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S O F T W A R E

Silicon Beach SuperPaint, circa 1990

The award-winning graphics software that combines Paint and Draw capabilities into one easy-to-use program. Includes AutoTrace(TM), to convert bitmapped graphics into draw objects, and SuperBits(TM), which permits editing of bitmaps at any size and resolution. SuperPaint 2.0 also features a freehand tool for Bezier curves, multipage documents, mixed fonts, styles and sizes within a single block of text, color preview, free rotation of text and objects in both the Draw and Paint layers, and the ability to select custom tools and add them to the paint palette. - SuperPaint, Version 2.0, $199

If I had to pick a favourite vintage Macintosh graphics program (let's not talk about the big guys like Illustrator and Freehand for now), it would be SuperPaint. Not just because of its capabilities, but its elegant interface and it's innovative use of layers. I'm a freelance graphic designer, and, even now, I find SuperPaint extremely useful for some tasks. It's hard to believe, but I've recently used SuperPaint to create an illustration for a corporate client, and he loved it! And I also used it to create all the icons you see in this web site. The original SuperPaint program cost $199, but I picked my copy up at a local secondhand computer store for a mere CAN$10, and it was almost brand new! The company that created SuperPaint, Silicon Beach Software, Inc., does not exist anymore. It was bought by Aldus in around 1990 and Aldus itself was then bought off my Adobe later, and the product vanished from the market.

It seems sad that I'm already calling a 1990 program vintage software, but I'm afraid this is how it goes. During these nine years graphic programs on the Mac have advanced so much. 72 dpi paint-type graphics is very much considered passe by many people, at least in the print realm. But let's not forget about the internet. We are now looking at stuff from our screen more than ever before, at 72 dpi! I think the time is ripe for a come-back of the low resolution aesthetics. And we're already seeing a little bit of this come-back - haven't you noticed the new Microsoft ads by David Carson?

So, what's so special about SuperPaint? It combines both paint- and draw- type graphics in a single program. There are two layers in SuperPaint, one for "drawing" (vector graphics), and the other for "painting" (72 dpi bitmap graphics). You can freely switch between the two at any time. The toolbox changes as you switch between the layers. I find this feature really cool, because you can draw an object in the draw layer, and shade it with the spray can in the paint layer. So the edges will be smooth when you print it out, but you still get the textured look of paint graphics on the inside.

As far as the paint layer is concerned, it's works pretty much the same way as the original MacPaint, only with a very nice addition - plug-in tools. I would think SuperPaint was probably the first program to offer plug-ins, though I'm not sure - correct me if I'm wrong. Those plug-ins that came with the program are cool, such as dry brush, quill pen, adjustable air brush, twister, "toothpaste", etcetera, are all very useful and fun to play with. I don't know if there are any other third-party plug-ins though. It also has gradients and transform commands.

One of the key features in the draw layer is the editable Bezier curves. You can even export draw objects as Illustrator paths. But the main drawback is you still have to draw it freehand in the first place, which is extremely inconvenient. The other key feature is the AutoTrace tool. You can lasso a graphic in the paint layer and select the AutoTrace command, and it will trace it for you in the draw layer. You can set the tolerance in the settings dialogue box. It doesn't do the job very well though... The draw layer would be a nice tool to do simple layouts I think, because you can have multiple typefaces and styles within one text box. The grids could be used to line things up. You can also use up to 8 colours in the draw layer, including black and white. These are the eight colours that the ImageWriter can print with the colour ribbon. You can achieve some neat effects with the ImageWriter and SuperPaint. [Read the ImageWriter entry in the Hardware section] You can also assign a single colour for the paint layer.

If you like creating graphics on your vintage Macs, SuperPaint is definitely a program you would love. If you were to get just one graphics program for your vintage Mac, this would be it.

[Since the company that published SuperPaint went out of business, I wonder if it is still protected by copyright. I will investigate that. If it can be freely distributed, I will make it available for download here.]