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Where PhotoCraft falls short of Photoshop

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-12 · Change: minor (refreshed against main: G2, G5, G7, G9, G10, G13, G14, G17 items that landed; G10: DPX read and write, #1049; G4: checkbox-only Brush Settings rows; G11: Load/Save Actions .atn landed, AUTO-219-2 partial; G5: hold-a-key spring-loaded tools landed, #2672) · Target: Adobe Photoshop 2026

Every known shortfall against Photoshop 2026 (27.11.0), one entry each, ranked by user impact on the way to beta. This is the work list agents pick from: take the highest-ranked entry that nobody is working on, and when you close part of one, update its evidence and estimate here and the matching parity doc. Numbers come from target-app-parity.md; checklist ids (TOOL-…, FILE-…, UI-…) are rows in scorecard.md; #n are GitHub issues.

No gap blocks alpha: the alpha gate passes. "Blocks beta" marks what stands between alpha and beta.

Hours are Opus 5.5 agent-hours, one agent working sequentially, including tests. Human marks what an agent can't finish alone.

Summary

# Gap Kind Impact Estimate Parity doc
G1 PSD fidelity and Photoshop acceptance file format blocks beta 150–250 h file-format-parity
G2 Interactive performance performance blocks beta 200–350 h scorecard
G3 User-reported bug backlog stability, UI blocks beta 250–400 h target-app-parity
G4 Brush feel UI / painting high 100–180 h brush-parity
G5 Transform, handles and modifiers UI high 60–110 h ui-parity
G6 Missing tools (12) features high 60–100 h ui-parity
G7 Workspaces shown as parameter dialogs features high 80–140 h target-app-parity
G8 Type depth features high 120–200 h target-app-parity
G9 Panels, preferences and workspace UI medium-high 150–250 h ui-parity
G10 Missing and partial file formats file format medium 120–220 h file-format-parity
G11 Actions and scripting ecosystem medium 120–200 h target-app-parity
G12 Pen tablets and display hardware hardware medium 80–150 h hardware-parity
G13 Languages: Hindi, Arabic, Vietnamese, RTL, engine messages localization medium 80–140 h + human localization-parity
G14 Camera Raw depth features, formats medium 120–200 h file-format-parity
G15 AI and generative features AI medium (high for some users) 300–600 h + human target-app-parity
G16 Plug-in compatibility (.8BF, UXP) ecosystem medium 250–450 h + human target-app-parity
G17 Platforms and distribution platforms low-medium 30–60 h + human scorecard

Feature gaps

G1. PSD fidelity and Photoshop acceptance

  • Missing: PSDs we write are not always accepted by Photoshop, and Photoshop-authored files don't always render as Photoshop renders them.
  • Evidence: corpus floors (crates/io/tests/corpus.rs, scorecard): Photoshop-authored oracles 133/256 (52%), io corpus 146/170 (86%), psd-tools 236/309 (76%); round trips ~100% within the corpus. Smart-filter re-render matches 5/30. User reports: a PSD with text layers re-saved unmodified would not reopen (#2374, closed 2026-10-10), Photoshop 26.6 cannot reopen our files (#1281), "PSD not opening in Photoshop" (#2469), a CS2-era smart object unavailable (#2465), PSB smart object blank (#1764), perspective placed layers flattened (#579), PSB > 4 GB fails on Windows (#375). No test opens our exports in a third-party editor (FILE-216-4).
  • Impact: PSD is the format professionals exchange. Beta requires it to be reliable.
  • Estimate: 150–250 h. Human: opening exports in Photoshop on the owner's Mac (or a scripted check there) is the only real oracle.

G6. Missing tools

  • Missing (4 of 68): Color Replacement (engine command exists), Art History Brush, Add Anchor Point, Delete Anchor Point. Convert Point landed (#3204). Freeform Pen and Curvature Pen landed (#1054); Color Sampler landed (#1046, view.colorSamplers.*); Horizontal and Vertical Type Mask landed (#1055, type.createSelection); Perspective Crop landed (#1043, image.perspectiveCrop); Frame landed (#2914).
  • Evidence: Tool enum (crates/ui-egui/src/state.rs) against the 67 <tool> entries of Photoshop's Default Keyboard Shortcuts.kys plus Remove, Triangle and Curvature Pen.
  • Impact: users look for them by name and shortcut; several are daily tools for designers.
  • Estimate: 60–100 h (2–9 h each, per the calibration).

G7. Workspaces shown as parameter dialogs

  • Missing: Select and Mask workspace layout (TOOL-214-1, Refine Hair #2671; its view modes preview live since #1754, Refine Edge Brush #2972); Content-Aware Fill workspace with a paintable sampling area (TOOL-214-15); Vanishing Point plane editor (TOOL-214-14); Content-Aware Move's live preview of the result (TOOL-213-4; Transform On Drop and Content-Aware Scale through the transform box, TOOL-214-7, are done).
  • Evidence: scorecard rows above, all partial or missing.
  • Impact: these are the tools retouchers and compositors use daily; a slider dialog is not a substitute.
  • Estimate: 80–140 h.

G8. Type depth

  • Missing: type on a path (TYPE-218-1), paragraph direction UI (TYPE-218-2), complex-script fallback fonts and golden tests (TYPE-218-3), OpenType Numerals and Stylistic Sets submenus (TYPE-218-5; the Character panel buttons landed 2026-10-11, #3752), live Warp Text preview (TYPE-218-7, #2689), "rasterize and continue" for distort/perspective on type (TYPE-218-9), text free transform (#2630). Done since the re-measure: manual and optical kerning with PSD round trip (TYPE-218-6, #206), variable-font axes (TYPE-218-4, #2985).
  • Evidence: scorecard Type: 3 done, 2 partial, 4 missing. 2026-10-11: 2/3/4/5 clicks select word, line, paragraph and all text, with tests (TYPE-218-8, #3493). The Type tool froze the app for 60 s on one macOS machine (#2518).
  • Estimate: 120–200 h.

G11. Actions and scripting

  • Missing: document-independent action recording (AUTO-219-1), Batch recursion and naming (AUTO-219-5), ExtendScript/UXP compatibility. .atn steps outside the mapped events (paths, scripts, Generative Fill, offsets in points…) load as kept Photoshop steps that fail at playback by name.
  • Done 2026-10-12: Load/Save Actions .atn in the panel menu, batch --actions set.atn and actions.load/actions.save; 108 Photoshop events map to commands both ways (Transform, Apply Image, Save for Web, smart-object edits, Gradient Map, Quick Mask, polygon selections, Place, Open, Image Size in percent, the Paint Bucket and Insert Conditional since the third and fourth PRs), Play, Stop and conditional steps included; layer steps replay by layer name in any document. The panel groups actions in set folders, has the dialog toggle column (playback pauses on the step's dialog and resumes on OK) and Insert Stop…; actions.insert, actions.dialog, actions.assignSet for agents (AUTO-219-2 done).
  • Ahead of Photoshop: CLI, MCP and the JSON control channel drive every command.
  • Estimate: 120–200 h. Human: whether to support a JavaScript scripting dialect at all (AGENTS.md forbids JS in the app).

G14. Camera Raw depth

  • Missing: CR3 (detected, unsupported), compressed RAF, lossy DNG (FILE-215-11), .xmp sidecars, masking and calibration in the Camera Raw dialog, per-camera colour for non-DNG cameras, lens profiles.
  • Evidence: crates/raw/src/lib.rs:228 (CR3), scorecard FILE-215-11/12, #50.
  • Progress (2026-10-11): on the embedded-JPEG rendering work in #2135, Camera Raw tuning retains the fitted look and applies user gains afterwards. Three D5100 NEFs establish a guarded 4928 × 3264 image area. This is an estimated rendering, not a measured D5100 colour calibration; validation.
  • Estimate: 120–200 h.

G15. AI and generative features

  • Missing: Generative Fill and Expand, Generative Upscale, Neural Filters, Sky Replacement, Super Zoom, ML Select Subject/Sky. There is no ML runtime (AUTO-219-7). Classical substitutes exist (GrabCut/max-flow selection, Remove tool by non-local patch completion).
  • Evidence: Photoshop's Required/UXP ships the Neural Filters gallery and its .kys has a Neural Filters taskspace; users ask for local models (#2313, #1996, #2682).
  • Estimate: 300–600 h. Human: owner decision #41 (model licences, local vs remote).

G16. Plug-in compatibility

  • Missing: hosting Photoshop .8BF filters (#2647), UXP panels, CEP. PhotoCraft has its own sandboxed WebAssembly plug-in ABI v1 (docs/plugins.md), but ABI v2 (panels, progress, other layers) is missing (AUTO-219-6).
  • Estimate: 250–450 h. Human: .8BF needs native code under the isolated-unsafe rule.

UI / UX gaps

G3. User-reported bug backlog

  • Missing: fixes for 579 open issues (2026-10-10), filed mostly by 0.5/0.6 users. By title: ~150 UI/panels/menus/shortcuts, 94 file/format, 87 layers, 54 painting, 54 selection, 46 type, 41 performance, 34 transform/move, 25 Linux/Wayland, 24 Windows, 20 macOS.
  • Impact: each is a place where a Photoshop user hits something different from what they expect; together they are why ready-for-real-work is ~45% while breadth is ~76%.
  • Estimate: 250–400 h (many overlap with other gaps; count each fix once).

G4. Brush feel

  • Progress (2026-10-12, #4283): the five checkbox-only Brush Settings rows keep the open controls selected; Smoothing can be disabled without discarding its amount or mode. This closes that panel interaction gap, not the stroke-quality or performance gaps below.
  • Missing: lag with big brushes (#2619, #1994) and under the cursor (#2566, #1343); jumpy pressure on Windows (#2046) and tap sensitivity (#1933); stair-stepped line weights (#1776), interpolation and smoothing problems (#2138), edge falloff (#2149), pixelated cursor vs Photoshop (#1433), brush rotation not driven by pen rotation (#1301); live preview only for Brush and Eraser (TOOL-213-7); no image file as a brush tip (TOOL-213-12); per-control pressure curves (TOOL-213-11); 4 of Photoshop's symmetry modes.
  • Detail: brush-parity.md.
  • Estimate: 100–180 h. Human: checking feel on real tablets.

G5. Transform, handles and modifiers

  • Missing: H/V skew fields and the full interpolation list; blend mode/opacity edits during a transform (#1384); path-point nudge; autoscroll at the edge while selecting (#2231); wheel and pinch behaviour (#2485, #2463, #1989); toolbar press-and-hold flyouts (#2301).
  • Done since the re-measure (2026-10-10 to 12): right-click menu during Free Transform (TOOL-214-5); commit/cancel buttons in the options bar (#2442); transform keeps the layer's place in the stack (#2439, #2480); Hand tool no longer interrupts a transform (#2302, #2327); locked layers refused before the drag (#2585, #2609); ⌘-drag temporary Move with box and snapping (#2681, #2684); Auto-Select box follows the picked layer (#2666, #2675); ⌘-arrow layer nudge (#2474, #2556); polygonal lasso Shift angles (#2352, #2396); double-click Zoom tool to 100% (#2508, #2527); tool-key memory in a group (#2608, #2625); hold-a-key spring-loaded tools (#2672).
  • Detail: ui-parity.md.
  • Estimate: 60–110 h.

G9. Panels, preferences and workspace

  • Missing: 27 of 156 preferences do nothing (scorecard prefs audit); panel groups can't float or tear off into OS windows (UI-217-5, #1828, #1213, #2305); Color panel lacks wheel and slider modes (UI-217-17, #2569); more themes (UI-217-11, #2661); layer clipboard (UI-217-23, #2670); tool-specific context menus beyond brushes, selections and Pen (context-menu-parity.md); Libraries, Comments, Contextual Task Bar panels.
  • Estimate: 150–250 h.

G2. Interactive performance

  • Measured progress (2026-10-10): Tilt-Shift's existing per-level halo/copy optimization measures 1.07–1.49× faster across nine local 24 MP cases, with exact finite output bits. The filtered proxy improves for medium/large blur; its default small blur and the 36 MP saturated-field gain are inconclusive. Method and full ranges. Native GUI latency remains unmeasured; no scorecard budget or parity percentage is changed by this work.
  • Missing: 22 of 25 budgeted scenarios are over budget (baseline 2026-10-05, a heavily loaded machine): layer move with styles 321 ms p50 against 25 ms, opacity change 276 ms against 20 ms, paste 12 MP 1.2 s against 100 ms, layer move on 15000×10000 16-bit 2.7 s, Content-Aware Scale 24 MP 954 s against 3 s, Select Subject 559 ms against 100 ms; the 150-layer nudge crashes the GPU compositor (P12); menus slow with thousands of layers (#2460); old machines lag (#2687).
  • Estimate: 200–350 h. Serial in places (compositor architecture).

File-format gaps

G10. Missing and partial file formats

  • Missing: JPEG Options dialog (FILE-215-19), Photoshop PDF read and write and multi-page PDF (FILE-215-10, #2541), AVIF read (#463) and default-build AVIF write, JPEG XL, JPEG 2000 (#1047), Cineon (DPX landed, #1049), DICOM, EPS/DCS, PCX, Pixar, IFF, WBMP, MPO/JPS, PICT, Scitex CT, Photoshop Raw; layered TIFF extra alpha channels (FILE-215-7); spot plates (FILE-215-17); .atn, .asl, .shc, .csh presets (FILE-215-15); C2PA (#1050).
  • Detail: file-format-parity.md.
  • Estimate: 120–220 h.

Hardware gaps

G12. Pen tablets and display hardware

  • Missing: tilt and rotation on Windows (pressure only, via WM_POINTER; no WinTab); native Wayland tablet-v2 (#79; the pen does not click on GNOME 50, #2622, KDE #2297); eraser end on flipped Wacom pens (#2285); HDR/EDR output (Photoshop has "Precise Color Management for HDR Display"); monitor profile detection off macOS and live profile changes; Touch Bar (macOS Intel only, low value); 3D mice.
  • Detail: hardware-parity.md.
  • Estimate: 80–150 h. Human: tablets and HDR displays to test on.

Localization gaps

G13. Hindi, Arabic, Vietnamese, RTL and engine messages

  • Missing: catalogs for Hindi, Arabic and Vietnamese (3 of the 12 key languages); right-to- left UI layout; Devanagari fallback fonts (Thai #1909 and Khmer, Lao and Myanmar #3259 landed); engine error and status messages in English in every language; browser-locale detection and CJK fonts on the web; Japanese IME on Windows (#590); installed Japanese fonts missing from the font list (#2330); Arabic layer names as tofu (#1408, #1693).
  • Evidence (2026-10-11): Czech dynamic UI wrappers, hardware labels and composed messages translate at display sites; engine errors remain English. This does not close G13.
  • Detail: localization-parity.md.
  • Estimate: 80–140 h. Human: native-speaker review of every catalog (none is recorded).

Platform gaps

G17. Platforms and distribution

  • Missing: Windows code signing (material not obtained), in-app update check (DIST-220-1, #2650, #2375), in-app bug report (DIST-220-3), Flathub (#173), starting without a GPU adapter (#2519, #2412), Windows 7 (#2310, out of scope), Intel Macs with OpenCore (#1859).
  • Estimate: 30–60 h. Human: signing certificates.

Revision history

Date Change Summary
2026-10-12 minor G5: spring-loaded tool letters done (#2672)
2026-10-12 minor G10: DPX read and write (#1049); Cineon remains open
2026-10-12 minor G4: checkbox-only Brush Settings rows preserve the open controls and Smoothing settings (#4283); no readiness percentage or estimate changed
2026-10-12 minor G11: Load/Save Actions .atn landed (AUTO-219-2 partial); remaining panel work listed
2026-10-12 minor Refreshed against main: G5 items fixed by #2480, #2327, #2609, #2684, #2675, #2556, #2396, #2527, #2625 and TOOL-214-5/#2442; G7 TOOL-214-7 and Transform On Drop done; G2 #2377 fixed (#2417); G9 UI scale (UI-217-9) and Stamp Visible (UI-217-22) done, prefs 27 of 156; G10 #2225 done (#2482); G13 Khmer, Lao, Myanmar fallback (#3259); G14 CR3 line; G17 Windows ARM64 done (DIST-220-2)
2026-10-11 minor D5100 image area and Camera Raw tuning validation; G14 remains open
2026-10-11 minor G13: Czech dynamic UI text localized; engine messages and native review remain open
2026-10-11 minor G8: triple/quadruple/five-click type selection done (TYPE-218-8, #3493); Type evidence recounted
2026-10-11 minor G8: Character panel OpenType buttons landed (TYPE-218-5, #3752); Numerals and Stylistic Sets submenus still missing
2026-10-10 minor G2: recorded Tilt-Shift computation/filtered-proxy measurements and limits; gap and estimate remain open
2026-10-10 minor Checked against the alpha gate (no alpha blockers); #2374 marked closed
2026-10-10 major First version, from the full re-measure against Photoshop 2026 27.11.0 and the open issues