[!NOTE]
ArtCraft is a community of artists from all walks of life. Painters, photographers,
filmmakers, illustrators, designers, animators, hobbyists, and people who picked up a pencil
last week. If you make things, you're one of us. Come say hi on Discord.
A tour
Every screenshot below is WordCraft itself, rendered offscreen by its own UI test harness
(cargo run -p wordcraft-ui-egui --example ui_shot).
Why WordCraft
- Familiar. Word's ribbon tabs, groups, shortcuts and behaviour: Enter continues a list,
Tab demotes it, Ctrl/⌘+B bolds the word under the caret, the Styles gallery previews styles live,
F4 repeats, F7 checks spelling, F8 extends the selection.
- Your files. Opens and saves .docx (OOXML), and also .odt, .rtf, .html, .md, .tex (LaTeX), .txt; opens Word 97-2003 .doc; exports PDF
with real, selectable text, links and bookmarks.
- Fast. Paragraph layout is cached, so typing in a 188-page document re-lays it out in about
1.4 ms; pages render on demand.
- Everywhere. One Rust codebase for macOS, Windows, Linux, BSD and the web. No Electron, no
Tauri: native egui on the GPU.
- Built for agents. Every action is a command with an id. The same 422 commands drive the
ribbon, keyboard shortcuts, the command search, a command-line tool, a JSON control channel and
an MCP server.
- Private. Spelling, grammar and everything else work offline.
- Open. MIT OR Apache-2.0. Clean-room: built from public specifications and observation, with
every asset original or openly licensed.
What works today
| Area | Highlights |
|---|
| Writing | Fast typing with IME, smart quotes, AutoCorrect, list autoformat (* , 1. ), dashes; word, sentence, paragraph selection; drag-select; clipboard with formatting; undo/redo; find and replace with regex |
| Formatting | Fonts, sizes, bold/italic/underline styles, strike, sub/superscript, caps, highlight, colours, character spacing, Format Painter, Change Case, Clear Formatting |
| Paragraphs | Alignment, indents (draggable on the ruler), spacing, line spacing, tabs with leaders, borders, shading, keep with next, widow/orphan control |
| Styles | Built-in style set, live gallery, Styles pane, create/modify/update styles, style sets, themes |
| Lists | Bullets, numbering, multilevel, restart, set value, custom formats |
| Tables | Insert by grid, merge/split, styles with banded rows, borders, shading, header rows repeated across pages, rows that split across pages, sort, formulas, text ↔ table |
| Pages | Margins, orientation, size, columns, page/column/section breaks, headers and footers (first page, odd/even), page numbers, watermark, page borders, line numbers, vertical alignment, drop caps, automatic hyphenation |
| Objects | Pictures (resize, crop, recolour, brightness/contrast, transparency, background removal, picture styles, rotate), shapes, text boxes, floating position with text wrapping (square, top and bottom, behind or in front of text) |
| References | Table of contents, footnotes and endnotes, citations and bibliography (APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE), captions, table of figures, cross-references, index, table of authorities |
| Review | Spelling and grammar with suggestions (English and Polish, by each run's language), thesaurus, word count, comments in margin balloons or a pane, track changes, accept/reject, compare documents, restrict editing, accessibility checker, document inspector |
| Mailings | Mail merge from CSV, merge fields, address block, greeting line, rules, preview, finish to a document; envelopes and labels |
| View | Print layout, web layout, draft, read mode, focus, zoom, one/multiple pages, page width, Navigation pane, rulers, gridlines, dark mode; interface in English, 简体中文, 繁體中文, 日本語, Português (Brasil), Español, Українська, Српски / Srpski, Eesti, Türkçe, Русский, Italiano, Deutsch, Polski, Čeština, Magyar, Français or Български (follows the system language by default) |
The honest picture, area by area, is in ROADMAP.md, the
parity assessment and the generated
feature checklist.
Quick start
git clone https://github.com/storytold/wordcraft
cd wordcraft
cargo run --release -p wordcraft -- --sample # the desktop app with the sample document
cargo run --release -p wordcraft -- report.docx # open a document
Command line:
wordcraft-cli convert report.docx report.pdf # docx, pdf, odt, rtf, html, md, tex, txt, png
wordcraft-cli text report.docx # plain text
wordcraft-cli inspect report.docx # structure as JSON
wordcraft-cli run --template sample \
--cmd 'select.text={"text":"Membership"}' --cmd format.bold --save out.docx
Web: cd apps/wordcraft-web && trunk serve, then open http://127.0.0.1:8771/?sample.
For agents: CLI and MCP
WordCraft was designed to be driven by people and by AI agents.
claude mcp add wordcraft -- wordcraft-cli mcp # headless documents
# confine the agent to folders: wordcraft-cli mcp --automation-read-root DIR --automation-write-root DIR
wordcraft --control 7981 & # or drive the running app…
claude mcp add wordcraft-app -- wordcraft-cli mcp --connect 127.0.0.1:7981
Tools include list_commands, execute, batch, type_text, select_text, inspect_document,
render_page, save_document, and, with a running app, screenshot, click and key. Agents
can check their work through inspect_document without screenshots. See docs/mcp.md
and the control protocol. Macros record any sequence of commands and
play it back (tools.recordMacro, tools.macros).
Logs
The desktop app writes its log records to standard error and to logs/wordcraft.log next to its
preferences: on Linux $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wordcraft/logs/ (by default ~/.config/wordcraft/logs/),
on macOS ~/Library/Application Support/WordCraft/logs/, on Windows %APPDATA%\WordCraft\logs\.
A start from a desktop menu or the Dock has no terminal, so this file is what to attach to a bug
report: unreadable parts of a .docx, pictures or fonts a PDF export had to leave out and panics the
command guard recovered from land there. Each launch moves the previous log to wordcraft.1.log
(and that one to wordcraft.2.log), so the log of a run that crashed survives the next start; a
log stops growing at 16 MiB. --version writes no file, and runs with WORDCRAFT_NO_PREFS (agents'
test runs) log to standard error only. Document text is never logged; a panic message leaves out
the text it quotes.
By default WordCraft's own crates log at info and everything else at warn. RUST_LOG replaces
that with env_logger-style directives, for example RUST_LOG=debug,
RUST_LOG=warn,wordcraft_docx=trace or RUST_LOG=info,wgpu_core=warn; a directive ending in *
covers every target starting with it (wordcraft*=debug). The logger is
apps/wordcraft/src/logging.rs.
Architecture
| Layer | Crate | Job |
|---|
| L0 | wordcraft-geom | units and measurements |
| L1 | wordcraft-doc, wordcraft-fonts, wordcraft-proof | document model and editing; fonts and shaping; spelling, grammar, hyphenation |
| L2 | wordcraft-layout, wordcraft-docx, wordcraft-formats | line breaking, pagination, tables, notes, hit testing; OOXML; ODT/RTF/HTML/Markdown/TXT |
| L3 | wordcraft-render, wordcraft-pdf | rasteriser (vello_cpu); PDF (krilla) |
| L4 | wordcraft-engine | session, undo, 422 commands, Word feature catalog |
| L5 | wordcraft-mcp | MCP server |
| L6 | wordcraft-ui-egui | the Word-style front end (swappable) |
| apps | wordcraft, wordcraft-cli, wordcraft-web | desktop, command line, browser |
cargo xtask ci runs formatting, clippy, ~800 tests, the asset-attribution check, the layering
check and the wasm build. Contributor and agent instructions: AGENTS.md.
Roadmap
WordCraft is in alpha. It covers 88% of Word's ribbon features with commands today; counting
depth, file fidelity, stability and the rest, we estimate it is about 60% of the way to replacing
all of Word for real work, about 55% for a typical professional's weekly work and about 63% for
everyday essentials. Beta needs testing against real-world .docx files, keeping charts and SmartArt
through a round trip, pagination closer to Word's, a stability sweep and native printing. Details
and estimates: ROADMAP.md and where we fall short.
Downloads
Download WordCraft from GitHub: the latest release has every build listed below, and all releases has earlier versions and their notes. <ver> in the file names is the version number, and SHA256SUMS.txt lists a checksum for every file.
Windows
| Build | Installer | Portable |
|---|
| x64 (64-bit Intel/AMD) | wordcraft-<ver>-windows-x64.msi | wordcraft-<ver>-windows-x64-portable.zip |
| arm64 (Snapdragon and other ARM PCs) | wordcraft-<ver>-windows-arm64.msi | wordcraft-<ver>-windows-arm64-portable.zip |
| x86 (32-bit) | wordcraft-<ver>-windows-x86.msi | wordcraft-<ver>-windows-x86-portable.zip |
Installers and executables are code-signed.
If the app doesn't open on Windows: the desktop app initializes only DirectX 12 by default.
Letting wgpu also create an OpenGL instance can crash some graphics drivers (AMD's
atio6axx.dll) before the window appears, so the app would flash in Task Manager and quit.
WGPU_BACKEND overrides the default for troubleshooting (for example dx12 or vulkan). In
PowerShell, from the folder containing the executable:
$env:WGPU_BACKEND = "vulkan"
& .\wordcraft.exe
Remove-Item Env:WGPU_BACKEND # restore the default for later launches
An explicit gl override can bring the driver crash back on affected systems. The macOS, Linux
and web backend defaults are unchanged.
The 32-bit build uses OpenGL even when a DirectX 12 graphics card is present. On 32-bit
Windows, creating a DirectX 12 graphics pipeline fails immediately and the app exits before the
window appears. WGPU_BACKEND=vulkan (or dx12) still overrides that.
If the app quits right after its window appears with "Parent device is lost" in the log:
WordCraft compiles DirectX 12 shaders with FXC, the compiler built into Windows, so it needs no
dxcompiler.dll/dxil.dll and ignores any copy another program put on PATH (#603).
WGPU_DX12_COMPILER (fxc, dxc, auto) overrides this; with dxc, a matching
dxcompiler.dll and dxil.dll must sit next to wordcraft.exe. WGPU_BACKEND = "vulkan"
also avoids DirectX 12 altogether.
If the app is slow on an older Windows PC: when DirectX 12 finds no graphics card with a
driver for it (for example Intel 4th-generation graphics on Windows 11), it only offers Microsoft's
software renderer, which draws every frame on the processor. In that case WordCraft uses OpenGL
instead, without setting anything. The log file records the choice (lines starting with
graphics:). WGPU_BACKEND still overrides it, e.g. $env:WGPU_BACKEND = "gl" or "dx12".
macOS
| Build | File | Notes |
|---|
| App, universal (Apple silicon + Intel) | wordcraft-<ver>-macos-universal.dmg | Signed and notarized |
| Command-line tool, universal | wordcraft-cli-<ver>-macos-universal.zip | Signed and notarized |
Linux
| Format | x86_64 | aarch64 (ARM64) | Notes |
|---|
| AppImage | wordcraft-<ver>-linux-x86_64.AppImage | wordcraft-<ver>-linux-aarch64.AppImage | Runs anywhere; updates itself with AppImageUpdate (.zsync files) |
| Flatpak | wordcraft-<ver>-linux-x86_64.flatpak | wordcraft-<ver>-linux-aarch64.flatpak | Sandboxed; flatpak install --user <file> |
| Debian/Ubuntu | wordcraft-<ver>-linux-x86_64.deb | wordcraft-<ver>-linux-aarch64.deb | |
| Fedora/RHEL/openSUSE | wordcraft-<ver>-linux-x86_64.rpm | wordcraft-<ver>-linux-aarch64.rpm | |
| Tarball | wordcraft-<ver>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz | wordcraft-<ver>-linux-aarch64.tar.gz | Unpack anywhere |
RISC-V (riscv64): wordcraft-<ver>-linux-riscv64.tar.gz, a tarball cross-compiled for glibc 2.39+
(Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 13 and newer).
Wayland: on a Wayland desktop the app runs through XWayland when it is available, because
winit (the windowing library) supports dragging files into the window only on X11. To use the
native Wayland backend instead (for example for sharper text with fractional scaling, at the cost
of file drag-and-drop), start it with WORDCRAFT_WAYLAND=1:
WORDCRAFT_WAYLAND=1 wordcraft
Arch Linux (AUR). Community members maintain three AUR packages; the project doesn't publish
to the AUR itself. Install one of them:
| Package | What it installs | Choose it when |
|---|
wordcraft-bin | The release tarball above, prebuilt (x86_64, aarch64) | You want the latest release without compiling (quickest) |
wordcraft | The latest release, built from source with cargo | You prefer to build releases yourself |
wordcraft-git | The current main branch, built from source | You want unreleased changes and accept an occasional broken build |
For example yay -S wordcraft-bin or paru -S wordcraft-bin. | | |
FreeBSD
| Build | File |
|---|
| x86_64 | wordcraft-<ver>-freebsd-x86_64.tar.gz |
Web (WebAssembly)
| Build | File | Notes |
|---|
| Static site | wordcraft-web-<ver>.zip | Runs in a modern browser; host it on any static server |
The Crafting Apps
WordCraft is one of the Crafting Apps: free, open-source creative tools from the
ArtCraft team, each written from scratch in Rust and each able to
stand on its own.
And ArtCraft itself, our AI image and video studio for artists who want real control.
License and credits
WordCraft is dual-licensed under MIT or Apache-2.0, at your option.
Copyright (c) 2026 ArtCraft Team and the WordCraft contributors. Required notices are in NOTICE.
Bundled fonts, icons, images and other assets keep their own open licenses; each one is listed
with its author, source and license in ATTRIBUTION.md.
The English spelling dictionary and hyphenation come from Grady Ward's public-domain Moby
Hyphenator II word list. Polish spelling reads the Hunspell pl_PL dictionary installed on the system (not bundled) and
Polish hyphenation the TeX patterns by Hanna Kołodziejska, Bogusław Jackowski and Marek Ryćko (MIT
option). The sample documents and templates are original text written for WordCraft.
The ArtCraft name, wordmark and logos in docs/brand/ are trademarks of the
ArtCraft Team and are not covered by this license. They may be used only unmodified, and only as
part of this repository and WordCraft, under docs/brand/LICENSE-brand.txt.
Forks and modified versions must remove them.
Microsoft and Microsoft Word are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. Adobe, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Lightroom, Acrobat, After Effects and InDesign are trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. WordCraft is an independent, open-source project and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Microsoft Corporation or Adobe Inc.; these names are used only to describe the workflows it is compatible with.
