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LightCraft · In development · checked on the official pages 2026-10-12
LightCraft vs Lightroom: how close it really is
LightCraft is a free, open-source photo library and raw developer modelled on Lightroom. No account, no cloud, no telemetry and no subscription. It runs on macOS, Windows, Linux and in the browser.
By the developers' own count it has about 81% of Lightroom's features, but as a day-to-day replacement they put it nearer 61%, and about 49% for a typical working photographer. Good for JPEG, DNG and most Sony, Panasonic, Fujifilm and Nikon raws on one machine; not yet a full Lightroom swap.
What LightCraft does
LightCraft is the Lightroom entry in ArtCraft's twelve "Crafting Apps", clean-room rebuilds of commercial creative software written in Rust. It covers the two halves of Lightroom: organising a photo library and developing raw files.
- Non-destructive pipeline: scene-referred, wide-gamut, 32-bit float. Your original files are never changed.
- Develop controls: light, color, effects, tone curve, an 8-band color mixer, 3-way color grading wheels and 18 built-in presets.
- Masking: brush, linear and radial gradients, luminance and color ranges, plus sky, subject and background masks.
- Library: albums, ratings, flags, field search and grids built for large catalogs.
- Speed: the developers say the GPU pipeline updates a 24 MP raw in about 4 ms per slider move.
LightCraft vs Lightroom, by the developers' own numbers
The LightCraft team publishes a row-by-row parity checklist against Lightroom. Their headline figures:
| Measure | LightCraft today |
|---|---|
| Lightroom features present | About 81% (core features 98%) |
| As a full day-to-day replacement | About 61% |
| For a typical working photographer | About 49% |
| For casual use | About 64% |
Note the gap between "features present" and "replacement". Most sliders and tools exist; what holds it back is colour accuracy on some cameras, AI tools and whole modules that are not built yet.
Which camera raws it reads
LightCraft decodes raw files with its own Rust decoders: DNG, Canon CR2, Sony ARW, Nikon NEF, Fujifilm RAF (including X-Trans), Panasonic RW2, Pentax PEF and Olympus ORF. It also opens JPEG, PNG, TIFF and WebP, and exports JPEG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, AVIF and DNG.
Two caveats from the README:
- Color calibration: DNG files use their own matrices, but Sony, Nikon, Panasonic, Fujifilm and Canon CR3 raws rely on estimated profiles. A measured calibration database is still missing, so colours may not match Lightroom's camera profiles exactly.
- Some files fall back to previews: compressed Olympus raws and unsupported CR3 variants show their embedded JPEG preview instead of the full sensor data.
The project keeps a per-camera list (docs/raw-parity.md in the repository). Check your camera there before moving a real catalog.
What is still missing
- AI masks and AI denoise: sky and subject selection use classical techniques rather than AI models; AI denoise is in progress and Super Resolution is not started.
- Measured camera color profiles, as above.
- Network libraries: previews over a network share are fast, but developing a raw still pulls the full file over the wire.
- Lightroom extras: on-screen HDR display, video, and the Print, Book and Map modules.
Download and install
Get it from the official LightCraft page or the GitHub releases, either through the ArtCraft Launcher (which also installs and updates the other Crafting Apps) or as a standalone installer. Version 0.6.0 was current when we checked.
- macOS: universal disk image for Apple silicon and Intel.
- Windows: installer or portable zip for 64-bit, 32-bit and ARM64.
- Linux: Flatpak, AppImage, .deb, .rpm or tarball.
- Browser: a WebAssembly build that keeps your library in the browser's storage.
Built for AI agents too
LightCraft ships a command-line tool with an MCP server, so Claude or another agent can drive the library and develop settings directly, either headless on a folder of photos or connected to the running app. For anyone building automated photo workflows, that is a free, scriptable raw engine.
Questions people ask
Is LightCraft free?
Yes. LightCraft is free and open source under the MIT or Apache-2.0 licence, with no account, cloud, telemetry or subscription.
Can LightCraft replace Lightroom?
Partly. The developers estimate about 81% of Lightroom features are present, but put it nearer 61% as a full day-to-day replacement and about 49% for a typical working photographer.
Does LightCraft support my camera's raw files?
It reads DNG, CR2, ARW, NEF, RAF (including X-Trans), RW2, PEF and ORF. Compressed Olympus raws and some CR3 variants fall back to embedded previews. Check docs/raw-parity.md in the GitHub repository for your exact camera.
Does LightCraft have AI masking?
Not yet in the AI sense. Sky, subject and background masks exist but use classical techniques; AI denoise is in progress.
Can I import my Lightroom catalog?
The official pages we checked do not describe importing a Lightroom .lrcat catalog. LightCraft does read and write XMP sidecars, including Camera Raw develop settings, and imports XMP presets, so edits you saved to XMP files can come across when you point it at your photo folders.
Where these facts come from. Features, version numbers and readiness figures were read from each vendor's own pages on 2026-10-12. Open-source projects change fast, so check the linked page before you rely on a detail.
- LightCraft: LightCraft official page
- LightCraft: LightCraft README on GitHub