2026-10-10 15:09:04 -04:00
# Where PhotoCraft falls short of Photoshop
2026-10-11 16:58:04 +01:00
> **Last reviewed:** 2026-10-10 · **Last updated:** 2026-10-10 · **Change:** minor (Tilt-Shift evidence added to G2; earlier the same day: major, every known shortfall ranked from the re-measure) · **Target:** Adobe Photoshop 2026
2026-10-10 15:09:04 -04:00
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` ](target-app-parity.md );
checklist ids (`TOOL-…` , `FILE-…` , `UI-…` ) are rows in [`scorecard.md` ](scorecard.md ); `#n` are
GitHub issues.
No gap blocks alpha: the [alpha gate ](roadmap.md#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– file-format-parity ](file-format-parity.md ) |
| G2 | Interactive performance | performance | blocks beta | 200– scorecard ](scorecard.md#performance ) |
| G3 | User-reported bug backlog | stability, UI | blocks beta | 250– target-app-parity ](target-app-parity.md ) |
| G4 | Brush feel | UI / painting | high | 100– brush-parity ](brush-parity.md ) |
| G5 | Transform, handles and modifiers | UI | high | 60– ui-parity ](ui-parity.md ) |
2026-10-11 13:12:53 +02:00
| G6 | Missing tools (12) | features | high | 60– ui-parity ](ui-parity.md#tools ) |
2026-10-10 15:09:04 -04:00
| G7 | Workspaces shown as parameter dialogs | features | high | 80– target-app-parity ](target-app-parity.md#feature-areas ) |
| G8 | Type depth | features | high | 120– target-app-parity ](target-app-parity.md#feature-areas ) |
| G9 | Panels, preferences and workspace | UI | medium-high | 150– ui-parity ](ui-parity.md#panels-and-workspace ) |
| G10 | Missing and partial file formats | file format | medium | 120– file-format-parity ](file-format-parity.md ) |
| G11 | Actions and scripting | ecosystem | medium | 120– target-app-parity ](target-app-parity.md ) |
| G12 | Pen tablets and display hardware | hardware | medium | 80– hardware-parity ](hardware-parity.md ) |
| G13 | Languages: Hindi, Arabic, Vietnamese, RTL, engine messages | localization | medium | 80– localization-parity ](localization-parity.md ) |
| G14 | Camera Raw depth | features, formats | medium | 120– file-format-parity ](file-format-parity.md#camera-raw ) |
| G15 | AI and generative features | AI | medium (high for some users) | 300– target-app-parity ](target-app-parity.md ) |
| G16 | Plug-in compatibility (.8BF, UXP) | ecosystem | medium | 250– target-app-parity ](target-app-parity.md ) |
| G17 | Platforms and distribution | platforms | low-medium | 30– scorecard ](scorecard.md#distribution ) |
## 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– **Human:** opening exports in Photoshop on the owner's Mac (or a
scripted check there) is the only real oracle.
### G6. Missing tools
2026-10-11 10:43:09 -05:00
- **Missing (4 of 68):** Color Replacement (engine command exists), Art
2026-10-11 17:09:38 +02:00
History Brush, Add Anchor Point, Delete Anchor Point. Convert Point landed (#3204 ). Freeform
2026-10-11 10:43:09 -05:00
Pen and Curvature Pen landed (#1054 ); Color Sampler landed (#1046 , `view.colorSamplers.*` ); Horizontal and Vertical Type Mask landed (#1055 ,
2026-10-11 14:20:15 +02:00
`type.createSelection` ); Perspective Crop landed (#1043 , `image.perspectiveCrop` ); Frame landed
(#2914 ).
2026-10-10 15:09:04 -04:00
- **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– –
### G7. Workspaces shown as parameter dialogs
2026-10-11 18:00:25 +02:00
- **Missing:** Select and Mask workspace layout and New Document outputs
(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
2026-10-10 15:09:04 -04:00
(TOOL-214-15); Vanishing Point plane editor (TOOL-214-14); Content-Aware Scale through the
transform box (TOOL-214-7); Puppet Warp mesh following the outline (TOOL-214-6); Content-Aware
Move's Transform On Drop (TOOL-213-4).
- **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–
### 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), variable-font axes (TYPE-218-4), OpenType panel
UI (TYPE-218-5), manual and optical kerning with PSD round trip (TYPE-218-6, #206 ), live Warp
Text preview (TYPE-218-7, #2689 ), triple/quadruple click (TYPE-218-8), "rasterize and continue"
for distort/perspective on type (TYPE-218-9), text free transform (#2630 ).
- **Evidence:** scorecard Type: 0 done, 3 partial, 6 missing. The Type tool froze the app for
60 s on one macOS machine (#2518 ).
- **Estimate:** 120–
### G11. Actions and scripting
- **Missing:** document-independent action recording (AUTO-219-1), a full Actions panel with
step toggles and .atn import (AUTO-219-2), replay tests (AUTO-219-4), Batch recursion and
naming (AUTO-219-5), ExtendScript/UXP compatibility.
- **Ahead of Photoshop:** CLI, MCP and the JSON control channel drive every command.
- **Estimate:** 120– **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:219` (CR3), scorecard FILE-215-11/12, #50 .
- **Estimate:** 120–
### 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– **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– **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–
### G4. Brush feel
- **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` ](brush-parity.md ).
- **Estimate:** 100– **Human:** checking feel on real tablets.
### G5. Transform, handles and modifiers
- **Missing:** right-click menu during Free Transform (TOOL-214-5); commit/cancel buttons in the
options bar (#2442 ); H/V skew fields and the full interpolation list; transform keeps layer
order and blend mode in its preview (#2439 ); Hand tool interrupting a transform (#2302 );
blend mode/opacity edits during a transform (#1384 ); locked layers refused before the drag
(#2585 ); ⌘-drag temporary Move without box or snapping (#2681 ), Auto-Select box follows the
previous layer (#2666 ); ⌘-arrow layer nudge (#2474 ); path-point nudge; polygonal lasso Shift
angles (#2352 ); autoscroll at the edge while selecting (#2231 ); hold-a-key spring-loaded tools
(#2672 ); double-click Zoom tool to 100% (#2508 ); wheel and pinch behaviour (#2485 , #2463 ,
#1989 ); toolbar press-and-hold flyouts (#2301 ); tool-key memory in a group (#2608 ).
- **Detail:** [`ui-parity.md` ](ui-parity.md ).
- **Estimate:** 60–
### G9. Panels, preferences and workspace
- **Missing:** 46 of 149 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 ); UI scale presets (UI-217-9, #2492 ); more themes (UI-217-11,
#2661 ); Stamp Visible (UI-217-22); layer clipboard
(UI-217-23, #2670 ); tool-specific context menus beyond brushes, selections and Pen
([context-menu-parity.md ](context-menu-parity.md )); Libraries, Comments, Contextual Task Bar
panels.
- **Estimate:** 150–
### G2. Interactive performance
2026-10-11 16:58:04 +01:00
- **Measured progress (2026-10-10):** Tilt-Shift's existing per-level halo/copy
optimization measures 1.07– ×
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 ](tilt-shift-performance.md ). Native GUI latency remains
unmeasured; no scorecard budget or parity percentage is changed by this work.
2026-10-10 15:09:04 -04:00
- **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×
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); a 50 MP PSB with feathered masks redraws in
~10 s (#2377 ); menus slow with thousands of layers (#2460 ); old machines lag (#2687 ).
- **Estimate:** 200–
## 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 ),
DPX/Cineon (#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); TGA/PNG alpha channels on open (#2225 ); C2PA (#1050 ).
- **Detail:** [`file-format-parity.md` ](file-format-parity.md ).
- **Estimate:** 120–
## 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` ](hardware-parity.md ).
- **Estimate:** 80– **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/Thai/Khmer fallback fonts; 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 ).
- **Detail:** [`localization-parity.md` ](localization-parity.md ).
- **Estimate:** 80– **Human:** native-speaker review of every catalog (none is recorded).
## Platform gaps
### G17. Platforms and distribution
- **Missing:** Windows code signing (material not obtained), Windows ARM64 (DIST-220-2), 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– **Human:** signing certificates.
## Revision history
| Date | Change | Summary |
|---|---|---|
2026-10-11 16:58:04 +01:00
| 2026-10-10 | minor | G2: recorded Tilt-Shift computation/filtered-proxy measurements and limits; gap and estimate remain open |
2026-10-10 15:09:04 -04:00
| 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 |
