Dev Uses AI To Build Clones Of Photoshop And Entire Adobe Suite For Free
A lone developer has released an open-source, AI-generated alternative to Adobe's entire Creative Cloud suite, reigniting the hot debate over Adobe's subscription pricing and the disruptive power of rapid code generation.
Brandon Thomas, a 15-year industry veteran and software engineer, unveiled a suite of free apps built under the banner project ArtCraft. Using Claude Opus 5.5 model and the Rust programming language, Thomas created functional (albeit very alpha) open-source alternatives to seven of Adobe's flagships: Photoshop (PhotoCraft), Illustrator (VectorCraft), Premiere (FilmCraft), Lightroom (LightCraft), Acrobat Pro (PrintCraft), After Effects (EffectCraft), and InDesign (DesignCraft).
Available across macOS, Windows, and Linux, the latter of which Adobe has never officially supported, the tools aim to free creatives from what Thomas calls predatory software-as-a-service (SaaS) models. Driven by personal frustration over "the dark pattern ‘cancellation fee’ one too many times," Thomas leveraged AI to reverse-engineer Adobe's suite, and even went as far as promising to match 100% of Adobe’s core features within a month through "clean-room replacements."
ArtCraft arrives at a time when Adobe recently settled a $150 million federal lawsuit alleging it trapped consumers in difficult-to-cancel subscription plans. Early users of PhotoCraft report an experience that closely mirrors Photoshop’s layout and shortcut placement, offering basic photo manipulation capabilities without monthly fees (although you'll have to pay up if you want to store files on cloud). However, because the codebase relies heavily on rapid AI generation, current alpha builds have noticeable glitches, unpredictable tool behavior, and performance hiccups. Thomas acknowledges the project is far from production-ready, offering bug bounties and inviting open-source contributors on GitHub to help stabilize the apps. Despite these early rough edges, the initiative has drawn massive interest from hobbyists and independent creators fed up with their Adobe tax.
That said, recreating Adobe application UIs raises potential copyright and patent infringement concerns, as Adobe holds thousands of patents covering specific software features and workflow mechanics. Furthermore, while AI tools can quickly generate basic code structures, replicating the deep calibration, color accuracy, plugin ecosystem, and rock-solid stability required by, say, creative agencies presents another steep hill to climb.
Whether ArtCraft evolves into a viable professional competitor akin to GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) or remains an experimental proof of concept remains to be seen, but we're rooting for the underdog and are excited for what this would mean for content creation moving forward.
