The closest modern relative to MacPaint is probably the paint program in ClarisWorks/AppleWorks, which was ported to Carbon and runs on OS X.
AppleWorks was bundled with all new Mac hardware up until the switch from PPC to Intel in 2006; I still have my copy that came with my iBook G4, still works in Snow Leopard, still reads files created with the original 128k MacPaint. (And my iBook G4 ran MacPaint v2.0, circa 1987, via the Classic VM.)
These days, there are all sorts of great indie and open source paint programs available:
Because GIMP is ugly as sin, a pain to use, overly complicated and terribly huge (the dmg is 78MB versus a 15MB zip file for Acorn). And I'm not even into actual design/drawing.
If you want open source software, at least go with Seashore which doesn't look like complete crap.
Also, because Acorn is a good image editor and the FlyingMeat crew is damn nice.
> GIMP is ugly as sin, a pain to use, overly complicated and terribly huge
And yet you haven't answered ... the investment you make in these tools is substantial anyway. Why would somebody invest in crippleware ... instead of investing in Photoshop (the industry's standard) ... or in an open-source alternative that is just as capable, only more complicated to use and less standard.
Also, you're complaining about 78MB? Really?
Personally I love GIMP ... I even wrote my own plugin written in Python for doing smart-sharpening (based on this tutorial: http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Smart_Sharpening/). Yeah ... it was a PITA such functionality wasn't built in, but GIMP provides all the filters you need, upon which you can build your own stuff.
Once you get the initial learning curve (most open-source software is like that), it f*cking rocks. And it's here to stay, and won't disappear into obscurity.
... the investment you make in these tools is substantial anyway. Why would somebody invest in crippleware ... instead of investing in Photoshop (the industry's standard) ... or in an open-source alternative that is just as capable, only more complicated to use and less standard.
I don’t understand that part of your reply at all. Why would you get something else if $program can do everything you want? It’s not as though the concepts are fundamentally different. You don’t even have to learn how to use Acorn.
Anyway, GIMP is ugly as hell and an UI abomination. Even when compared to Photoshop.
Of course I did. You might not have liked my answer, but it won't change: GIMP is garbage.
> Why would somebody invest in crippleware ... instead of investing in Photoshop (the industry's standard)
Acorn is $0 and does the job very well for the basic stuff. Photoshop CS5 is $699. Why pay $699, or spend 6 month trying to understand the alien ways of GIMP, when you can just get Acorn for free and get done with what you need to?
> or in an open-source alternative that is just as capable, only more complicated to use and less standard.
Because it's complete and utter garbage. Open-Source garbage doesn't stink less just because it's so free you can make your own. And again, if you're so stuck on OSS, OSX (which you shouldn't be using in the first place since it's not open) has Seashore, which is serviceable, Cocoa and which I note you conveniently ignored.
AppleWorks was bundled with all new Mac hardware up until the switch from PPC to Intel in 2006; I still have my copy that came with my iBook G4, still works in Snow Leopard, still reads files created with the original 128k MacPaint. (And my iBook G4 ran MacPaint v2.0, circa 1987, via the Classic VM.)
These days, there are all sorts of great indie and open source paint programs available:
- Paintbrush: http://paintbrush.sourceforge.net/
- Pixelmator: http://www.pixelmator.com/
- Seashore: http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/About.h...
- Skitch: http://skitch.com/
- Omni Graffle: http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnigraffle/