PhotoCraft Compatibility Hub — OS, GPU, File Formats & Photoshop Ecosystem
Does PhotoCraft run on your hardware? Full compatibility matrices: operating systems, GPU graphics APIs, file format round-trip, brushes, and camera RAW.
Last updated: 2026-10-08
Verified against PhotoCraft v0.3.0. Early-alpha software changes rapidly; rows are continuously updated with upstream releases.
1. Operating Systems Support#
| Platform | Support Status | Distribution & Package Formats |
|---|---|---|
| macOS (Apple Silicon & Intel) | ✅ Supported | DMG installer, CLI zip (-macos-universal), Apple-notarized |
| Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit) | ✅ Supported | MSI/EXE Installer, Portable ZIP (recommended for v0.3.0) |
| Linux (glibc / musl) | ✅ Supported | AppImage, Flatpak, .deb, .rpm, generic tarball (x86_64 & aarch64) |
| FreeBSD 14 (x86_64) | ✅ Supported | Tarball (/usr/local layout); requires Wayland/X11 & Mesa packages |
| Web Browser | ✅ Supported | WebAssembly build with WebGPU/WebGL acceleration |
| Android / iOS | ❌ Not Available | No mobile version exists. See Which PhotoCraft? for unrelated mobile apps sharing the name. |
2. GPU & Graphics APIs#
PhotoCraft relies on the modern Rust wgpu library for GPU composition and rendering. A CPU reference fallback is also built-in.
| Operating System | Primary Graphics API | Notes & Driver Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| macOS | Metal | macOS 12+ recommended for optimal Metal compute pipeline |
| Linux | Vulkan | Requires Vulkan loader (vulkan-loader) and up-to-date GPU drivers (Mesa / NVIDIA) |
| Windows | DirectX 12 | Requires WDDM 2.0+ compatible GPU; auto-fallback to DX11/WARP if unavailable |
| Web Browser | WebGPU | Requires modern Chromium or Safari with WebGPU flag active |
Note on 16/32-bit documents: Starting in v0.2.0+, PhotoCraft automatically falls back to an Rgba16Float display texture if your hardware lacks Rgba32Float render targets, resolving previous black-canvas issues.
3. Image & File Formats Compatibility#
| Format | Read Support | Write Support | Technical Details & Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| PSD / PSB | ✅ | ✅ | Layered support: 307 of 309 official psd-tools test files render identically to Photoshop. Reads adjustment layers, layer masks, blend modes, and PSB (>2GB). Caveat: Saved files carry unmodeled blocks forward but are not byte-identical. |
| Layered TIFF | ✅ | ✅ | Preserves embedded Photoshop layer data across endianness. |
| PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF | ✅ | ✅ | Symmetric 8-bit / 16-bit support with alpha channels. |
| BMP, TGA, ICO, QOI, PNM | ✅ | ✅ | Standard raster image formats supported natively. |
| OpenEXR, Radiance HDR, AVIF | ✅ | ✅ | High Dynamic Range (HDR) floating-point workflows. |
| Apple HEIC | ✅ | ❌ | Supported in official binary builds compiled with the heif feature flag. |
| Camera RAW (Canon, Sony, etc.) | ✅ | — | Reads DNG, Canon CR2, Sony ARW (lossless/compressed), Panasonic RW2, Olympus ORF. |
| Nikon Compressed NEF | ⚠️ Preview | — | Opens embedded high-res preview; clean-room native decoding is pending. |
Native .pcraft | ✅ | ✅ | Fast serialization format native to the Rust engine. |
4. Photoshop Ecosystem & Asset Interoperability#
| Photoshop Feature | Support in PhotoCraft | Details |
|---|---|---|
Photoshop Brushes (.abr) | ✅ | Imports .abr files with stylus pressure, tilt, and rotation. 36 bundled presets. |
Gradients (.grd) | ✅ | Seamless gradient palette imports. |
Patterns (.pat) | ✅ | Import and export supported, including PSD Patt blocks. |
Color LUTs (.cube, .3dl, .look) | ✅ | 3D Color Lookup Tables for non-destructive color grading. |
| ICC Color Management | ✅ | Pure-Rust color engine: sRGB, Display P3, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto, CMYK, soft proofing (⌘Y). |
Native Plugins (.8BF) | ❌ | Not supported by design. C/C++ plugin hosting is excluded for memory safety and cross-platform stability. |
| WASM Plugins | ✅ | Sandboxed WebAssembly plugin ecosystem accessible via Filter → Plug-ins. |
| Shortcuts & Tool Parity | ⚠️ Partial (~85%) | Photoshop muscle memory preserved (⌘J, ⇧⌘D, ⌘K, ⌘T). About 20 niche tools currently pending implementation. |