ArtCraft Launcher

One place to install, update and open every app in the Craft App Suite, rebuilt in pure Rust.
PhotoCraft, LightCraft, FilmCraft, DesignCraft, VectorCraft, PdfCraft, EffectCraft, WordCraft,
DeckCraft, GridCraft, CADCraft and SoundCraft: the right build for your computer, kept up to date.

Download ArtCraft Launcher · ArtCraft · The Craft App Suite

Note

ArtCraft is a community of artists from all walks of life. Painters, photographers, filmmakers, illustrators, designers, animators, hobbyists, and people who picked up a pencil last week. If you make things, you're one of us. Come say hi on Discord.

What it does · Features · Downloads · Build from source · Craft App Suite · Discord

What it does

The Craft apps each ship their own builds for every platform. ArtCraft Launcher saves you from hunting through a dozen release pages: it lists every app in the suite, shows which ones you have and which version, installs the right build for your operating system and processor, and tells you when an update is out. It is a small native app that can sit in your menu bar or system tray.

Features

📦 Install in one click Picks the right download for your OS and CPU (DMG, MSI, AppImage, .deb, .rpm and more), checks it against the release's SHA-256 checksums and installs it.

🔄 Stay up to date Checks each app's GitHub releases and updates the ones you have. A notification tells you when there's something new.

🧭 Always at hand Opens any Craft app from one window, or from the tray and menu-bar icon. Native egui, no Electron, no web view.

The web version shows the same catalog in the browser, with the latest download for each app.

Where apps are installed

ArtCraft Launcher installs each app where your system normally keeps applications, using the app's official release package, so an app installed by the launcher is the same as one you installed by hand (and the launcher finds apps you installed yourself):

System	Where	How
macOS	/Applications/<App>.app	Copied from the signed, notarized release DMG
Windows	C:\Program Files\<App>	The release MSI, through Windows Installer (with Start menu entry and Apps & features entry)
Linux	/usr/bin, /usr/share/applications	The release .deb (apt) or .rpm (dnf, zypper), with your system's password prompt. Without those, a Flatpak, or an AppImage in ~/Applications
FreeBSD	/usr/local	The release tree, with a password prompt (polkit); ~/.local when polkit isn't installed

Updates use the same format an app was installed with. Every download is checked against the release's published SHA-256 before it is installed, and a running app is never replaced.

Downloads

Download the build for your computer from the latest release, or browse all releases. Every release has a SHA256SUMS.txt to check the files against. <ver> is the version number, for example 0.1.0.

Windows (10 and 11)

File	What it is
artcraft-launcher-<ver>-windows-x64.msi	Installer for most PCs (Intel and AMD, 64-bit). Installs for the current user, no admin rights needed
artcraft-launcher-<ver>-windows-arm64.msi	Installer for Windows on Arm (Snapdragon and other Arm PCs)
artcraft-launcher-<ver>-windows-x86.msi	Installer for 32-bit Windows
artcraft-launcher-<ver>-windows-{x64,arm64,x86}-portable.zip	No install: unzip and run artcraft-launcher.exe. Keeps its settings in the folder

macOS (11 Big Sur or later)

File	What it is
artcraft-launcher-<ver>-macos-universal.dmg	Universal app for Apple silicon and Intel Macs, signed and notarized. Drag ArtCraft Launcher to Applications

Linux (x86_64 and aarch64; glibc 2.35 or newer, e.g. Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, Fedora 36+)

File	What it is
artcraft-launcher-<ver>-linux-{x86_64,aarch64}.AppImage	Runs on almost any distro without installing; chmod +x and run. The .AppImage.zsync beside it lets AppImageUpdate fetch only what changed
artcraft-launcher-<ver>-linux-{x86_64,aarch64}.deb	Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS: sudo apt install ./artcraft-launcher-…deb
artcraft-launcher-<ver>-linux-{x86_64,aarch64}.rpm	Fedora, openSUSE, RHEL: sudo dnf install ./artcraft-launcher-…rpm
artcraft-launcher-<ver>-linux-{x86_64,aarch64}.flatpak	Flatpak bundle: flatpak install --user artcraft-launcher-…flatpak. Inside the sandbox the launcher can download apps but has limited power to install them on the host; prefer the AppImage, .deb or .rpm
artcraft-launcher-<ver>-linux-{x86_64,aarch64}.tar.gz	Plain tree (bin/, share/) for everyone else and for scripts

The tray icon uses the StatusNotifierItem standard: KDE, Xfce, Cinnamon and most other desktops show it; on GNOME install the AppIndicator extension.

FreeBSD (14, x86_64)

File	What it is
artcraft-launcher-<ver>-freebsd-x86_64.tar.gz	A tree laid out like /usr/local

pkg install libxkbcommon wayland libX11 libXcursor libXrandr libXi libxcb mesa-libs vulkan-loader fontconfig freetype2
tar -xzf artcraft-launcher-<ver>-freebsd-x86_64.tar.gz --strip-components 1 -C /usr/local
artcraft-launcher

Web (WebAssembly)

File	What it is
artcraft-launcher-web-<ver>.zip	The catalog as a static site you can host anywhere; see packaging/web/README.md

Build from source

You need a recent stable Rust (1.90 or newer). On Linux, install the windowing headers first (Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev libx11-dev libxrandr-dev libxi-dev libgl1-mesa-dev).

git clone https://github.com/storytold/craft-launcher
cd craft-launcher
cargo run --release -p artcraft-launcher   # the desktop app
cargo xtask ci                             # fmt, clippy, tests and the wasm check

The web version builds with trunk:

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown
cd apps/artcraft-launcher-web && trunk serve

New contributors and AI agents: start with AGENTS.md. Release packaging lives in packaging/ and .github/workflows/release.yml.

Important

Status: ArtCraft Launcher is new and in early alpha. Expect rough edges, and please file issues (include your OS and which app you were installing) or tell us on Discord.

The Craft App Suite

ArtCraft Launcher installs the Craft App Suite: free, open-source creative tools from the ArtCraft team, each written from scratch in Rust and each able to stand on its own.

	App	What it's for	Code	Learn more
	PhotoCraft	Image editing: layers, masks, type and real PSD files	GitHub	Website
	VectorCraft	Vector illustration	GitHub	Website
	FilmCraft	Video editing, color and sound	GitHub	Website
	LightCraft	Photo library and raw development	GitHub	Website
	PdfCraft	Reading, organizing and protecting PDFs	GitHub	Website
	EffectCraft	Motion graphics and visual effects	GitHub	Website
	DesignCraft	Page layout and publishing	GitHub	Website
	GridCraft	Spreadsheets and data	GitHub	Website
	WordCraft	Word processing and documents	GitHub	Releases
	DeckCraft	Presentations and slide decks	GitHub	Releases
	CADCraft	Computer-aided design	GitHub	Releases
	SoundCraft	Audio recording and editing	GitHub	Releases

And ArtCraft itself, our AI image and video studio for artists who want real control.

Come make things with us

Our Discord is where artists of every kind hang out: people who paint, shoot, draw, cut film, set type, and people still figuring out what they like to make. Share what you're working on, ask for help, tell us what's broken, or tell us what you wish these tools could do. Whatever your medium and however long you've been at it, you're welcome here.

discord.gg/artcraft · getartcraft.com · The Craft App Suite · ArtCraft Launcher

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License and credits

ArtCraft Launcher is dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, at your option. Copyright (c) 2026 ArtCraft Team and the ArtCraft Launcher contributors. Required notices are in NOTICE.

Bundled fonts, icons, images and other assets keep their own open licenses; each one is listed with its author, source and license in ATTRIBUTION.md.

The app icons of the Craft apps (assets/app-icons/) are each app's own icon, copied unmodified from its repository and licensed like that app (MIT OR Apache-2.0).

The ArtCraft name, wordmark and logos in docs/brand/ are trademarks of the ArtCraft Team and are not covered by this license. They may be used only unmodified, and only as part of this repository and ArtCraft Launcher, under docs/brand/LICENSE-brand.txt. Forks and modified versions must remove them.

_{Adobe, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Lightroom, Acrobat, After Effects and InDesign are trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. ArtCraft Launcher is an independent, open-source project and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Adobe Inc.; these names are used only to describe the workflows it is compatible with.}

_{Made by the ArtCraft team and community.}