Classic 8×8-pixel B&W Mac patterns
38 comments
·September 4, 2025duskwuff
paulsmith
Interesting - what's the provenance of this? Is this a leaked copy of the System source, or a disassembly/decompile?
ndiddy
It's a copy of the Toolbox ROM code for the Quadra 660AV. It's a real leak, not reverse engineered. You can see comments on the code from the early 80s by the original Macintosh team. It was published online (I think on Applefritter or something) about 20 years ago by a former Apple employee who was having some sort of mental breakdown. He believed it contained proof that Apple was complicit in subjecting its employees to MKULTRA mind control and ran underground maglev trains to other dimensions.
egypturnash
Damn that's some serious rebound from leaving Steve's Reality Distortion Field.
sroerick
Is there an article or something covering this? Too wild
duskwuff
Holy crap. I was not aware of that context - that's wild.
duskwuff
It's a leaked copy of the System 7.1 source code - just the System itself; it doesn't include any applications, control panels, or extensions. (So code for things like the Finder or QuickTime aren't included.)
I'm not certain where it came from precisely; from what I understand, it's been circulating online for ages. Apple hasn't authorized its release, but, as far as I'm aware, they haven't made any attempt to suppress it either.
fredoralive
It's a leaked version of the Mac toolbox ROM source code circa very early 1994.
zahlman
That's an incredible hit of nostalgia. I haven't smiled like this in days.
It's still hard to believe that some of these effects are accomplished in 8x8 pixels — in a single integer's worth of space, on modern architectures.
errantspark
Nice! I did one of these ages and ages ago copying the win 3.1 pattern editor (which doubtless is a ripoff of the mac one anyway)
JeremyHerrman
well done! I also made one, but for the mac control panel.
JeremyHerrman
Two years ago I vibe coded a recreation of the Mac Desktop Pattern Control Panel to change a website's background.
Demo here: https://jherrm.github.io/classic-mac-desktop-pattern/
Source: https://github.com/jherrm/classic-mac-desktop-pattern
cmiller1
Oh, I did something similar on my website! https://interruptkey.com
JeremyHerrman
(and I also did the hack of reading raw images to get the binary pattern :-D the source for the converter is also in this repo)
keyle
I wish I could upvote this more than once! <3
MontyCarloHall
If you want to play with the actual Control Panels within various emulated Macintoshes (all in the context of a gorgeously written and illustrated history of Macintosh settings), have a look here: https://aresluna.org/frame-of-preference/
hahajk
From the linked Raskin memo, the original sin that brought us to dongletown:
> The minimum number of holes in the case through which fingers, screwdrivers (either metallic or liquid), EMI or earwigs can crawl is to be desired. I guess that adapters are OK as accessories.
ayaros
Really glad to see I'm not the only one out there who appreciates these patterns.
In my LisaGUI project I've added not just the ones from the Lisa Office System and Mac System 1, but also a few I found in betas of the Mac OS, as well as some from Windows 3.x and 9x. These kinds of patterns popped up in all sorts of places in the 80s and 90s. I'm continually surprised at how much you can fit in an 8x8 monochrome grid whenever I come across a clever pattern I haven't seen before.
Edit: https://alpha.lisagui.com/ At the desktop click the preferences icon and go to the Decorate Desktop pane
unleaded
My favourite is the wide weave one (#15).. what looks like the same pattern is on X and old Windows too.
See also Iconography of the X Window System: The Boot Stipple: https://matttproud.com/blog/posts/x-window-system-boot-stipp...
paulsmith
> My favourite is the wide weave one (#15)
Same, that and the bubble one #36 have so much personality.
JKCalhoun
Like a cherry pie crust.
exikyut
FWIW, X11 also includes a bunch of quaint background patterns as well, in /usr/include/X11/bitmaps.
You can try each of them by just doing `xsetroot -bitmap <filename>`. I have mine set to wide_weave, which is incidentally identical to Pattern 15 in https://paulsmith.github.io/classic-mac-patterns/
1-6
We're finally getting colors on e-ink displays. B&W [hatch] patterns still have a rightful purpose.
guerrilla
This feels like real archeology.
mrkpdl
I’m a big fan of limited palettes as a prompt for easier creative choices. These patterns are a great example of that.
Back in 2014 I made a phoney minigolf game using these patterns as a first step into making interactive work: https://www.maxpiantoni.com/projects/golfnet
The game isn’t particularly real, but the jokes are.
ayaros
That poor dog... :(
littlecranky67
I'm pretty sure I first encountered some of those patterns on a C64 GEOS system.
paulsmith
Huh, sure enough: https://www.lyonlabs.org/commodore/onrequest/geos/lobster-64...
dzdt
Some overlap but not identical. There are 38 Mac patterns compared to 32 geos patterns. Of these I count 27 that coincide; 5 are unique to geos and 11 are unique to the Mac. I think certainly the direction of copying is geos copying from Mac.
As an aside, you could also have gotten this data from the source code:
https://github.com/historicalsource/supermario/blob/master/b...
:)