A2pix/History

3.5 April 2026

Ground-up rewrite from Carbon/C to Qt 6 / C++17. The core Apple II bit-level rendering engine has been preserved faithfully; everything around it has been rebuilt with a modern cross-platform toolkit.

Platform

• runs on Windows for the first time (native MSVC build with Qt 6)
• macOS Universal binary (Apple Silicon + Intel), requires macOS 13+
• build system: qmake with shared .pri + per-platform .pro files

Rendering

• core Apple II bit-level rendering engine preserved faithfully
• all 4 rendering engines preserved (Ellsworth, Laz Double, Laz Sharp, By the Book)
• all 8 color palettes + 3 monochrome palettes preserved
• palettes extracted from Mac resource fork into palettes.json
• rendering pipeline simplified (300+ lines to ~50 lines, QImage direct pixel access)

UI

• JSON-driven menu system (declarative, built at runtime)
• dockable color swatch panel (replaces old Mac floating palette)
• scroll area with dark offstage background
• about box with bundled Apple II .ttf font
• status bar for feedback messages
• window position and size remembered between sessions

File Handling

• save as PNG replaces PICT
• save as DHGR/HGR binary preserved
• Open Recent menu (up to 10 files)
• remembers last-used open/save directories
• drag and drop file opening
• auto-reopens most recent file on launch
• all Apple II picture formats supported (HGR, DHGR/DazzleDraw, Beagle Bros)

Drawing / Editing

• mouse drawing in 140px and 560px modes preserved
• convert HGR to DHGR
• all keyboard shortcuts preserved

New Features

• text screen editor with MouseText support
• Apple IIc boot simulation startup screen with sound effects
• CLI --test mode for automated rendering/regression testing
• preferences via QSettings (plist on Mac, registry on Windows)
• Windows packaging via windeployqt with custom folder icon and taskbar integration
• code signing support for Windows builds

Under the Hood

• source consolidated: ~30 files (4,540 lines) to 8 .cpp/.h (2,712 lines) + palettes.json
• C++17 (was C with some C++)
• Qt 6 Widgets (was Mac Carbon Toolbox)

Retired

• ProDOS disk image creation
• batch conversion
• save as PICT
• Photoshop plug-ins
• Apple Events rendering API
• speed test
• "By the Book width matches Laz" option
• QuickDraw area sampling
• 68k/Classic Mac OS support

3.1b2 December 20, 2015

• text screens can now also be made with plain text files, but you kinda need to use SheepShaver with MacOS 9 to edit them (cuz the font and keyboard layout are only working there)
• 80 Column Mode is back
• Removed "Use More Memory with Double Size + ARC", cuz who cares, we always use more memory now
• Removed "Use QuickDraw Area Sample", now we always use it, it's great
• Removed "Use New Pencil Method", it's always used
• made this web site
• removed a bunch of old dead code
• 560 Mode (thin dots when drawing, good for Black and White) is now saved in prefs
• windows no longer keep un-selecting
• fixed extra "Quit" menu items
• the app is now code-signed

3.1b1 December 19, 2015

• updated to work on modern MacOS (10.11), should work on older MacOS too, back to 10.4
• real prefs file (no longer stored in resource fork of app)
• fixed font problem by using TrueType font. (note: 80 Column mode not supported)

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