What is FullPaint?

It's almost like heresy to suggest that MacPaint could have been better than it actually turned out. For a long time, it was the one Mac program that could do no wrong (in the eyes of consumers, that is). Well, we have some had news and some good news. Bad news: it could have been done better. Good news: now it is, FullPaint stands a good chance to replace MacPaint in the long run, simply because it's all that Paint ever was. plus a tot more.

The main screen is almost exactly like MacPaint, except for a few new tools in the tool palette. Up to four Paint documents can be loaded at once, and each is visible in its own window, which can be resized. There are scroll bars in each window, which permit precise scrolling in pixel increments, as well as standard scrolling. Any window can be expanded to the full screen and even the menu bar can be removed, leaving the entire screen empty, except for the tool and shades palettes. A touch of the space bar removes these, too. All the drawing tools can be used on the entire screen. Areas larger than the active window (or screen) can be selected and edited with the standard cut, copy and paste commands. The program still doesn't provide a full-page drawing mode, but the FatBits mode automatically scrolls when drawing larger than the active FatBits window.

Special effects similar to those found in ClickArt Effects (perspective, skew, distort and rotate) have been built directly into the program, and all perform quite well. Special text modes include an invert mode (text typed onto a black background appears white) and a transparent mode that allows background patterns and graphics to show through typed-in text. Paintbrushes can be edited from within the program. Other features include full-screen rulers, a mouse position indicator, and advanced LaserWriter capabilities.

If you bought a Mac Plus, you should purchase FullPaint instead of MacPaint. Anyone who uses MacPaint, and wishes that it were complete, breathe easy: the answer is here.

Bobker, David. (June 1986). FullPaint. MacUser. (pg. 36).

Download FullPaint for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Mini vMac