Using at least System 7.1 with Basilisk II or Sheepshaver makes sense, and for all intents and purposes this requires a new large HFS-formatted (not HFS+) disk image, which is non-trivial to create these days (see FuseHFS below).

Those with no experience with pre-OS X Macs will want to start with the online options or with Mini vMac. It's not totally true to the original and has some quirks, but it should be a little more lightweight than running an entire emulator in the browser. Another option is Cloudpaint, which is a re-implementation of MacPaint in JavaScript.

This version is somewhat different than the 1.x versions, and you can't save your files, but this is a very cool option if your computer/browser can handle it. PCE.js is a browser-based Mac Plus emulator that allows you to play with several old Mac applications, including MacPaint 2.0. If even Mini vMac is too much for you, there are couple web-based options that get you most of the way there. Note that PowerPC ROMs are trickier to come by, as are OS 8 and 9, so you may want to try Mini vMac, a great Mac Plus emulator that is easy to set up and will be fine for MacPaint. Basilisk II and Sheepshaver work well enough that they are worth trying if you want a full-featured emulator to run systems up through 9.0.4. With system 6 or 7 will give you reasonable usability and plenty of authenticity, but it will definitely run on any OS through 9.Ī more practical way is to run a 68k or PowerPC emulator on a modern Mac/Windows/Linux PC. It under OS 8 or 9, you will probably need to switch your color depth to Black and White. It will run perfectly on any classic Mac OS (system 1-9). The most fun way to run MacPaint today is by using a computer it was actually designed for, an old Mac that you can

Mac 128k emulator