History - Deluxe Paint

One of the first really powerful photo editing programs was Deluxe Paint, designed by Dan Silva and Electronic Arts for the Commodore Amiga computer. With a wide variety of features and an eye-catching, high quality image of King Tut's mask on the cover, Deluxe Paint was the leader in graphics programs for years.

Originally designed as a program called Prism, Silva added so many features that it became the showcase program for the system. Commodore commissioned Electronic Arts to write an updated version, which became the graphics and animation standard for the entire Amiga line.

Deluxe Paint was ported to other computer systems, including the Apple IIGS and the PC, but it never caught on as well on those systems as it did on the original Amiga. The last version for the PC could handle images up to 800 by 600 pixels with 256 colors.

Electronic Arts once tried to claim that they should hold copyright on any pictures which were produced using Deluxe Paint. However, their arguments were shot down with the observation that makers of pen and paper couldn't claim copyright on writing that was created with them. It wasn't a groundbreaking case, but it showed an interesting viewpoint on the use of photo editing programs.

Even though it was originally released in 1985, Deluxe Paint had many features that are still considered revolutionary today. It could do transparent backgrounds, animation through color cycling, lasso selection, brushes clipped from an image like the modern Stamp tool, and Animbrushes, which evolved into the concept of Tubes in Paint Shop Pro. Deluxe Paint was the perfect tool for creating bitmapped icons and game animation graphics.

Deluxe Paint Version 5, the final revision of the Deluxe Paint program for the Amiga, was released just after Commodore declared bankruptcy in 1994.

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