PhotoCraft

PhotoCraft is a free, open-source raster image editor modelled on Adobe Photoshop, made by ArtCraft. Written from scratch in Rust, it runs natively on macOS, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD and in a browser through WebAssembly. ArtCraft calls it a "clean-room reimplementation" of Photoshop, built from public specifications and observed behaviour without Adobe's code, and keeps Photoshop's menus, tools and keyboard shortcuts so that its users can switch easily.

Features

• Layers, masks, 16 non-destructive adjustment layers, more than 70 live-preview filters, smart objects with smart filters, layer styles, type, vectors and brushes.
• Opens and saves layered PSD and PSB files.
• 8-, 16- and 32-bit documents in RGB, CMYK, Lab and Grayscale, with ICC colour management and soft proofing.
• A GPU canvas on Metal, Vulkan, DirectX 12 and WebGPU, and subject selection that runs on the user's own machine.
• Every command can be run from a command-line tool, a JSON control channel or an MCP server, so AI agents can operate the app.

History

PhotoCraft was first released on 2 October 2026 as one of seven Crafting Apps, which Brandon Thomas said he wrote with Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5; he later claimed on Hacker News to have "one-shotted Photoshop. The whole thing." It drew wide attention: its GitHub repository had about 4,000 stars on 6 October and more than 45,000 by 11 October. It is labelled early alpha. Its developers say real Photoshop parity is below 50 percent and that it has no generative AI features.

Reception

PetaPixel wrote that PhotoCraft "looks a lot like Photoshop", and Mike Pearl of Gizmodo found it "glitchy, but real, Photoshop". OMG! Ubuntu! judged it not yet suitable for professionals, comparing it with Photopea. TechSpot set it against existing Photoshop alternatives such as GIMP, Krita and Photopea, noting that ArtCraft's pitch is a familiar Adobe-style layout that makes switching easier, and PetaPixel named Affinity Photo as an established rival to Photoshop.

Availability

PhotoCraft is released under the MIT or Apache-2.0 licence. Official builds are on its page at getartcraft.com, in the storytold/photocraft releases on GitHub and through the ArtCraft Launcher. Unofficial packages, such as a Snap, and third-party download sites also exist.