Keep an editable master with .pcraft

Understand what a native Photo project contains, how it differs from an image export and why a browser download is your saved copy.

Applies to Photo 0.9.0 on photo.et.

Choose a working format#

A .pcraft project is PhotoCraft's native document format. Keep it as an editable master when your work contains layers, masks, text, smart objects or effects that a flattened image cannot preserve. Export a separate PNG, JPEG or other image when you need a shareable rendering.

In the browser, use a file download for the project. The upstream format also supports directory bundles for native tooling; that filesystem workflow is not the browser save interface.

What is inside the file#

The native archive stores a versioned document manifest plus tile and blob content. It also includes previews. These entries describe the container, not files you need to manage individually:

manifest.json
tiles/<blake3>.zst
blobs/<blake3>.zst
thumb.png
composite/preview.png

Content hashes and archive checks help detect mismatched or corrupted data. Unsupported newer format versions fail explicitly rather than being treated as an older schema. Do not manually edit archive entries as a way to repair a project unless you understand the format and have an untouched copy.

Save and verify#

1. Save an editable project and wait for the browser download to finish.
2. Check the filename and location in your downloads.
3. For important work, reopen the downloaded copy and inspect the layers and visible result.
4. Keep the editable master when you export a flattened copy for sharing.

Large-project limits#

The format has finite parser and decompression limits, including a 100-level maximum for layer groups. Those limits are not a promise that a browser can comfortably edit a project of that size. Available memory and document complexity can become practical constraints much earlier.

A preview image inside an archive is not an independent backup of its editable content. Keep separate copies of important projects and original source images.

Continue reading

• Save, export and exchange files →
• OpenRaster: what layered .ora files preserve →