RasterRap

April 25th, 2008 chris Posted in Technology |

Before I left Sun Microsystems in 1990, I wrote a program called RasterRap that let you draw with images. I called it RasterRap because like some rap music, art was created by sampling others works. My inspiration for this was something we did as kids: Take a blank sheet of paper and draw a big square with a particular color of crayon. Then use a different color and draw over the first color. Keep repeating this until you’re tired of it. Finally, use the black crayon to draw the final layer. Now use a fingernail and scratch off the crayon at varying levels of depth. Yes, we were super bored.

The RasterRap program was written entirely in PostScript, and the current tool (like your fingernail) would let you reveal the chosen image with a variety of effects. Spray paint, stretch, paint, and spotlight were some of the tools. Why did I write this? Pretty much the same reason I scratched off crayon when I was a kid.