Developer builds free Adobe Creative Cloud alternatives using Claude Opus 5.5

Introduction

Software developer Brandon Thomas has released seven free, open source alternatives to Adobe's creative applications using Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5. The apps recreate interfaces and tools found in Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, After Effects, InDesign, and Acrobat Pro.

Background

Thomas described the projects as clean room replacements written in Rust, with WebAssembly versions available for browser use. The approach aims to reproduce software functionality without directly copying its source code.

Development

Thomas initially promised complete feature parity within a month. He later moderated that forecast, saying reaching 99% parity would take longer but could be measured in months rather than years. The apps are offered under MIT and Apache licenses. Thomas said development would be funded through paid access to Artcraft's existing visual AI tools, which are available inside the applications alongside third party models.

Motivation

Thomas attributed the project partly to frustration with Adobe's cancellation fees. Thomas, who says he has roughly a decade of experience working on large Rust projects, said he has coded exclusively with AI tools since February.

Conclusion

The current apps offer an early test of Thomas's broader argument that AI can make recreating established software faster and more accessible. Their familiar interfaces demonstrate the speed of AI assisted development, while their unfinished functionality leaves Thomas's promises of matching Adobe's capabilities unproven.