ArtCraft Guide

VectorCraft Quickstart — the Illustrator Workflow in Ten Minutes

VectorCraft is a free, open-source, pure-Rust reimplementation of the Illustrator workflow — same panels, tools and shortcuts, with exact curve booleans and unlimited undo. Ten minutes gets you from download to a finished vector export.

Quick answer: Download from getartcraft.com, create a document, draw with the Pen, combine with Pathfinder (exact booleans, unlimited undo), import SVG/PDF/.ai, export SVG/PDF/PNG — the Illustrator muscle memory transfers, free and no subscription.

Part of the paid catalog — 1 credit to unlock (one-time, never expires). The PhotoCraft install tutorial is free.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does VectorCraft open Illustrator files?
SVG and PDF (including PDF-compatible .ai) import natively, plus the native .vectorcraft JSON. Modern Illustrator .ai exports are PDF-based, which is the supported path.
Is it fast on large documents?
The README cites ~27ms for 20,000 shapes with 120 fps UI via multi-threaded SIMD rendering.
Can agents drive it?
Yes — every menu, tool gesture, panel and dialog is exposed through a JSON control channel and MCP server.

More tools used in this tutorial

VectorCraft

Open-source Illustrator replacement in pure Rust: Pen, Pathfinder, smart guides, appearance, layers — fast, scriptable, free.

PhotoCraft

Open-source Photoshop replacement in pure Rust: layers, masks, adjustment layers, layer styles, text, vectors, brushes and real PSD files — free, no subscription.

More more tutorials

PhotoCraft install & first launch

Download, install and first-launch PhotoCraft on Windows, macOS or in the browser — with the exact official sources.

EffectCraft quickstart

EffectCraft in ten minutes: compositions, keyframes, 306 effects, expressions, 3D cameras and Lottie export — the AE workflow free.