Developer recreates 7 Adobe apps in Rust, TechRadar finds major limits

A developer says they recreated 7 of Adobe’s leading apps in native Rust and made them available for free. TechRadar’s Steve Paris tried two of them, PhotoCraft and FilmCraft, and found basic features alongside significant limitations.

The ArtCraft suite includes PhotoCraft for image editing, LightCraft for image cataloguing, VectorCraft for vector graphics, DesignCraft for desktop publishing, FilmCraft for video editing, EffectCraft for special effects and PrintCraft for PDFs. The developer says the apps use clean code and do not copy copyrighted material. TechRadar did not assess that claim.

Paris tested the software on a 16-inch Intel MacBook Pro. He found PhotoCraft could work offline without an account, but it could not open HEIC images. After converting images to JPG, he was able to edit objects, adjust colour on layers and add text. However, selections sometimes failed, and saving produced only a JPG, with no option to preserve an editable project or save as PSD.

FilmCraft launched quickly and supported importing clips, arranging them in sequences and using multiple layers. Paris found the interface familiar but described parts of the workflow as clunky. The supplied article text ends while he is discussing clip trimming, so it does not give a complete assessment of FilmCraft.

The apps are described as available for PC, Mac, Linux and the web. The source says PhotoCraft is 80MB and FilmCraft is 90MB; it also reports Photoshop at 6.4GB and Premiere Pro at 6.8GB on the reviewer’s Mac.