PhotoCraft: ArtCraft’s open-source Photoshop alternative
PhotoCraft is the image editor in the ArtCraft suite — “the image editor you already know how to use”, as the official page puts it. It is free, open source, written in Rust and currently labeled Early alpha.
- Photoshop-style layout: layers, masks, adjustment layers, layer styles, type, vectors and brushes.
- Opens and saves layered PSD and PSB files (project claim: 134 of 135 test files round-trip byte for byte).
- Builds for macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and the web (WebAssembly).
- Status: Early alpha. The official page showed version 0.7.0 when we checked on October 13, 2026 — check the releases page for the newest build.
- Source: github.com/storytold/photocraft
PhotoCraft features (as listed by the project)
| Area | What the official page says |
|---|---|
| Interface | Menus, shortcuts, panels and tools designed to feel familiar to Photoshop users |
| Rendering | GPU canvas on Metal, Vulkan, DirectX 12 and WebGPU — no Electron or web view |
| File formats | Opens and saves layered PSD and PSB documents |
| Non-destructive editing | 16 adjustment layers, 70+ live-preview filters, smart objects with smart filters, layer styles |
| Selections | Subject and object selection and mask refinement that run on-device |
| Color | 8, 16 and 32-bit documents in RGB, CMYK, Lab and Grayscale, ICC color management, soft proofing |
These are the project’s own claims from getartcraft.com/apps/photocraft, not independent benchmarks.
PhotoCraft downloads by platform
Package types listed on the official page for v0.7.0. All files are hosted on the project’s GitHub releases page.
| Platform | Packages |
|---|---|
| macOS | Universal DMG (Apple silicon and Intel); headless CLI zip |
| Windows | MSI installer and portable zip for x64, x86 and ARM64 |
| Linux x86_64 / ARM64 | Flatpak, AppImage, .deb, .rpm, tarball |
| FreeBSD x86_64 | Tarball |
| Web | WebAssembly build zip for self-hosting |
A SHA256SUMS.txt file is published with each release. The project recommends the ArtCraft Launcher, which installs and updates PhotoCraft and the other apps.
Build PhotoCraft from source
The official page says you need Rust 1.90 or newer:
git clone https://github.com/storytold/photocraft.git
cd photocraft
cargo run --release -p photocraftPhotoCraft review: what early testers found
There are no long-term reviews yet — the app has been public for about two weeks. What has been reported so far:
- Works: lasso, feather, paste, levels and colour correction behaved as expected in Gizmodo’s test (as summarized by Visualounge).
- Buggy: Free Transform behaved erratically in the same test.
- General: users quoted by LinuxCompatible describe noticeable glitches, unpredictable tool behaviour and performance hiccups.
- Developer’s own words: the apps are “not anywhere close to ready”.
Our take: PhotoCraft is worth installing to see how far it has come, and PSD round-tripping makes it easy to try on a copy of a real file. Keep the originals — it is alpha software.
PhotoCraft vs Photoshop
PhotoCraft is free, open source, runs offline and has a Linux build — three things Photoshop does not offer. Photoshop is a mature product with decades of edge-case handling, plugins and generative features that an alpha project cannot match today. The developer’s stated goal is feature parity; commentators point out that feature parity is not the same as performance parity or handling professional edge cases. See ArtCraft vs Adobe for the wider comparison.
FAQ
Is PhotoCraft the same as ArtCraft?
PhotoCraft is one app inside the ArtCraft family. ArtCraft is the project and team; PhotoCraft is its image editor.
Is PhotoCraft free?
Yes, the official page describes it as free and open source. Press coverage reports an MIT or Apache-2.0 dual license.
Can I use PhotoCraft in a browser?
The project ships a WebAssembly build for self-hosting, and the official apps page says PhotoCraft compiles to WebAssembly and runs in a browser tab.
Where is the PhotoCraft GitHub repository?
github.com/storytold/photocraft. According to LinuxCompatible the repository was created on September 30, 2026.
Does PhotoCraft need an internet connection?
The official page describes it as “open source, offline, and yours”, with subject selection and mask refinement running locally.
Unofficial, independent guide. Not affiliated with ArtCraft, storytold / Storyteller.ai, or Adobe Inc. Adobe, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Lightroom, After Effects, InDesign and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe. We host no software — all downloads link to the official project.