Need a last minute gift for that special creative pro? How about a new computer? Some assembly (and a good exacto knife) will be required.
For this year’s holiday tip, your friendly left-brain team at Creativetechs has spent more time than we can justify tracking down templates for a wide variety of cut-out Macintosh computers. Browse through the list of available computers below. Each link will download a PDF template. Print out on card stock for best results.
Enjoy.
Papercraft Macs: MacBook Air
Our first Macintosh papercraft project is fun, simple to build, and comes complete with it’s own parody TV ad.
We present the MacBook Paper: Truly, the world’s thinnest notebook.
Link: MacBook Paper PDF
Papercraft Macs: Mac Pro Workstation.
We modified an existing template for a PowerMac G5 to create a papercraft template for Apple’s high-end Mac Pro workstation. This template is a bit more involved to build, but it is satisfying. The side access door folds down to reveal the Mac Pro drive bays and interior.
Link: Mac Pro Template PDF
Papercraft Macs: iMac Intel
I hunted a long time for a papercraft template featuring Apple’s newest iMac. I ultimately found one, but I don’t know where it originally came from. It is credited to “ErwinM” and was found on a MediaFire upload.
Have a better iMac template, or know who the mysterious ErwinM is? Leave us a note in the comments for this post.
Link: iMac Intel Template PDF
Papercraft Cellphone: Fold an iPhone
We discovered this gem early last year, when the Apple iPhone was still several months away from being available. The price has dropped since then, but the appeal of being able to print and fold your own personal iPhone remains.
Link: iPhone Template PDF
Papercraft CEO: Fold Your Own Steve Jobs.
You can have a tiny paper Steve Jobs on your desk in a matter of minutes. Steve won’t be presenting at January’s Macworld Expo, but you can easily rectify that by holding your own personal keynote. Just swap out the picture of the iPhone in Steve’s hand for your fantasy Apple product announcement.
Link: Steve Jobs Paper Toy PDF
Source: Toy-A-Day Blog via Gizmodo.
Papercraft Macs: Mac Models circa 2005.
Three years ago we started our collection of papercraft Macs, and at the time these were the current Macs in Apple’s product line.
Link: Power Mac G5
Link: iMac Flat Panel
Link: eMac
Link: PowerBook G4
Papercraft MP3 Players: Apple’s line of classic iPods.
Apple has shipped over 150 million iPods worldwide since the first one was released in October 2001. That’s a lot of MP3 players out there with the Apple logo on them. Here is a short collection of papercraft templates covering the evolution of the iPod:
Link: iPod Video
Link: iPod (click wheel version)
Link: iPod (original)
Link: iPod Mini
Link: iPod Shuffle
Link: iPod Stand (Works)
Papercraft Macs: A Collection of Legacy Mac Desktops.
If you’ve scrolled this far through our collection of papercraft Macs, you may be the type of fanatic to remember some of these classic Macs from years gone by. What was the first Mac you ever owned? Find it in the list and print a tiny replica of that early memory:
Mac Plus (1986)
Mac SE/30 (1989)
Mac IIci (1989)
Mac Classic II (1991)
Mac LC II (1992)
Mac Color Classic (1993)
Mac LC 520 (1993)
Mac Quadra 840av (1993)
Power Mac 6100 (1994)
Performa 5200 (1995)
Performa 5420 Black Case (1996)
Power Mac 7600 (1996)
Performa 6400 (1996)
…plus a couple monitors to hook up to your paper Macs:
16-inch RGB Display (1996)
AppleVision 1710AV (1997)
Papercraft Macs: Legacy PowerBook Laptops.
Adding to our collection of classic paper Macs, we have a small collection of legacy Mac laptops. My personal favorite is the PowerBook Duo 250, which comes complete with a DuoDock.
PowerBook 100 (1991)
PowerBook Duo 250 w/ DuoDock (1993)
PowerBook 550c (1995)
Christmas Decoration: Paper Mac Christmas Ornaments.
Finally, we have an old collection of papercraft Christmas ornaments we collected years ago.
Simple Mac Ornaments:
red, silver, green, gold, blue, black
Other Themes:
Faux Fur Mac
Mandelbrot Mac
Jellybean Mac
Banksy Mac
Warhol Mac
Postsecret Mac
TW Mac
Warning: The URL listed on these PDFs is no longer safe for work (quite offensive). For a historical look at what these Christmas orniments looked like years ago, visit an archive using the Internet Wayback Machine.
Video: Paper Mac Startup Screen
As an ending point for this collection, we offer this short video, showing what the operating system might look like on these paper Macs if you could get them to boot.
Source: These templates were compiled over many nights of Google searching over the years, and updated with further searching this month. Several of the sites originally hosting these files are no longer available. We’ve compiled this collection from a wide variety of sources. Most PDFs include the creator’s name in the layout. We apologize for any people not properly credited.
