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From MacPaint to JPEG: File Formats for Computer Images

Storing Images

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Manuel Mejia Jr - 2001.06.06

Since the time when MacPaint 1.0 first appeared on the Mac 128 in 1984, there have been numerous formats used to save painted and drawn images. At first, all that was needed was a record of of the location of the "black pixels" that made up the images. MacPaint broke ground with the MacPaint File. Today, computer users refer to this type of file as a bitmap file. While bitmaps are not seen very often on modern Macs, it is still the dominant file type for the b&w screen compact Macs.

As other painting and drawing programs were created, the need soon arose for a standard format for the growing number of graphic programs that hit the market in the late 1980s. This was because each of the new graphic programs had their own proprietary format for storing images. Two formats "answered the call" for a standard, PICT and GIF.

The first new stantard was PICT, a convenient format to store MacPaint and other b&w bitmaps. SuperPaint 2.0 used PICT as its standard method of saving a file. When the Mac went to color in 1987, PICT was modified to store color information in a format known as PICT 2.

UPDATE: We made an error when discussing the PICT format. It has always been a vector format with the flexibility to also incorporate bitmaps.

The other standard that was used to store graphical images was created by CompuServe, then a fledgling bulletin board service. They needed a method that allowed users to transfer images from one computer to another and kept file sizes small. In 1988, they created the Graphic Image File or GIF. The GIF format became quite popular for storing and transferring images for Windows as well as Macs.

When the graphical World Wide Web appeared arond 1994, Web designers tailored their pages to display GIF images. The GIF format was even adapted for basic animation films that supposedly enhanced the look of Web pages. (Some people think animated GIFs are an unneeded distraction to the person reading the page.)

Other Graphic image formatsStorage Formats

Formats available to store images in an early version of Photoshop are listed to the right. As noted earlier, most imaging programs have their own proprietary format for saving files. Photoshop and other programs also give users other formats for saving images. Images that are scanned in using devices such as the Apple One Scanner or the Logitech Palm Held Scanner are often stored using TIFF format.

Thunderscan was a format created by a company of the same name. Thunderscan created a scanner that clipped on in place of the ribbon in an ImageWriter II! All one did was hand feed the text or image into the printer and let the machine scan it into a file. Thunderscan may be the most ingenious Apple peripheral ever invented.

Back then, the most fanatical of graphics designers never used a Mac at all. Instead, they used a Commodore Amiga. These machines were superior even to the mighty Mac when it came to graphics. The image storage format for that system was referred to as IFF/ILBM. For whatever reason, Amigas were the #1 computer in use in West Germany. There are probably thousands of those machines still in use.

For vector-based drawing, such as floor plans and blueprints, graphic designers used programs like MacDraw and Freehand. Since the images are based on lines and coordinates rather, than a description of where the black dots are on the computer screen, a format known as EPS was created for storing those images. EPS has several variants.

Today, a common image storage method is JPEG. JPEGs are often preferred over GIFs because they may store more image detail in a smaller file size than an equivalent GIF. JPEG is the format of choice for storing photographs, while GIFs are useful for line art and simple color drawings

As with the MacPaint Orphans, I have probably left out other graphic file formats. What I done here is to list the ones that seem to get the most use as well as the ones that were most often cited in Mac literature.

May your art always inspire. LEM

Images created using UltraPaint 1.05 and Photoshop 1.0, edited in Photoshop 4.0.
Manuel Mejia Jr is familiar with Mac IIs, LCs, and older PowerBooks. He uses his Mac LC, PowerBook 145B, and PB 100 with System 7.1 on a regular basis and recently added a Mac Plus running System 6 to his collection. He's quite familiar with both System 6 and System 7. He also owns the Pina books on repairing compact Macs from 128k through the SE.

You can read more about Manuel's computers in Manuel Mejia Jr's Four Old Macs.

Not sure if you should upgrade your old Mac or replace it? Check the Mac Daniel index to see if we've already addressed your problem.

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