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Comparisons

LightCraft vs Lightroom: RAW Photo Workflow Compared

Updated 2026-10-11

LightCraft is an open-source, local-first Lightroom reimplementation in Rust. The README estimates about 61% parity with Lightroom for the whole product.

What matches

  • Library with albums, ratings, flags and search; copy, paste and sync of edits.
  • Non-destructive editing with tone curve, 3-way colour grading and brush/gradient/luminance/colour/sky/subject masks.
  • RAW formats from Canon, Sony, Nikon, Fujifilm (including X-Trans), Panasonic, Leica, Pentax, Olympus and Samsung, plus DNG.
  • Photo merge for HDR and panorama; XMP sidecars; GPU rendering.
  • No account, cloud or telemetry.

Where Lightroom wins

  • Camera colour calibration - most cameras use a neutral matrix in LightCraft.
  • AI-powered masks, denoise and super resolution (LightCraft's are heuristics or in progress).
  • Cloud sync, mobile apps, print, book and map modules.

Which to pick

Photographers who want a free, local catalog and develop pipeline can try LightCraft on a copy of a shoot. Anyone who depends on cloud sync, mobile editing or AI denoise should wait.

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Edit an image

No install, first generation free.

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Common questions

Does LightCraft read Canon CR3 files?
Yes, CR2 and CR3 are listed, though some CR3 variants fall back to embedded JPEG previews.

Keep reading

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