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ArtCraft is a free, open-source set of creative apps for photos, vectors, video, PDFs and more.
ArtCraft is a set of free, open-source apps for Windows built to do the jobs of Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Lightroom and other Adobe apps, available from the official ArtCraft website and GitHub. Each app is its own native program, and a free launcher installs and updates them all. There is no subscription.
The familiar layout is what got everyone talking. PhotoCraft looks and works like Photoshop, and it opens and saves layered PSD files. The rest of the lineup applies the same idea to video, vectors, photos, PDFs, page layout and even office documents.
Developer Brandon Thomas and the ArtCraft team released the apps in October 2026, written in Rust. They run on Windows 10 and 11, including Arm laptops, plus macOS and Linux. Every app is labeled early alpha or in development.
This guide covers what each app does, how to install them on Windows, what is free, whether it is legal, and whether you should switch yet. Tried one already? Tell us how it went.
What Is ArtCraft?
Two different things share the ArtCraft name, so it helps to separate them first. The one that made headlines is the set of Crafting Apps: standalone editors for photos, video, vectors, PDFs and more. This page is mostly about those.
The other is the ArtCraft studio, the team’s original app. It is an AI image and video tool where you place characters, 3D props and backgrounds on a canvas, then generate images or video from that scene. It is also open source, but its AI models run on paid credits unless you bring your own.
The Crafting Apps were written in Rust, and Thomas has said he used Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5 to write much of the code. He calls them clean-room rebuilds. That means they were built from public file specifications and from watching how the Adobe apps behave, not from Adobe’s code.
Every ArtCraft App at a Glance
Each Craft app fills the role of one well-known paid program. Use this table to find the one you came for, then jump to its card below.
Adobe, Photoshop, Microsoft and the other product names are trademarks of their owners. ArtCraft states it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Adobe.
The Adobe Alternatives
These are the apps that went viral. Each card shows the real app, what it can do today, and the files it works with.
Beyond Adobe: Office, CAD and Audio Apps
The lineup kept growing after launch. These apps take on Microsoft Office, AutoCAD and studio recording software instead of Adobe.
How to Install ArtCraft Apps on Windows
The ArtCraft Launcher is the easy route. It installs every Craft app you pick and keeps them updated from one window.
1 Open the Crafting Apps page on getartcraft.com and click Download Launcher.
2 Pick the Windows file for your PC: the x64 .msi for most PCs, arm64 for Windows on Arm laptops, or x86 for 32-bit Windows.
3 Run the .msi installer. It installs for your user account only, so it does not ask for admin rights.
4 Open ArtCraft Launcher from the Start menu or the system tray.
5 Install the apps you want. The Launcher picks the right build for your PC and tells you when updates arrive.
Prefer one app at a time?
Every app page also offers its own MSI installers for 64-bit, 32-bit and Arm PCs, plus portable zips that run without installing anything. The portable zip is the easiest way to try an app and remove it later. Always download from getartcraft.com or the official storytold GitHub pages, never a mirror site.
Is ArtCraft Free?
Yes, the Crafting Apps are free. They are open source under the MIT or Apache 2.0 license, and there is no subscription to use them.
Paid plans exist only for the separate ArtCraft AI studio, where credits pay for image and video generation. You can skip them by bringing your own compute or third-party AI subscriptions. None of this applies to PhotoCraft, FilmCraft or the other Craft apps.
Prices are the yearly-billing rates on ArtCraft's pricing page when we checked in October 2026. Yearly billing saves 20% over paying month to month. One-time credit packs are also available.
Should You Switch to ArtCraft Yet?
The apps are real and usable, but they are early builds. Here is who gets the most out of them at this stage.
- You quit Adobe over the price and want a familiar layout back.
- You edit for fun or for personal projects.
- You have old PSD files and nothing to open them with.
- You like testing new software and reporting bugs.
- Clients or deadlines depend on your work.
- You rely on Photoshop plugins or Adobe cloud features.
- You need exact color matching for print work.
- You open your only copy of an important file.
- You expect every Adobe feature to be there.
- You download from anywhere but the official pages.
OUR TAKE
ArtCraft is an impressive start, and it is also clearly an alpha. PhotoCraft opening real PSD files with their layers is a genuine achievement. But a suite this young will have bugs, missing tools and changes from week to week.
Install it, play with it, and keep your current tools for anything that matters. If a Craft app gets you through one full real project without trouble, that is the moment to think about switching.
ArtCraft vs the Free Apps You Already Know
Free alternatives to Adobe and Office are not new. The difference is that the Craft apps copy the Adobe and Office layouts on purpose, while older free apps have their own way of doing things and years of fixes behind them.
For work that has to be right today, the established apps are the safer pick. For an Adobe-style layout at no cost, and to watch a new project grow fast, the Craft apps are worth a spot on your PC.
Is ArtCraft Legal, and Will It Last?
Building software that does the same job as another app is allowed, which is why GIMP, Krita and LibreOffice exist. ArtCraft says its apps use no Adobe code, PhotoCraft reads PSD files using Adobe's own published format specification, and every app states that it is not affiliated with Adobe. As of October 12, 2026, Adobe had made no public statement and taken no legal action against the project.
The open questions are trademarks, software patents and how closely the apps copy the look of Adobe's interfaces. If any of those became a problem, the likely result would be renamed or redesigned apps, not apps that vanish.
The bigger risk is the usual one for a young project: it slows down, changes direction or leans harder on paid AI features. Because the code is open source, anyone can keep it alive, and thousands of people have already copied it on GitHub.
Tips for Getting Started
1 Start with a portable zip. It runs without installing, and deleting the folder removes it completely.
2 Work on copies of your files. Alpha apps can crash or save in ways you did not expect, so never open your only copy of a project.
3 Check your download. Each release lists SHA256 checksums (a fingerprint for the file). In PowerShell, run Get-FileHash on the file and compare the result to the list.
4 Let the Launcher handle updates. New builds arrive often during the alpha, and many fixes land between versions.
5 Report what breaks. Each app has an Issues page on GitHub. A short bug report with steps to repeat it helps the apps improve faster.
FAQ
What are the system requirements for the ArtCraft apps?
Do the ArtCraft apps work on Windows on Arm laptops?
Are the ArtCraft apps available for Mac and Linux?
Was ArtCraft really written by AI?
What happened to PrintCraft?
How do I uninstall an ArtCraft app?
Support and Community
Need help with an app or want to follow the project? Start here.
- ArtCraft official website, for app pages, installers and news from the team.
- ArtCraft on GitHub, for source code, release notes and bug reports for every app.
- ArtCraft Discord, for questions, feedback and talking with the developers.
More Windows software guides: Inkscape · DaVinci Resolve · LibreOffice · ONLYOFFICE · Best Photo Editors · Best Free PDF Editors · Microsoft Office Alternatives · Adobe Premiere Pro
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