MousePaint Images

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MousePaint Images

Hello,

 

This is a somewhat odd project I am attempting to accomplish. I have an Apple II with MousePaint and I am attempting to load in images created on a more modern computer. Seeing as MousePaint is a clone of MacPaint I assumed that the file type would be similar.

 

This process worked for MacPaint:

 

Process a photo into a 1 bit black and white image > Save file as .PIC > Transfer to older Macintosh.

 

These images open without a problem in MacPaint however when I attempt to load them into MousePaint the display is filled with random noise. For testing purposes I have tried it both in the AppleWin emulator and on my Apple //e. I also tried using the "Show Image File" desk accessory in Apple II DeskTop without success. I understand that the graphics engine between the Mac and Apple II are very different.

 

I am curious if anyone else has attempted to accomplish this task.

 

Attached is a screenshot of the Apple II emulator as well as what happens when I attempt to load the image on a Macintosh.

 

 

Tom Owad's picture
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Can images created with

Can images created with MousePaint be opened with MacPaint? With GraphicConverter?

 

Could you make two small identical images, one in MousePaint, and one in MacPaint, and share them here?

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They should both be 1bbp

They should both be 1bbp pitmap formats, but they could either have headers or differet bit ordering.  MacPaint files do have a binary header and do have compression using LRE, so clearly MousePaint cannot decode that. 

 

Something that is easy to do, to check this sort of thing:Make a solid black 16 pixel square image in both; a solid white 16 pixel sqiuare image in both; and an alternating crosshatch (01010101) black and white 16 pixel square image in both. That gives a perfect bias for checking the bit encoding, as you can look for 256 contiguous 0s, 256 contiguous 1s and 128 each alternating o/1 in a contiguous  stream. This test also confirms LRE, if present.

 

If you do this, please post the files. I can look into making some form of converter.

 

Oh, MousePaint also supported colour, so, it is probably using 4bbp? Looks that it uses HGR BSAVE format files.

 

This utility may be helpful to you:

 

http://www.appleoldies.ca/bmp2dhr/lores/

 

It won't convert PICT files, so you will need to convert Mac PICT to Windows BMP, then BMP to HGR. At that point, MousePaint should be able to open the image from any ProDOS volume. 

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