Any Way to Open an OLD MacPaint Document?

I don't know if this will work but there's an application called Graphic Converter that I used to use many years ago that, if I remember correctly, could open all kinds of graphic formats. I still have an old paid for version of it that I very occasionally use with some success for opening offbeat graphics files. I don't have any MacPaint files that I can test it with for you at present but here's where you can get the latest version:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/263/graphicconverter-x

Maybe they will let you test it for awhile before having to buy it. Worth a try.

Rick

Graphic Converter rocks !

(but only in the sense that "Trans-Europe Express" by Kraftwerk rocked)

I'm still using a very old free version of this German application that was once bundled with other applications for the Mac. And it 's still one of the applications I use most. It's also one of the most user-unfriendly applications I've ever worked with ! Full of arcane preferences, the half of which I still don't understand after all these years.

But it will open just about anything that has to do with an image, and I'd be prepared to bet it will open an old MacPaint file.

Take a look at [this outside thread|http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6753&sid=f509ec1481ff03efe40222 74df8f943d].
There's a post there which claims that Preview will open a MacPaint file, with the comment "if it doesn't work add the ".ptng" extension." Other alternatives are mentioned elsewhere in the thread.

MacPaint converted the graphic into a screen capture in PICT format. Preview handles PICT. You could also try QuickTime. Mac replaced PICT with the PDF format for file/ image sharing.

Haven't done it so I'm not sure if it works with an old PICT file. Apple's original PICT format goes back to 1984, followed by PICT 2.

Try the OS 9 forum: http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=99

I just opened an old .pict file that goes back to 2001, with Graphic Converter.