I found myself in the same situation again with a colleague asking me for help identifying an unknown file. The file in question did not have an extension and to make things harder, the file could not be shared with me, only the header. So not having much to go on I started with some assumptions. Not having an extension leans toward the file being from an early Macintosh system. My favorite. I asked some follow up questions and learned the file was from around 2002, but no longer had any extended attributes that might contain a type creator code to help with identification. There was also mentioned of layers and fonts later in the file I was told.
Looking at the header sent to me, there was an obviously first choice to look into.
cd cd 20 07 43 41 4e 56 (ÍÍ CANV)With the ASCII text “CANV“, the initial thought was this file was related to the popular Canvas software. I did a post on the Canvas formats a couple years ago so I went back through my files and could not find any match. Most uncompressed Canvas files use “CANVAS5” or “CANVAS6”, nothing which was shortened to CANV. I check all the samples I have from many versions. Back to square one.
I looked at other graphics and desktop publishing programs from the time period, I even asked AI to help me narrow it down. AI also recommended Canvas, but also many others I was already aware of and had dismissed. AI did not know what to make of the CANV string in the header, it was not too helpful. I did follow a couple of leads it gave me, but they led to dead ends. One title I looked into was called Desktop Publisher Pro. Files from this software also had a unique header, but nothing resembling what I was looking for. Maybe I will do another post of this software in the future.
So the next step in my process was to scan through all my sample data sets for something that matched or was close. I made a simple signature with the CANV header, but also one with the “CDCD” hex values as it seemed unique as well. I set the scan to run overnight on my sample set and the next morning I was met with disappointment. Not one match. I decided to run the same signatures across a few of my other drives of personal files, just for good measure. The next morning I had a surprise. Within the 10’s of thousands of files scanned, one file popped. The file the scan found also had no extension and the software that created it was no longer on my computer so the file was not associated with any software. But luckily in my case, the Type/Creator code was still attached!
% getfileinfo "MC Wrap"
file: "Martins Cove Wrap"
type: "DISC"
creator: "ARTD"
attributes: avbstclinmedz
created: 09/06/2005 13:52:35
modified: 09/06/2005 13:52:35
% hexdump -C "MC Wrap" | head
00000000 cd cd 00 07 43 41 4e 56 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 12 |??..CANV........|
00000010 00 03 00 01 00 05 02 20 00 16 00 00 00 00 00 09 |....... ........|
00000020 00 32 50 52 45 56 00 00 00 01 00 00 34 6e 00 02 |.2PREV......4n..|
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 43 00 64 00 00 00 00 00 43 |.......C.d.....C|
00000040 00 64 00 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 |.d..B.B.B.B.B.B.|
00000050 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 |B.B.B.B.B.B.B.B.|
*
00000100 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 00 21 |B.B.B.B.B.B.B..!|
00000110 00 21 00 21 00 21 00 21 00 21 00 21 00 21 00 21 |.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!|
There it is! The header with CANV. Looking up the Creator code “ARTD” in my TCDB tool, I learned the creator of the file.
% python3 TC-lookup-draft-uni.py "MC Wrap"
Type Code: DISC
Creator Code: ARTD
Size of Data Fork: 18483930 bytes
Size of Resource Fork: 0 bytes
Rows with Type Code b'DISC' and Creator Code b'ARTD':
Row index: 11828
File Name: Discus—Disc Lable File
Type: DISC
Creator: ARTD
Comments: Discus
Category: nan
Extension: nan
Dup:
Data by Ilan Szekely, Jerusalem: nan
------------------------------
The database of Type/Creator codes identified the file as being created by the Discus software. A little search and I remembered the file in question was created by Discus RE which was included with Roxio Toast, a CD/DVD buring software popular on the Macintosh for many years. Discus RE was labeling software bundled with Toast for a few versions, lastly Toast version 7.
I happen to have Toast 6 on my older PowerMac G5 machine which included Discus RE 2.74. I made a few samples to compare.
% hexdump -C DiscusRE2.6-s01 | head
00000000 cd cd 00 07 43 41 4e 56 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 12 |??..CANV........|
00000010 00 03 00 01 00 00 00 0a 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000020 00 32 50 52 45 56 00 00 00 01 00 00 4e 2e 00 01 |.2PREV......N...|
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 64 00 64 00 10 52 94 52 94 |.......d.d..R.R.|
00000040 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 |V?R.R.V?R.R.V?R.|
00000050 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 |R.V?R.R.V?R.R.V?|
00000060 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 |R.R.V?R.R.V?R.R.|
00000070 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 |V?R.R.V?R.R.V?R.|
00000080 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 56 b5 5a d6 |R.V?R.R.V?R.V?Z?|
00000090 63 18 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 42 10 |c.B.B.B.B.B.B.B.|
You may have noticed both my file and this sample have a slightly different header, my samples have “CDCD007” while the header sent to me has “CDCD2007”. A slight difference I am not sure of the meaning. I need to see more samples. Since this was a sample from Discus version 2, I tracked down samples from version 3 and 4.
% hexdump -C DiscusRE3-s01 | head
00000000 cd cd 00 07 43 41 4e 56 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 12 |??..CANV........|
00000010 00 03 00 01 00 00 00 0a 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000020 00 32 50 52 45 56 00 00 00 01 00 00 4e 36 00 02 |.2PREV......N6..|
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 64 00 64 00 00 00 00 00 64 |.......d.d.....d|
00000040 00 64 00 10 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 |.d..R.R.V?R.R.V?|
00000050 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 |R.R.V?R.R.V?R.R.|
00000060 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 |V?R.R.V?R.R.V?R.|
00000070 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 |R.V?R.R.V?R.R.V?|
00000080 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 |R.R.V?R.R.V?R.R.|
00000090 56 b5 52 94 56 b5 5e f7 67 39 42 10 42 10 42 10 |V?R.V?^?g9B.B.B.|
Version 3 seems to have the same structure. Version 4 is a little different and also has an extension this time. The first two bytes are the same, but has 0008 and is missing the CANV, replaced by PREV.
% hexdump -C Discus4-s01.CD4 | head
00000000 cd cd 00 08 50 52 45 56 00 00 00 01 00 01 8e 36 |??..PREV.......6|
00000010 00 02 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 ba 00 8c 00 04 00 00 |.........?......|
00000020 00 ba 00 8c 00 20 32 32 32 ff 32 32 32 ff 32 32 |.?... 222?222?22|
00000030 32 ff 32 32 32 ff 32 32 32 ff 32 32 32 ff 32 32 |2?222?222?222?22|
I learned the Discus software was created by a software company called Magic Mouse Productions. Discus was written by Edward de Jong, the founder of Magic Mouse Productions, who has also created many other software titles. Discus sold millions of copies, many of which were bundled, but also full versions which unlocked many other label templates and a lot more artwork. The Discus software also included a large selection of artwork which could be used in the label design. Looking at a sample from the full version, I was hoping to see the CDCD2007, but found them to be similar to the other samples.
% hexdump -C Discus3.08-s01 | head
00000000 cd cd 00 07 43 41 4e 56 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 12 |??..CANV........|
00000010 00 03 00 01 00 00 01 f4 00 11 00 00 00 00 00 00 |.......?........|
00000020 00 32 50 52 45 56 00 00 00 01 00 00 4e 36 00 02 |.2PREV......N6..|
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 64 00 64 00 00 00 00 00 64 |.......d.d.....d|
00000040 00 64 00 10 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 |.d..R.R.V?R.R.V?|
00000050 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 |R.R.V?R.R.V?R.R.|
00000060 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 |V?R.R.V?R.R.V?R.|
00000070 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 |R.V?R.R.V?R.R.V?|
00000080 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 56 b5 52 94 52 94 |R.R.V?R.R.V?R.R.|
00000090 56 b5 52 94 52 94 42 10 31 8c 42 10 42 10 42 10 |V?R.R.B.1.B.B.B.|
I actually reached out to Edward de Jong and asked him about the file format. His response,
The Discus file format is fairly straightforward
The first four bytes are the signature of a Discus file
The Discus software was built for the PowerPC chip for the Macintosh, but also for Windows. The last couple of updates to Discus version 4 added Intel chip support, but then no new versions where created. Edward explained….
I still use Discus myself, but on the Macintosh it stops running after OSX 10.14 because Apple cruelly discontinued their emulator for older operating systems and the Intel instruction set.
After Toast version 7, Roxio used a different labeling software bundled with their burning software. This and many others still need some research and documentation. For now, a signature for Discus will help in weeding out these labels some might find un-needed, but other may find invaluable.
Take a look at some samples and my signature proposal and let me know what you think.