VectorCraft
Open-source, clean-room take on the Adobe Illustrator workflow, built in pure Rust for desktop and web.
Open source alternative to:
VectorCraft is a vector illustration app that mirrors the Adobe Illustrator workflow — the Pen and Direct Selection tools, Pathfinder curve booleans, the Appearance panel with live effects, clipping masks and text with full character controls — as a free, open-source desktop app written in pure Rust by the ArtCraft team.
Performance is a selling point: rendering is multithreaded SIMD off the UI thread, and a document with 20,000 shapes redraws in roughly 27 milliseconds. Curve booleans are exact rather than approximate, so Illustrator-style Pathfinder operations succeed where other tools fail, and unlimited undo is built on structural snapshots. Documents live in an open, documented JSON format, and interchange is first-class: SVG and SVGZ both ways, PDF and PDF-compatible .ai files import and export, plus PNG, JPEG and WebP raster exports and an Export for Screens workflow.
VectorCraft runs natively on macOS, Windows and Linux with the same UI in the browser, dual-licensed under MIT OR Apache-2.0, and — like its siblings — every menu item, tool gesture and panel can be driven from the command line, a JSON control channel or an MCP server for agentic workflows.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which platforms does VectorCraft run on?
VectorCraft ships native desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Linux and can also be built for the browser from the apps/vectorcraft-web directory using trunk. The desktop and web builds share one Rust codebase and the same UI.
Can VectorCraft open Adobe Illustrator (.ai) files?
Yes — VectorCraft imports PDF-compatible .ai files alongside first-class SVG and PDF, and it can also export in those formats. Its own native .vectorcraft format is documented JSON, so files stay readable and diff-friendly.
What can VectorCraft export?
Raster exports cover PNG, JPEG and WebP, with an Export for Screens workflow for web and app assets. Vector exports include SVG, SVGZ, PDF and the documented native .vectorcraft format.
Can VectorCraft be automated or driven by AI agents?
Yes. Every menu item, tool gesture, panel and dialog is reachable through a JSON control channel, and vectorcraft-cli provides an MCP server plus headless batch runs that open a document and export the result without opening the UI.
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Project Details
Repository details
Updated 10/5/2026, 5:00:19 AM
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VectorCraft vs Inkscape