MacPaint

File Format
Name	MacPaint
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics MacPaint
Extension(s)	.mac, .pntg, .pic
PRONOM	x-fmt/161

MacPaint is the native image format of the MacPaint paint program for Apple Macintosh.

Images are always bi-level, 576×720 pixels in size, and use PackBits compression.

Format

Some MacPaint files begin with a 128-byte MacBinary header; others do not. The next 512 bytes have little or no significance to most applications (they contain a version number, and usually a set of brush patterns). The pixel data starts at offset 512, or 640 if there is a MacBinary header.

Identifiers

• MacBinary type: PNTG

Specifications

• Technical Note PT 24
• Picture format docs (of a number of formats including MAC)

Software

• Netpbm: macptopbm. Use the -extraskip 128 option if the file has a MacBinary header.
• XnView
• CloudPaint: online MacPaint simulator
• MacPaint and QuickDraw Source Code, at the Computer History Museum

Sample files

• http://www.fileformat.info/format/macpaint/sample/index.htm
• http://cd.textfiles.com/vgaspectrum/mac/
• http://cd.textfiles.com/carousel344/PIC/
• http://cd.textfiles.com/clipart1996/GRAPHICS/OTHER/
• CHRISTIE.MAC

Links

• Macintosh Paint, from the Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats
• Wikipedia: MacPaint