PhotoCraft: ArtCraft's Free Open-Source Photoshop Alternative

PhotoCraft is ArtCraft’s image editor, aimed at Photoshop, and it is early alpha rather than a finished rival. It is a native Rust app for macOS, Windows, and Linux, with FreeBSD packages in the wider set, and it can also run in the browser as WebAssembly. The license is your choice of MIT or Apache-2.0.

PhotoCraft is not an Adobe product. The README lists layers, masks, sixteen kinds of adjustment layer, layer styles, text, vector shapes, and a brush engine. Compositing can use the GPU. Color modes include RGB, grayscale, CMYK, and Lab, at 8, 16, and 32 bits, with ICC color management. You can drive PhotoCraft from the interface, a CLI, JSON, or MCP. Those are real features on paper. They do not, by themselves, make daily production safe.

Brandon Thomas is the developer named in coverage. PetaPixel on Oct 7, 2026, and other reports, say Brandon Thomas used Anthropic’s Opus 5.5 to recreate seven Adobe apps in Rust. On the Oct 11, 2026 star snapshot, the PhotoCraft repository stood at 44,228 stars. PhotoCraft’s README says the project is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Adobe Inc. The ArtCraft Photoshop label describes the goal, not a partnership.

PhotoCraft covers the Photoshop basics its README actually lists, and it skips pieces a lot of daily files still need. Layers, masks, adjustment layers, layer styles, native PSD and PSB, CMYK and Lab, 16-bit and 32-bit depth, and ICC color are in. Photoshop plugins and generative AI are out.

The table under this section marks only those points, with a check, a partial, or a miss. Text and vector shapes exist in PhotoCraft, but typography depth is a stated gap, so advanced type is partial rather than done. PhotoCraft lists sixteen adjustment layers in the README, not as a claim that every Photoshop adjustment is matched. GPU compositing in PhotoCraft, the brush engine, and TIFF and OpenRaster read and write, Paint.NET PDN3 read, and SVG that opens as shape layers or a placed vector Smart Object sit beside the PSD path. None of that cancels the early-alpha label on PhotoCraft.

Maybe for a side file, and not yet for a job you cannot redo. Layers and masks, adjustment layers, opening and saving PSD files, and CMYK for print are supported in the README. Photoshop plugins and generative AI fill are missing. Advanced typography is only partial, because type depth is a known gap.

Everyday stability is partial too, because PhotoCraft is early alpha. The checklist under this heading follows the PhotoCraft split above. If you tick a missing PhotoCraft item, the result is not yet, and Photoshop stays. If you only tick partial items, PhotoCraft is a maybe for a side project only. PhotoCraft does not become a full replacement because a layer panel exists. Version 0.7.0 is still the PhotoCraft release this guide is describing.

The PhotoCraft download is a desktop installer from the project, not a store listing and not a file hosted here. You can take it from the download page, from the ArtCraft Launcher, or from GitHub Releases. Pick the build that matches your computer, then check the checksum the release publishes before you run it.

PhotoCraft Windows files are a signed MSI and a portable zip, each for x64, arm64, and x86. The PhotoCraft Mac file is a universal DMG that is signed and notarized. PhotoCraft Linux files are AppImage, Flatpak, deb, rpm, and tar.gz. Every PhotoCraft release includes SHA256SUMS.txt, so you can confirm the bytes you received. Those details come from the PhotoCraft README, not from a guess about other apps in the suite.

The download page is getartcraft.com/apps. The launcher, craft-launcher v0.2.0, can install the crafting apps and update them. Releases live on the PhotoCraft repository. PSDraw does not host the packages. If a site offers a renamed PhotoCraft build and will not show the repository, skip it. Early alpha also means the next PhotoCraft release may change install details, so read the notes on the 2026-10-11 UTC release before you standardize a lab.

PhotoCraft online, as a public page you simply visit, was not something this guide could find on Oct 11, 2026. What the project does document is a web build you can host yourself. That build is WebAssembly, a 11,044,166-byte zip, from the v0.7.0 release. The apps page names six browser builds. FilmCraft’s card has no Web badge, but FilmCraft v0.6.0 also ships a web zip.

FilmCraft is the exception, and PhotoCraft is not that exception. Hosting the PhotoCraft wasm file is not the same as an official try-it website. This guide’s sources do not list a hosted PhotoCraft demo URL. If all you need is to look at a PSD, see layers, and export PNG or JPG, the PSD viewer on this site runs in your browser and does not install PhotoCraft. That viewer is not PhotoCraft. It will not become the editor, and it will not add the brushes, the adjustment layers, or the PSD write path described above.

When you do run the PhotoCraft web build, expect the same early-alpha limits as the desktop app. Generative fill is still missing. Plugins are still missing. A large PhotoCraft wasm download is also a practical limit on a slow connection. Use PhotoCraft online only in the self-hosted sense, and keep a desktop build if you need the signed installers and the checksum file.

This PhotoCraft tutorial is five steps, and it stays inside features the README names. Menu labels can move during an alpha, so follow the words you see in v0.7.0 rather than a screenshot from a later week. Nothing here is a timed lab by PSDraw.

This is a first PhotoCraft session you can repeat on a copy of a file, not on the only copy. First, open a PSD or PSB. Native read is the point of that step. Second, find the PhotoCraft layers. The panel is how you see the stack the file already has. Third, add a PhotoCraft adjustment layer. The README says there are sixteen kinds, so pick one you already understand, such as a tone or color change, and leave the rest until you have a reason. Fourth, use a PhotoCraft mask so the adjustment hits only part of the image. Fifth, save or export from PhotoCraft. Native write covers PSD and PSB. TIFF and OpenRaster can be read and written. Paint.NET PDN3 is listed as read. SVG opens as shape layers or a placed vector Smart Object.

Stop there for the first five minutes. Layer styles, text, vector shapes, and the brush engine can wait until the file round-trips. You can also drive PhotoCraft from a CLI, from JSON, or from MCP, but this tutorial does not invent command flags. If a control is missing, check the known limits before you assume you clicked the wrong menu. A short session on a duplicate file tells you more than a long session on a client original.

The PhotoCraft GitHub repository is storytold/photocraft, under the same organization as the other crafting apps. On GitHub PhotoCraft showed 44,228 stars in the Oct 11, 2026 snapshot. The license file offers MIT or Apache-2.0. Those stars are attention, not a warranty, and they can change the next time GitHub is asked.

The PhotoCraft brand file draws a hard line around the name. The ArtCraft name and logo are not covered by the code license. A modified build must remove them, and the marks are not available for another product name or domain. Forking PhotoCraft is not the same as forking the identity. Read that file in the repository before you publish a build of your own.

Releases, including v0.7.0 on 2026-10-11 UTC, are the place to get the signed installers and SHA256SUMS.txt. A wider map of the organization sits on the GitHub guide. PhotoCraft build instructions belong to the README in the repo. This page does not add compile commands that the README would have to confirm. If you only wanted the PhotoCraft star count and the license, you already have the Oct 11 snapshot and the dual-license line.

Calling this alpha a Photoshop clone overstates what you can rely on today. PhotoCraft is an open source Photoshop alternative in the narrow sense that the code is open and the editor aims at Photoshop files. It is not a drop-in copy.

The README’s own line is that PhotoCraft is not yet a Photoshop replacement for daily professional work. Believe that sentence before you believe a star count. The PhotoCraft missing list is specific. Generative and other AI features are absent from PhotoCraft. Fifteen PhotoCraft tools are still absent, and this guide will not invent their names. Typography is not as deep as a production type job needs, which is why advanced type stays partial. PhotoCraft plugin compatibility is missing, so a Photoshop plug-in you already own does not come along for the ride. PhotoCraft color modes and bit depth being present does not fill those holes.

Early alpha is the other PhotoCraft limit. PhotoCraft v0.7.0 can change quickly, and a file that opens this week is not a promise about next month. The ArtCraft Photoshop goal is public. The gap between that goal and a calm daily driver is also public. Keep originals. Export a PSD only after you have opened that saved file again and checked the layers you care about.

A PhotoCraft alternative makes sense when the alpha gaps block the job. If you need plugins, generative fill, or type that the README already calls shallow, stay with Photoshop or with a free Photoshop alternative you have already used on real work. PhotoCraft can remain the experiment beside that tool.

PhotoCraft does not have to be the only editor on the machine. This page will not name or rank other editors against PhotoCraft, because those comparisons were not re-checked. A second free Photoshop alternative is a reasonable thing to want while PhotoCraft is still missing fifteen tools. The honest move is to test your own file in PhotoCraft, not to trust a paragraph that pretends to have timed every rival.

The longer list, with filters for price and platform, is on the alternatives guide. Use it when PhotoCraft is the wrong shape for the week. Come back to PhotoCraft when you specifically want the open source Photoshop path, native PSD and PSB, and you can accept early alpha. Those are different decisions, and mixing them is how people get stuck on a deadline.