It's just slop. Tried to install it via flatpak. It has flatpak instructions in the readme. It does not ship the flatpak files it references in the readme.
Missing and incomplete features, missing templates, presets and it's likely to be abandoned as issues will start to pile up.
The user experience is also not great with professional looking AI apps, I've just tried PhotoCraft and couldn't paste an image from the clipboard. Clone stamp doesn't have a live update, etc.
Another catch is that it's... PhotoShop. I'm not particularly a fan of the whole workflow. Creatives learned to live and work with it over the decades, so it works, but it's not really an intuitive tool.
I'd recommend looking into Affinity which is a merged version of PS+Illustrator. The product feels like it at least tries to be a little different. It's also free.
Try lopsy.art. I've been at it for 6 months. Updating and building out features almost daily. It's a Rust/WASM engine too. Also open source. github.com/theseamusjames/lopsy.art.
Though it was done roughly 1-2 months ago, a very busy work / private life kept me from finally releasing it. Interesting to see this being released on the same day. Though Pixellect has a different mission. Its not a clean room photoshop clone but more between Pixelmator and Photoshop and also features (I think) a bit more AI Integration. However Photocraft looks much more complete in terms of typical Photoshop features.
It was only 4 months ago that AI development was in question because there were no vibe-coded Photoshops. Here they are, and I think more will come.
Interesting but for photography at least, there's a massive hole: RAW support. What they've implemented is very limited and basic, nothing like parity with Lightroom or Photoshop. Just try loading a RAW photo into Lightroom/Photoshop and put the window next to Lightcraft/Photocraft - the results are completely different and not in a good way. Lightcraft's image looks like an amateur attempt at RAW processing from first principles, without any of the most basic colour profiles and adjustments that Lightroom applies. Photocraft doesn't even offer RAW processing, it just dumps the raster straight in.
I'd treat this as completely new, far from complete software heavily inspired by the Adobe Suite, rather than a "port".
But maybe folks who use workflows that don't involve RAW photos have better luck.
I find it awfully funny that your response to someone creating the entire Adobe software suite in a day is “the colours aren’t rich enough for my liking”
Unlimited slop works! Title kinda misleading (at least appears so to me). No rev. eng. (so "cleanroom" to be relevant) takes place. "ACS clone" would be more appropriate.
In two of its test cases, it changes the PSD on save so much that an export render differs. No RAW support. No folder sync or plugins. Limited brush support. It’s like the author never actually used their vibe-coded output and just decided it looked good enough.
this sounds exactly what I'd expect from v0.3.0 of a software.
a lot of rough edges of this program I see are actually features I never even used myself in photoshop-like program that much, so if I was doing that kind of AI rewrite I'd also miss polishing them. publicly releasing this right now is exactly the move author needs to get human feedback from people who actually use these features daily
One of the highlights in this for me is that we are starting to see clean room ports of software that companies would actually sue to protect.
Clearly the old "nobody would re-implement this" protection no longer works. I think we may stand on the brink of software losing a lot of it's magical DMCA protections, because it no longer matters. Or worse, the law becomes stricter.
I wonder if we're entering an era of boundless open-source clones and variants of proprietary software, from operating systems to games, products and services, perhaps even clones of entire companies.
I’m putting personal attention and tokens towards replacing Pioneer / Alpha Theta Rekordbox (music management for DJs).
The software is old and clunky, has a ton of features I don’t use, and can’t customize what I do use. And it’s enshittified with ads and popups and an expensive monthly subscription.
One big motivation for me is that it is FUN to rebuilt it with a coding agent. I’m learning a ton and the custom tools actually work.
Post AI - What is the future of making money with software? Desktop apps or SaaS? This certainly also would cut into the bottom line of software companies so they won't exist and then these companies are supposed to be the prime customers of the AI companies.
Can't understand what's happening.
PS: Anyone badmouthing the above rewrite is not understanding what's happening. Check back a year later for featur parity.
> PS: Anyone badmouthing the above rewrite is not understanding what's happening. Check back a year later for featur parity.
I would be pleasantly surprised if the author didn't move on from this project in a year. (Edit: They're aiming for feature parity in a month, so I guess we might be finding out sooner than that.)
There are several of these clones floating around now. Who is furthest along in functionality and community support? Have any of these attracted a community of contributors?
Wow! This actually gives a pretty promising alternative to GIMP on Linux. I was resigned in my fate to just deal with the awkwardness of GIMP and Inkscape after years of the creative cloud suite. It is clearly missing much at the moment, but if they can keep going this would be amazing. All packaged as AppImages so no need for the persistent junk running on the system.
I was able to use Photocraft and Claude to do something that the plain generative image AI in ChatGPT couldn't. I had two photos of the same location, one with 3 people, one with 1 person. I took the photos with the people strategically standing where the photos could be easily be combined without the people interfering with one another. A month ago, I tried using ChatGPT to combine the people into one photo. Its attempts never looked right. It always changed the faces of everyone. Today, I tried using Claude and this Photocraft MCP server to do this. After 3 quick tries over 5 minutes, it did it. The 2 additional tries were to have it fix some lighting differences. Thanks to the person who created this!
Yes, I could have definitely done it myself, but that's besides the point. It wasn't important/urgent enough for me to spend 20-30 minutes to do it (yet). But I was curious enough to play with this to have it done this way.
That being said, I see at least one massive problem with all those Rust "clean" room <x> <y> and DHH — Rust allows to iterate too fast in somewhat safe fashion. Sounds cool, right? However, that crates a gap between humans and machines (agents) in understanding what's right and wrong which leads to unmaintainable software.
I'd love to see more "clean" room <y> using C/C++/Zig. It would be slower and probably less "safe", but at least humans can keep up.
44 comments
[ 0.25 ms ] story [ 49.6 ms ] threadhttps://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)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49922904
No doubt it’ll get better in time.
The user experience is also not great with professional looking AI apps, I've just tried PhotoCraft and couldn't paste an image from the clipboard. Clone stamp doesn't have a live update, etc.
I'd recommend looking into Affinity which is a merged version of PS+Illustrator. The product feels like it at least tries to be a little different. It's also free.
I think there are about a dozen of these now.
Though it was done roughly 1-2 months ago, a very busy work / private life kept me from finally releasing it. Interesting to see this being released on the same day. Though Pixellect has a different mission. Its not a clean room photoshop clone but more between Pixelmator and Photoshop and also features (I think) a bit more AI Integration. However Photocraft looks much more complete in terms of typical Photoshop features.
It was only 4 months ago that AI development was in question because there were no vibe-coded Photoshops. Here they are, and I think more will come.
I'd treat this as completely new, far from complete software heavily inspired by the Adobe Suite, rather than a "port".
But maybe folks who use workflows that don't involve RAW photos have better luck.
That tracks.
So it's the Omarchy of Adobe-like software?
Oh the times we live in.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49958850
a lot of rough edges of this program I see are actually features I never even used myself in photoshop-like program that much, so if I was doing that kind of AI rewrite I'd also miss polishing them. publicly releasing this right now is exactly the move author needs to get human feedback from people who actually use these features daily
Clearly the old "nobody would re-implement this" protection no longer works. I think we may stand on the brink of software losing a lot of it's magical DMCA protections, because it no longer matters. Or worse, the law becomes stricter.
I’m putting personal attention and tokens towards replacing Pioneer / Alpha Theta Rekordbox (music management for DJs).
The software is old and clunky, has a ton of features I don’t use, and can’t customize what I do use. And it’s enshittified with ads and popups and an expensive monthly subscription.
One big motivation for me is that it is FUN to rebuilt it with a coding agent. I’m learning a ton and the custom tools actually work.
I know I’m not alone.
https://deadca7.com/
Can't understand what's happening.
PS: Anyone badmouthing the above rewrite is not understanding what's happening. Check back a year later for featur parity.
I would be pleasantly surprised if the author didn't move on from this project in a year. (Edit: They're aiming for feature parity in a month, so I guess we might be finding out sooner than that.)
1. it's a rust based desktop app and not based on electron.
2. it's cross platform - available on win, mac, linux and wasm.
3. it's a suite of apps and not just a photoshop clone.
4. it's free and open source.
5. it looks good.
6. it's amassing a community of contributors.
There are other photoshop clones around but none with the ambition and scale of this project.
1: Create new document from image data on the clipboard
2: Custom grid options (set width AND height of grid cells, offsets, etc)
I just wish I could still buy a 'Creative Suite' one off and keep using it instead of having to subscribe to these apps.
Yes, I could have definitely done it myself, but that's besides the point. It wasn't important/urgent enough for me to spend 20-30 minutes to do it (yet). But I was curious enough to play with this to have it done this way.
That being said, I see at least one massive problem with all those Rust "clean" room <x> <y> and DHH — Rust allows to iterate too fast in somewhat safe fashion. Sounds cool, right? However, that crates a gap between humans and machines (agents) in understanding what's right and wrong which leads to unmaintainable software.
I'd love to see more "clean" room <y> using C/C++/Zig. It would be slower and probably less "safe", but at least humans can keep up.
Let's see where that "echelon" in 18 months ;)