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PICT is a graphics
Computer graphics

Computer graphics are graphics created by computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of pictorial data by a computer....
 file format
File format

A file format is a particular way to encode information for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa....
 introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile
Metafile

Metafile is a generic term for a file format that can store multiple types of data. This commonly includes graphics file formats. These graphics files can contain Raster graphics, Vector graphics, and type data....
 format. It allows the interchange of graphics (both bitmapped
Bitmap

In computer graphics, a bitmap or pixmap is a type of computer storage organization or used to store digital images. The term bitmap comes from the computer programming terminology, meaning just a map of bits, a spatially mapped bit array....
 and vector
Vector graphics

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical Primitive s such as point s, line , curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based upon mathematical equations, to represent s in computer graphics....
), and some limited text support, between Mac applications, and was the native graphics format of QuickDraw
QuickDraw

QuickDraw is the 2D Computer graphics library and associated Application programming interface which is a core part of the classic Apple Macintosh Mac OS....
.

The original version, PICT 1, was designed to be as compact as possible while describing vector graphics. To this end, it featured single byte opcode
Opcode

In computer technology, an opcode is the portion of a machine language instruction that specifies the operation to be performed. Their specification and format are laid out in the instruction set architecture of the processor in question ....
s, many of which embodied operations such as "do the previous operation again".






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PICT is a graphics
Computer graphics

Computer graphics are graphics created by computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of pictorial data by a computer....
 file format
File format

A file format is a particular way to encode information for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa....
 introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile
Metafile

Metafile is a generic term for a file format that can store multiple types of data. This commonly includes graphics file formats. These graphics files can contain Raster graphics, Vector graphics, and type data....
 format. It allows the interchange of graphics (both bitmapped
Bitmap

In computer graphics, a bitmap or pixmap is a type of computer storage organization or used to store digital images. The term bitmap comes from the computer programming terminology, meaning just a map of bits, a spatially mapped bit array....
 and vector
Vector graphics

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical Primitive s such as point s, line , curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based upon mathematical equations, to represent s in computer graphics....
), and some limited text support, between Mac applications, and was the native graphics format of QuickDraw
QuickDraw

QuickDraw is the 2D Computer graphics library and associated Application programming interface which is a core part of the classic Apple Macintosh Mac OS....
.

The original version, PICT 1, was designed to be as compact as possible while describing vector graphics. To this end, it featured single byte opcode
Opcode

In computer technology, an opcode is the portion of a machine language instruction that specifies the operation to be performed. Their specification and format are laid out in the instruction set architecture of the processor in question ....
s, many of which embodied operations such as "do the previous operation again". As such it was quite memory efficient, but not very expandable. With the introduction of the Macintosh II
Macintosh II

The Apple Macintosh II was the first personal computer model of the Macintosh II series in the Apple Macintosh line. Retailing for US$3,898 base price , the Macintosh II was the first "modular" Macintosh model, so called because it came in a horizontal desktop case like many PCs of the time....
 and Color QuickDraw
QuickDraw

QuickDraw is the 2D Computer graphics library and associated Application programming interface which is a core part of the classic Apple Macintosh Mac OS....
, PICT was revised to version 2. This version featured 16-bit opcodes and numerous changes which enhanced its utility. PICT 1 opcodes were supported as a subset for backward compatibility.

Within a Mac application, any sequence of drawing operations could be simply recorded/encoded to the PICT format by opening a "Picture", then closing it after issuing the required commands. By saving the resulting byte stream as a resource
Resource fork

The resource fork is a construct of the Mac OS operating system used to store structured data in a file, alongside unstructured data stored within the data fork....
, a PICT resource resulted, which could be loaded and played back at any time. The same stream could be saved to a data file on disk (with 512 bytes of unused header space added) as a PICT file.

With the change to Mac OS X
Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a line of computer operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc., and since 2002 has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems....
, PICT was dropped in favour of Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format

Portable Document Format is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system....
 (PDF) as the native metafile format, though PICT support is retained by many applications as it is so widely supported on the Mac.

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