Complete Adobe software recreated with AI and made available for free

Tuesday 13 October 2026, 12:12 by Elja Trum | 136 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

What if you could use Photoshop and Lightroom for free, without a subscription? Using AI, a software developer has created an impressive project: ArtCraft. A collection of free, open-source programmes that mimic well-known Adobe applications.

The remarkable thing is that this software was largely programmed with the help of AI. With this way of developing software, also known as vibe coding, you can have AI carry out large parts of the programming work. 

The result is a collection of programmes that strongly resemble the well-known Adobe software in terms of appearance and features.

The collection now consists of no fewer than twelve applications. Alongside alternatives to Photoshop and Lightroom, there are programmes for video editing, vector illustrations, PDF files, animations and desktop publishing. Alternatives to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint have even been added.

PhotoCraft: the free alternative to Photoshop

For photographers, PhotoCraft is particularly interesting. This programme is clearly inspired by Photoshop. The interface will therefore feel immediately familiar if you are used to working with Adobe Photoshop.

PhotoCraft supports layers, masks, adjustment layers, brushes, text and various selection tools, among other things. You can also open and save PSD files, so in principle you can work with existing Photoshop documents.

The programme also supports different colour depths and colour profiles. So you can do more with it than just crop a photo or add a bit of text.

PhotoCraft is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. There is also a version that runs directly in your browser.

LightCraft: an alternative to Lightroom

At least as interesting is LightCraft. This programme focuses on managing and developing photos, similar to Lightroom Classic.

LightCraft offers options for adjusting exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows, among other things. It also includes extensive colour adjustments, a curves tool, presets and local masking.

RAW files are also supported, including formats from Canon, Nikon, Sony and Fujifilm. The edits are non-destructive, so your original photo files are preserved.

Like PhotoCraft, LightCraft runs locally on your computer. You therefore don't need a cloud environment or an Adobe account to edit your photos.

Is it really an alternative to Adobe?

It sounds fantastic, of course: free programmes that can do almost the same as the expensive Adobe software. Still, I wouldn't cancel my Adobe subscription just yet.

The programmes are still at an early stage of development. This means that not all features work equally well and that you may encounter errors and limitations.

There are also, of course, still quite a few missing features. Although there is probably already enough here for many beginners. As a professional, I wouldn't rely on this software yet.

It won't be easy to match Adobe's decades of further development in a short time.

What does vibe coding mean for the future?

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this project isn't even the software itself, but the way it was created.

The developer, Brandon Thomas, built an extensive collection of programmes in a short time with the help of Claude AI. The software was written in Rust, a programming language that can be used to develop fast, standalone applications.

Where developing this kind of software would normally take years of work by large teams, AI makes it possible to create something useful on your own in a much shorter time.

That doesn't mean AI automatically writes flawless software. Complex programmes such as Photoshop and Lightroom involve much more than just a nice interface and a collection of tools.

An interesting detail is that the ArtCraft programmes can also be controlled by AI agents. In the future, this could allow complete edits to be carried out automatically.

Free and open source

A major advantage of the ArtCraft programmes is that they are not only free, but also open source.

The source code is publicly available via GitHub. This allows other developers to look at it, make improvements and continue building on the programmes themselves.

That offers possibilities for the future. Even if the original developer stops working on it, the community could in principle continue developing the software. Whether that actually happens remains to be seen, of course.

For now, I see PhotoCraft and LightCraft mainly as interesting projects to experiment with. In my view, they are not yet fully fledged replacements for Photoshop and Lightroom.

But the fact that someone can get this far in such a short time with the help of AI is quite impressive in itself. It shows how quickly software development is changing.

Want to try them yourself? You can find all the programmes at getartcraft.com/apps. They are free to download for Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

Other alternatives

PhotoCraft and LightCraft are currently receiving a lot of attention, precisely because they look so much like Adobe's software. That's useful, as they feel immediately familiar to experienced users. 

There have of course been many good and complete free, open-source alternatives available for years. They have often been lovingly developed further over many years and may be better free replacements.

You might also like

• 

  How much do Lightroom and Photoshop subscriptions really cost?

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  Adobe and the cost of AI generative fill

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  Price comparison of software with and without a subscription

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  The new updates for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  Adobe's AI credit system

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  Which is better to use? Lightroom or Photoshop?

  by Nando Harmsen

0 comments

Have your say

🙂

😀 😂 🙂 😉 😊 😍 🤩 😎 🤔 😢 😮 😡 👍 👎 👏 🙌 🙏 💪 ❤️ 🔥 🎉 💯 ✨ 👌 📷 📸 🌅 🌇 🌈 ☀️ 🌙 ⭐

your details

remember my details

email me about new comments on this article

Read our comment policy.