PhotoCraft v0.12.0

PhotoCraft is an open-source image editor designed as a clean-room reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop, built entirely in Rust. It provides a surprisingly broad set of professional image-editing features, including layers, masks, adjustment layers, filters, vector shapes, editable text, brushes, and native PSD support.

The project is particularly interesting for users who want a local, open-source Photoshop alternative without relying on Electron, cloud services, or proprietary software. However, PhotoCraft is still in early alpha, so it is better viewed as a promising alternative under active development than as a complete replacement for Photoshop.

Features

PhotoCraft offers a substantial collection of image-editing tools:

• Layer groups, clipping masks, pixel and vector masks

• Adjustment layers for Curves, Levels, Vibrance, Hue/Saturation, Black & White, Gradient Map, Selective Color and more

• Layer styles including Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Glow, Bevel & Emboss, Stroke, and overlays

• Brush, Pencil, Mixer Brush, Clone Stamp, Healing Brush and other painting tools

• Marquee, Lasso, Magic Wand, Quick Selection, Object Selection and Select Subject

• Editable point and paragraph text

• Pen and vector shape tools

• Smart objects and smart filters

• Free Transform with scale, rotate, skew, distort and perspective

• History and History Brush

• Multiple blend modes, opacity, fill and layer controls

• Color management with RGB, Grayscale, CMYK and Lab

• 8, 16 and 32-bit-per-channel documents

• PSD and PSB support

• PNG, JPEG, TIFF, WebP, GIF, BMP, TGA, ICO, OpenEXR, HDR, AVIF and other formats

• Export preview with quality, transparency, scale and estimated file size

• Command palette and recorded actions

Its PSD support is one of its strongest features. The project tests its implementation against real-world PSD files and reports very high rendering compatibility across its test corpora. Unsupported data is designed to be preserved rather than simply discarded when documents are saved.

Another unusual feature is its automation architecture. PhotoCraft exposes its editing engine through the desktop interface, CLI, JSON control channel and MCP, making the application suitable for scripted workflows and AI-agent automation.

Download PhotoCraft v0.12.0 - Software Mirrors
PhotoCraft v0.12.0 for Windows photocraft-0.12.0-windows-x86.msi | 66.18 MB photocraft-0.12.0-windows-x86-portable.zip | 78.14 MB photocraft-0.12.0-windows-x64.msi | 68.53 MB photocraft-0.12.0-windows-x64-portable.zip | 82.3 MB photocraft-0.12.0-windows-arm64.msi | 63.66 MB photocraft-0.12.0-windows-arm64-portable.zip | 77.68 MB
PhotoCraft v0.12.0 for macOS photocraft-cli-0.12.0-macos-universal.zip | 66.76 MB photocraft-0.12.0-macos-universal.dmg | 89.6 MB
PhotoCraft v0.12.0 for Linux photocraft-0.12.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz | 80.41 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-x86_64.rpm | 81.11 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst | 63.69 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-x86_64.flatpak | 60.09 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-x86_64.deb | 81.65 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage.zsync | 267.36 kB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage | 76.32 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-riscv64.tar.gz | 78.25 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-riscv64.rpm | 79 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-riscv64.deb | 79.33 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-aarch64.tar.gz | 76.11 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-aarch64.rpm | 77.66 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-aarch64.pkg.tar.zst | 60.98 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-aarch64.flatpak | 55.55 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-aarch64.deb | 78.36 MB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-aarch64.AppImage.zsync | 253.79 kB photocraft-0.12.0-linux-aarch64.AppImage | 72.44 MB
PhotoCraft v0.12.0 for BSD photocraft-0.12.0-freebsd-x86_64.tar.gz | 79.86 MB
Others Download related to PhotoCraft v0.12.0 photocraft-web-0.12.0.zip | 11.17 MB
PhotoCraft v0.12.0 Source Code PhotoCraft v0.12.0 Source code (zip) PhotoCraft v0.12.0 Source code (tar.gz)
PhotoCraft v0.12.0 Release Notes: Scorecard since v0.11.1 From docs/scorecard.md (done / partial / missing): Tools: 33 / 11 / 0 | 36 / 8 / 0 File compatibility: 7 / 14 / 6 | 9 / 12 / 6 Type: 4 / 3 / 2 | 5 / 3 / 1 Workspace and UI: 13 / 6 / 4 | 13 / 7 / 3 Open bugs: 29 / 2 / 1 | 31 / 1 / 0 Now done: Content-Aware Move with a coarse-then-exact preview for large selections; shape Density/Feather and mask Density/Feather in Properties; Export As Nearest Neighbor resample; large-file fixtures (20 MP, 150 layers, 2 GB PSD, 4 GB PSB); Warp Text opens with the layer's warp and previews live; retouch-tool mask/channel targeting tests; selection modifiers pressed before the drag. Moved up: Alt+wheel zoom (missing → partial); live stroke preview now covers Pattern Stamp, Background Eraser and Color Replacement; Smart Filters map 41 filters to PSD (was 14); tool options and per-tool brushes persist across restarts. Settings that do nothing: 24 of 171 (was 25 of 169). Performance: no change to the 2026-10-05 baseline (3 within budget, 22 over). Added scenarios P20, P62 and P63 (2 GB PSD, 4–5 GB PSB, 3.1 GP New Document), not run yet. Corpus floors: unchanged. FreeBSD aarch64 is not in this release: the shared release pipeline dropped it for every Craft app until it builds in time (storytold/craft-common-actions#40). FreeBSD x86_64 is included. What's Changed docs: add SonarCloud and CodeRabbit badges to README by @dylanmtaylor in #7429 Skip CodeRabbit reviews on Dependabot PRs by @echelon in #7991 Codecs: save DDS textures, uncompressed or BC1–BC3, with optional mipmaps (#1327) by @guillehr2 in #5993 Integration batch: 26 PRs from the known-issues list (#7973) on main by @aiongg in #8094 Group all selected layers from the Layers panel footer by @carterwsmith in #7225 Web: start when the server already inflated the app's gzip part (Apache mod_mime_magic) (#7639) by @Korg1ch in #7683 Give a new type layer a full Txt2 object and its own frame by @Silvertree2010 in #7773 Choose the graphics adapter on multi-GPU Linux machines (#1885) by @readtedium in #7813 Print: Portrait and Landscape in the Print dialog on Windows by @ToastyStoemp in #7847 Indexed GIF opens in Indexed Color with its colour table, as in Photoshop (#7886) by @Korg1ch in #7892 Preserve near-black ICC colors on the GPU canvas by @ha1des in #7964 fix(ui): wire video menu pickers/dialogs and fix Timeline Stop playback by @onicafe in #3223 Large documents: a gigapixel New Document draws without freezing (#4017) by @davidmann4 in #5111 perf(retouch): row-parallel Blur/Sharpen dabs, 2.6-3.3x faster strokes (#5426) by @JuanAntonioRC in #5499 Preserve editable clipboard contents when native reads fail by @jonathanwxh-cell in #5587 Snap: View › Snap off also disables smart-guide snapping (#5782) by @nrq6993-a11y in #5803 Batch: Format "Same" saves camera raws as PSD instead of failing (#5799) by @Higgs32584 in #5857 fix(tablet): support stylus barrel button and brush resize on Windows (#5905, #5364) by @Anim86 in #6195 Reveal newly created selections after hiding Extras by @jonathanwxh-cell in #6222 Windows: PhotoCraft starts without Windows.Data.Pdf.dll (#5884) by @Higgs32584 in #6395 macOS: list fonts activated outside the font folders (#6683) by @odgrim in #6693 fix(ui): disable Batch without a recorded action by @Elements2720 in #6711 Windows: maximized window lets an auto-hidden taskbar show (#4845) by @Higgs32584 in #6878 Pen: a finished path keeps its anchor squares on screen (#6884) by @Higgs32584 in #6920 Mixer Brush: Clean Brush empties the brush, and the automatic Load and Clean can be switched off by @dotCooCoo in #6939 Brushes: accept .abr files up to 1 GiB by @dgliwa in #7180 GPU startup: Auto on Windows leaves Vulkan out when an Intel adapter is present (#4) by @dotCooCoo in #7217 fix(psd): an edited type layer keeps its Txt2 object instead of a bare stub (#6968) by @Higgs32584 in #7220 Paragraph panel: grey the justify buttons on point text (#7713) by @hectorviov in #7728 Integration batch: 9 PRs on main by @aiongg in #8095 PSD: save Indexed Color, Bitmap and Duotone documents in their own mode by @switch87 in #4816 PSD: render constant RGB noise gradient fills by @Elvis33LE in #6272 perf(compose, gpu): many-layer composites, P60/P61 on the GPU 111 -> 28 ms by @ArintonAkos in #7566 perf(compose): Reuse bounded scratch and tone tables by @reneleonhardt in #7693 PSB save: 8-byte-length global blocks use the 8B64 signature, so Photoshop opens the file (#7937) by @Korg1ch in #7948 Type: keep superscript and subscript when a text layer is re-rendered (#5645) by @vangel76 in #5807 PSD: read split ("quilt") warps of placed layers, so Replace Contents keeps their curvature (#4398) by @thangnm93 in #6913 ci: switch to shared nix workflow from craft-common-actions by @dylanmtaylor in #6448 Integration batch: 86 PRs on main by @aiongg in #8271 PSD: read colours stored as HSB (#6774) by @davidmann4 in #6775 Apply Image: write into the targeted layer mask (#6780) by @davidmann4 in #6781 Droplets: carry the actions that Conditional steps call (#6804) by @davidmann4 in #6805 Guides: ruler guide snapping rebuilds its targets when snap options change (#6858) by @davidmann4 in #6859 CLI batch: skip shell-only Save and view steps inside played action sets (#6860) by @davidmann4 in #6861 Image Size: Resolution with Resample on keeps the print size in physical units (#6979) by @davidmann4 in #6980 Control: ui.set rejects zoom, rotation, center and dockWidth beyond f32 range (#6988) by @davidmann4 in #6989 Channels: Multichannel conversion keeps the targeted channel (#7002) by @davidmann4 in #7003 Keyboard Shortcuts: switching sets keeps action function keys (#7004) by @davidmann4 in #7005 Timeline: a longer duration moves a work area that reached the old end (#7006) by @davidmann4 in #7008 Crop: Color Samplers scale with a W x H crop (#7012) by @davidmann4 in #7013 Actions: deleting an action removes its function key (#7014) by @davidmann4 in #7015 Automation: doc.save rejects a bad quality instead of ignoring or clamping it (#7023) by @davidmann4 in #7024 Automation: place and layer/data-set export by index keep the active document (#7025) by @davidmann4 in #7026 Transform Selection: an unknown reference point is an error (#7027) by @davidmann4 in #7028 Lens Correction: smart filters keep the exact focal length (#7029) by @davidmann4 in #7030 Match Zoom: matched views stay within each document's zoom range (#7036) by @davidmann4 in #7037 Crop: the turn readout never shows -0.0° or -180.0° (#7040) by @davidmann4 in #7041 Conditional Mode Change: "gray" as a single source mode matches Grayscale (#7042) by @davidmann4 in #7044 Layer Style: gradient overlay and stroke scale stay within 10-150 % (#7047) by @davidmann4 in #7048 Perspective Crop: a drag without area leaves no crop box (#7061) by @davidmann4 in #7062 PSD: Hue/Saturation export writes each triplet in its own slot (#7065) by @davidmann4 in #7066 Merge to HDR Pro and merged duplicates: the Background layer is a real Background (#7078) by @davidmann4 in #7079 Actions: an imported Crop step in a unit other than pixels is not applied as pixels (#7084) by @davidmann4 in #7085 Crop / Canvas Size: extending keeps the Background's hidden pixels (#7086) by @davidmann4 in #7087 Crop: in default mode, box Undo/Redo keeps the box in place (#7088) by @davidmann4 in #7089 Image Size: type keeps its pixel size when the resolution changes (#7124) by @davidmann4 in #7125 Perspective Crop: switching documents drops the pending box (#7130) by @davidmann4 in #7131 Crop: a refused crop keeps the frame for fixing (#7133) by @davidmann4 in #7134 Perspective Crop: W and H follow the Point/Pica Size preference (#7135) by @davidmann4 in #7136 Image: Trim and merged Duplicate report an error on documents over 2^30 px (#7223) by @davidmann4 in #7224 Crop: a W x H crop on an Indexed Color document resamples with Nearest Neighbor (#7722) by @davidmann4 in #7723 Crop: Undo/Redo grey out when the frame has no step left (#7730) by @davidmann4 in #7731 Crop: a lost Straighten release no longer hijacks the next drag (#7745) by @davidmann4 in #7746 Brush smoothing: catch-up compares the pose too, not only the position (#7747) by @davidmann4 in #7748 Crop: a typed ratio fits from the frame the edit started with (#7752) by @davidmann4 in #7753 Layer Style: a new Stroke is 1 px inside black, as in Photoshop (#7765) by @davidmann4 in #7766 History: panel menu, Step Forward/Backward and Clear History (#2966) by @davidmann4 in #3534 History: set the History Brush source from the panel (history.setSource) (#2966) by @davidmann4 in #3536 Pattern Stamp and Background Eraser draw live; Spot Healing shows its heal area (TOOL-213-7, #3754) by @davidmann4 in #3759 Performance: brush dab on a CMYK document within budget (#5108) by @davidmann4 in #5110 Filters: Lens Correction, Adaptive Wide Angle and Camera Raw Filter respect locks on smart objects (#5621) by @davidmann4 in #5622 Layer masks: From Transparency and Mask All Objects convert the Background and match the document depth (#5679) by @davidmann4 in #5680 Fill layers: reject non-finite gradient angles and pattern angle/phase (#5752) by @davidmann4 in #5753 Paint: Lock Transparency blends source-atop on semi-transparent pixels (#5783) by @davidmann4 in #5784 PSD Multichannel: alpha channels are stored as-is, not as ink (#5790) by @davidmann4 in #5791 Effects: Gradient Overlay transparency follows Smoothness, midpoints and method (#1954) by @davidmann4 in #5887 PSD: Smart Sharpen and Dust & Scratches smart filters open and save like Photoshop (#6300) by @davidmann4 in #6301 PSD: Wind, Extrude and Tiles smart filters open and save like Photoshop (#6314) by @davidmann4 in #6315 Move tool: Ctrl-hover shows the distance to another layer (#4946) by @davidmann4 in #6357 PSD: Hue/Saturation smart filters open and save like Photoshop (#6267) by @davidmann4 in #6398 Layers: toggling a clipped adjustment damages only its base (#6535) by @davidmann4 in #6640 Hue/Saturation: the Lightness track runs black, grey, white (#6539) by @davidmann4 in #6644 Shortcuts: a command shortcut leaves the focused menu bar and runs (#6573) by @davidmann4 in #6707 Paths: Delete Path on a shape layer's path row deletes the layer (#6552) by @davidmann4 in #6719 Paths: drag a path row onto the Trash to delete it (#6553) by @davidmann4 in #6721 PSD: open an adjustment layer of an unknown type as an unsupported adjustment (#6575) by @davidmann4 in #6722 PSD: layered TIFF byte-order conversion reads the class of Idnt/indx references (#6764) by @davidmann4 in #6765 Fit Image: a width or height of 0 leaves that side unconstrained (#6766) by @davidmann4 in #6767 Actions: renaming an action updates the Conditional steps that call it (#6772) by @davidmann4 in #6773 Auto-Align: warp layer masks as masks, keeping what lies outside revealed (#6776) by @davidmann4 in #6777 PSD: layered TIFF byte-order conversion swaps every smart filter section (#6802) by @davidmann4 in #6803 Type: paragraph box handles are picked at the unsnapped press (#6819) by @davidmann4 in #6822 Stamp Down keeps the lower layer's clipping, label and link (#6999) by @davidmann4 in #7001 Crop: W x H x Resolution follows the Point/Pica Size preference (#7038) by @davidmann4 in #7039 Crop: Straighten is one box Undo step (#7127) by @davidmann4 in #7128 New Contributors @guillehr2 made their first contribution in #5993 @readtedium made their first contribution in #7813 @ToastyStoemp made their first contribution in #7847 @Anim86 made their first contribution in #6195 @Elements2720 made their first contribution in #6711 @ArintonAkos made their first contribution in #7566 @thangnm93 made their first contribution in #6913 Full Changelog: v0.11.1...v0.12.0

Performance and Compatibility

PhotoCraft is built as a native Rust application rather than a web wrapper or Electron application. Its rendering architecture uses wgpu for GPU compositing with support for graphics APIs including Metal, Vulkan, DirectX 12 and WebGPU.

The application also uses multithreaded filters and copy-on-write sparse tiles. This design is intended to reduce unnecessary copying and make large layered documents more manageable.

The project reports extensive automated testing, including PSD round-trip tests, compositor comparisons and multi-depth testing. Its architecture also includes a CPU compositor used as a reference against the GPU compositor.

PhotoCraft can run natively on Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD, with a WebAssembly build for browser use.

The main limitation is maturity. The developers explicitly describe the project as early alpha and acknowledge that it is not yet suitable as a complete replacement for Photoshop in professional daily workflows. Missing areas include AI and generative features, some tools, deeper typography and professional workflows, and plugin compatibility.

System Requirements

PhotoCraft supports:

• Windows

• macOS

• Linux

• FreeBSD

• WebAssembly/browser

Linux distributions can use AppImage, DEB, RPM, tarball or Flatpak packages.

Hardware requirements are not presented as a simple minimum specification. Because PhotoCraft uses GPU acceleration, actual performance will depend heavily on the graphics hardware and the size and complexity of the documents being edited.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Open-source and available under permissive MIT or Apache-2.0 licensing

• Native Rust application

• No Electron or embedded web browser required

• Excellent focus on PSD compatibility

• Extensive layer and adjustment-layer support

• GPU-accelerated rendering

• Supports CMYK, Lab and high-bit-depth documents

• Strong brush and vector capabilities

• Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD support

• Can also run through WebAssembly

• Powerful CLI and automation capabilities

• MCP support makes it interesting for AI-assisted workflows

• Offline-first approach

Cons

• Still early alpha

• Not yet a complete Photoshop replacement

• Missing some tools and professional workflows

• No Photoshop plugin compatibility

• AI and generative editing features are limited or absent

• Typography capabilities are not yet as mature as established professional editors

• Some rough edges should be expected

How to Install

The easiest approach is to download the appropriate package from the project's GitHub releases.

Linux users have several packaging options, including AppImage, DEB, RPM, tarball and Flatpak. Windows has a portable package, while macOS has a universal disk image.

Developers can also build PhotoCraft directly from source using Rust:

git clone https://github.com/storytold/photocraft
cd photocraft
cargo run --release -p photocraft -- image.psd

The repository also provides CLI functionality for automated editing and batch processing.

Final Verdict

PhotoCraft is one of the more ambitious open-source Photoshop alternatives currently available. Its combination of native Rust performance, extensive layer support, serious PSD compatibility work and an unusually capable automation architecture makes it much more than a basic image editor.

The strongest reason to watch PhotoCraft is its engineering approach. The project is building a real image-editing engine rather than simply creating a Photoshop-like interface, and its extensive PSD testing provides a useful foundation for compatibility.

The biggest problem is maturity. The project itself acknowledges that it is still early alpha and lacks several areas required for professional Photoshop replacement workflows. Users who depend on plugins, advanced typography, AI features or highly polished production workflows should not switch completely yet.

For enthusiasts, developers, Linux users, open-source advocates and anyone interested in building automated image-processing workflows, however, PhotoCraft is particularly compelling.

Free

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Software Informations:
Developer:
ArtCraft
Operating System:
Windows / macOS / Linux / BSD
Date Added:
2026-10-21T21:07:17.961Z
Categories:

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