Open Source

PhotoCraft on GitHub: the open-source Photoshop clone

PhotoCraft is developed in the open at github.com/storytold/photocraft. It is a clean-room reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop written entirely in Rust — no JavaScript, no Electron, no webview — licensed under MIT / Apache-2.0.

What's in the repository

~24 crates

A layered Rust workspace: geometry, colour management, raster tiles, the document model, brush engine, PSD codec, CPU/GPU compositors and the egui UI shell.

apps/photocraft

The native desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD) built on eframe/wgpu.

apps/photocraft-web

The same editor compiled to WebAssembly (trunk + wasm-bindgen) — the engine behind the editor on this site.

apps/photocraft-cli

A headless CLI: convert, batch, run command files, and even an MCP server so AI agents can drive the editor.

docs/

Unusually deep parity documentation: measured feature-parity numbers against Photoshop 2026, per-dimension checklists and a public roadmap.

How to clone and build it

You need a recent stable Rust toolchain. Then:

git clone https://github.com/storytold/photocraft.git
cd photocraft
cargo run --release -p photocraft

To run the web version locally, install trunk(cargo install trunk) and build apps/photocraft-web. Full instructions live in the repo'sdocs/development.md. Prefer not to build? See ourdownload guide for ready-made installers, or just use the editor in your browser.

Releases and project status

PhotoCraft is in early alpha and moving fast — the project measured itself at roughly 76% feature breadth against Photoshop 2026, with core workflows (retouch, composite, cut-out, design, paint, PSD exchange) working end to end. Releases are published on the GitHub releases page, and the repository carries 1,700+ tests plus an unusually honest public roadmap.

Want an opinionated take? Read our PhotoCraft review.