It was only a matter of time before someone used Photoshop’s AI coding tools and got me to create a copy. PhotoCraft is that copy: an open source, cross-platform image editor written in Rust. The app is part of several creative tools created by the ArtCraft project, led by Brandon Thomas, former CEO of storyteller.ai. ArtCraft considers the application a “clean room reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop,” thus avoiding any copyright issues as it is not reverse engineering (that is not publicly documented) – words that FOSS fans will be happy to hear. Feature-wise, PhotoCraft is already well equipped despite being in alpha version. It has layers, masks, layer styles, smart objects, brush engine, and more. It also has 34 tools, 27 blending modes and several filters. You can also open/save in Adobe’s .psd file format. It also copies the location of menus, keyboard shortcuts and tools from the actual product, as the idea is that those familiar with Photoshop can switch to PhotoCraft and continue1. Performance Settings GPU acceleration works through Vulkan on Linux, Metal on macOS, and DX12 on Windows (or WebGPU on the WebAssembly build you can host yourself). The app also has a large number of agent hooks for each function, so that AI agents can also “use” the app. It boots incredibly fast: even on my workhorse Chuwi laptop (with a weak m3-8100y CPU, integrated GPU, and room for a pony), it feels responsive. It increased to 5GB RAM within minutes of opening a PSD, just like real Photoshop! Why do it? From what he posted on Reddit, Thomas was motivated early on to clone Adobe products because of the fees, obstacles, and general disdain that came with canceling his Adobe subscription. That and, I suppose, as a developer with experience and history in AI, it’s an obvious goal. It will not replace Photoshop for professionals. A superficial facsimile with pronounced defects. I’m quite familiar with the real Photoshop and was a little cynical about the “clone” aspect. Having tried PhotoCraft, it comes close in actual UI and UX, more so than the “make GIMP look like Photoshop” efforts I’ve written about in the past. But it is only a superficial similarity. In that sense, it reminds me of PhotoPea, the free online Photoshop clone that has been around for many years (pre-AI, created by a human). That is what PhotoCraft feels most indebted to. Having similar features in similar locations with similar names/icons is not the same2 as features that behave or generate the same result. While this comes incredibly close to looking like Photoshop, it’s far from feeling like Photoshop. Adobe has perfected its blend modes, filters, content tools, object detection, and blob removal algorithms for many decades. Clones can follow public specifications and conform to observed behavior, but they cannot replicate the exact same result. Does that matter? It depends on how well you know Photoshop. Casual users doing basic editing won’t notice the difference (until they try following a detailed Photoshop tutorial on YouTube). For that cohort, many image editors already exist, with features comparable to Photoshop: Affinity works well on Linux via Wine. For professionals, PhotoCraft’s missing features, bugs, different outputs and results, and all the “invisible” things may seem small in isolation, but in your day-to-day workflow, they add up. This may be a clone created with a genuine end goal, or it may be a development flex with the middle finger pointed towards a particular company. Try PhotoCraft on Ubuntu PhotoCraft is free, open source software compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux. The project’s Github releases page has alpha builds for all major operating systems, including a DEB installer for Ubuntu (Intel/AMD and Arm64). I opted for AppImage. Although it is free to use, ArtCraft’s website lists monthly and annual subscription levels. By accumulating cash, you earn AI credits to use generative AI features within the apps, although they are not included in this app at this time3. Like other AI-generated apps, the pace of development is dizzying: version 0.1.0 was released 5 days ago and since then there have been 8 more releases, large and small. I tested v0.3.0 while writing this and v0.5.0 is now available. Given the hatred people have for Adobe and the free price of PhotoCraft, it’s no surprise that this effort is already attracting interest and goodwill (the repository has 17,000 stars and counting).
