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Show HN: I built a free kids coloring site with AI

happykidscoloring.com

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Re: Show HN: I built a free kids coloring site with AI

#11

Post by gsempe »

daimajia wrote: post #6
gsempe wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! Nice work congratulations ! I have a question on how you generated the 2D line arts. You wrote that you used Google Gemini. I’m Interested to have more details on the prompt or the process you side it have quality line arts. Thank you very much!

Thanks! I use Gemini's Imagen 3 API with specific prompts emphasizing "black and white line art, coloring book style, simple clean outlines, no shading". Key is being very explicit about: - Line art only, no shading/gradients - Age-appropriate complexity - Theme-specific keywords Biggest challenge was consistency - took many iterations to dial in the prompts. I also manually filter out images with unwanted shading (w…

I have a French website of place cards https://marqueplace.com that is up for more than 4 years but that I barely updated. I’m investigating an easy and cheap way to create alternative designs. It’s all about creating simple designs that can be print in a flat card design. It’s very close to what you did. Obviously the immediate focus is Christmas and New Year’s Eve

Re: Show HN: I built a free kids coloring site with AI

#13

Post by bdbdbdb »

Sorry to be that guy.

I contemplated the same idea a while back because I'm constantly printing out colouring sheets for kids and it seemed like an app people would use.

Ultimately I decided not to build it because there are so many free colouring page sites out there, and there's a non-zero environmental cost to asking Gemini to generate a happy bat image.

Pretty much any colouring page a kid could ask you for is already a Google search away. In fact the challenge is not finding a happy bat colouring page but narrowing it down from the thousands of results.

I just don't see the value in using Gemini to add yet more generic colouring pages to the millions that exist. I'm sorry, I don't mean to poop on your work, it's interesting to read the tech implementation but ultimately I don't like creating walled gardens with AI generated alternatives to what's already free

Re: Show HN: I built a free kids coloring site with AI

#14

Post by daimajia »

bdbdbdb wrote: post #13

Sorry to be that guy. I contemplated the same idea a while back because I'm constantly printing out colouring sheets for kids and it seemed like an app people would use. Ultimately I decided not to build it because there are so many free colouring page sites out there, and there's a non-zero environmental cost to asking Gemini to generate a happy bat image. Pretty much any colouring page a kid could ask you for is al…

No worries, these are fair points and I appreciate the honest feedback.

You're right - there are millions of coloring pages out there already. I thought about this too.

On the environmental cost: if no one uses it, I'll simply shut it down to save resources. That's a practical reality check. But if people do use it, then at least it means I've contributed something to kids' entertainment and education.

That said, my long-term vision isn't just "another coloring page site powered by AI." I'm working on integrating more interactive AI features - things like kids describing what they want and getting personalized pages, or uploading their own drawings to transform into coloring sheets. I want this to be something genuinely new and useful, not just a pile of AI-generated images competing with Google Image Search.

Whether I succeed at that differentiation remains to be seen, but that's the goal. Thanks for sharing your perspective - it's a good reminder to stay focused on creating real value, not just more content.

Re: Show HN: I built a free kids coloring site with AI

#16

Post by kleinishere »

Feature request - a way to filter by age / difficulty from the home page. I see it on individual pages but didn’t quickly see the age listed as a tag. This is a point of friction on most coloring page sites. Congrats on this. I have bookmarked it. Thank you

For others who stumble upon this, another good free site without too many ads:

https://colorango.com/

Re: Show HN: I built a free kids coloring site with AI

#17

Post by daimajia »

kleinishere wrote: post #16

Feature request - a way to filter by age / difficulty from the home page. I see it on individual pages but didn’t quickly see the age listed as a tag. This is a point of friction on most coloring page sites. Congrats on this. I have bookmarked it. Thank you For others who stumble upon this, another good free site without too many ads: https://colorango.com/

Thanks for the feedback! Home page filtering for age/difficulty is now on my to-do list. Appreciate the bookmark and the kind words!
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