

ASK HN: (What) Would you pay for this Google Chrome Web App? - franze
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ednbfblokipkbkecmfinlfhcikhidnoc

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swalberg
Speaking as a parent of 3 young boys, I can't see myself using this, let alone
paying for it.

We've got a house stuffed with crayons and colouring books. At the dollar
store, they're probably a buck each, so it's not as if this is a cost
avoidance issue.

In my mind, part of the fun of colouring is putting something to paper. My
kids used to play on tuxpaint and they'd just see if they could fill the page
with stamps. Give them a colouring book (or blank paper) and they actually try
to make something. Something that I can put on the fridge. A story they can
tell you. This has none of that.

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franze
valid point(s) ...but then, what's the fridge of the internet? facebook?

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DanielStraight
I don't think kids young enough to enjoy coloring books are likely to care
about Facebook.

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simias
Mmm, forgive me if I'm missing something obvious but I don't understand what
your app does exactly. Care to make a longer description? Or maybe better if
you have some time, a video?

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franze
simply said: it uses google chromes filereader object to enable drag & drop
(for images), after a successful (image) drop it does some blob recognition
algo (outline detection) on the image canvas, then replaces onmousemove a
circular section of that canvas with the data from another canvas (of the same
image with another color "filter")

or to put it a more complex way: it magically transforms images into magic
digital coloring pages.

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asmosoinio
I too didn't understand the purpose...

Also: Are you supposed to be able to drag&drop pictures from other tabs to
this tool? Didn't work for me, but "Chhose File..." worked fine.

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franze
the drop event of google chrome seems not to support "other tab drop"
currently, only drag & drop from the desktop, don't know whats the reason
behind it .... difficult to word this in a way so that it does not confuse
"not technical experiences" users ... drag'n'drop != drag'n'drop ... thats a
difficult sales argument

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anonymoushn
I think sample images would do a lot for you. Some sort of detailed
description would be helpful too, because I had no idea what the app did until
I used it, and if I had to pay for it first I would probably just not use it.

Also, when you upload an animated .gif the different colors seem to uncover
different frames of the image, which confused me for a minute.

\---Edit--- It looks like this <http://ompldr.org/vNzFpaw>

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franze
strange effect, must look into it ... but it looks awesome

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senko
How about turning it into a regular web service which parents can use to
upload any photo and turn it into a coloring page (PDF) they can print out.

You could have a "free" service for producing, say, one paper a day, and
charge for version with more. Any parent whose child likes it will want to buy
it.

You could copy some of patio11's ingenius marketing tactic - have a set of
pages (done using your tool from freely available (or purchased) photos) that
people can download, and hook them on the app.

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Kilimanjaro
Make two versions, one ad-free for 99cts and one free with ads.

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franze
and if not, what's missing so that it would be worth your hard earned money?

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scrrr
Could be fun for children on the iPad/Galaxy Tab I guess. If you provide a
couple outline-images (Disney-licensed characters would be best I guess..) and
better tools to color them, e.g. other brushes. Right now it does not appear
to be a finished app.

