- PCPaint
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PCPaint 
A demonstration of PCPaintDeveloper(s) Microtex Industries for Mouse Systems Operating system DOS Type Graphics software PCPaint was the first IBM PC-based mouse driven GUI paint program [1]. It was developed by John Bridges and Doug Wolfgram.
The hardware manufacturer Mouse Systems bundled PCPaint with millions of computer mice that they sold, making PCPaint also the best-selling MS-DOS-based paint program of the late 1980s.[2]
Contents
Background
During the dawn of the IBM-PC age in 1983, John Bridges and Doug Wolfgram started work on what became the world's first commercial GUI painting program for the PC. The software was released as PCPaint.
In 1982 John Bridges worked for an educational software company, Classroom Consortia Media, Inc., developing and writing Apple and IBM graphics libraries for CCM's software. Bridges wrote all the core graphics code for the first version of PCPaint, and an earlier drawing program called SuperDraw for CCM. He met Doug Wolfgram through a mutual friend, and Wolfram ran a modem dial-up Bulletin Board System which Bridges joined.
By 1983 Wolfram had begun to write a mouse-driven drawing program called MouseDraw using Bridges' graphics routines. The two collaborated cross country via the BBS, Wolfram in California and Bridges in New York. After some work, Doug Wolfram presented his program to Mouse Systems. There was some conversation about the program, but Wolfram's proposal "didn't go anywhere" and Doug asked Bridges to include more routines in order to get Mouse Systems interested.
In 1984, Apple introduced its new Macintosh Computer with its bundled program MacPaint, and MousePaint for the Apple II was also released. Mouse Systems became interested in having a similar paint program for the PC to help them sell their mice. John Bridges created a quick mock-up of a new program using still images to do the border and menus, using MousePaint screen captures scaled to PC resolution.
Following the SoftCon trade show in New Orleans in March 1984, Mouse Systems bought exclusive rights to the program and paid Bridges to continue to develop the program under their guidelines, and PCPaint was officially born.[3],
In creating the first version of PCPaint, Doug had a dual floppy machine with a Computer Innovations compiler on one disk and source code on the other. John had the "luxury" of a 10MB hard disk in his XT. Data was exchanged daily via 1200, then 2400 baud modems.
Authorship and Ownership
John Bridges continued to work on PCPaint on behalf of Mouse Systems until 1990. Also in that year, Doug Wolfgram sold his remaining rights to PCPaint (and its successor, GRASP) to John Bridges.
Versions
In June 1984, Mouse Systems shipped PCPaint 1.0, the first GUI based Paint program for the IBM PC family of computers. John Bridges and Doug Wolfgram, were the co-authors of PCPaint 1.0. PCPaint 1.0 saved its graphics in a modified BSaved image format with the extension of ".PIC".
The release of PCPaint Version 1.5 followed in late 1984, with the additions of graphics image compression for the .PIC format and support for "larger-than-screen" images. PCjr support was also added in this version after overcoming severe memory shortage problems getting PCPaint to run on the 128k PCjr.
October 1985 saw the release of PCPaint 2.0. EGA support and publishing features were added to this version. The .PIC format was further refined, offering support for the rapidly expanding graphics capabilities of the PC and efficient image compression.
PCPaint 3.1 was released in 1989. Unlike previous versions, it was not bundled with mice but was sold as a stand-alone software product. PCPaint 3.1 offered improved text and image handling, provided 36 types of flood and fill, worked with VGA adapters in hi-res 16-color and 256-color modes, allowed the user to save and retrieve files in a variety of intercompatible formats (.PIC, .GIF, .PCX, .IMG), and printed selected portions of images on color or black and white dot matrix, ink jet, and laser printers such as Postscript and HP Laser Jet.[4]
PCPaint 3.1 is still in use today by some users of DOS emulation programs like DOSBox [5] and available for free download[6].
Pictor PIC Image Format
PCPaint 1.0 saved its graphics in a modified BSAVE image format (which was popular at the time) with the file type (extension) of ".PIC". By PCPaint 1.5 this format was extended further to accommodate image compression. With the release of version 2.0 the PICtor PIC image format was developed almost to its present state, with no similarity to the BSAVE format used by earlier versions.
Gallery
References
- ^ http://www.dans20thcenturyabandonware.com/text/sw-catalogs/software-catalog-dos.txt - Retrieved: June 9, 2007
- ^ http://www.dal.co.kr/chair/ce/gformat/zs.txt - Retrieved: June 9, 2007
- ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952360-1,00.html - Retrieved: June 9, 2007
- ^ Mouse Systems Corporation, PC Paint 3.1 User's Manual. Mouse Systems Corporation, Fremont California, 1989. Part Number 302302-001.
- ^ shdon.com - Game patches
- ^ shdon.com - PC Paint
See also
External links
- Freeware download of PC Paint 3.1
- PCPaint GRASP GLPro History
- PCPaint GRASP GLPro History
- Doug Wolfgram on PCPaint's beginnings
- Pictor PC Paint File Format Summary
- Info on .PIC and .CLP image formats
- PCPAINT/Pictor Page Format Description Format by John Bridges. Document by Microtex Industries, Inc. Revision Date: 2/9/88
- "Doug and Melody Wolfgram", by Cynthia Gregory Wilson
- Dan's 20th Century Abandonware
Categories:- Graphics software
- Raster graphics editors
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