Fractal Design was a US software company, originally known as Fractal Software and founded in 1985. It merged into MetaCreations in 1997. It was initially known as Fractal Technology, and produced several best-selling creative software packages for the PC and Macintosh platforms. Its initial success was Fractal Painter, a natural media drawing program released in 1990. It acquired Ray Dream Software in 1996. In 1997, it was merged into MetaCreations.