The use of artificial intelligence for programming has been drawing a lot of attention in the world of video games, because developers use it to port titles to other platforms or to understand how they are built, and now Brandon Thomas, a programmer with 15 years of experience who runs the company ArtCraft, has used it for something different, since, frustrated by Adobe’s cancellation fees for terminating the subscription, he released seven free and open-source alternatives to the company’s programs.
A project designed to replicate the functions of the programs in Adobe Creative Cloud and that people can use them without paying anything, with initial versions that can run on any computer and that are sustained by the profits of his own business, although these programs still have a lot of work ahead to reach the professional quality that their creator promises for the near future.
The details of the new free applications
This suite covers almost everything a designer might need, because it includes PhotoCraft to replace Photoshop, VectorCraft for Illustrator, FilmCraft for Premiere Pro, LightCraft for Lightroom, EffectCraft for After Effects, DesignCraft for InDesign and PrintCraft for Acrobat Pro.
According to Thomas, all these programs were built using the artificial intelligence Claude Opus 5.5 and are written in Rust, a programming language known for being fast and safe, with builds that install on Windows, Linux and macOS and, in almost all cases, also versions to use directly in the browser.
All these free alternatives are released under open licenses that allow sharing and modification, and Thomas has been very clear in stating that the annoying fees Adobe charges when canceling their subscription were his primary motivation, explaining that he had been “bitten by the cancellation fee of dark patterns” as it is known—designs meant to make leaving a service difficult.
Additionally, the costs to create these programs are paid for by the business his company already runs, which sells AI services for creating images and videos, so these alternatives do not depend on donations or fundraising campaigns to survive.
The promises of the creator, the current reality and the future
On Reddit, the developer initially promised that his programs would have exactly the same features as Adobe in just one month, but later adjusted his stance somewhat, saying they would reach 99% of the functions in a few months instead of taking years.
Looking at the development plan for PhotoCraft, we can see that its current features are barely between 25% and 35% of what a professional needs for daily work, since users have reported issues with the most basic editing features, keyboard shortcuts and overall program performance.
Useful tools like the smart fill are missing, but Thomas says these are just early test versions and he trusts that the community will flag mistakes to fix them and stabilize a set of programs that, he claims, were created from scratch and without copying Adobe’s private code.
The developer believes that in the near future any programmer will be able to create free versions of highly popular paid programs, in order to “reclaim the internet and own the technology forever,” finally declaring that “software is dead” and proudly insisting that he has “made Photoshop in a single attempt. All of it.”
To finish, the developer shared the list of the seven free alternatives, with direct links to their pages on GitHub.
- https://github.com/storytold/photocraft (Photoshop)
- https://github.com/storytold/vectorcraft (Illustrator)
- https://github.com/storytold/filmcraft (Premiere)
- https://github.com/storytold/lightcraft (Lightroom)
- https://github.com/storytold/printcraft (Acrobat Pro)
- https://github.com/storytold/effectcraft (After Effects)
- https://github.com/storytold/designcraft (InDesign)
How to download and install ArtCraft’s free Adobe alternatives
- Go to ArtCraft’s official site.
- Choose the program you want to use, for example PhotoCraft if you’re looking to replace Photoshop.
- Download the installer for your system, whether Windows, macOS or Linux. The installers are also in the Releases section of each project on GitHub.
- Open the downloaded file and follow the installation steps as you would with any program.
- Open the program and start using it, without creating an account or paying a subscription.
- If you don’t want to install anything, use the browser version, available on all except FilmCraft.
In the end, ArtCraft still does not replace Adobe for professional work with tight deadlines, but they are free and legal alternatives that are worth trying in personal projects, especially if you’re tired of paying a monthly subscription.
