Classic 8×8-pixel Black & White Mac Patterns Posted by Paul Smith on September 3, 2025 --- Overview Paul Smith created a website dedicated to the original set of 38 classic 8×8 pixel black-and-white patterns used on the early Macintosh computers (System 1.0 in 1984). These patterns were used in the Control Panel for desktop backgrounds and in MacPaint as fill patterns, remaining unchanged through later Mac OS versions. The blog post details the process of extracting these exact patterns from a System 6 disk image to preserve their original fidelity, rather than recreating them by screenshots or manual drawing. Why Extract? Nostalgia for the early Mac aesthetic and software experiences like Dark Castle, Glider, HyperCard. Desire for archival-quality pattern data in a directly usable format. The patterns are stored in the system's resource fork as QuickDraw bit patterns, which are fast and efficient for macOS rendering. Extraction Preparation Steps Download Mini vMac. Acquire "old world" Mac ROM files. Download a System 6.0.8 startup disk image. Download disk images for utilities: ExportFl and sitPack. Install The Unarchiver (via brew install --cask the-unarchiver). Install Xcode command-line tools (for DeRez). Extraction Process In Mini vMac Emulation Boot System 6 using Mini vMac with the ROM and startup disk. Mount ExportFl and sitPack disk images within the emulator. Use sitPack to compress the “System” file into a .sit archive. Use ExportFl to export the .sit file onto the modern Mac machine. On the Modern Mac Use The Unarchiver to decompress the System.sit archive, yielding the “System” file. Use the DeRez tool (DeRez -only PAT# System > patterns.r) to dump the pattern resources as textual data representing the 8×8 bit patterns. Data Format The PAT# resource contains the patterns as 38 8×8 bit arrays. Stored as 8 bytes per pattern, with a 16-bit big-endian count prefix. Paul used a Python script to parse this data and output the patterns into a .pbm (portable bitmap) format—an easily parseable text-based image format representing pixels as 0 (white) or 1 (black). Example .pbm for a subway-tile pattern: Usage and Scaling From the .pbm files, one can generate any image format and any resolution of the patterns using tools like ImageMagick. Important to use -filter point when scaling to avoid pixel interpolation and blurriness. Nostalgic Connection These patterns remind Paul of experiences with early Mac software and games. The original patterns have a distinctive aesthetic used across various Mac applications. Additional Notes Paul credits replica fonts Geneva 9pt and Chicago 12pt used in the project. The full set of patterns and resources can be accessed at paulsmith.github.io/classic-mac-patterns/. --- Related Posts Let jj absorb help you keep a clean commit history (August 2025) --- About Paul Smith Paul Smith is a software engineer with an interest in vintage computing aesthetics and software preservation. Elsewhere on the web Threads Mastodon Bluesky Flickr (photos) --- This concise post explains the process, motivation, and usage behind preserving the classic Mac 8×8 black-and-white desktop patterns, providing a resource for fellow enthusiasts and developers.