PhotoCraft vs Photoshop: 10 Real Jobs. It Scored 7/10

Описание: PhotoCraft vs Photoshop: I gave the free, open-source PhotoCraft 10 real Photoshop jobs on the same rules, from an Instagram crop to a layered PSD round trip and Generative Fill, and scored every one. Result: 7/10. 6 passes, 2 partials, 2 fails.

I'm a security engineer and I test free apps before you install them. Nobody paid for this. The voice is AI; every test, capture and result is real and done by me.

CHAPTERS
00:00 10 real Photoshop jobs, scored
00:32 Jobs 1–4: the everyday edits
02:44 Jobs 5–7: the smart tools
04:16 Jobs 8–10: the pro jobs
06:58 🔒 Security Check
08:49 The final score

THE 10 JOBS (PASS = 1, PARTIAL = 0.5, FAIL = 0)
1. Crop + resize for Instagram 4:5 (1080x1350): PASS
2. Bold text title (live type layer): PASS
3. Curves adjustment layer on a flat photo: PASS
4. Spot Healing on a dusty 1928 print: PASS
5. Blend two photos with a layer mask + gradient: PASS
6. Remove the background of a portrait (Select Subject): FAIL. Cut off the top of the head and an arm; all 3 portraits I tried broke, an eagle on plain sky came out clean.
7. Remove a lamp post (Remove tool): PARTIAL. Pole gone, grey smear over the houses behind it.
8. Batch: resize + watermark 21 photos: PARTIAL. Batch ran 21 files in about 45 s, but a recorded resize squashes every photo to the same shape (use File, Automate, Fit Image) and a recorded text watermark wrote 0 files with no error on screen.
9. Layered PSD round trip (edit text, move a layer, save, reopen): PASS. Text still editable, effects kept, about 0.2% of pixels changed outside my edits; 10 of 13 raster-mask records dropped (the shapes still render).
10. Generative Fill: FAIL. Not in the app (command search: No matching commands).

PSD TEST AT SCALE
The PhotoCraft README says re-saving keeps the render of 307 of the 309 psd-tools test files. I converted all 316 PSD/PSB files in the psd-tools test suite (MIT, commit d6efd7b) with photocraft-cli and compared them with psd-tools: 253/316 intact on a strict check (opens, same layer count and canvas, at most 1% of pixels off by more than 8 levels), 268/316 judged on the picture alone. Different file set and a stricter check, so not a direct comparison; I could not reproduce 307/309. No Photoshop was used to check.

SECURITY CHECK (one Ubuntu 22.04 virtual machine, no GPU, 17 Oct 2026)
Network: every job ran under strace plus a capture of all network traffic, about 16 minutes, 11 recordings: 0 outbound connections from PhotoCraft. Select Subject and the Remove tool run locally, no model download.
Ports: by default it opens no network port. The automation/agent port only exists if you start it with --control (or photocraft-cli serve), listens on 127.0.0.1 only and requires a token. The MCP server runs over stdio.
Files: in my home folder it wrote only its settings, its log and its window layout (plus my exports).
Photo location: I planted a fake GPS position and camera serial number in a JPG. Save As, Export As (even with Metadata set to None) and photocraft-cli convert KEPT them. Only Quick Export as PNG and Save for Web stripped them. Check a file before you post it: exiftool -gps:all -serialnumber yourphoto.jpg

HOW TO GET IT PROPERLY
Download only from the official release page: github.com/storytold/photocraft (Releases). Check the SHA-256 checksum against SHA256SUMS.txt from the same release (how-to in my 13-app video).

VERSION AND LIMITS (honest)
PhotoCraft 0.9.0 (14 Oct 2026), Linux, software rendering (no GPU), one run per job, clicks chosen by me. Photoshop was not run: each job is compared with what Adobe's own help pages say Photoshop does. Photoshop price: US$22.99/mo, annual plan billed monthly (adobe.com, 17 Oct 2026). PhotoCraft calls itself early alpha and ships new versions every few days: re-check after big updates.

Test photos: public domain / CC0 from Wikimedia Commons (US Fish and Wildlife Service, NASA, National Park Service and others; full list in my notes). PSD files: psd-tools test suite (MIT).

#PhotoCraft #Photoshop #ArtCraft