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04 / 13 · RAW catalogue and development

LightCraft

LightCraft is the non-destructive photography workflow of the suite: folder-based browsing, tone and HSL controls, local masks and lens profiles, with no catalogue synchronising through someone else's cloud.
Replaces
Adobe Lightroom
Licence
Apache-2.0
Latest release
v0.9.1
Released
2026-10-18
Source
storytold

In the maintainer's words

“LightCraft: An open-source non-destructive photo editor written by scratch in pure Rust”— repository description, github.com/storytold/lightcraft

What LightCraft is built to do

  • Folder-based catalogue with non-destructive edits
  • Tone curve, HSL, colour grading
  • Local adjustment brushes and gradients
  • Lens calibration and camera profiles
  • Batch develop and export presets
  • Cull-and-rate workflow with keyboard filters
  • Lightroom catalogue import, XMP sidecars and DNG export

These are the workflow areas the project targets. Implementation status changes release to release — confirm against the repository before relying on a specific behaviour.

What changed in LightCraft v0.9.1

  • Lightroom catalogue import results were corrected, with lower CPU and memory use while importing.
  • DNG export and Convert / Copy as DNG write the colour a raw without matrices opens with.
  • XMP sidecar writes are retried when they fail, and radial masks keep their inside/outside meaning from Lightroom.
  • Lossless (SOF3) JPEGs decode correctly; packaging now advertises HEIF images.

Summarised from the release notes upstream published on 2026-10-18. Read the full list on the LightCraft v0.9.1 release page ↗.

Download LightCraft

LightCraft is distributed by its own maintainers through GitHub releases. Nothing here is re-hosted, mirrored or repackaged, which is exactly why these links stay current when a new build lands.

LightCraft v0.9.1 · upstream GitHub releases

All release assets ↗
  • macOS UniversalDMGGet
  • Windows x64MSIGet
  • Windows ARM64MSIGet
  • Windows x86 (32-bit)MSIGet
  • Windows x64 portableZIPGet
  • Linux x86_64 AppImageAppImageGet
  • Linux x86_64 debdebGet
  • Linux x86_64 rpmrpmGet
  • Linux x86_64 flatpakflatpakGet
  • Linux aarch64 debdebGet
  • Linux riscv64 debdebGet
  • FreeBSD x86_64TAR.GZGet
  • Command-line build (macOS)ZIPGet
  • Browser buildZIPGet
  • SHA-256 sumsTXTGet

Files are served by GitHub from the upstream repository — this project is not distributed through this site. Verify the download against SHA256SUMS.txt in the same release.

Platforms: macOS Universal · Windows x64 / ARM64 / x86 · Linux x86_64 / aarch64 / riscv64 · FreeBSD x86_64

LightCraft vs Adobe Lightroom

AspectLightCraftAdobe Lightroom
PriceFree, Apache-2.0Photography plan subscription
Where photos liveYour driveDrive + cloud sync
Library scopeDesktop developDesktop + web + mobile
Camera supportGrowing listBroadest coverage
SourceOpenProprietary

Source, licence and building

The repository carries the licence text, issue tracker and release notes. Apache-2.0 permits commercial use, modification and redistribution with attribution notices preserved. If you prefer to compile it yourself, clone the repo and follow its README for the pinned Rust toolchain.

Open repository ↗Official project page ↗Suite-wide comparison

LightCraft FAQ

Does LightCraft import Lightroom catalogues?

Yes — catalogue import exists upstream, and v0.9.1 corrected its import results while reducing the CPU and memory it takes; radial masks keep their inside/outside meaning from Lightroom. Treat it as a migration to verify, not a formality: keep the Lightroom catalogue as reference, re-develop a sample shoot in LightCraft, and compare before committing the library.

Is it a DAM too?

It is a catalogue and develop tool, not a full digital-asset-management system with client portals.

Can I use it with PhotoCraft?

Yes — the intended workflow is develop in LightCraft, pixel-level finishing in PhotoCraft.

Continue

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