How to Replace Adobe Photoshop with PhotoCraft: A Simple Guide

Adobe Photoshop costs more than $20 every single month. If you only need to crop photos, adjust colors, or design graphics for the web, paying over $240 every year feels excessive. Plus, Adobe runs several background services that eat up your computer memory even when the app is closed.

PhotoCraft is a free, open-source alternative built from scratch in Rust. It starts up in less than half a second, runs entirely on your own computer without an internet connection, and uses the exact same shortcut keys and layer tools you already know.

Here is a straightforward guide on how to switch to PhotoCraft for your everyday work.

1. Quick Comparison: Photoshop vs PhotoCraft

2. Step 1: Install PhotoCraft

PhotoCraft does not come with installer bloat. It is a single, clean app.

On Windows 10 and 11

1. Go to the Download page.
2. Grab either the MSI Installer or the Portable ZIP.
3. If you download the ZIP, simply unpack it and double-click photocraft.exe. You do not even have to install it—you can run it straight from a flash drive.
4. Note on Windows SmartScreen: If Windows asks "Windows protected your PC", just click More info → Run anyway. The code is fully public on GitHub, so there is no malware or tracking.

On Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel)

1. Download the .dmg file.
2. Drag PhotoCraft.app to your Applications folder. It runs natively on M1, M2, M3, and M4 Macs with fast hardware acceleration.

On Linux

• Download the .AppImage, make it executable with chmod +x, and double-click to run. Debian (.deb) and Fedora (.rpm) packages are also available.

3. Step 2: Working with Layers and Colors

If you have used Photoshop, GIMP can feel confusing. PhotoCraft keeps things simple by using the layout you already understand.

Adjustment Layers

You do not have to touch your original image pixels. You can add non-destructive adjustment layers on top:

• Curves (Ctrl/Cmd + M): Drag points to brighten highlights or darken shadows.
• Levels (Ctrl/Cmd + L): Adjust black, white, and midtone points with sliders.
• Hue and Saturation: Boost colors or turn specific shades into black and white.

Layer Masks

• Click the mask icon at the bottom of the layers list.
• Paint with black to hide parts of a layer, or paint with white to show them again.
• Layer blend modes like Multiply, Screen, and Overlay work just like you expect.

4. Step 3: Opening Camera RAW Photos

You do not need Adobe Camera Raw or a Lightroom subscription to edit high-resolution camera files.

1. Open your .CR3, .NEF, .ARW, or .DNG file directly in PhotoCraft.
2. Adjust exposure, white balance, contrast, and highlights.
3. Your adjustments are saved in small .xmp sidecar files next to your photos, so your raw files are never damaged.

5. Step 4: Automating Edits with Claude and AI (MCP)

One neat feature of PhotoCraft is that it works directly with AI tools like Claude Desktop and Cursor using the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Instead of clicking through menus to resize 50 images, you can simply ask an AI agent to do it for you.

How to set it up:

Add this snippet to your Claude Desktop config file (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "photocraft": {
      "command": "photocraft-cli",
      "args": ["--mcp", "--headless"]
    }
  }
}

Things you can ask Claude to do:

• "Resize every image in my 'photos' folder to 1200 pixels wide and save them as WebP."
• "Check the brightness of header.jpg and increase the contrast by 10%."
• "Add our company logo in the bottom-right corner of all export files."

6. Shortcuts Cheat Sheet

You do not have to relearn your muscle memory:

7. Next Steps

You do not have to cancel Photoshop today to try PhotoCraft. You can install it alongside your current setup and test it on a couple of projects.

• Download PhotoCraft
• Check out VectorCraft for vector drawing
• Browse the code on GitHub
• Questions or suggestions? Write to support@getartcraft.app