VectorCraft Download — Every Build for Windows, macOS and Linux (v0.12.0)

Which VectorCraft build should you download?

The same rule as its siblings applies: on Windows take the x64 MSI unless you specifically cannot install software, in which case the x64 portable zip unpacks and runs with no registry changes. On macOS there is a single universal DMG covering Apple silicon and Intel, signed and notarized. Everything else maps to specific hardware or specific Linux packaging preferences.

One number worth noting before you start: the macOS DMG is 130.1 MB and the Windows 64-bit MSI is 96.7 MB — larger than the word processor and image editor in the same family, because a vector engine with tracing, effects and a full PDF writer carries more code. If you are on a slow connection, the browser build is 21.5 MB and skips the install entirely.

The version gap: v0.12.0 on GitHub, v0.9.0 on the official site

Worth knowing before you click. On 2026-10-16 this guide fetched getartcraft.com/apps/vectorcraft and its download buttons pointed at the v0.9.0 assets, while the project's GitHub releases were at v0.12.0 — published the same day. Between those two versions sit v0.10.0 and v0.11.0. The official site page is stale rather than wrong; it will presumably be regenerated, but downloading from it today gets you a build several iterations behind.

What the gap actually contains matters for a vector app: the v0.12.0 release notes describe a shared PDF writing and reading layer with guarded import, crash fixes for malformed PDF dictionaries during nesting and ink/font scans, a dimension tool, smooth vector shading on Revolve with continuous end caps, Apple Pencil and touch input with palm rejection in the web build, and legacy .ai export that preserves groups and layers. For anyone opening client PDFs and .ai files, those are the fixes you want — which is why the links on this page go to the GitHub release rather than copying the site's buttons.

What you actually get: VectorCraft in one paragraph

VectorCraft is the Illustrator-shaped member of the ArtCraft family: pen and direct selection, shape booleans, snapping guides, an appearance panel, gradients and blends, live editable effects, image tracing with 12 presets, and export to SVG, PDF, PDF-compatible .ai, EPS, PNG, JPEG and WebP. The project's own status notes are unusually specific — it reports roughly 88% of Illustrator 2026's menu items, tools, effects and formats present, feature depth around 75%, and an estimated 65% 'ready for real work' for a mainstream illustrator.

It also lists what is missing rather than hiding it: reliable round-trip of Illustrator's own .ai files (layer structure in real files), 3D and Materials beyond the initial live Revolve, about half of the Photoshop-style raster effects, and scripting. It is genuinely usable for everyday vector work today; treat professional handoff of .ai files with suspicion.

After downloading: graphics settings and Linux display notes

Launch is unremarkable — no account, no signup, no license dialog. Open an SVG, PDF or .ai-compatible file from the File menu to confirm formats round-trip before you invest time in a real project.

Two platform notes come from the project's own documentation. On a laptop with two graphics processors, VectorCraft renders on the power-saving integrated chip by default on Windows and macOS — switch it under Preferences › Performance › Graphics Processor and restart if you want the discrete GPU. On Linux, native Wayland does not deliver dropped files in the current winit version, so file drag-and-drop needs the X11 (XWayland) display server; the same setting affects some drawing tablets on KDE Plasma 6.3 with Wayland.

• Two GPUs and sluggish rendering → Preferences › Performance › Graphics Processor, then restart.
• Wayland and drag-and-drop broken → set Linux Display Server to X11 (XWayland), or launch with WAYLAND_DISPLAY= vectorcraft.
• Drawing tablet pen moves the cursor but nothing draws on KDE Plasma 6.3 Wayland → this is a known issue (#491); use XWayland.
• Arch Linux → community AUR packages exist; the project does not publish to the AUR itself.

Verify the download before you install it

Every VectorCraft release ships a SHA256SUMS.txt with a checksum for each artifact, linked directly from this page. The sizes listed here are the real published byte counts, so a truncated download is visible immediately — if your DMG reads 90 MB instead of 130.1 MB, it did not arrive whole.

Provenance is the second check: installers and executables are code-signed, macOS builds are signed and notarized, and github.com/storytold is the only official source. Repackaged downloads on third-party portals are not from the project and should be avoided, especially while the app is this young.

Build from source instead

Building needs Rust 1.90 or newer. The README's quick start is git clone https://github.com/storytold/vectorcraft, cd vectorcraft, then cargo run --release -p vectorcraft for the desktop app — plus separate crates for the CLI, the MCP server, headless batch export and the web build. Building from source gives you the main branch rather than the tagged release, which is useful if you are chasing a bug that only exists between releases.

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