Publishers use two basic approaches for their graphics programs: bit-mapped and object-oriented graphics. With bit-mapeed graphics you paint an image on the screen dot by dot (or more properly, pixed by pixel).
With object-oriented graphics you do not paint on the screen.
One
object-oriented graphics application interface is Ardent's Dore (Dynamic Object-Oriented Environment), which was written to accommodate the Ardent mini-supercomputer's closely coupled computational and graphics data architecture.
An octopus created in that program holds the icons in its tentacles, each icon representing a module: Outline, Write (word processing), Database, Spreadsheet, Chart, Paint (bit-mapped graphics), Draw (object-oriented graphics), and Communications.
In Draw the pie chart becomes an object-oriented graphic. Each segment of the pie becomes a separate object.
This is the Graphics Palette, used to create
object-oriented graphics. Hal selects the rounded rectangle tool and draws two shapes, one inside the other.
MacPaint represents the classic use of bit-mapped graphics; and in a second article two months later we introduced MacDraw, an object-oriented graphics program.
For object-oriented graphics, Harriett relies on Adobe Illustrator, a particular favorite of hers.
SuperPaint combines painting (bit-mapped graphics) and drawing (object-oriented graphics) in one program.
The Auto Trace command lets you trace the outline of a graphic created on the paint layer and transform it into an object-oriented graphic.
Although more difficult to use,
object-oriented graphics have provided many professional-quality images for the Macintosh.