PhotoCraft for ArtCraft workflows: a Photoshop-shaped open-source editor

photocraft-cli run input.psd \ --cmd filter.sharpen.smartSharpen \ --params '{"amount":80}' \ --out output.png

photocraft-cli batch --actions grade.json --in ./raw --out ./graded

photocraft-cli mcp

What the project is actually doing

Most free editors are either a wrapper around an existing raster library or a browser toy with a layers menu. PhotoCraft is a from-scratch implementation of an editor, and that choice shows up in three places: a document model that keeps layer structure when it saves a PSD, a rendering engine that talks to your GPU through the APIs your platform actually provides, and a command interface that lets the same engine run without a person at the keyboard. The name of the target is easy to miss in that list. It is not "a free Photoshop clone". It is an editor whose files stay editable, which is a smaller claim and a much more useful one.

Why writing it in Rust matters to you

A language choice is only interesting when it changes what you can do with the product. Here it changes two things. First, one core compiles to desktop binaries and to a WebAssembly bundle, so the browser version is the same engine rather than a separate reimplementation that loses features whenever the desktop one adds them. Second, a memory-safe engine is what makes it realistic to hand a compositor to a script or an agent: an automation that crashes halfway through four hundred files is worse than no automation, and the class of crash that a rewrite in Rust is meant to remove is exactly the one you meet when nobody is watching the process.

Layers, masks and the things you can undo

The working model is stacking rather than painting. Adjustment layers sit above the pixel data and apply downward, so an exposure decision stays a decision you can revisit. Masks hide without deleting, which means the file you send back still contains what you decided not to show. Layer styles, text and vector shapes exist as their own kinds of object rather than as baked pixels. This is the vocabulary of a commercial editor, and the reason a file produced here can be handed to a colleague without an apology attached to it.

Living with layered PSD

Reading a PSD is common; writing one back with its structure intact is the rare part. PhotoCraft treats PSD and PSB as working formats and carries a compatibility test suite for them in the repository. Two consequences are worth planning around. You gain the ability to do real client work on a machine that has no commercial licence attached to it. You also inherit an alpha project's boundaries: some layer styles come back approximate, nested smart objects are a known weak point, and a file from an unusual producer can reveal a gap. The practical answer is the same one you would use anywhere: keep a flattened reference, save the project before exporting a delivery copy, and check structure on open rather than discovering it on handoff. The comparison guide walks through exactly which elements survive the round trip.

GPU paths and the browser build

Compositing at full resolution is a rendering problem before it is an editing problem, and the editor selects a back end per platform: Metal on Apple platforms, Vulkan on Linux, DX12 on Windows, WebGPU where a browser exposes it. That matters most on large canvases, where a raster pipeline gives you a laggy preview and a GPU pipeline gives you the actual image. The WebAssembly build applies the same idea in a tab: it is the desktop core compiled for the browser, so nothing uploads to a server for your pixels to come back. It is not a hosted service, and on modest hardware it will feel like a desktop engine running inside a browser rather than a lightweight web tool.

Editing as a command instead of a click

The part that puts PhotoCraft in a different category from most free editors is that you do not have to use it by hand. A command-line binary runs a single operation against a file. A JSON action file describes a sequence and applies it to a directory. An MCP server exposes the same operations to a program that speaks MCP, which is how an agent ends up doing the repetitive half of a job while a person handles the half that needs judgement. That is a real workflow difference: the person who retouches five hundred product shots one panel at a time and the person who defines the grade once and lets a script apply it are not doing the same work.

What it is not

It is not generative: there is no model inside the editor, and AI imagery belongs to ArtCraft rather than here. It is not a Photoshop replacement in the sense of parity — plugin compatibility, specialist typography and pre-press depth are places a two-decade commercial product simply has more. It is not finished: the project describes itself as early alpha, panels move between releases, and the right way to read any claim on this page is as a statement about a specific build. None of that makes it the wrong tool; it makes it a tool with a scope, and the scope is exactly what an editor-shaped, file-honest, scriptable raster workflow needs.

Who should install it

• A designer or photographer working on Linux who must open, edit and return layered PSD files.
• Anyone automating repetitive edits, where an action file beats an hour of clicking.
• A team that needs an editor whose source, licence and build matrix they can read and audit.
• An agent pipeline that has to drive an editor headlessly instead of describing it to a person.