrush | Home
(Reminiscent of MacPaint or Microsoft Paint)

Seashore (Free)
The Seashore Project
or
The Seashore Project

Pinta (free)
Pinta: Painting Made Simple

iPaint (free)
Home
(more sophisticated version of PaintBrush)

TuxPaint (free) (For children)
Free art software for kids of all ages

Pixelmator ($30)
Pixelmator Pro
tp://itunes.apple.om/us/app/pixelmator/id407963104?mt=12&ls=1 (outdated link removed)

Pixen ($10)
Pixen - pixel art editor for macOS, iOS, and iPad
GitHub - Pixen/Pixen: Pixel art editor for macOS and iOS

ChocoFlop (free)
ChocoFlop - Non-destructive image editing application for your mac
Free serial number for ChocoFlop:
ChocoFlop - Non-destructive image editing application for your mac

LiveQuartz (free/$7)
LiveQuartz - Simple Image Editing on Mac

Patina ($5)
https://itunes.apple.com/app/patina/id942568098

PaintSupreme ($6)
http://www.braindistrict.com/en/paintsupreme

Acorn ($30)
Acorn 7 | Full Featured Photo Editor for the Mac

Rita ($20)
frykholm.se

ArtRage ($50)
http://www.artrage.com/artrage-studio.html

PhotoLine (Euro 59)
PhotoLine: Photo Editing, Vector Editor, Design Software

Coral Painter Essentials ($60) (an awesome natural media-replication program)
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1190317151777#tabview=tab0
or
http://is.gd/jSvI8

Photoshop Elements ($90)
Easy photo editing software - Adobe Photoshop Elements 2025
(a wildly powerful favorite)

Gimp/Gimpshop (free)
http://gimp.lisanet.de/Website/News/News.html
Skillademia Acquires Gimpshop - Skillademia
(Both are the same program, but Gimpshop has an interface more like Photoshop)
(This is a wildly powerful, professional level, open-source program, similar to Photoshop.)

Please let us know which one(s) you like best!

 

[paultilling]

Thanks everyone for your good advice. Wow, so many programs. I had no idea. I'll have to investigate. This forum is so useful with folks like you!
Paul