I Tried PhotoCraft, an AI Clone of Photoshop, and It Is Almost Identical to the Original.
Like it or not, AI is rapidly changing technology. A prime example: AI is now being used to reverse engineer popular software packages. Once completed, developers upload the cloned versions online as open-source tools, available for anyone to use for free. It seems no company, no matter its size, is immune to such counterfeits. This includes Adobe and its legacy software, such as Photoshop, for which a free AI-powered clone called “PhotoCraft” is now available. I tried this clone, and while it’s not perfect, it’s striking how similar it is to the original.
What is the history behind apps like PhotoCraft?
One of the developers leading this movement is Brandon Thomas, a seasoned software engineer who used Claude Opus 5.5 to create clones of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, Acrobat Pro, After Effects, and InDesign in the Rust programming language. All of them have been renamed—Photoshop has become PhotoCraft, Premiere FilmCraft—but in functionality and interface, they are very similar to Adobe’s monthly-fee products. This represents another seismic shift in the industry driven by artificial intelligence, and it appears Thomas will soon be creating clones of Microsoft Office applications .
According to the developer , Thomas “has fallen for scammers using ‘pay-to-cancel’ schemes too often,” which is what prompted him to start the project. “AI allows us to rewind technology and rewind time to the pre-crisis era,” Thomas says. “But now you can simply create 1:1 functional analogues, pure and simple, high-performance, and cross-platform. Nothing can stop you.” In another comment, he declares, “Software is the end.”
It’s unclear exactly how Thomas completed this project, but he used the term ” vibe coding ,” so even with his programming background, it seems to involve some kind of AI-assisted observation and copying. The developer also suggested that this was a more practical endeavor than maintaining open-source applications like LibreOffice and GIMP, as he believed “there’s no point in maintaining broken software.”
Are apps like PhotoCraft legal?
As Ars Technica notes , reverse engineering is generally permitted as long as the code isn’t copied directly, but if the new toolset closely matches the look and functionality of the cloned apps, it could lead to legal issues. The truth is, no one is sure yet—and this again raises questions about the legality of the AI models themselves, which were trained on vast quantities of human-created code to achieve this level.
Adobe is undoubtedly studying this issue very closely, but while the program is still available, I decided to give it a try myself. The applications can be downloaded from the ArtCraft website , although they are currently labeled as “early alpha” and “in development.” According to Thomas , achieving 99% functional similarity with Adobe’s counterparts should be “measured in months, not years.”
Getting Started with PhotoCraft
The ArtCraft web portal offers a launcher app that lets you manage the entire Craft toolset, but I focused on PhotoCraft because Photoshop is the only Adobe program I actually use often. My first impressions: it definitely looks like a Photoshop knockoff.
PhotoCraft has the same color scheme, the same panel layout, and the same menus in the same order—except for plugins , which I suspect will take some time to edit. As far as I can tell, the keyboard shortcuts are the same, and the various settings screens are also very similar—both in the available options and their layout.
Most of my work in Photoshop involves cropping and merging images, adjusting their colors and balance, and converting them into fixed formats for articles. I’ve managed to almost completely restructure my workflow compared to the Adobe app: the same panels, the same dialog boxes, and the same tools (from the Clone Stamp tool to the Magic Wand).
Of course, many image editors copy Photoshop because it’s the industry leader —just think of Pixlr —but this one seems to be on a whole other level. PhotoCraft also runs fast and smoothly, and, as far as I could tell, is bug-free. The only issues I encountered involved some clunky snapping and selection operations, which could certainly be improved, but weren’t really problematic.
I’m by no means an experienced Photoshop user, and people with more experience have uncovered many hidden issues . I suspect that when working with more advanced tools and layer features, flaws may begin to surface, as is often the case when AI code attempts to copy another program’s work. I’m not sure the “look at this program and create something that behaves the same” approach is the best approach for software development.
Still, for me, PhotoCraft handled all the necessary tasks in terms of image processing, adjustments, and layer management, and did it well. How the app will evolve in the long term remains to be seen, as AI-powered bug fixes and feature updates will presumably be added on top of existing AI-powered code—assuming Adobe doesn’t interfere.
Personally, I’m not planning on canceling my Photoshop subscription: I can afford it, I use it, and I’m not yet ready to entrust my projects to something created by artificial intelligence. But we now live in an era when AI can look at anything—a painting, a website, a movie, a comprehensive Adobe software application—and create a very convincing imitation in a very short time.