Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats
Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

1047: Adobe has a big problem

October 14, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Adobe has a big problem

When Wes Bos opened a new AI-generated Photoshop clone called Filmcraft and threw some of his biggest, most complex Photoshop files at it, he expected the usual disappointment. Instead, "it worked very well. I was very surprised." After 25 years as a Photoshop user who has tried every alternative—Photopea, GIMP, Affinity—and found them all lacking, this was the first time he felt genuine shock. The app opened faster than Photoshop, rendered his multi-layered half-tone effects correctly, preserved masks, blend modes, and smart objects, and only missed one subtle texture on a drop shadow. When he checked the GitHub repository, the commits didn't go back past two weeks. Someone had effectively recreated roughly 70-80% of the Adobe Creative Suite in that timeframe.

The clean room approach

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:00) **Adobe’s Big Problem: A Shockingly Good Clone** - Wes introduces a new project that has clean-room ported the entire Adobe suite, and he’s genuinely surprised by its quality after 25 years as a Photoshop user.
  • 2 (02:24) **Scott’s 8-Year Adobe Hiatus** - Scott reveals he hasn’t opened Photoshop since 2017, having replaced most Creative Cloud tools with worse alternatives except DaVinci Resolve and Figma.
  • 3 (04:41) **Wes’s Hands-On Demo: It Works** - Wes opens his complex Photoshop files in the new app, demonstrating that stacked effects, blend modes, masks, and text all render perfectly.
  • 4 (06:33) **The “Clean Room” Legal Dodge Explained** - Wes and Scott discuss the legally dubious but clever method used to avoid copyright infringement.
  • 5 (08:22) **What’s Missing: UI Interaction Gaps** - Wes identifies specific UI interactions that don’t work yet, highlighting that UI is the hardest part of AI-generated software.
  • 6 (09:54) **Built in Rust: A Technical Surprise** - The entire UI is built in Rust, which Scott appreciates, though it uses a custom crate rather than GPUI.
  • 7 (11:16) **The Endgame: AI Features and Subscription Model** - Wes speculates on the company behind this (Storytold/Story Craft) and their likely business strategy.

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Show Notes

Someone just clean-room ported seven Adobe apps to Rust, and Wes is shocked at how good it is. Scott and Wes break down what it gets right, what’s still missing, and why copying software is easy but inventing what comes next is the hard part.

Show Notes

  • 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
  • 00:12 Adobe Is in Trouble: A Clean Room Port of the Entire Suite
  • 02:22 Scott’s Long Running Adobe Grudge Since 2017
  • 03:42 Figma Is Not a Raster Tool: Why Every Alternative Falls Short
  • 04:40 Opening Real Photoshop Files: Masks, Half Tones and Blend Modes
  • 06:30 What Clean Room Porting Actually Means
  • 09:54 A Familiar Interface, Entirely Built in Rust
  • 10:15 Don’t Trash the Whole Thing Over One or Two Bugs
  • 12:14 What’s Missing: Artboards and the Tiny UI Interactions
  • 13:53 Where Are the Vibe Coded Photoshops? Four Months Later
  • 14:33 Figma’s Locked Down MCP and the Backlash
  • 17:22 Dylan’s Clap Back at Anthropic’s Own Closed Ecosystem
  • 18:08 The Real Photoshop Replacement Will Be a New Way of Working
  • 21:35 Good UI Is Still the Moat
  • 22:28 Caring About Your Project Past Two Days
  • 23:05 Audio Crackles and Paper Cuts: The Bugs Only Humans Chase
  • 24:56 Brought to you by Sentry!
  • 26:28 Copying Is Easy: The Hard Part Is Inventing What Comes Next
  • 27:28 DaVinci Resolve Keeps Shipping
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