The easiest way to import old MacDraw files in a new Mac or PC is to do a postscript print capture. I had a few minor issues with text placement, but EazyDraw was well worth the cost for me.
These were complicated scientific diagrams so I paid $20 to get the full version– the demo version will only convert and import up to 45 elements in your graphic.
I had several dozen MacDraw Pro files from 10 years ago. Quick Look for example does this.ĮazyDraw worked great for my problem. In fact, the few APIs like NSPICTImageRep that are available to 64-bit applications to access PICTs has to use a pictd 32-bit helper process to access them. I’d use a 1-bit GIF instead.īTW, Snow Leopard still support PICTs, but since they are dependent on QuickDraw which has not been ported to 64-bit, most APIs that are used to access PICTs are not available to 64-bit apps, thus if you open one of them in the Snow Leopard version of Preview, you will be asked to run it in 32-bit mode. Yea, JPEG is overkill for a 1-bit drawing, I think. I didn’t know about EazyDraw, looks like it can import MacDraw and ClarisWorks/AppleWorks formats. Very reasonable price!ĭan, thanks for the tip. The solution was EasyDraw – and for just $20 the client bought a 9-month license.
How’s that for progress!ĭid a similar project last week, but the client wanted to be able to edit the files and update them after all these years. In the end, of the 4 formats (MacDraw, PICT, TIFF and JPEG) the JPEGs are the largest sized files. No problem for The Shop, I convert the document to greyscale mode, no visible difference at all, and now I can Save As… to JPEG. The PICT file was Black & White, but JPEG requires Color or Greyscale – the JPEG option is currently dimmed in the Save As… dialog. In order to save a copy as JPEG, one further step is required. tif file extension to the name automatically, a nice touch. I always use this, and the resulting files have always worked fine on modern Macs and PCs. A dialog asks whether I want Mac or PC byte ordering, with a checkbox for LZW compression. I open each file, then do a Save As… to TIFF format. Next I use one of my favorite Mac Graphic Swiss Army Knives, Adobe Photoshop, to do further conversions. These were all Black & White drawings, so I opened each file and saved to 1 bit PICT format. MacDraw II can save documents as PICT files, the old Macintosh standard, in Black & White (1 bit) or Color (8 bit). The MacDraw Family knows nothing of these formats however, so some creativity is required. I typically create JPEG and TIFF files as the end product. Most people don’t need to manipulate their old drawings, just view and print them, so flat file formats tend to be fine. I was able to use my trusty PowerBook G3 Wallstreet (Mac OS 9.2.2) for the task. There were an assortment of old Word and Excel documents, along with a few MacDraw & MacDraw II files that needed migration. Did a conversion job today for a client who had some files on old Mac floppy disks, he needed them useable on his PC.