Coloring-so

The Idea

Coloring.so is a minimalistic, user-friendly web app designed to make browsing for coloring pages as fun and intuitive as shopping for T-shirts. With a clean interface, playful icons, and an easy download process, it’s perfect for kids and parents alike.

Explore AI-generated coloring pages curated for a variety of themes and interests. Whether it’s animals, vehicles, or seasonal designs, Coloring.so ensures kids always have something fun to color!

What We Need

The tech stack powering this project is simple yet efficient, ensuring both scalability and cost-effectiveness:

• Vercel: For fast, reliable hosting.
• CSV File: Used to catalog and manage image metadata.
• CrewAI: Automates image generation and management workflows.
• AWS Lambda: For lightweight, serverless processing.

Managing Costs

Initially, Coloring.so was hosted on an EC2 instance within a VPC, complete with all the “bells and whistles.” However, this setup turned out to be overkill for a small-scale project, resulting in unexpectedly high expenses.

Eventually, I stumbled upon a tweet from Pat Walls, an entrepreneur I admire. He mentioned someone who had a similar idea and turned it into a $3K/month cash-flowing business. This inspired me to revisit Coloring.so with renewed focus and determination. I transitioned the project to a more cost-effective platform, Vercel, significantly reducing operational expenses.

Thanks to Vercel’s free tier, the app now runs almost cost-free since it doesn’t yet have heavy user traffic. If traffic grows and I have to pay for Vercel’s services, that would be a fantastic problem to solve!

Automation with CrewAI

Automation plays a key role in keeping Coloring.so efficient and scalable. Using CrewAI, I’ve built a workflow with multiple AI agents to handle the following tasks:

• Image Selection: Identifying concepts and themes for coloring pages.
• Prompt Generation: Crafting descriptions to feed into AI image generators.
• Image Management: Uploading the generated coloring pages to an S3 bucket.
• Catalog Updates: Automatically updating the CSV file in Git, ensuring new images are available to users in real time.

This seamless automation allows me to focus on enhancing the user experience without getting bogged down by repetitive tasks.

Future Development

The roadmap for Coloring.so is full of exciting possibilities:

• On-Demand Generation: Enabling users to request personalized coloring pages based on their inputs, such as specific themes, characters, or styles.
• Enhanced User Experience: Adding search filters, recommendations, and a favorites section.
• Mobile Optimization: Creating a more immersive experience for tablet users, ideal for kids who like to color on-screen.
• Subscription Plans: Introducing a low-cost membership model for unlimited downloads and exclusive content.

Coloring.so is just getting started, but it already shows the potential to become a beloved tool for creative exploration. With AI at its core and a growing community of users, the future looks bright—and colorful!