All ArtCraft Apps — the Free Open-Source Adobe Alternative Family

ArtCraft is a family of free, open-source apps that reimplement the Adobe workflow in pure Rust: PhotoCraft, VectorCraft, EffectCraft, FilmCraft, PdfCraft, LightCraft, WordCraft, GridCraft and CADCraft. One install family, one model — free forever, no subscription, fully offline, agent-native. Every app is early alpha; every app's README says so and lists its gaps.

The nine apps

PhotoCraft → Adobe PhotoshopOpen-source Photoshop replacement in pure Rust: layers, masks, adjustment layers, layer styles, text, vectors, brushes and real PSD files — free, no subscription.VectorCraft → Adobe IllustratorOpen-source Illustrator replacement in pure Rust: Pen, Pathfinder, smart guides, appearance, layers — fast, scriptable, free.EffectCraft → Adobe After EffectsOpen-source After Effects alternative in pure Rust: compositions, keyframes, 306 effects, expressions, 3D cameras, Lottie import/export — no FFmpeg dependency.FilmCraft → Adobe Premiere Pro (nonlinear editing workflow)Open-source nonlinear video editor in pure Rust — a free, clean-room take on the Premiere Pro workflow, scriptable and agent-native.PdfCraft → Adobe AcrobatOpen-source PDF reader and editor in pure Rust — a clean-room Acrobat replacement with beautiful rendering, page organization, merge/split and document protection.LightCraft → Adobe Lightroom (non-destructive photo workflow)Open-source non-destructive photo editor in pure Rust — a free Lightroom-style workflow: edit without destroying the original, agent-native.WordCraft → Microsoft Word (document processing workflow)Open-source Word in pure Rust — a clean-room reimplementation of the Word processing workflow, free, scriptable, agent-native.GridCraft → Microsoft Excel (spreadsheet workflow)Open-source spreadsheet in pure Rust — a clean-room Excel reimplementation, free, scriptable, agent-native.CADCraft → Professional commercial CAD (e.g. AutoCAD-style drafting)Open-source CAD in pure Rust — a free, clean-room take on professional CAD drafting, scriptable and agent-native.

The family at a glance

PhotoCraft → Photoshop (54.3k stars), VectorCraft → Illustrator (8.0k), EffectCraft → After Effects (5.9k, 306 effects, Lottie built-in), PdfCraft → Acrobat (11.7k), FilmCraft → nonlinear video editing (11.4k), LightCraft → non-destructive photo editing (11.1k), WordCraft → document processing (8.9k), GridCraft → spreadsheets (3.8k), CADCraft → CAD drafting (3.4k). All clean-room reimplementations in pure Rust.

What the whole family shares

Free and open source (MIT/Apache-2.0) with no subscription; native apps for macOS, Windows and Linux plus WebAssembly browser builds; headless CLI, JSON control channel and MCP server on every app; open, diffable file formats. If you learn one app's automation surface, you know them all.

The honest caveat

The entire family is early alpha. The READMEs say plainly what each app still misses — generative/AI features, some tools, professional production pipelines, plugin ecosystems. For ordinary work each app is genuinely usable today; for mission-critical professional pipelines, check the gap list first and keep your current tools for what they do not cover.

Comparisons

ArtCraft vs Adobe PhotoCraft vs Photoshop

Tutorials

PhotoCraft install & first launch PhotoCraft layers & masks basics PhotoCraft adjustments & export VectorCraft quickstart PdfCraft quickstart EffectCraft quickstart

Preset packs

PhotoCraft actions pack VectorCraft template pack GridCraft template pack WordCraft template pack