MegaPaint BLD

File Format
Name	MegaPaint BLD
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics MegaPaint BLD
Extension(s)	.bld
Released	≤1990

MegaPaint BLD is the main native raster graphics format of MegaPaint, a graphics editor developed by TommySoftware. There were editions of MegaPaint for Atari ST, MS-DOS, and Windows. Some were released as shareware. The best information about MegaPaint might be in German.

In addition to raster graphics, MegaPaint apparently has some sort of support for vector graphics.

Related formats

Other MegaPaint formats include:

• .PAT - MegaPaint pattern
• .VEK - MegaPaint vector format
• .LIB - MegaPaint symbols library
• .VLB - MegaPaint vector symbols library
• .FNT - MegaPaint font

Format details

BLD format:

Offset	Type	Details
0	signed int16 BE	Code for the image width and compression scheme. Actual width is 1 + the absolute value of this field. If negative, image is compressed.
2	signed(?) int16 BE	Code for the image height. Actual height is 1 + the value of this field.
4	bytes	The pixel data. After decompression if necessary (see below), the format is 1 bit/pixel, white-is-zero. Rows are padded to the next byte boundary.

Decompression algorithm

Read the next byte, follow the instructions below, repeat.

Code byte (N)	Instructions
N=0 or N=255	Read the next byte (C). Emit C+1 bytes of value N.
Any other	Emit 1 byte of value N.

Software

• XnView
• Konvertor
• RECOIL
• Farbfeld Utilities
• Rest7 Online Converter
• Deark
• MegaPaint
  • http://cd.textfiles.com/pslmonthly25/words/dos/gr_draw/megapnt.exe - MegaPaint PC Version 1.10; English; shareware
  • Weird Science Clip Art CD → UTILITY/PC/MEGAPANT/ - Another copy of PC v1.10
  • http://cd.textfiles.com/crawlycrypt2/crm_demo/megapait/ - MegaPaint Professional Demo v3.00; Atari ST; German
  • http://cd.textfiles.com/suzybatari1/picmanip/pic_m2r/mpntdemo/ - MegaPaint Professional Demo 4.00; Atari ST; English

Sample files

• http://cd.textfiles.com/pslmonthly25/words/dos/gr_draw/megapnt.exe (Self-extracting ZIP) → PICTURES/*.BLD
• http://cd.textfiles.com/suzybatari1/picmanip/pic_m2r/mpntdemo/pictures/ → *.bld
• https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/bld/
• https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/megaPaintPattern/

Links

• German Wikipedia: TommySoftware
• MegaPaint file format, from the Atari Forum Wiki