Dustin Mierau
@mierau.me
Blippo+. Playmaker. Path. Napster.
MacPaint remake. Hotline remake.
Mac nerd. Maker of software. A blip in the bend.
MacPaint remake. Hotline remake.
Mac nerd. Maker of software. A blip in the bend.
Good lord this is ridiculous. This morning I thought, hmm, I wonder if I'm careful enough if I could get Claude Code to produce a working QTVR viewer for macOS. Well, there's plenty unimplemented, but a few hours later...
I wonder when the last time humans viewed the content of these files. 😄
I wonder when the last time humans viewed the content of these files. 😄
January 24, 2026 at 9:55 PM
Good lord this is ridiculous. This morning I thought, hmm, I wonder if I'm careful enough if I could get Claude Code to produce a working QTVR viewer for macOS. Well, there's plenty unimplemented, but a few hours later...
I wonder when the last time humans viewed the content of these files. 😄
I wonder when the last time humans viewed the content of these files. 😄
Found an old bitmap version of Zapf Chancery. 🙂
Dragged it into MacPaint remake's font manager window.
Easy peasy.
That 9pt apple!
Dragged it into MacPaint remake's font manager window.
Easy peasy.
That 9pt apple!
January 24, 2026 at 12:46 AM
Found an old bitmap version of Zapf Chancery. 🙂
Dragged it into MacPaint remake's font manager window.
Easy peasy.
That 9pt apple!
Dragged it into MacPaint remake's font manager window.
Easy peasy.
That 9pt apple!
If you have an active text session in the frontmost MacPaint document, you can use the new font viewer to type with—kind of like KeyCaps, remember that?
Changing the font in the viewer or the font size also changes it in the document/font menu. A nicer way to use fonts with special characters.
Changing the font in the viewer or the font size also changes it in the document/font menu. A nicer way to use fonts with special characters.
January 23, 2026 at 1:16 AM
If you have an active text session in the frontmost MacPaint document, you can use the new font viewer to type with—kind of like KeyCaps, remember that?
Changing the font in the viewer or the font size also changes it in the document/font menu. A nicer way to use fonts with special characters.
Changing the font in the viewer or the font size also changes it in the document/font menu. A nicer way to use fonts with special characters.
OK a bit more work this morning polishing the QuickTake window. Feels alright having removed the window titlebar. Though... I hate that I have to activate the window to take a picture (floating NSPanel doesn't if I recall?). Hmm.
Anywho, could be fun for MacPaint livestreams hahah—yes I'm dreaming.
Anywho, could be fun for MacPaint livestreams hahah—yes I'm dreaming.
January 22, 2026 at 8:04 PM
OK a bit more work this morning polishing the QuickTake window. Feels alright having removed the window titlebar. Though... I hate that I have to activate the window to take a picture (floating NSPanel doesn't if I recall?). Hmm.
Anywho, could be fun for MacPaint livestreams hahah—yes I'm dreaming.
Anywho, could be fun for MacPaint livestreams hahah—yes I'm dreaming.
Playing with MacPaint brush mirrors. 🙂
You know, I think this project is almost ready for 1.0 release. It's feeling pretty solid and I'm out of ideas for improvements that don't radically change the app—fonts were already a stretch.
Maybe this weekend. Maybe next.
Need to design a website for it.
You know, I think this project is almost ready for 1.0 release. It's feeling pretty solid and I'm out of ideas for improvements that don't radically change the app—fonts were already a stretch.
Maybe this weekend. Maybe next.
Need to design a website for it.
January 22, 2026 at 6:26 PM
Playing with MacPaint brush mirrors. 🙂
You know, I think this project is almost ready for 1.0 release. It's feeling pretty solid and I'm out of ideas for improvements that don't radically change the app—fonts were already a stretch.
Maybe this weekend. Maybe next.
Need to design a website for it.
You know, I think this project is almost ready for 1.0 release. It's feeling pretty solid and I'm out of ideas for improvements that don't radically change the app—fonts were already a stretch.
Maybe this weekend. Maybe next.
Need to design a website for it.
One thing I'm pretty happy with is the floating toolbar. Though not super useful, the original Hotline had one, so it felt right. This version takes on the colors of the server's banner image.
I think this helps each server feel like its own place. I need to tint the toolbar icons to match though.
I think this helps each server feel like its own place. I need to tint the toolbar icons to match though.
January 22, 2026 at 3:38 AM
One thing I'm pretty happy with is the floating toolbar. Though not super useful, the original Hotline had one, so it felt right. This version takes on the colors of the server's banner image.
I think this helps each server feel like its own place. I need to tint the toolbar icons to match though.
I think this helps each server feel like its own place. I need to tint the toolbar icons to match though.
Since I've been off social media I realize I haven't shared much outside of GitHub about my remake of Hotline I started some years back.
It's looking pretty good (imho). Nearly feature complete. Less of faithful remake of the original and more like a modern take.
Enjoy: github.com/mierau/hotli...
It's looking pretty good (imho). Nearly feature complete. Less of faithful remake of the original and more like a modern take.
Enjoy: github.com/mierau/hotli...
January 22, 2026 at 3:31 AM
Since I've been off social media I realize I haven't shared much outside of GitHub about my remake of Hotline I started some years back.
It's looking pretty good (imho). Nearly feature complete. Less of faithful remake of the original and more like a modern take.
Enjoy: github.com/mierau/hotli...
It's looking pretty good (imho). Nearly feature complete. Less of faithful remake of the original and more like a modern take.
Enjoy: github.com/mierau/hotli...
It's a small thing, but in MacPaint remake if you have some pixels selected in your document, the Export menu item becomes Export Selection.
Though MacPaint documents are a static size, this could in theory allow you to export assets from parts of your document.
In theory. :)
Though MacPaint documents are a static size, this could in theory allow you to export assets from parts of your document.
In theory. :)
January 22, 2026 at 3:14 AM
It's a small thing, but in MacPaint remake if you have some pixels selected in your document, the Export menu item becomes Export Selection.
Though MacPaint documents are a static size, this could in theory allow you to export assets from parts of your document.
In theory. :)
Though MacPaint documents are a static size, this could in theory allow you to export assets from parts of your document.
In theory. :)
The Boise font has a potato.
January 21, 2026 at 8:10 PM
The Boise font has a potato.
I also added to the font size menu square bullets for native sizes of the currently selected font, but also hollow square bullets for sizes that are a multiple of the font's native sizes. These sizes will be scaled but they'll still look good.
January 21, 2026 at 5:36 PM
I also added to the font size menu square bullets for native sizes of the currently selected font, but also hollow square bullets for sizes that are a multiple of the font's native sizes. These sizes will be scaled but they'll still look good.
Yeah I still have it in Figma. Here you are!
January 21, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Yeah I still have it in Figma. Here you are!
My MacPaint remake is becoming a bit of a celebration of classic image editing software. I added a simple font manager where you can install YAFF, BDF, Mac bitmap, and Playdate fonts.
You can also browse each font's repertoire which is amazing—so many hidden fun characters in these old fonts. 🙂
You can also browse each font's repertoire which is amazing—so many hidden fun characters in these old fonts. 🙂
January 21, 2026 at 4:39 PM
My MacPaint remake is becoming a bit of a celebration of classic image editing software. I added a simple font manager where you can install YAFF, BDF, Mac bitmap, and Playdate fonts.
You can also browse each font's repertoire which is amazing—so many hidden fun characters in these old fonts. 🙂
You can also browse each font's repertoire which is amazing—so many hidden fun characters in these old fonts. 🙂
Spent some time this weekend adding a way to install fonts in my MacPaint remake. Added support for YAFF fonts and I have support for classic Mac fonts (parsing resource forks) in the works.
A great way to play with old bitmap fonts.
Gotta fix my scaling code that's clipping 1px off the left. 😄
A great way to play with old bitmap fonts.
Gotta fix my scaling code that's clipping 1px off the left. 😄
January 20, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Spent some time this weekend adding a way to install fonts in my MacPaint remake. Added support for YAFF fonts and I have support for classic Mac fonts (parsing resource forks) in the works.
A great way to play with old bitmap fonts.
Gotta fix my scaling code that's clipping 1px off the left. 😄
A great way to play with old bitmap fonts.
Gotta fix my scaling code that's clipping 1px off the left. 😄
One of the surprising features of MacPaint I found was the ability to paste text from the clipboard to the canvas giving you the ability to reposition the text and change the font, size, pattern, and the bounding box to rewrap the text.
Pretty impressive. Not a lot of fun to implement. 😄
Pretty impressive. Not a lot of fun to implement. 😄
January 17, 2026 at 3:12 AM
One of the surprising features of MacPaint I found was the ability to paste text from the clipboard to the canvas giving you the ability to reposition the text and change the font, size, pattern, and the bounding box to rewrap the text.
Pretty impressive. Not a lot of fun to implement. 😄
Pretty impressive. Not a lot of fun to implement. 😄
I legit forgot macOS had this exposé type UI baked into tabbed windows. I can't use my keyboard to navigate open tabs however. Can't drag documents in. Can't drag tabs around to reorder. No context menus or way to close tabs from that view either.
Seems like a lot of effort for nothing? 🤷♂️
Seems like a lot of effort for nothing? 🤷♂️
January 16, 2026 at 10:22 PM
I legit forgot macOS had this exposé type UI baked into tabbed windows. I can't use my keyboard to navigate open tabs however. Can't drag documents in. Can't drag tabs around to reorder. No context menus or way to close tabs from that view either.
Seems like a lot of effort for nothing? 🤷♂️
Seems like a lot of effort for nothing? 🤷♂️
Letting you drop images into MacPaint's pattern wells. Copies the 8x8 top left corner of the image as the pattern. You can also just copy a pattern from the pattern editor and paste it into another editor in the same document or another.
January 16, 2026 at 12:07 AM
Letting you drop images into MacPaint's pattern wells. Copies the 8x8 top left corner of the image as the pattern. You can also just copy a pattern from the pattern editor and paste it into another editor in the same document or another.
I go back and forth on this one, but ultimately I think I like rendering the fill on the curve tool while drawing.
MacPaint would add the fill when you released the mouse, but that made it difficult to see while drawing. I think it was done for CPU reasons, so I think adding this makes sense.
MacPaint would add the fill when you released the mouse, but that made it difficult to see while drawing. I think it was done for CPU reasons, so I think adding this makes sense.
January 15, 2026 at 7:26 PM
I go back and forth on this one, but ultimately I think I like rendering the fill on the curve tool while drawing.
MacPaint would add the fill when you released the mouse, but that made it difficult to see while drawing. I think it was done for CPU reasons, so I think adding this makes sense.
MacPaint would add the fill when you released the mouse, but that made it difficult to see while drawing. I think it was done for CPU reasons, so I think adding this makes sense.
Added a magic wand mode to the lasso tool. Hold ⌘ while clicking and it acts as a flood fill selection (inverse of what lasso does by default—fill outwards vs fill inwards). Perhaps not the best example where a paint bucket tool would have worked just fine haha. (sorry for unhinged homer)
January 13, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Added a magic wand mode to the lasso tool. Hold ⌘ while clicking and it acts as a flood fill selection (inverse of what lasso does by default—fill outwards vs fill inwards). Perhaps not the best example where a paint bucket tool would have worked just fine haha. (sorry for unhinged homer)
Reorderable pattern swatches! This felt much harder to implement in SwiftUI than it should have. :\
MacPaint stores the pattern swatches within MacPaint documents in the order you see. So the order is preserved across sessions and should be backwards compatible with the original MacPaint.
MacPaint stores the pattern swatches within MacPaint documents in the order you see. So the order is preserved across sessions and should be backwards compatible with the original MacPaint.
January 13, 2026 at 5:06 AM
Reorderable pattern swatches! This felt much harder to implement in SwiftUI than it should have. :\
MacPaint stores the pattern swatches within MacPaint documents in the order you see. So the order is preserved across sessions and should be backwards compatible with the original MacPaint.
MacPaint stores the pattern swatches within MacPaint documents in the order you see. So the order is preserved across sessions and should be backwards compatible with the original MacPaint.
Speaking of the lasso tool, I forgot I added this: ⇧ and ⌥ to add or remove selected pixels. This was not available in the original, and a bit awkward with the way lasso selection works, but it works and works with the MacPaint's ⌥+drag to create a copy, or ⌘+drag to paint copies across the canvas.
January 12, 2026 at 7:01 PM
Speaking of the lasso tool, I forgot I added this: ⇧ and ⌥ to add or remove selected pixels. This was not available in the original, and a bit awkward with the way lasso selection works, but it works and works with the MacPaint's ⌥+drag to create a copy, or ⌘+drag to paint copies across the canvas.
Last night I fixed printing in MacPaint. Comes out of my laser printer so much crisper than it did at first. MacPaint basically had WYSIWYG printing with the resolution of MacPaint documents being more or less paper size on a 72dpi ImageWriter. Got it pretty close. Before and after:
January 12, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Last night I fixed printing in MacPaint. Comes out of my laser printer so much crisper than it did at first. MacPaint basically had WYSIWYG printing with the resolution of MacPaint documents being more or less paper size on a 72dpi ImageWriter. Got it pretty close. Before and after:
Another invisible upgrade to MacPaint: pressure sensitive brush. I forgot this was included on mouse events in macOS. So now I can move a MacPaint window over to my iPad and draw on the canvas with my Apple Pencil. I use MacPaint's gradient patterns as a mask against the selected pattern. 😄
January 11, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Another invisible upgrade to MacPaint: pressure sensitive brush. I forgot this was included on mouse events in macOS. So now I can move a MacPaint window over to my iPad and draw on the canvas with my Apple Pencil. I use MacPaint's gradient patterns as a mask against the selected pattern. 😄
Added ⌘ and ⌥ modifiers to the brush tool. These modifiers existed on other tools to change drawing modes in the original MacPaint, but not the brush tool for some reason. So ⌘ adds just the black pixels from the selected pattern. ⌥ instead draws just the white pixels. Super useful!
January 11, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Added ⌘ and ⌥ modifiers to the brush tool. These modifiers existed on other tools to change drawing modes in the original MacPaint, but not the brush tool for some reason. So ⌘ adds just the black pixels from the selected pattern. ⌥ instead draws just the white pixels. Super useful!
Added your standard spacebar to pan the canvas shortcut to MacPaint. Love sprinkling these invisible quality-of-life improvements over the app.
January 11, 2026 at 1:42 AM
Added your standard spacebar to pan the canvas shortcut to MacPaint. Love sprinkling these invisible quality-of-life improvements over the app.
Found a great tool that works on Mac OS 7.5 that rasterizes outline fonts and saves them as TrueType bitmap fonts that I can then load into MacPaint remake. So I now have Chicago in more than 12pt. Playing with a bitmap version of Apple Garamond as well.
January 11, 2026 at 1:02 AM
Found a great tool that works on Mac OS 7.5 that rasterizes outline fonts and saves them as TrueType bitmap fonts that I can then load into MacPaint remake. So I now have Chicago in more than 12pt. Playing with a bitmap version of Apple Garamond as well.