Artcraft: AI developer builds free Photoshop alternative

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Artcraft: AI developer builds free Photoshop alternative.

Brandon Thomas sits on Hacker News, writes into a discussion — and claims to have rebuilt Photoshop with the help of AI in a single session. What sounds like an over-the-top forum post is, according to t3n, the introduction of Artcraft, a free open-source software suite designed to compete with Adobe's Creative Cloud.

There's more than a lone wolf behind the project: Thomas says he works with a four-person team to reverse-engineer Adobe's toolset and rebuild it without cloud lock-in and without monthly subscription fees. The Adobe Pro subscription with Photoshop, Premiere, and Firefly costs individuals around 78 euros per month — a price that regularly pushes many solo creatives and small studios to the brink of despair.

Photocraft instead of Photoshop, Lightcraft instead of Lightroom

The naming convention at Artcraft follows a clear pattern: Where Adobe offers Photoshop, Artcraft aims to win over users with Photocraft; Lightcraft steps in for Lightroom. According to t3n, the applications are deliberately modeled after the trusted Adobe tools, but are designed not to inherit their downsides — cloud connectivity and high subscription prices. The programs run on Windows, macOS, and Linux too, an area Adobe has neglected for years.

AI as a building helper: Claude Opus 5.5 meets 15 years of Rust experience

What's making the development possible is, according to Futurism (quoted by t3n), the consistent use of AI in coding: Thomas and his team say they use Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 as their AI tool, with programming done in Rust. Thomas emphasizes that this is explicitly not a "pure vibe-coding project" — he brings 15 years of experience in software development and handling large Rust projects. In his view, Artcraft's tools are proof of how good AI has become at creating more complex programs based on specifications.

Cancellation fees as a personal trigger

What drives Thomas is not just enthusiasm for technology. In a Reddit post, he writes that Adobe charged him cancellation fees multiple times and that he has "hated" the company "ever since." Frustration over the tight subscription lock-in and cloud tethering runs deep in the creative community — for Thomas, it apparently became the personal drive to build a competing product.

Early stage, but moving fast

Anyone who wants to test Artcraft today gets a very early state, according to t3n: First testers point to various shortcomings, and Thomas himself indicates it will still take "several months" before 99 percent of features are covered. But the project is evolving rapidly. On Reddit, the echo so far is positive — "I tried it briefly. Absolutely fantastic," one user writes, while another comments: "It's about time we finally turn our backs on Adobe."

Open question: How will Adobe respond?

An unresolved legal question remains: How will Adobe respond to an open-source project that openly rebuilds its products? According to t3n, Adobe's legal department has not yet commented — the reverse-engineering methodology Artcraft uses could well become a legal dispute. t3n also raises a more fundamental question: whether this marks the beginning of an era in which anyone can build and customize their own alternatives to commercial software.

What this means for you

As long as Artcraft is not publicly available and Thomas himself estimates months until feature maturity, the project remains a statement, not a tool. If you rely on Adobe today, it's worth keeping an eye on the development — but your ongoing projects shouldn't rest on unfinished software. As soon as an open beta or solid demos are available, it's worth a closer look, especially if you work on Linux or if 78 euros a month is simply too much for your situation.