How to install PhotoCraft, FilmCraft, PdfCraft and the other free Craft apps

The Craft apps are a set of free, open-source desktop programs that copy the look, menus and shortcuts of Adobe's Creative Cloud. If you know Photoshop, PhotoCraft will feel familiar within a few minutes. The same goes for FilmCraft and Premiere Pro, PdfCraft and Acrobat, and four others.

They come from the ArtCraft team, who publish them under the storytold organisation on GitHub. Each app is written from scratch in the Rust programming language (the developers call it a "clean-room" rebuild, meaning no Adobe code was copied) and runs natively on Windows, macOS and Linux. There's also a browser version of each one.

This guide covers what each app does, where to get it, and three ways to install it.

Which Adobe apps do the Craft apps replace?

Craft app	Replaces	What it's for	Official repo
PhotoCraft	Adobe Photoshop	Image editing, layers, masks and PSD files	github.com/storytold/photocraft
FilmCraft	Adobe Premiere Pro	Video editing, colour grading and sound	github.com/storytold/filmcraft
PdfCraft	Adobe Acrobat	Reading, organising, combining and securing PDFs	github.com/storytold/pdfcraft
EffectCraft	Adobe After Effects	Motion graphics, compositing and visual effects	github.com/storytold/effectcraft
DesignCraft	Adobe InDesign	Page layout for magazines, books and brochures	github.com/storytold/designcraft
VectorCraft	Adobe Illustrator	Vector illustration, logos and posters	github.com/storytold/vectorcraft
LightCraft	Adobe Lightroom	Photo library and raw photo development	github.com/storytold/lightcraft

The full list of the team's repositories is at github.com/orgs/storytold/repositories. It also has newer projects that copy Microsoft Office and other tools: WordCraft (Word), GridCraft (Excel), DeckCraft (PowerPoint), CADCraft (AutoCAD), SoundCraft (Pro Tools) and FigCraft (Figma-style interface design).

What does each Craft app do?

PhotoCraft (Photoshop alternative)

PhotoCraft is an image editor with layers, masks, adjustment layers, layer styles, type, vector shapes and brushes. It opens and saves real Photoshop PSD files, and the developers say re-saving keeps the render of 307 of the 309 files in the psd-tools test set. There are 16 adjustment layers, including Curves, Levels, Hue/Saturation, Black & White and Color Lookup. The menus and shortcuts follow Photoshop, so Ctrl+J still duplicates a layer.

FilmCraft (Premiere Pro alternative)

FilmCraft is a non-linear video editor with Source and Program monitors, bins, a multi-track timeline and the usual Premiere workspaces (Editing, Assembly, Color, Effects and Audio). It has ripple, roll, slip, slide and razor tools and three-point editing on the same keys as Premiere. The H.264, HEVC, ProRes and AAC codecs are the team's own, written from the public specifications.

PdfCraft (Acrobat alternative)

PdfCraft reads, organises, combines, splits and protects PDF files. It handles comments, forms, layers and attachments, and renders right-to-left and vertical Japanese text properly. Every save appends your changes and leaves the original bytes untouched. There's no account, no telemetry and no cloud.

EffectCraft (After Effects alternative)

EffectCraft is for animated titles, motion graphics and compositing. You build compositions from solid, shape, text and footage layers, animate them with keyframes and a Graph Editor, and stack effects on top. It ships with 306 effects, 3D cameras and lights, expressions and a render queue. Lottie import and export are built in, so animations can go straight to a website or app.

DesignCraft (InDesign alternative)

DesignCraft lays out pages for print and screen: spreads and parent pages, threaded text frames, paragraph and character styles, swatches and text wrap. The team also maintains a small tool, indd-utils, that reads InDesign INDD files and converts them to IDML.

VectorCraft (Illustrator alternative)

VectorCraft draws vector art with a Pen tool, Bézier handles, Pathfinder, live blends, gradient mesh, a perspective grid and multiple artboards. If you've used Illustrator, the panels will be where you expect them.

LightCraft (Lightroom alternative)

LightCraft manages a photo library and develops raw files. Every edit is non-destructive, and the sliders (Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Texture, Clarity, Dehaze and more) work through a 32-bit floating-point pipeline. It includes a tone curve, an 8-band colour mixer and colour grading wheels.

Are the Craft apps ready for professional work?

Not yet, and the developers say so themselves. As of October 2026 the apps sit between version 0.7 and 0.10, and the team describes them as early alpha or "young and moving fast". PhotoCraft's documentation states plainly that it is "not yet a Photoshop replacement for daily professional work", with the biggest gaps in generative AI features, 15 missing tools, typography depth and plug-in support.

They're well suited to:

• Opening a PSD, PDF or video project when you don't have a Creative Cloud subscription
• Learning the Adobe workflow before paying for it
• Hobby projects, school work and quick edits
• People on Linux, where Adobe doesn't ship its apps at all

Expect some rough edges. The team takes bug reports through GitHub issues and its Discord.

How do you install the Craft apps?

There are three ways. Most people should use the first or second.

1. ArtCraft Launcher. One app that installs and updates all the others.
2. Download a single app. Grab the installer for the one app you want from its release page.
3. Use an AI coding agent. Let Claude Code clone the repo, install the dependencies and build the app for you. This is the route to take if you want to change the code.

Method 1: Install every app with ArtCraft Launcher

ArtCraft Launcher lists every app in the suite, shows which ones you have installed, picks the right download for your operating system and processor, checks it against the published SHA-256 checksums, and tells you when an update is out.

1. Go to github.com/storytold/craft-launcher/releases/latest.
2. Scroll to Assets and download the file for your computer (see the table below).
3. Install it, open it, and click Install on any app you want.

Your computer	File to download
Windows 10 or 11 (most PCs)	artcraft-launcher-<version>-windows-x64.msi
Windows on Arm (Snapdragon laptops)	artcraft-launcher-<version>-windows-arm64.msi
Mac (Apple silicon or Intel, macOS 11 or later)	artcraft-launcher-<version>-macos-universal.dmg
Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Pop!_OS	artcraft-launcher-<version>-linux-x86_64.deb
Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL	artcraft-launcher-<version>-linux-x86_64.rpm
Any other Linux distro	artcraft-launcher-<version>-linux-x86_64.AppImage

The Windows MSI installs for the current user, so you don't need admin rights.

Method 2: Download one app on Windows

1. Open the app's download page, for example getartcraft.com/apps/photocraft, or go to the repo and click Releases on the right-hand side.
2. Download <app>-<version>-windows-x64.msi. Use the arm64 file on a Snapdragon laptop, or the x86 file on 32-bit Windows.
3. Double-click the MSI and follow the prompts.
4. Open the app from the Start menu.

Don't want to install anything? Download the -portable.zip file instead, unzip it and run the .exe inside. The Windows installers and executables are code-signed.

Method 2: Download one app on a Mac

1. On the app's release page, download <app>-<version>-macos-universal.dmg. The one file works on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
2. Open the DMG and drag the app into your Applications folder.
3. Open it from Launchpad or Applications.

The Mac builds are signed and notarised by Apple, so macOS shouldn't block them.

Method 2: Download one app on Linux

Pick the format that suits your distribution. Replace photocraft and <version> with the app and version you downloaded.

AppImage (any distro, no install needed):

chmod +x photocraft-<version>-linux-x86_64.AppImage
./photocraft-<version>-linux-x86_64.AppImage

Debian, Ubuntu, Mint or Pop!_OS:

sudo apt install ./photocraft-<version>-linux-x86_64.deb

Fedora, openSUSE or RHEL:

sudo dnf install ./photocraft-<version>-linux-x86_64.rpm

Flatpak:

flatpak install --user photocraft-<version>-linux-x86_64.flatpak
flatpak run ai.storyteller.photocraft

On an ARM64 Linux machine, use the aarch64 file instead of x86_64. If drag and drop doesn't work on a Wayland desktop, use File > Open for now. That's a known limitation of the windowing library the apps use.

Method 3: Install with Claude Code (Windows, Mac or Linux)

If you'd like to build an app from its source code, or you plan to edit it, an AI coding agent can do the fiddly parts. Claude Code reads the repo's build instructions, installs the Rust toolchain and other dependencies, builds the app and tells you where the program file ended up. You'll need a paid Claude plan (Pro or above) to use it.

1. Install VS Code from code.visualstudio.com/download if you don't already have it.

2. Make a folder for the project files. On Windows, something like C:\GitHub\craft-apps. On a Mac or Linux, ~/craft-apps works.

3. Open that folder in VS Code (File > Open Folder).

4. Open the terminal with Ctrl + ` (the backtick key, left of the 1).

5. Install Claude Code if you haven't before. On Windows, paste this into the terminal:

   irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
   

   On a Mac or Linux, use this instead:

   curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
   

6. Type claude and press Enter. The first time, it opens your browser so you can sign in to your Claude account.

7. Ask it to install the app. For example:

   Install this repo so I can use the application: https://github.com/storytold/photocraft

8. Tell it how you'll use the app. If you only want to use PhotoCraft the way you'd use Photoshop, say so, and Claude can build a release version and leave it at that. If you think you'll want to change the code, say that instead, so it sets the project up for editing and rebuilding.

9. Approve the steps it asks about. Claude Code asks before it runs commands or installs software. The first Rust build can take a while, so let it finish.

10. Run the app. When it's done, Claude tells you where the executable is. Open it as you would any other program.

You can repeat step 7 with any of the other repos to add more apps to the same folder.

Where do I get help with the Craft apps?

Each repo has an Issues tab for bug reports. Include your operating system, the file you were working on and a screenshot. The ArtCraft team also runs a Discord at discord.gg/artcraft, which they describe as the fastest way to get help. Their website, getartcraft.com/apps, has a page for each app.

Support more guides like this

If this guide saved you a Creative Cloud subscription, you can chip in for the next one at paypal.me/themodernhistory. Donations go to me, the author of this guide, not to the ArtCraft developers. To support them, star their repos on GitHub or report the bugs you find.