Developer builds open-source Adobe alternatives with AI, but concedes limits

ArtCraft, a free open-source suite of creative applications modelled on Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator and Lightroom, is now published on GitHub, and its author says much of the code was generated with Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5. The project's interest for the AI debate lies less in the software than in the claim behind it: that a current model can accelerate work on programs of considerable complexity. Both reports stress that the suite is at an early stage, so the claim stands as a demonstration of speed rather than proof of a finished substitute.

The suite comprises PhotoCraft, FilmCraft, VectorCraft and LightCraft, echoing Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator and Lightroom respectively. Thomas, who cites 15 years in software development and work on large Rust projects, says the code was written mainly in Rust and released under open licences so that anyone can study or contribute to it; builds exist for Windows, macOS and Linux, the last notable because Adobe does not officially support that system. Writing on Hacker News, he claimed to have rebuilt Photoshop with AI in a single session, and he told t3n the exercise is not pure vibe-coding. Reporting by t3n, citing Futurism, describes the stated aim as reverse-engineering Adobe's software to produce an equivalent without cloud tie-in and high monthly costs.

The limits are acknowledged by the developer himself. According to t3n, Thomas says it will take several months before 99 per cent of features are covered, and PhotoCraft's documentation states that it is not ready to replace Photoshop in professional daily work, citing constraints on advanced tools and incompatibility with some file formats. The interfaces recall the Adobe originals; the functionality, by the project's own account, does not yet follow.

Thomas's motive is partly commercial grievance. In a Reddit post cited by t3n he wrote that Adobe had charged him a cancellation fee more than once and that he has hated the company since, a quotation translated from the German. The same report puts Adobe's Pro plan, covering tools such as Photoshop, Premiere and Adobe Firefly, at around €78 a month for individuals. Reddit users have welcomed the effort, one writing of a brief trial that it was "absolutely fantastic", a comment also translated. The open licences draw praise; the resemblance to Adobe's products has raised separate questions, including whether Adobe will tolerate the imitation.

The factual markers ahead are the project's own development milestones and any response from Adobe. t3n, citing a report in the Standard, says Thomas presents the work as the start of an era in which anyone can build and adapt alternatives to commercial software. Whether ArtCraft becomes a reliable tool is a question its release has not answered.