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One command to download them all (meet ArtCraft Downloader)

By DoggByte ·

Product number two is here, and I’ll admit it’s not glamorous. It does one job: it downloads things. But it does that job so well that you’ll never again open fourteen release pages in fourteen browser tabs and wonder which “Download” button is the real one.

Meet ArtCraft Downloader, a command-line tool for Windows, macOS and Linux that fetches installers and archives for the “Craft” apps published on GitHub. Type one command, get the files, in a tidy OS / App / Version folder layout. That’s the whole pitch.

One command. Fourteen apps. About 17 GB.

Run it with no arguments and it goes and gets the latest release of every app, which the README helpfully estimates at about 17 GB. I’m mentioning that now so nobody emails me about their suddenly-full disk. You can’t say you weren’t warned.

If that sounds like a lot, and honestly it does, you can be choosy:

artcraft-downloader --apps photocraft,figcraft --native

That fetches two apps and only the files that fit the computer you’re sitting at. Want an older version because the new one changed something you were quietly fond of? -a photocraft -r 0.8.2. You can even ask for a different version of each app in the same run. Time travel, but for installers.

It checks its own homework

Every download is checked against the published SHA-256 checksums, and --verify checks them again whenever you feel like some reassurance. It also skips files you already have and picks up interrupted downloads where they left off, because your connection will drop at 96%. It always does.

And it’s one self-contained file: no installer, no Python, nothing else to set up. A tool that downloads installers shouldn’t need an installer. I’d call that a point of principle, but mostly it’s just common sense.

The usual disclaimers (it’s still me, so they’re short)

  • It’s free, including for commercial and business use. You just can’t sell it or put it behind a paywall. Which would be a pretty bold business plan for a tool that downloads other people’s files.
  • It’s independent. It isn’t affiliated with, or endorsed by, storytold or the ArtCraft apps, and what it downloads stays under those apps’ own terms.
  • It’s a compiled program. The GitHub repository hosts the releases, the documentation and the issue tracker, and the source code isn’t published there.

Get it

The product page has the install steps for each platform and the full list of options, and the releases live on GitHub. Found a bug, or want a feature? Open an issue with your --version, your operating system and the command you ran, and I’ll take a look.

Curious why these apps exist at all? It’s a familiar story, and it involves a cancellation fee.

Happy downloading. Mind the 17 GB.