PdfCraft: The Free, Open-Source Acrobat Alternative in Rust
Updated 2026-10-11
Short answer: PdfCraft is a free, open-source PDF app from the ArtCraft team that rebuilds the Adobe Acrobat workflow from scratch in Rust. Today it reads, searches, organizes, combines, splits and password-protects PDFs, shows comments, forms and layers, and runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and in the browser. It is licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, needs no account and sends nothing to the cloud. Like the other ArtCraft apps it is early software (October 2026): good for everyday PDF chores, not yet a full Acrobat Pro replacement.
PdfCraft is one of seven ArtCraft apps released in October 2026, next to PhotoCraft, VectorCraft and FilmCraft. Its GitHub repository, storytold/pdfcraft, describes it as "an open-source, clean-room reimplementation of Adobe Acrobat built in pure Rust". It is not made by Adobe and is not affiliated with it. On October 11, 2026 the repository showed about 8,600 stars and 3,200 forks.
What PdfCraft can do today
From the project's README, these features are in the app now:
- Reading – careful rendering of complex scripts, right-to-left text, vertical Japanese, colour emoji, transparency and blend modes; deep zoom that stays sharp; continuous, single-page, two-up and full-screen layouts; a distraction-free Read mode; light and dark themes.
- Search and copy – find-as-you-type across the whole document, and text selection that comes out in the right reading order, including columns and CJK.
- Navigation – bookmarks (searchable, even nested ones), page thumbnails and the document's own page labels such as i, ii, 1, 2.
- Organize pages – select pages, then rotate, delete, insert blank pages, insert pages from another file and move them, with deep undo.
- Combine and split – merge any number of PDFs (each file gets its own bookmark), extract selected pages into a new file, or split every n pages. Links, form fields, layers and attachments are carried over.
- Security – opens encrypted PDFs from 40-bit RC4 up to AES-256, honours the author's permissions, and keeps edited encrypted files encrypted.
- Comments, forms, layers, attachments – threaded comments, form fields with their values, layers you can toggle, attachments you can open or save.
- Document Properties – edit title, author, subject and keywords; see fonts, PDF version and the full security settings.
Tools that are still being built are listed in its "All tools" catalogue with the milestone that will ship them, so check there before you count on a specific Acrobat Pro feature.
Safe saving
One detail stands out for anyone who has had a PDF editor corrupt a file: PdfCraft saves incrementally – your changes are appended and the original bytes stay intact – and writes are atomic (a temporary copy is written, then swapped in). Unsaved changes are autosaved every minute and offered for recovery after a crash. The project says its renderer produced zero crashes across the 983-file pdf.js test corpus.
Platforms and privacy
PdfCraft runs natively on macOS, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD, and in the browser through WebAssembly, all from the same Rust code. Windows builds exist for x64, x86 and ARM64.
There is no account, no telemetry and no cloud processing: documents stay on your machine and the app works offline. That makes it a reasonable choice for contracts and ID documents you would rather not upload to an online PDF site.
PdfCraft for developers and AI agents
PdfCraft ships a command-line tool, pdfcraft-cli, that uses the same engine as the app:
pdfcraft-cli combine report.pdf appendix.pdf --out combined.pdf
pdfcraft-cli extract report.pdf --pages 1,3,5 --out highlights.pdf
pdfcraft-cli split report.pdf --every 10 --out-dir parts/
pdfcraft-cli text paper.pdf --page 3
The CLI can also run as an MCP server for AI agents such as Claude. It is opt-in, talks over stdin/stdout without opening a network port, and a --root option limits which folder the agent can touch. Through it an agent can inspect a PDF, render pages to PNG, find text, add highlight comments, fill form fields, reorder pages, combine and split.
How to download PdfCraft
- Open the official page: getartcraft.com/apps/pdfcraft, or the Crafting Apps overview at getartcraft.com/apps.
- Use the ArtCraft Launcher (it installs and updates all Crafting Apps) or download the PdfCraft installer for your system.
- Developers can build it from source on GitHub (
storytold/pdfcraft); release builds are under the repository's Releases tab.
Only download from getartcraft.com or the storytold GitHub organization. New free software quickly attracts look-alike download sites. Note that the repository's "About" link currently points to a page named PrintCraft on getartcraft.com, so app names may still shift – the official apps page is the reference.
PdfCraft vs Adobe Acrobat
| PdfCraft | Adobe Acrobat | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, open source (MIT / Apache-2.0) | Free Reader; paid plans for editing |
| Account | None | Adobe account for paid features |
| Cloud | None, fully local | Cloud features built in |
| Read, search, comments, forms | Yes | Yes |
| Organize, combine, split | Yes | Yes (paid tiers) |
| Mature editing, OCR, e-signature workflows | Check the "All tools" milestones | Yes |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, web | macOS, Windows, mobile, web |
If you mainly read PDFs, merge files, pull out pages or deal with password-protected documents, PdfCraft already covers that for free. If your work depends on Acrobat Pro features such as advanced editing or established e-signature workflows, keep Acrobat for now and watch PdfCraft's roadmap.
FAQ
Is PdfCraft free? Yes. The app, engine and CLI are open source under MIT and Apache-2.0 licenses. The ArtCraft name and logos are trademarks and are not open source.
Is PdfCraft made by Adobe? No. It is an independent ArtCraft project and describes itself as a clean-room reimplementation of Acrobat.
Does PdfCraft work on Linux? Yes – native builds for Linux, plus macOS, Windows, FreeBSD and a browser version.
Does PdfCraft upload my files? No. It has no account, no telemetry and no cloud processing; files stay on your device.
Can PdfCraft merge and split PDFs?
Yes. Combine merges any number of PDFs, Extract copies selected pages, and Split divides a document every n pages or before chosen pages – in the app and in pdfcraft-cli.
Who made PdfCraft? The ArtCraft team, led by Brandon Thomas; read more in our ArtCraft apps overview.