Draft:ArtCraft
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|  |
| ArtCraft | |
|---|---|
| Developer | ArtCraft (Brandon Thomas) |
| Release | October 2026 |
| Written in | Rust[1] |
| Operating system | macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD[2] |
| Type | Graphics software, Office suite |
| License | MIT or Apache 2.0[3] |
| Website | getartcraft |
ArtCraft Crafting Apps (sometimes Craft Apps, often referred to simply as ArtCraft) are a suite of open-source applications created to resemble some of the Adobe Creative Cloud programs.[4] The suite gained attention after its creator, software developer Brandon Thomas, said he created it using Claude Opus 5.5.[5][1] Days after its release, the suite was extended to include some programs that resemble Microsoft's Office suite.[3]
History
[edit]Origins
[edit]Thomas has described himself as a software developer with about 15 years of experience, roughly a decade of it working in Rust.[3] He previously worked as a software engineer at Square and served as chief executive of Storyteller.ai,[4] the company behind the FakeYou voice platform.[3] He founded ArtCraft in late 2025.[4]
ArtCraft began as a desktop tool for AI image and video generation in which users compose scenes from images, 3D meshes and posed characters before rendering them with generative models.[3] The company describes this product as an open-source studio for controllable AI image and video.[6]
Release of the Crafting Apps
[edit]In early October 2026, Thomas announced seven applications on Reddit and Hacker News, each modelled on an Adobe product.[3][7] The release was first reported by Ars Technica and was subsequently covered by technology, photography and design publications in several languages.[8][4][9] The PDF editor, later named PdfCraft, was called PrintCraft in the first announcement.[3] Thomas said he had not intended to make the repositories public as early as he did.[3]
Thomas attributed his decision to target Adobe to its early-cancellation fees, saying he had "stumbled over the dark pattern 'cancellation fee' one too many times".[3] In announcing the project he declared that "software is over", arguing that AI coding tools would let small teams build open-source equivalents of paid software.[10] He initially promised full feature parity with Adobe's applications within a month; after commenters on Hacker News pointed to missing features, he revised this to 99% parity within months.[3][10]
The repositories gained attention rapidly on GitHub. By October 11, 2026, the PhotoCraft repository had passed 40,000 stars, and FilmCraft had around 10,600 stars and 4,200 forks.[3] By the following day PhotoCraft had about 53,500 stars and 8,900 forks.[11]
Expansion beyond Adobe
[edit]Within days of the initial release, ArtCraft's website listed twelve Crafting Apps, adding WordCraft, GridCraft and DeckCraft, which it positions against Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as SoundCraft for audio and CADCraft for computer-aided design.[3][6] Thomas also named AutoCAD and SolidWorks as further targets.[3] The company released an installer, ArtCraft Launcher, that installs and updates all of the apps.[6]
Products
[edit]The seven original Crafting Apps and the Adobe products they are modelled on are:[3][6]
| App | Modelled on | Function | Status (October 2026)[6] |
|---|---|---|---|
| PhotoCraft | Adobe Photoshop | Raster image editing | Early alpha |
| VectorCraft | Adobe Illustrator | Vector illustration | In development |
| FilmCraft | Adobe Premiere Pro | Video editing | In development |
| LightCraft | Adobe Lightroom | Photo library and raw development | In development |
| PdfCraft | Adobe Acrobat | PDF reading and editing | Early alpha |
| EffectCraft | Adobe After Effects | Motion graphics and visual effects | In development |
| DesignCraft | Adobe InDesign | Page layout and publishing | In development |
The apps are designed to mirror the layouts, menus, tools and keyboard shortcuts of their Adobe counterparts so that existing users have little to relearn.[6][12] Each app also exposes its functions as commands that can be run from a command-line interface, a JSON control channel or a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, which allows them to be operated by scripts and AI agents.[6][3] Design Week identified this orientation toward AI agents as a fundamental difference from Adobe's software.[13]
PhotoCraft can open and save layered PSD files, support that ArtCraft says is built from Adobe's published specification of the format.[11][9] Its README states that it is not yet a replacement for Photoshop in daily professional work, citing gaps in generative AI features, tools, typography and plug-in compatibility.[11] The project's roadmap estimated its functionality at roughly a quarter to a third of what professionals need for daily work.[10]
FilmCraft includes a multi-track timeline, color grading tools and audio loudness meters, and implements its own codecs without relying on FFmpeg. It cannot open Premiere Pro project files, exchanging timelines instead through interchange formats such as Final Cut Pro XML, AAF and EDL. Its maintainers estimated its feature breadth at about 86% of Premiere Pro, but only about 56% "ready for real work".[3] EffectCraft, the youngest app in the suite, cannot open After Effects project files or run After Effects plug-ins.[3]
Development
[edit]Use of AI
[edit]Thomas has said the code was written with Claude Opus 5.5.[3][14] He has rejected the characterization of the project as casual AI-assisted coding, pointing to his experience as a Rust developer.[15] CineD noted that the extent of the model's contribution rests on Thomas's own account.[3] Several outlets described the apps as "vibe-coded".[16][7]
Clean-room claims
[edit]ArtCraft describes the apps as clean-room reimplementations containing no Adobe code or assets.[3][4] PhotoCraft's documentation states that it was implemented only from public specifications and observed behavior.[11] The projects' rules for contributors and AI agents prohibit inspecting, disassembling or copying the contents of Adobe application bundles, and permit studying Adobe's software only by using it.[3] Some social media posts described the project as decompiled Adobe software, a description the repositories do not support.[3] The clean-room claim has not been independently verified.[3]
Licensing and branding
[edit]The apps are dual-licensed under the MIT and Apache 2.0 licenses at the user's option.[11] The ArtCraft name and logos are excluded from these licenses and must be removed from forks. Each project carries a statement that it is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Adobe.[11][3]
Business model
[edit]The Crafting Apps are free to download and use without a subscription.[15] According to Thomas, their development is funded by ArtCraft's existing business of selling tokens for its AI image and video generation models, which are offered inside the apps alongside third-party models.[3][10] Use of the AI features is not required.[7] The company also offers optional subscriptions that include credits for generative AI features.[15] Thomas has offered bug bounties and stipends to outside contributors.[3]
Legal and ethical questions
[edit]The project emerged shortly after Adobe agreed in March 2026 to a $150 million settlement with the United States Department of Justice over allegations that it concealed early-termination fees on annual subscription plans and made cancellation difficult. The settlement comprised $75 million in civil penalties and $75 million in free services for customers; Adobe denied wrongdoing.[3][8]
Commentators noted that, although software copyright law has generally allowed independently written software that reproduces another program's functionality, Adobe holds thousands of patents whose application to ArtCraft's products was unclear.[4][10] Design Week predicted that the project would attract the attention of Adobe's lawyers.[13] As of October 11, 2026, Adobe had not commented publicly on ArtCraft and no legal action against the project had been reported.[3][10]
CineD questioned whether "clean room" retains its traditional meaning when the code is written by a large language model trained on large amounts of public material that may include documentation and tutorials for the software being recreated. It compared the case to a 2026 dispute in which the maintainer of the Python library chardet used Claude to rewrite it under a new license, a process criticized by the Free Software Foundation. The publication also raised the long-term sustainability of a large suite maintained largely by one developer and AI tools.[3]
Reception
[edit]The release generated enthusiasm among users frustrated with Adobe's subscription pricing.[7][17] PetaPixel observed that many people were excited by the prospect of free alternatives, but that professionals might be reluctant to rely on open-source software built largely with AI.[4] Futurism noted that the apps remained in active development and were heavily oriented toward AI features, though these were not required, and expressed doubt that the project could seriously challenge Adobe given its AI-generated foundations.[7] Design Week described the apps as janky in places and said the project had not yet earned enough trust to install.[13]
German-language coverage was similarly mixed. t3n wrote that ArtCraft illustrated how capable AI had become at building complex programs from specifications, while remaining far from a finished product.[17] GameStar called it a fascinating experiment that could already handle basic work.[9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 ""Software is over": Bold AI developer takes aim at Adobe with open source clones". Ars Technica. October 7, 2026. Retrieved October 15, 2026.
- ↑ Larabel, Michael (October 7, 2026). "AI Makes "Open-Source, Clean Room" Implementations Of Adobe Photoshop & Premier In Rust". Phoronix. Retrieved October 15, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Leitner, Nino (October 11, 2026). "ArtCraft Releases Free Open-Source Adobe Alternatives – FilmCraft for Premiere Pro, EffectCraft for After Effects, Written in Rust With AI". CineD. Retrieved October 15, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Someone Rebuilt Free, Open-Source Versions of Photoshop, Premiere, and Lightroom Using AI". PetaPixel. October 7, 2026. Retrieved October 15, 2026.
- ↑ "Everything We Know About the Free Adobe Clones Built With AI. Do They Actually Work?". Vice. Retrieved October 15, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Crafting Apps: open-source creative tools". ArtCraft. Retrieved October 15, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Wilkins, Joe. "Adobe in Trouble After Someone Reverse Engineered Adobe Creative Suite and Released It as Open Source". Futurism. Retrieved October 12, 2026.
- 1 2 "Artcraft: Entwickler baut Adobe-Alternativen mit KI" [Artcraft: Developer builds Adobe alternatives with AI]. it-daily.net (in German). Retrieved October 12, 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Adobe hatte Photoshop in einen Dienst mit wenig Konkurrenz verwandelt – bis jemand eine Armee von LLMs losließ" [Adobe had turned Photoshop into a service with little competition – until someone unleashed an army of LLMs]. GameStar (in German). Retrieved October 12, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Developer says 'software is over' after using AI to recreate Adobe's entire Creative Cloud suite for free". TweakTown. Retrieved October 12, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "storytold/photocraft". GitHub. ArtCraft. Retrieved October 12, 2026.
- ↑ Leong, Aaron. "Dev Uses AI To Build Clones Of Photoshop And Entire Adobe Suite For Free". HotHardware. Retrieved October 12, 2026.
- 1 2 3 "ArtCraft's Adobe Suite copy was made with AI". Design Week. Retrieved October 12, 2026.
- ↑ "A developer has created clones of Adobe Photoshop and other programs from Adobe using Claude Opus 5.5". Mezha. October 8, 2026. Retrieved October 12, 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Free, Open-Source Copies of Photoshop, Premiere, and Lightroom are Here". ProPakistani. October 9, 2026. Retrieved October 12, 2026.
- ↑ "ArtCraft Launches an Open-Source, AI-Powered Alternative to Adobe's Creative Cloud". The Dieline. Retrieved October 12, 2026.
- 1 2 "Von Adobe genervt: Dieser Entwickler hat mit KI eine Open-Source-Alternative gebaut" [Annoyed by Adobe: This developer used AI to build an open-source alternative]. t3n (in German). Retrieved October 12, 2026.
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