I have a load of Print Artist files that are useless unless I can convert them into something that a normal Linux application will work with.

As common as Print Artist is/was, how come I can't find a reference to somebody having gone down this task before?

Is there an application that opens *.pa files?

I do not have a working windows machine and do not have/know of what to convert the files to that could then be useful in Linux.

Try renaming one or two to .jpg and opening with Gimp?

i just searched a little - if you still have the print artist software, you can either print to pdf or export to pdf.

other things you can try:
- open with a text or programming editor and see if you find something usable
- try to treat it as an archive, i.e. try to extract it.
- rename 'example.pa' to 'example' (remove extension) and see what your os makes of it = doubleclick, or right click -> open with...

$29.99 online purchase.
Virtualbox > Windows XP/7/8 + PrintArtist.

I've tried all that. A useable xp or later disk doesn't exist at my location. This machine is older limited hardware and won't play-well with vm. The whole point of moving to Linux is to continue to use what I've paid-for until it wears-out from normal hardware lifespan death rather than MS-bloatware malfunctions and viruses.

This machine runs quite well on Linux and I expect it to continue to run well for a few more years where 99.5% of everything just works. Co-existence with winblows is BS and not an acceptable option!

I'll continue to seek an all-Linux solution.