Launching today
Mojave Paint
Direct manipulation of static images on the Mac platform
53 followers
Direct manipulation of static images on the Mac platform
53 followers
Bitmap images are still, even in 2026, a hugely important medium of communication. Which is why I made Mojave Paint – a Mac-based image editor that lets you really own the production of these bitmap images. They've been making image editors since the original Mac and the Amiga and I'm sure even long before that. But somehow the choices in the modern era fall short. So I have a new option, presented by an upstart software shop in Seattle. If you're looking for AI features, look elsewhere.
I get a little depressed when I see Reddit threads of people asking for AI tools to make screenshots for their iOS app. Just make them yourself! You're not a great designer, so what? Ugly is better than AI-loooking. And Mojave Paint is just one of many tools you can use to make graphical assets. I'm not saying it's better than other options, but it's an option, and a pretty darn good one if you're on an Apple Silicon Mac.
I’ve been using Mojave Paint since it first appeared on Reddit and I love it - I bought it straightaway. John regularly updates the app and adds new functionality, and it now does ~95% of what I need from graphics software. Being spectacularly old I appreciate the 90s aesthetic of the interface, but mostly I appreciate that it’s lightweight (9.2MB installed), fast and does almost everything I need it to do. Based on the last few months’ progress, I doubt I’ll need to use any other software by the end of the year. Unless you’re a graphics professional - in which case you probably need the bells and whistles other, vastly more expensive, software provides - I thoroughly recommend Mojave Paint.
Love the no-AI stance, that alone sets it apart. One thing that would make me reach for it over Pixelmator though, native support for opening and saving indexed-color PNG files with a real palette editor. Most editors downsample or strip the palette these days, and it's a pain when working with retro game art or pixel assets. Would be a perfect fit given the Mac heritage angle.
Love the no-nonsense approach, especially the stance on AI. One thing that would make this way more useful for me: native support for layered TIFFs and PSDs so I can round-trip work with older projects without flattening everything on import.
Downloaded it yesterday and the layer blending feels really snappy on my M2, no lag like in some of the bigger apps. The brush engine has a nice texture to it that reminds me of older Mac tools.
love that you kept this purely about the craft—no AI gimmicks, just a real bitmap editor. the handmade-from-seattle approach reminds me of the old shareware era, which feels like exactly what mac image editing needs right now.