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The Apple Ripens: The Computer For Everyone

Becoming a Mac Artist

I am a fan of the vintage Macs, actually using them in their prime. When I got hold of an old MAC II a few years back it came with the manual and this fine book from 1985 called Becoming a Mac Artist by Vahe Guzelimian (out of print, duh...).

The purpose of this book was to demonstrate that with a fancy new MAC computer and a copy of MacDraw, MacPaint and MacWrite, that you too could become a fine computer artist. These new fangled computers could display "both graphics and text on the screen at the same time!" This was a breakthrough in technology back in '85. And with the aid of that powerful software-- that ran off floppy disks-- you could create graphic arts, business graphics, even 'print' and 'publish'.

1985 was in the pre-scanner days mind you, but the MacArtist book shows how you can hook up a special camera called the Micro Eye ($400) and capture images-- get this-- that appear right on your computer screen. Working on a 9" black and white, high resolution video screen with a resolution of 512 x 342 pixels-- one was "immediately struck by the clarity and crispness" as the book tells us.

"MacPaint is the most powerful and versatile drawing programs available for microcomputers," author Guzelimian tells us, "with over 32 brush shapes, and 38 patterns- using MacPaint is like having an infinite set of rub-on letters, pictures, and patterns."

Whoa, stop right there! Fat Bits, fancy borders, inverted text, custom grids, heck.. you could even drawing in 3D (kinda)-- it's all in here.

Looking back at this manual of 1985 simple computer graphic design, it is unbelievable how far things had advanced in just 5 years to 1990 (when you could get 256 levels of gray and photos), and even further in 10 years to 1995 (millions of colors on the displays), and then even further to 20 years in 2005 (high def, baby!).

The examples in the book look like children's crayon drawings and the tools archaic-- and to think we actually ran programs off the single floppy you could put in one at a time only- there was no room for programs on your Mac's tiny memories.

I have attached some great images from the book, enjoy the trip back in computer time!