“Two patent applications that were published in January and February 2010 illustrated how a future iteration of the Magic Mouse might support a new graphics and/or painting program from Apple,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“Today we learn, through a document filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, that Apple might be thinking of resurrecting MacDraw,” Purcher reports.
“In a document filed with the Commissioner for Trademarks in April and only made public today, Apple requests an amendment to registration number 4101317… Apple respectfully requests that the Director correct the owner information for the MacDraw registration, and issue a new certificate of registration. The obvious question becomes, did Apple take assignment of MacDraw for purely historical reasoning or is this an application that Apple is thinking of resurrecting at some point in the future?”
Read Apple’s full document in the article here.
I would love a simple drawing program like MacDraw. Everything else I have tried is way too complicated.
YES!
Does this mean Apple is going after Adobe Illustrator? Adobe has had a strangle hold on the graphics industry for too long. Seriously with the features built into the OS with Core Image Apple could easily take on Adobe’s Creative Suite if they wanted to. A perfect example is Pixelmator. They do an amazing job of out-Photoshoping Photoshop. Maybe name the new suite of apps iCreate? or even add them to the iWork suite which is way overdue for an update!
Too bad Omnigraffle is rather expensive…
It blows away many other programs. Could use some more templates, though.
Omnigraffle may be quite powerful, but it is not very intuitive, IMO
Why did Apple kill off MacDraw in the first place? I don’t see Microsoft killing off Paint so what Apple did axing MacDraw was pretty brainless to begin with anyway.
Because it no longer could fit on a single 400KB floppy disk.
Because sometimes Apple makes mistakes? (sound of explosion in the background, door being kicked in) what the hell? Jesus, these guys look like ninjas or something ( sound of scurrying feet, grappling with a struggling subject) help hel- (sound of someone being bound and gagged and hurried out of the room. A ninja-voice speaks: ‘the subject is secure’. Sound of a ninja sitting down to type at this terminal)
Alas, I have misspoken. I meant to say that Apple never makes mistakes, and will only upgrade it’s remarkable and extremely user friendly software in order to better all our lives.
Resurrect the whole of Claris.
+ 1000, (Claris CAD). An up to date version would be fantastic. Probably never going to happen though.
Long past due! It is ridiculous (even shameful) that the Mac, renown for its graphics capability, does not include a basic drawing program in the OS. Even Windoz has one.
That would be awesome.
Illustrator is too expensive, there’s no Visio for Mac, VectorDesigner is odd.
As long as they’re resurrecting things, how about HyperCard? Maybe with web integration this time.
+ a gazillion
More stacks!
How about ResEdit for OS X? CyberDog?
HotSauce Technology [Project-X]
Story sounds a little sketchy.
Drawing — sketchy — get it?
(Cricket)
Chirp
Chirp
Chirp
…
…
Cricket Draw!
1.1
1.1.1
1.1.1.1
1.1.1.1.1
1.1.1.1.1.1
Loved their upgrade path
Would someone please also get Maelstrom back on the iOS platform?
Yes ! First used a Macintosh in 1985 working as a Program Manager in a Marketing dept. tracking development schedules in the days of Dos yuck.
McDraw used to create charts and reports. So easy and allowed for unique creation to illustrate a point. Kids loved it and i used it to create a set of plans for an outside deck for submission to town for permit.
Can we also get Oscar back in the trash can as well.
Second Oscar.
Third Oscar.
Wow, you guys are really racking up the Oscars. Meryl Streep sheds a single tear.
I vote for a complete resurrection of AppleWorks. Simple but powerful WP, Spreadsheet, Drawing, Painting and Data Base, with single document integration. Enough of the too powerful or EyeCandy-centric stand alone apps. Software for the common man who uses an iPad as his go-to computer.
Please, please, please, Apple, hear our pleas.
I agree, I’ve been using Appleworks for as long as I can remember. In fact, when my new iMac arrived I set up an external hard drive with Snow Leopard on it just to keep using Appleworks. Nice and easy but don’t believe them when they tell you that the files are interchangeable with iWork files. I have never been able to get them to import.
Ah, MacDraw, my favorite App of all time. Earned my first million using a ResEdited copy of MacDraw.
Every time I tried to find an upgrade, there was nothing on the market that could do the job as well.
I’d like to see it return from the dead.
I wish them jerks would resurrect Appleworks. Great program, but we have to keep old PowerMac G4’s alive to run it.
Here’s Steve Jobs on upgrading YOU: He builds the best screwdriver you ever used, you will never want another. Later here comes Steve to your worksite: “I made you a new screwdriver, try it out and lemme see the one you are using”. You swap with him and give it a try. “Well, Steve, it’s nice but that first one you made really does the trick for what I need to do, here’s your new one, lemme have my old screwdriver back.”
But while you were trying his new so-so screwdriver Steve has already dropped your favorite old screwdriver down the bottomless pit, and now he stands there with his hand out wanting $25 for the new screwdriver.
from the forthcoming documentary “Real World User Experiences with The Great Steve Jobs.”
I used MacDraw to create the winning design for my college dormitory’s T-shirt in 1989. Good times.
——RM
interesting! it would be great to use a vector based software from Apple, I am sure the would do it be powerful and easy to use.
(a photoshop like software is also welcome)
I just helped one of my collegues at work fix a problem printing to PDF from ClarisDraw, the successor to MacDraw. We still have thousands of drawings that are in ClarisDraw that are in daily use! (>10,000 folks work at our installation)
Nice testimony, thanks for sharing that.
I use Sketch™ as a good alternative. I also found Intaglio™ useful for reading old MacDraw files.
Ahhhh, for a brief moment, take me back to the MacDraw days in the 1980s … 🙂 Precursor to Illustrator and Freehand, both excellent vector graphics programs. Adobe acquired Macromedia and Freehand less than a decade ago and declined to support it favoring AI. Fast forward to 2012, if Apple bought Adobe imagine where MacDraw would be headed.