Updated October 14, 2026. Written for LightCraft 0.7.1 (what changed since).
- Pick darktable if you shoot Olympus or OM System, a Canon CR3 body that LightCraft hasn't checked, or wide lenses you want corrected automatically, or if you print from your raw developer.
- Pick LightCraft if Lightroom's layout and shortcuts matter to you, you have a Lightroom Classic catalog to bring over, you need to edit on a computer where you can't install anything, or your files are Fujifilm lossy RAF, Apple ProRAW or JPEG XL DNG.
Side by side
| darktable | LightCraft | |
|---|---|---|
| Price and licence | Free, GPLv3 | Free, MIT or Apache-2.0 |
| Version | 5.6.2 (October 2026) | 0.7.1 (October 2026), alpha |
| Runs on | Linux, Windows (x64 and ARM), macOS on Apple silicon | Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and a browser tab |
| Layout | Its own: lighttable, darkroom, map, print, slideshow, tethering | Lightroom's library and Edit layout, with Lightroom's main shortcuts |
| Coming from Lightroom | Reads ratings, labels, keywords, GPS and some develop settings from Lightroom XMP files | Desktop: imports a Lightroom Classic catalog (.lrcat) and reads Lightroom XMP. Browser: neither |
| Camera colour | A colour matrix for each supported camera model | The DNG's own matrices, four bundled camera profiles, otherwise a fit to the camera's JPEG |
| Lens correction | Lensfun lens database, or corrections stored in the file | Only corrections stored in the file (DNG, Panasonic, Leica, one Sony body) |
| Masks | Drawn, parametric and raster masks; optional AI object masks | Brush, gradients, colour and luminance range, sky, subject, background |
| Presets | Styles, applied to selected images | 18 built-in presets with an Amount slider, plus your own |
| Print view | No print module |
Leaving Lightroom
This is LightCraft's strongest card. Its desktop app has File › Import Lightroom Catalog…, which opens a Lightroom Classic .lrcat file directly and brings across ratings, flags, colour labels, keywords, collections, virtual copies and the develop settings it can map, leaving your originals where they are. Adobe's own rendering and AI data don't come with them, so edits look close rather than identical. The browser version can't read a catalog or XMP files.
darktable works from the XMP sidecar files instead. If Lightroom wrote XMP next to your raws, darktable imports tags, labels, ratings and GPS, plus some develop steps such as crop, exposure, tone curve, HSL and spot removal. Its own documentation says the result is never identical. Collections and virtual copies stay behind.
Day to day, the gap is bigger. LightCraft copies Lightroom's grid, loupe and Edit panels (Light, Color, Effects, Detail, Optics) and the keys G, D, E, C, M and \, so Lightroom habits carry straight over. darktable has its own views and builds an edit from processing modules, and its styles play the role of presets. Plan on relearning rather than recognising.
Raw files: where they differ
For mainstream Sony, Nikon, Fujifilm and Panasonic files both apps decode the sensor data. The differences sit in specific formats:
| File | darktable 5.6 | LightCraft 0.7.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Canon CR3 | Supported | Standard RAW and C-RAW decode; four bodies checked; other variants show the embedded preview |
| Olympus and OM System ORF (compressed) | Supported | Embedded preview only |
| Nikon High Efficiency NEF | Not supported | Embedded preview only |
| Fujifilm lossy compressed RAF | Not supported | Decodes |
| Apple ProRAW DNG | Not supported | Decodes |
| DNG 1.7 with JPEG XL compression | Not supported | Decodes |
| Sony downsized lossless ARW (M and S sizes) | Not supported | Decodes |
| Sony A7R VI compressed ARW | Base support added in 5.6.2; ARW 6.0 lossy listed as unsupported | Compressed and HQ decode; 12-bit mode doesn't |
"Embedded preview" means LightCraft shows the JPEG the camera stored in the file, so you are editing that JPEG rather than the raw. Canon is the case to think about: LightCraft's developers have checked the EOS M50, R100, R8 and R5 Mark II, and estimate about a 60% chance of a clean decode for the other CR3 bodies. darktable's camera support list and LightCraft's coverage list both go model by model.
Colour and lenses
darktable's input colour profile applies a matrix made for your camera model. LightCraft has measured profiles for only four bodies (Sony A7CR and A7 IV, Fujifilm X-H2S and X-T4) and otherwise fits its colour to the JPEG preview inside each raw. On Sony bodies the fit lands a median of about 5 ΔE from the camera's JPEG. When it fails, the photo starts from a neutral matrix, darker and much less saturated, and you correct it by hand. Its developers score LightCraft's colour at about 35% of Lightroom's, and only lens correction scores lower.
Lenses are a clearer win for darktable. Its lens correction module looks your lens up in the Lensfun database and corrects distortion, transverse chromatic aberration and vignetting automatically. LightCraft has no lens database; it applies the corrections stored in DNG, Panasonic and Leica files, and everything else is manual sliders in Optics.
Masks and AI
Both cover the masks a Lightroom user reaches for. LightCraft has a brush, linear and radial gradients, luminance and colour range, and Select Sky, Subject and Background, combined with add, subtract and intersect and 15 local sliders per mask. Its sky and subject selection use classic image analysis rather than a trained model, so check the edges on hair and trees. darktable has drawn, parametric and raster masks, which are more flexible once learned, and version 5.6 added an optional AI object mask and neural denoise, off by default. The Flatpak build leaves the AI features out.
Where you can run them
darktable is a desktop app for Linux, Windows and Apple silicon Macs; there is no build for Intel Macs. LightCraft installs on Windows, macOS (Intel or Apple silicon), Linux and FreeBSD from the download page, and the same app runs in a browser tab at lightcraft.run/editor. The browser version is the quickest way to try it on your own files, with limits: it renders on the processor, keeps its library in browser storage, and has no catalog import or XMP. That also makes it the simplest option for a Chromebook or a locked-down laptop, covered in editing photos on a Chromebook.
The hard case: a Canon shooter who loves Lightroom's layout
If you shoot an unchecked CR3 body and want Lightroom's feel, test before you decide. Drag ten of your CR3 files into the LightCraft editor. If none shows an amber Preview pill and the colours are close after a white balance click, LightCraft will do, and the desktop app can take your catalog. If several fall back to the preview, use darktable for those cameras, or convert them to DNG first, as described in opening CR3 files online. For the wider field of free Adobe replacements, the Craft apps hub has a guide to open-source Adobe alternatives.
Adobe and Lightroom are trademarks of Adobe Inc. LightCraft and this site are not affiliated with Adobe or with the darktable project.