ArtCraft Apps, tracked: which ones work yet
ArtCraft is an open-source AI art studio. In October 2026 the same team released a whole family of Craft apps: clean-room rewrites of Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Illustrator, Acrobat and InDesign, all written in Rust and free. This page keeps score of how far each one has got, using the project's own numbers.
Last checked 11 Oct 2026. Independent site; not affiliated with ArtCraft or Adobe.
The Craft apps, as of 11 Oct 2026
Readiness and breadth are each project's own published estimates (ROADMAP.md, re-measured 10 Oct 2026). Stars and versions read from GitHub on 11 Oct 2026.
| App | Replaces | Stage | Ready for real work | Feature breadth | Latest version | GitHub |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PhotoCraft Image editing |
Adobe Photoshop | Alpha | 45% | 76% | 0.7.011 Oct 2026 |
42.8k ★ |
| EffectCraft Motion graphics and VFX |
Adobe After Effects | Alpha | 45% | 91% | 0.8.011 Oct 2026 |
4.6k ★ |
| LightCraft Photo library and raw development |
Adobe Lightroom | Alpha | 61% | 81% | 0.6.011 Oct 2026 |
9.1k ★ |
| FilmCraft Video editing |
Adobe Premiere Pro | Alpha | 56% | 86% | 0.6.011 Oct 2026 |
8.8k ★ |
| VectorCraft Vector illustration |
Adobe Illustrator | Alpha | 65% | 88% | 0.9.011 Oct 2026 |
6.3k ★ |
| PdfCraft PDF workbench |
Adobe Acrobat | Alpha | 49% | 67% | 0.6.011 Oct 2026 |
8.1k ★ |
| DesignCraft Page layout and publishing |
Adobe InDesign | In development | not published | — | 0.6.011 Oct 2026 |
2.6k ★ |
| WordCraft Word processing |
Microsoft Word | Repository only | not published | — | none | 3.3k ★ |
| GridCraft Spreadsheet |
Microsoft Excel | Repository only | not published | — | none | 1.9k ★ |
| DeckCraft Presentations |
Microsoft PowerPoint | Repository only | not published | — | none | 1.5k ★ |
| CADCraft CAD and drafting |
AutoCAD | Repository only | not published | — | none | 1.9k ★ |
| SoundCraft Audio production |
Avid Pro Tools | Repository only | not published | — | none | 1.4k ★ |
What is ArtCraft?
ArtCraft started as a desktop app for controllable AI image and video generation, made by the team behind Storyteller.ai. It is open source (Apache-2.0), has a free tier with a required account, and sells cloud credits for the AI models it runs. The current release is v0.41.0 for macOS and Windows, with a web version. What ArtCraft has to do with Adobe is a separate story.
On 7 October 2026 the team's Crafting Apps page and a Hacker News thread ("ArtCraft Apps – open-source Adobe compatible suite written in Rust") sent the word "artcraft" from almost nothing to the top of Google Trends. The apps are what most people searching for it now want.
How to read the tracker
Each Craft app publishes a one-page ROADMAP.md with two numbers: feature breadth (how many of the original app's menus, tools and formats exist at all) and ready for real work (the team's estimate of how usable it is on real projects). Breadth is high everywhere; readiness is what matters. Every app is still labelled alpha by its own authors.
The roadmaps also say openly that the work is done largely by AI coding agents (effort is estimated in "Opus 5.5 agent-hours"). That is why thousands of menu items appeared in weeks, and also why "exists" and "works on your file" are different questions. We will keep this table updated as the numbers move; see the date at the top of the table.
Install everything at once
The project's recommended route is the ArtCraft Launcher: one small app that installs the Craft apps you pick and keeps them updated. Each app also has standalone installers for macOS (universal .dmg), Windows (.msi and portable .zip) and Linux (AppImage, .deb, .rpm, Flatpak). Details, file names and what to do when an app will not open are on the download page.
Not covered here yet
WordCraft, GridCraft, DeckCraft, CADCraft and SoundCraft (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, AutoCAD and Pro Tools equivalents) have repositories dated 7 October 2026 but are not on the official apps page and have no readiness figures. We list them in the table and will add pages when there is something to test.
Questions
Is ArtCraft free?
The Craft apps (PhotoCraft, LightCraft, FilmCraft and the rest) are free and open source under MIT or Apache-2.0, run offline and need no account. The original ArtCraft studio app is also open source, but its AI generation runs on cloud models: there is a free tier and paid credit plans from about $8 a month.
Is ArtCraft made by Adobe?
No. ArtCraft is an independent project by the Storyteller.ai team. The Craft apps are clean-room reimplementations: they copy the workflow and file formats, not Adobe's code. Adobe has no involvement.
Can PhotoCraft open my Photoshop files?
Yes, PSD and PSB open and save. The project reports that 307 of 309 files in the psd-tools test corpus re-render correctly after a round trip. Complex documents with smart filters or rare features can still lose detail; keep a copy.
Which Craft app is furthest along?
By the project's own "ready for real work" estimate on 10 Oct 2026: VectorCraft (~65%), LightCraft (~61%) and FilmCraft (~56%) lead; PhotoCraft and EffectCraft sit at ~45%. Every app is still alpha.
Does ArtCraft run on Linux?
The Craft apps do: AppImage, .deb, .rpm and Flatpak builds for x86_64 and ARM64, plus FreeBSD for several of them. The original ArtCraft studio app only ships macOS and Windows builds; on Linux use its web version.
Is this the official ArtCraft site?
No. The official site is getartcraft.com and the code is at github.com/storytold. This is an independent guide that tracks the project and links to the official downloads.