After my first project Photon Studio (free photoshop alternative) hit 30k users, and also resulted many sloppy copycats like PhotoCraft or ImageRaw - many adobe users cancelled their photoshop subscription, I started on my next big thing: a full blown Lightroom alternative.

Meet Light Studio. 680 people joined the waitlist in 5 days, and the alpha feedback was insane. Today it's out here's what's in it so far, and this is just the beginning:

• 85% coverage of lightroom features
• One-click .lrcat catalog import
• All Lightroom keyboard shortcuts, same feel
• AI denoise and object removal
• RAW edits and adjustments
• Better UX than lightroom and lrc (imo)
• CLI, MCP, skills, and more
• No subscription

Next up: keep improving Photon and Light - top priority. illustrator alternative in a week, maybe less. Then indesign, acrobat, after effects, premiere.

cheers.

A few weeks ago I launched Photon Studio, Free, photoshop alternative, with almost all the capabilities of photoshop -now for free on the microsoft store.

41% of my user base were windows users, and many were afraid to download the app from my website, as it is not signed yet so windows defender shows scary warning. So I decided to upload it to the store.

Hopefully it will enable more windows users to hop in and enjoy this awesome tool.

Just search Photon Studio and you'll see it.

My original post blew up after I mentioned that I spent $2,000 to implement a photoshop replacement and cancel my own Adobe subscription. Some people were amazed, some were skeptical, and some called me an idiot, saying I could pay for a decade of Adobe subscriptions with that money.

Since then, users have been sending me feedback around the clock, through every possible channel. My Codex has been working overtime, and I’ve now spent well over $2,000. But the result is a working Photoshop alternative that supports 99% of Photoshop’s features.

I still remember using Photoshop for the first time. I spent months watching YouTube tutorials and was amazed by what the software could do. Now I’ve replaced it in just a few weeks. project is called Photon Studio.

Crazy times.

A few days ago I launched the beta version of Photon - free, offline, full photoshop replacement I built using gpt-6 astra.

After launching the product I got some feedbacks on it on different channels - email, X, reddit. I wanted a better way to collect it. so what I did was adding a very accessible feedback button that sends all the feedback directly to my telegram. I needed this because I maintain a full time job and I was really into improving this side project.

now the flow looks like:

1. Opening telegram from my phone
2. Looking for the high quality feedback
3. Putting codex to work through the mobile app based on this feedback
4. When I get home from work I test the version, see that the changes are not slop, and deploy.

This workflow enables me to deliver massive improvements on a daily basis.

built my Photoshop replacement. It’s entirely free.

I spent two weeks building Photon, and it’s now replaced Photoshop entirely for me. I canceled my Adobe subscription.

Yes, I’m biased. But canceling the subscription felt like a pretty good test of whether I’d actually use what I built.

I wanted Photoshop’s editing power with a much better interface and experience. Something that felt familiar enough to open and start working, with the tools and shortcuts I already knew.

Here’s what’s in Photon:

• Layers and nondestructive editing: groups, masks, clipping masks, adjustment layers, smart objects, and layer effects.
• Photo editing and retouching: curves, levels, healing brushes, clone stamp, content-aware fill, and Liquify.
• Design tools: editable text, vector shapes, Pen paths, brushes, and gradients.
• Local subject selection and background removal: processing happens on your computer.
• PSD support: open and edit Photoshop documents, and save as PSD. Photon flags compatibility limitations before saving.
• Familiar Photoshop shortcuts, plus searchable commands so you can find a tool without digging through menus.
• Offline editing. Your files stay on your computer.

And the whole app is free.

The biggest difference for me is how it feels to use. I wanted the depth of a serious editor with an interface I actually enjoy spending time in. Obviously, you’ll have to judge that part yourself.

Launched it today, already at 161 users.

I work for a startup company in SF and my product team needed a more capable version of Screen studio - they needed to add photos, texts, videos, reorder specific parts.

So I've built this video editor called tenzen.studio .

I used to create about four product demo videos a week for my startup. Starting in Screen Studio and exporting to Premiere or After Effects just to add voiceovers, animations, and cuts took way too much time.

That's why I built tenzen.studio. It delivers the same polished zooms as Screen Studio, but includes a much more capable, built-in editor. You can rearrange timelines, add voiceovers, sounds, animations, captions, and even automate cuts with AI.

I currently have 78 active users. Based on recent feedback, I realized many of them weren't aware of everything the app can do. To fix this, I created a few product walkthroughs and wanted to share them here for you all to check out!

I'm working full time job at an AI startup, I purchased screen studio for my demo videos but many times I needed more out of it and I just couldn't get - rearranging the video parts, AI voiceover, texts, images, transitions.

So I made what every engineer would do and I replaced it with my own software.

If you're willing to use what I build (Tenzen studio) - DO NOT BUY IT.

I'm giving away lifetime licenses in exchange for feedback, currently less than 20 people use it daily, I want it to be absolutely great and for that to happen I need more users. Revenue is not my focus at the moment.

one-shot. 3.5 hrs. that's insane.

play with it here:

https://macos27.kimi.page/

Original X post: https://x.com/mweinbach/status/2077878247920951400

that's insane.