Is ArtCraft Safe and Legit? What We Actually Checked

Q: Q3 Who owns ArtCraft?

The GitHub organization is storytold , display name ArtCraft. The Mac certificate says Learning Machines LLC (DJ6XS33FX8). The Storyteller terms and privacy notice say Learning Machines, Inc, doing business as Storyteller, and they do not mention ArtCraft. The getartcraft.com footer mail is hello@storyteller.ai. We list those as written. We do not have a document that ties the LLC spelling and the Inc spelling together.

This page is a trust check: who publishes ArtCraft, what we actually inspected on the Mac downloads, and what we could not inspect. How to install a file is in the download guide. What the studio and the Craft apps are, and what they cost, is in What is ArtCraft.

Who makes ArtCraft

Each row comes from a file we saved on Oct 17, 2026, named in the last column.

What we foundOct 17, 2026

What we looked up	What the file says	Source
GitHub organization	Login `storytold`, display name ArtCraft, blog https://getartcraft.com, created 2021-01-03. `is_verified` is false. GitHub does not show a verified-domain mark on this organization.	org-storytold-1017.json
Contact email on the official site	hello@storyteller.ai, in the getartcraft.com footer.	getartcraft-legal-check-1017.txt
Company named in the terms and the privacy policy	Terms of Use, last updated November 18, 2022: "Learning Machines, Inc, doing business as Storyteller". The privacy notice: "Learning Machines, Inc (doing business as Storyteller)". Neither document mentions ArtCraft.	storyteller-terms-1017.txt, storyteller-privacy-1017.txt
Name on the Mac signing certificate	Developer ID Application: Learning Machines LLC (DJ6XS33FX8)	getartcraft-legal-check-1017.txt
When the repositories were created, and the star counts	The Studio repository `artcraft` was created 2022-03-31 and had 31,157 stars. The 13 Craft app repositories were created from 2026-09-30 to 2026-10-09. PhotoCraft had 65,582 stars. Star counts are as of Oct 17, 2026.	repos-storytold-1017.tsv

Our reading: the name Learning Machines appears on the Mac certificate and in the Storyteller terms. The certificate writes Learning Machines LLC. The terms write Learning Machines, Inc. We list both as written.

Are the downloads safe? Signatures and checksums

On Oct 14, 2026 we checked 14 Mac downloads: the 13 Craft apps below, plus ArtCraft Studio 0.41.0. That is the same 14 the home page counts, and each one matched a published checksum. The Launcher row and the GridCraft 0.7.0 row were checked on Oct 17, 2026. They are not part of those 14. These are the versions we installed on Oct 14–17, 2026, not a claim about a newer release.

Mac checks we ranOct 14–17, 2026

What we checked	Signer	Apple notarization	SHA-256 and the published list	Date
13 Craft Mac apps: PhotoCraft 0.8.2, VectorCraft 0.10.0, FilmCraft 0.7.2, LightCraft 0.7.1, PdfCraft 0.7.1, EffectCraft 0.9.2, DesignCraft 0.7.1, FigCraft 0.5.1, WordCraft 0.6.1, SoundCraft 0.6.1, DeckCraft 0.6.1, CADCraft 0.6.2, GridCraft 0.6.1	Developer ID Application: Learning Machines LLC (DJ6XS33FX8)	`spctl` accepted, `source=Notarized Developer ID`. PhotoCraft 0.8.2's notarization ticket was stapled, and `stapler validate` passed.	Matched each app's `SHA256SUMS.txt`	Oct 14, 2026
ArtCraft Studio 0.41.0	Developer ID Application: Learning Machines LLC (DJ6XS33FX8)	Notarization ticket stapled. `stapler validate` passed. `spctl` accepted, `source=Notarized Developer ID`.	That release has no `SHA256SUMS.txt`. The dmg's SHA-256 matched the GitHub release digest.	Oct 14, 2026
ArtCraft Launcher 0.4.1 dmg	Not checked	Not checked	Matched `SHA256SUMS.txt` for that release	Oct 17, 2026
GridCraft 0.7.0, the copy that launcher installed	Developer ID Application: Learning Machines LLC (DJ6XS33FX8)	`spctl` accepted, Notarized Developer ID	Not checked on this installed copy	Oct 17, 2026

We did not check signatures on the Windows or Linux installers. We did not run an antivirus scan.

The Mac apps are also notarized by Apple, so macOS opens them normally — you'll only see its usual one-time "downloaded from the internet" prompt.

GridCraft card reading INSTALLED · UP TO DATE, version 0.7.0, Oct 14, 2026, with an OPEN button — Screenshot by ArtCraft Tutorial · ArtCraft Launcher 0.4.1 · macOS · Oct 17, 2026

Is it really open source?

The source is public at github.com/storytold. On Oct 17, 2026 GitHub identified all 15 of these repositories as Apache-2.0. That is GitHub's detection, from the repository metadata.

The Studio README says: "ArtCraft is dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, at your option." The PhotoCraft README badge says MIT OR Apache-2.0. The other 13, the launcher included, we list only by GitHub's detection.

PhotoCraft's README describes the project as "an open-source, clean-room reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop, rebuilt in pure Rust." A later line says: "Clean-room: implemented from public specs and observed behaviour only. No proprietary code, shaders or assets." Those are the README's words.

Accounts, data and privacy

The Craft apps and the Studio app are different on this point.

Craft apps. Our What is ArtCraft page describes them as "No AI, no account, no subscription." The same page says the Craft apps run without signing in. PhotoCraft's README says "Open source, offline, and yours." That sentence is the PhotoCraft README's, and we are quoting it only for PhotoCraft.

Studio. Our download guide records that the studio asks you to create a free account or sign in before you can generate anything. Our What is ArtCraft page says AI generations on ArtCraft's servers use credits.

As of Oct 17, 2026, we found no link to a privacy policy or terms of service on getartcraft.com or the Studio sign-up page. We checked seven paths on getartcraft.com (/terms, /privacy, /terms-of-service, /privacy-policy, /legal, /about, /tos) and each returned 404. The home, FAQ, support, pricing, press kit and download pages had no terms or privacy link. The Studio sign-up page, rendered signed out, showed email, password, Google sign-in and Log in, and no terms or privacy link.

storyteller.ai does publish a terms page and a privacy page. Both name Learning Machines, Inc, doing business as Storyteller, and neither mentions ArtCraft. We can't tell you which, if any, covers ArtCraft Studio.

Our take: until ArtCraft publishes a policy of its own, treat images and prompts you upload to Studio as leaving your computer. If that matters, use the Craft apps, which do not ask for an account.

What we could not check

We did not review the source code.
We did not run an antivirus scan.
We did not check signatures on the Windows or Linux installers.
We did not sign in to Studio, so we did not see whether terms appear after login.
We can't tell you which, if any, policy covers ArtCraft Studio.
PhotoCraft's SECURITY.md says: "This repository does not currently document a dedicated private security email or private reporting channel." The other 14 repositories in the same list have no SECURITY.md. Our take: a missing private channel is not surprising for the Craft repositories opened between Sep 30 and Oct 9, 2026. It is still worth knowing. The Studio repository is older, created 2022-03-31, and it also has no SECURITY.md.
PhotoCraft's README Status says the app is in early alpha, and "not yet a Photoshop replacement for daily professional work." More of that comparison is on ArtCraft vs Photoshop.

How to download it safely

Use only two official sources: getartcraft.com and github.com/storytold.
Compare the file's SHA-256 with the published list. The commands for Mac, Windows and Linux are in the download guide.
On a Mac, expect the one-time "downloaded from the internet" prompt described above. That prompt is Gatekeeper noticing a download. It is not a scan result from us.
Pick the installer for your computer in the download guide. We do not host the files.

Any other site that puts ArtCraft in its name, including this site, is not an official source.

Common questions

Q1Is ArtCraft a scam?

Our reading: legit, with the two gaps in the answer at the top. The basis is the table above: a public GitHub organization, Mac apps signed by Learning Machines LLC and notarized by Apple, and public source. The 13 Craft apps are free and run without an account. We are not giving a legal conclusion, and we did not review the code or run an antivirus scan.

Q2Does ArtCraft have a virus?

We did not run an antivirus scan, so we cannot answer that with a scan result. What we can say is the signature, the notarization and the checksums in the table above, for the Mac versions we actually checked.

Q3Who owns ArtCraft?

The GitHub organization is storytold, display name ArtCraft. The Mac certificate says Learning Machines LLC (DJ6XS33FX8). The Storyteller terms and privacy notice say Learning Machines, Inc, doing business as Storyteller, and they do not mention ArtCraft. The getartcraft.com footer mail is hello@storyteller.ai. We list those as written. We do not have a document that ties the LLC spelling and the Inc spelling together.

Q4Is ArtCraft open source?

The source is public at github.com/storytold. The Studio README says it is dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, at your option. The PhotoCraft README says MIT OR Apache-2.0. GitHub identified the other 13 repositories, the launcher included, as Apache-2.0, as of Oct 17, 2026. We are not giving a legal reading of those licences.

Q5Is ArtCraft Tutorial the official site?

No. ArtCraft Tutorial is independent. We're not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by ArtCraft, Storyteller.ai or the storytold project.