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New on the web: PICTure This - a graphics file conversion utility
Posted by: CircuitBored on 2020-08-13 00:54:00
Hi folks,

This may be a very minor discovery or it may be very useful to a lot of you. The proof shall be in the pudding,

I found quite an oddity this morning: a set of diskettes I've never seen before... but they were in a box in my house. The software is called PICTure This 2.0 and can be used on any Mac running system 6 to 8 per my personal testing. It converts a surprisingly large range of formats to the Mac-native PICT format. It seems to be rather fast and memory efficient for software of this vintage so I figured it could actually come in handy for some folk. It can also convert batches of files and has a variety of conversion options so there's likely something included that you could find handy at some point.

The formats it can convert: OS/2 BMP, Windows BMP, CGM, Dr. Halo CUT, Digital Research IMG, Compuserve GIF, Apollo GPR, Amiga IFF/ILBM, Visilog IMG, Adobe Photoshop, PCPaint PIC, Lotus BIT/RLE, Lotus PIC, MacPaint, SuperMac PixelPaint, ZSoft PCX, Silicon Graphics RGB, Letraset RIFF, RIX, Sun Raster, Targa, TIFF, X11 Bitmap, XWD

I searched online and could find no trace of this software anywhere, so I think this may be a newcomer to the web! It's oddly exciting to be the first person to get some old bits online almost thirty years after they were written.

Also included as "Goodies" are some beta applets for converting PICT to PCX, Sun, Targa and Xwd.

I have attached a photo of the box the disks came in, as well as a zip with images of the disks themselves. Enjoy!

P.S. If anyone knows how to change the default app for opening files on MacOS 8 please let me know. Currently the default on my PowerBook is the desktop picture chooser and it is driving me nuts.

View attachment PICTure This 2.0.1.zip

IMG_2289.JPEG
Posted by: erichelgeson on 2020-08-13 01:02:04
It's oddly exciting to be the first person to get some old bits online almost thirty years after they were written. 
It is! So many things lost to time.

Please upload this to the https://macintoshgarden.org/ as well for long term preservation 🙂

Posted by: CircuitBored on 2020-08-13 01:15:07
Please upload this to the https://macintoshgarden.org/ as well for long term preservation 🙂
Already done!
Posted by: olePigeon on 2020-08-13 03:19:51
@PowerMac_G4  Extremely gratifying, isn't it? 😀   I've done this a few times.  Being the first person to archive and upload software is a lot of fun.  It's doubly so when the items you upload are actually very useful.  The best result is when you get that odd message from some random bloke who's been looking for a copy of said software for 20+ years.
Posted by: Dog Cow on 2020-08-14 00:47:30
@PowerMac_G4  Extremely gratifying, isn't it? 😀   I've done this a few times.  Being the first person to archive and upload software is a lot of fun.  It's doubly so when the items you upload are actually very useful.  The best result is when you get that odd message from some random bloke who's been looking for a copy of said software for 20+ years.
Pirates got the same kick 25+ years ago, cracking and uploading their warez to BBS's.  😛

Posted by: olePigeon on 2020-08-14 06:57:03
A different kind of gratification.  Beating "the system" versus "preserving history." 🙂

Also, in a round-about way, cracking software is relevant again in preserving software.  In certain cases, it's perfectly legal now if it means continuing to use software you've purchased that is no longer actively supported.
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