Last updated: October 13, 2026

PhotoCraft: The Free Open-Source Photoshop Alternative

PhotoCraft is a free, open-source image editor from the ArtCraft team that rebuilds Photoshop’s workflow (layers, masks, adjustment layers, smart objects, layer styles) in pure Rust. It opens and saves layered PSD and PSB files, runs offline on Windows, macOS and Linux, and costs nothing. It went viral in October 2026 after its developer said Claude Opus 5.5 helped write it.

What Is PhotoCraft?

PhotoCraft is one of the ArtCraft “Crafting Apps”, a family of clean-room, open-source reimplementations of familiar creative software. Clean-room means it was written from public file-format specifications and observed behavior, not from Adobe code. It is dual-licensed MIT or Apache-2.0, so you can use it for personal and commercial work for free, and read or change the source.

The interface will feel familiar to anyone who has used Photoshop. It is a native app with a GPU canvas (Metal, Vulkan, DirectX 12 or WebGPU through wgpu), not a web page in a wrapper, so it starts fast and works without an internet connection.

• Photoshop-style editing. Layers and groups, clipping and pixel or vector masks, adjustment layers, live smart objects with smart filters, layer styles, type and vector shape tools, and a brush engine. The README counts 67 tools.
• Real PSD support. Reads and writes PSD and PSB (including large, 16/32-bit, CMYK and Lab documents), layered TIFF and OpenRaster. It also opens Krita, Paint.NET and Affinity files.
• Pro color. 8-, 16- and 32-bit documents in RGB, CMYK, Lab and Grayscale, with ICC color management and soft proofing.
• Scriptable. A headless command-line tool, a JSON control channel and an MCP server, so AI agents such as Claude Code can drive edits.

Source: GitHub: storytold/photocraft (README)

Source: getartcraft.com: official PhotoCraft page

PhotoCraft Download: Where to Get It Safely

The official places are the storytold/photocraft GitHub releases page and the PhotoCraft page on getartcraft.com, which links to the same GitHub files. On October 13, 2026 the official page listed version 0.7.0. ArtCraft also offers a launcher app that installs and updates PhotoCraft and its sibling apps.

Because the name is trending, several look-alike “PhotoCraft” websites on other domains have appeared, and some of them offer their own download buttons or online editors. They are not run by the project. Stick to the GitHub releases page and check the file against SHA256SUMS.txt, which is published with every release.

Source: GitHub: PhotoCraft releases

Source: getartcraft.com: official PhotoCraft page

Source: GitHub: ArtCraft launcher

How to Install PhotoCraft on Windows, Mac and Linux

1. Windows: download the x64 MSI (or ARM64 on Snapdragon laptops), run it, and start PhotoCraft from the Start menu. If you do not want to install anything, unzip the portable ZIP and run the .exe inside.
2. macOS: open the universal DMG and drag PhotoCraft to Applications. The same build runs on Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
3. Linux: the Flatpak is the easiest option on most distributions (commands below). AppImage, .deb and .rpm packages are also published.
4. Open a file with File › Open, or start the app with a PSD path on the command line.

# Linux: install the Flatpak you downloaded from the releases page
flatpak install --user photocraft-<version>-linux-x86_64.flatpak   # or -linux-aarch64
flatpak run ai.storyteller.photocraft

On Wayland, dragging files into the window does not work yet; use File › Open, paste with Ctrl+V, or run under XWayland. That is a known issue listed in the README.

Source: GitHub: storytold/photocraft (README)

Source: GitHub: PhotoCraft releases

Build PhotoCraft from GitHub Source

Developers can build it with Rust 1.90 or newer. These are the README’s own commands; the first build compiles the whole workspace and takes a while.

# Build from source (needs Rust 1.90 or newer, from rustup.rs)
git clone https://github.com/storytold/photocraft
cd photocraft
cargo run --release -p photocraft -- image.psd   # the desktop app
cargo test --workspace                           # the test suite

Source: GitHub: storytold/photocraft (README)

Source: getartcraft.com: official PhotoCraft page

PhotoCraft Tutorial: Your First Edit

If you know Photoshop, most of what you do every day maps directly. A typical first session:

1. Open a PSD. Your layers, groups, masks and adjustment layers come in as editable layers, not a flattened image.
2. Select a subject with the on-device subject or object selection, then refine the mask. It runs locally; nothing is uploaded.
3. Add one of the 16 adjustment layers above the layer instead of editing pixels directly, so the change stays reversible.
4. Convert a layer to a smart object before applying one of the 70+ live-preview filters, so the filter stays editable as a smart filter.
5. Save as PSD to send back to someone who uses Photoshop, or export PNG, JPEG, WebP or TIFF for the web and print.

Re-saved PSD files are not always byte-identical to the original, although the README says rendering matches for most test files. Keep the original until you have checked the round trip in your own workflow.

Source: GitHub: storytold/photocraft (README)

What PhotoCraft Cannot Do Yet

• Generative AI: there is no equivalent of Photoshop’s Generative Fill. Maintainer estimates published around October 10 put the AI and generative area at about 10% ready.
• Missing tools and depth: the README lists about 15 missing tools, shallower typography, gaps in professional workflows and no support for Photoshop plug-ins.
• Formats: no JPEG XL, no AVIF import and no Affinity export.
• Maturity: it is young software with frequent releases. Expect bugs and save often.

PhotoCraft vs Photoshop: full comparison · WordCraft: the free Word alternative from the same team

Source: GitHub: storytold/photocraft (README)

Source: aiidelist: ArtCraft, PhotoCraft and FilmCraft overview (Oct 11, 2026)

PhotoCraft Video Walkthrough

An install and PSD test by a YouTube creator (not made by the PhotoCraft project or by us). The video loads from YouTube only when you click play.

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Independent guide, not affiliated with ArtCraft, Storyteller.ai, Adobe or Anthropic. Photoshop is a trademark of Adobe. Facts are from the storytold/photocraft README and the official getartcraft.com page, checked on October 13, 2026. PhotoCraft changes quickly; check the README before you rely on a feature.