Art Bits from Apple Macintosh HyperCard

Published: (March 6, 2026 at 04:43 PM EST)
2 min read

Source: Hacker News

Art Bits from HyperCard

Long-time Macintosh users likely remember HyperCard, Apple’s strange hypermedia system that was sorta like a cross between index cards, web pages, and 90s interactive edutainment software. HyperCard left a pretty big legacy for the Web to come, influencing everything from JavaScript to wikis to the pointing‑finger thing for links on pages to Myst.

Apple packaged some sample HyperCard stacks to get people up to speed with the software, including one called Art Bits, which included a ton of sample clip art for use in your own stacks. This stack is fantastic for showing off just how much Apple could do with two colors.

[Image: The front of the Art Bits stack]

Slowly, painfully, torturously, methodically—I’ve clipped out over 700 of these things and stuck them on this page at their original size for your use and enjoyment. The entire thing is still less than 300 KB, after all the PNGs are optimized, but I’m not responsible if it’s really slow.


Beasts

Buildings

Communication and media

HyperCard miscellany

Icon ideas

Macintosh miscellany

Nature and science

Odds and ends

People

Small treasures

Transportation

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Art Bits from HyperCard

> 12:16 PM mariteaux: because if i have to type out 700+ file names i'm going to slit my wrists > 12:16 PM mariteaux: but aside from that > 12:16 PM mariteaux:...