# Designcraft

Designcraft is a free, open-source page layout and publishing application written in Rust, built as a clean-room reimplementation of the Adobe InDesign workflow.

Canonical page: https://ourlocalhost.com/app/6880/designcraft

## Description

DesignCraft is a free, open-source page layout and publishing application written in Rust, built as a clean-room reimplementation of the Adobe InDesign workflow. It provides spreads, parent pages, threaded stories, paragraph styles, color swatches and text wrap through a native interface with a professional paragraph composer, and runs on macOS, Windows, Linux and in the browser via WebAssembly. It suits designers who want InDesign-style desktop publishing without a subscription, licence server or telemetry.

## Platform availability

Available on 3 of 9 platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux.

## Desktop and other devices

Mac, Windows, Linux, Other (freebsd,cli,web).

## Health score

75/100 (Good), based on 4 of 5 factors.
- Maintained: 75 (last commit 0 days ago)
- Popular: 69 (2,700 GitHub stars)
- Easy to install: 55 (4 install platforms, install notes)
- Security check: 100 (no serious findings, CI, tests)

## Links

- Official website: https://getartcraft.com/apps/designcraft
- GitHub: https://github.com/storytold/designcraft
- desktop: https://github.com/storytold/designcraft/releases/latest
- Documentation: https://github.com/storytold/designcraft

## Common questions

### How do I keep DesignCraft updated?

Use ArtCraft Launcher; it installs DesignCraft, picks the right build, and keeps it up to date.

### What local port must be enabled for DesignCraft automation?

Start the desktop app with --control 7979 so automation tools can connect over local port 7979. Without that port, commands from designcraft-cli or Claude fail to connect.

### Can I generate page images from DesignCraft without opening the desktop app?

Yes, run designcraft-cli run --sample --all-pages out/ to write PNG files for every sample page into a folder named out.

### DesignCraft does not open; what workaround is reported?

Set the environment variable WGPU_BACKEND=dx12 before launching the app. That resolved the not-opening issue in the report.

### Can DesignCraft open InDesign .indd files directly?

No, native INDD file open is not supported. It only supports the proprietary file type or IDML.

## Alternatives

- Adobe InDesign

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Source: Our Local Host (https://ourlocalhost.com/app/6880/designcraft), the self-hosted and open-source app directory.