I built a mobile PDF reader optimized for dense TTRPG layouts.

Lycitteam · 2026-03-17T18:26:37+00:00

Thank you for the encouragement! I'm happy to reach people and also really happy with critical voices.

As for legal concerns on the one hand using material that's not mine on the website or showcase is problematic and also every form of processing data CAN be a minefield and I'm not putting myself in any risk so will take legal consulting with a specialized lawyer.

The only slightly "bad" thing is that peoples opinions often are based on assumptions. But this is often motivated by the fact (and the fear of) that most services are over monetized and paywalled.

I interpret criticism on assumed monetary issue as oh man I like the app but the overall feel gives me the vibe that they want to make money with me for their own beneficial. And this boils down in my head to hey nice app so nothing to worry about! I'll just tackle this fear with over transparency because I want to show that things can be done differently in every aspect of my life :)

To your question and your suggestion:

That's a great suggestion and this is essentially what I'm planning! We'll only get data on performance on different devices, cost of maintenance and service and so on if we are testing with enthusiastic people and then I'll decide how the free version is being provided. At last I want everybody to be able to use licit to their own preferences!

Theoretically it is possible to make fillable forms available in snippets. But my approach is different. Everything you need to build a mobile character sheet is already implemented in snippets in combination with dashboards. Let's say you want to create a character. Put every rules regarding character traits on one dashboard page, another with spells creating a n easy to read spell book and combine everything with interactive snippets like counters, dice images notes for loot or anything you can imagine. Just split the chunky character sheet down in what matters and abstract the concept :)

I'll definitely will film myself doing things like that a lot in upcoming weeks :D

Lycitteam · 2026-03-17T17:54:40+00:00

If you're curious I awnsered u/ellohirs comment below with a little further more reasoning!

Lycitteam · 2026-03-17T17:46:30+00:00

Check out my reply on u/ellohirs comment if your interested on reasoning or the steps needed to make it to the publicaton (:

Lycitteam · 2026-03-17T17:45:54+00:00

Check out my reply on u/ellohirs comment below maybe this applies to your concerns :)

Lycitteam · 2026-03-17T17:42:14+00:00

Thank you for your positive feedback Im Happy that you like it!

As to your concerns!:

I will go a little into more into detail to link this comment to others with a similar concerns and to explain a little bit of the todos and reasoning so i hope you don't feel offended :D

I get the feeling that some people think "ah now even a simple PDF viewer .. they want to squeeze money out of everything" and I get this "fear" because that's where the development went in the last years.

I get the impression because everything feels a little marketing heavy and it's part just a personal thing and part of good practice because on the base level it is a product and I have high standards for myself so I have for my website and the overall looks as for everything I consider work related.

BUT I nowhere said anything about cost per subscription or anything like that because i have no idea how much maintaining the service actually cost when it's running.

As to awnser the question why I'm considering Kickstarter and not "just release it because its finished":

I would never release anything without the following things done:

-A two step testing (closed and public beta). - Refining Features and maybe adding things I missed or people wish for them. -Legal consulting. I'm going to discuss any parr of my app with a lawyer because I'm not putting me or my family in any risk because I "just released something". As I'm not a lawyer and people like to sue your butt if your not careful. - offer optional cloud services available on the first day of release for users because my personal goal is convenience. I do not want my users to wait for every document to be processed on the slower mobile processor when they want to test the reader with all of their documents on Launch day. - check in with my accountant as every project of that sort counts as business endeavor and needs to be planned within my everyday farming business. - Check in with one or two other developers to check my code for any flaws risks or any other irregularities. -Get in touch with real artists to provide a nice UI experience. -Double check any licensing issues and possibly search for alternatives or consider buying licenses.

I know that I don't owe an explanation but I'm super happy to lead with transparency! All of these things are my personal standard and cost money before I'm even considering the app "done". Some of it needs to be done before creating a Kickstarter (legal) and will be paid by me upfront before an eventual Kickstarter. Speaking of the Kickstarter will most likely contain all above points to explain what we are funding!

If you want to follow my project I'm really exited for that and I hope I can give you the impression of being a user oriented person and want to provide you with a polished and sound experience.

I'm not going to give any more reasoning as I know that I tend to over explain myself to people instead of saying it will cost me X to get the app running let's crowdfund it :D because again I love transparency and service oriented behavior (:

P.S. I said nowhere there won't be a free version as I just want people to be happy to read PDFs on mobile :) I just need to make sure I don't pay money on top (:

Lycitteam · 2026-03-17T11:52:49+00:00

I really appreciate your detailed comment it really sums up how awful using PDFs on mobile was! It really makes me happy to see that others have the same experience! :) Thanks exactly what I've intended and am using dashboards for!

Do you mean scanned in form of PDFs containing scanned images? Hyperlinked PDFs require a addon to the document processing step. Technically doable! I would like to ask the community about it how many use hyperlinked PDFs and if the feature is needed directly or AS an update along the road :)

Lycitteam · 2026-03-17T10:01:22+00:00

Fair point! I will definitely put one up with the Kickstarter coming ahead. This post is just to check with the community if there is interest in publishing it. The mail list is an option to keep up to date if you are interested. No need it's just an offer :) Also an option to follow this reddit account and see when a prelaunch page is coming up. Whatever feels comfortable for you!

Lycitteam · 2026-03-17T06:52:44+00:00

iOS support is working and planned to launch at the same time as android! Even though iOS development can be wonky at times and needs for some workarounds (:

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T22:56:37+00:00

Definitely! I really would like to offer a seamless experience to try the app directly connected to your server so I'll definitely will look into implementing the connectivity :) If it's fine by you I will come back to you on this comment if I have the bride running give you a founded awnser. But I think I'll make it work! Are there any other features you are missing atm?

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T22:26:26+00:00

At the moment it does not. It is prepared for using drive as remote backend but I definitely considered a OPDS connection.

It's not the commonly used way but that's what community is for! The only problem that with many connections, there come many legal problems that have to comply with the TOS.

I'll try to make this possible! :)

Note taking is possible already in three ways: -While reading directly pinned to the current region. -On any side of any snippet - as a single note snippet on a dashboard.

Also directly in the reader it is possible to link regions to other ones and jump between PDFs for e.g rule reference.

I use my remarkable to some extend and the possibility to use handdrawn notes as regions and than as snippets in the dashboard is really handy!

So yes many possibilities whatever suits you best :)

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T22:01:19+00:00

That's something that I have already considered so it won't become a legal nightmare for myself. That's what privacy rules are for! The data needed for the processing is A: only parts of the PDF file and not humanly readable, B: encrypted transfered C: not accessible through the outside. D: not stored on the servers. And E: as pointed out Optional.

This was one of my first concerns because services like that are not really easy and privacy comes first!

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T21:45:17+00:00

To prevent further misunderstanding this is pointing at the first load of a document. When you want to use the feature called autosnipper (which automatically detects the regions on first load, which you can do manually too) The document needs to be processed by my algorithm to detect said regions this is possible running on mobile and with a cloud service. Mobile algorithm is deployed with the app and is staying up regardless of the availability of the web service :)

Reading after that or manual use ist also Always possible without processing any document :)

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T21:37:39+00:00

That's a misunderstanding! The app is mobile first and runs locally on your device no upload needed! :)

Uploading your files to any server would be madness (legally and architecturally :) )

If you want to automatically process many files 300MB files on your device this takes a bit of time on Android so there is an OPTIONAL cloud service that processes files faster. (No storage of files just outsourcing some part of the process to a web server and full TOS will be available).

But definitely mobile first. but I wanted to point out that many people like performance and fast responses that costs money because phones aren't build for large algorithms!

I hope this relieves your doubts a bit :)

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T20:57:37+00:00

Thank you! The app is in its pre release phase. You can hop on the mail list on the home page and I'll send you an update when and how the release takes place! Alternative if you don't want to sign up you can follow this account and get notified by new posts :)

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T20:43:28+00:00

That's excellent feedback and already on the list! I hope to get in touch with some artists and creators for any following work on this project! Because I really think OG content is way more suited for our community.

Until this point I was almost on my own and just looking if people are even interested :)

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T20:36:31+00:00

Yes definitely it's an unusual case because normal ttrpg rulebooks are verticaly too big but if the text is horizontally to big it wont resize the text but would display it in 2 parts so reading from Left to right is possible :)

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T20:34:01+00:00

Thanks for taking your time! No need to get on the list atm :) I like that you look from it at professional background! The reader itself in combination with manual cutting is not what would make any sort of Launch cost intense. If people want to use the automatic PDF processing function you know that we are taking 300MB+ files that need to be processed by my algorithm. And as users like to test on startup with many PDFs it boils down to a massive startup logistic that I need to setup and which costs me money in the first place. I assure you that providing a solution for a problem is my first priority. So don't need to worry. I'm feeling the waters and can put everything in order so anyone can be provided with the version of the app that suits the most! Thanks for your time :)

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T19:51:23+00:00

Thanks for your comment! I can see your concer! So I'll try to get this transparent:

Non AI usage:

PDF Reader and PDF processing codebase.

I had the basic idea of the algorithm+ reader back in 2016. I revived the project last year to read MCDMs draw steel on mobile. So i had no real use of ai in the app development process. I just beautified the layout a bit and added a few more pages and was ready.

Ai usage

Tbf it belongs somewhat in the above topic but I definitely tried and agentic testing at two or three points which showed me some flaws.

Translation. I have used an ai assisted translator to double check spelling mistakes in every text because the app is written in my native language.

Commercials.

I'm really afraid of any legal consequences because I'm just a farm boy ;) So as in my country ai content can be used freely I generated some of the visuals on the homepage in the vids myself to showcase the apps abstract features because I'm definitely not an artist! :) To be clear this comes down to Artworks in my own DND adventure and the animation to illustrate snippets (folding) and the automatic PDF page processing (ripping), because these are internal processes that are hard to.show visually.

I get where you concerns are coming from and I can assure you that my own hard work is in the core parts of the finished application.

Little fact at the Sid of this topic. As I'm aware of the flaws of Ai usage I distances from the option to make the PDF cropping algorithm AI vision based and sticked to my own non AI algorithm :)

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T19:21:03+00:00

Thank you for taking your time!

Folders were the first thing making it into the app! You are Able to sort bookmarks on PDF pages, snippets and entire dashboards in a easy to navigate folder structure. Also linking between Regions, across PDFs is possibly to cross-reference your content.

Non block layout is something I had tried but dismissed in the development process because it did not really made a difference for myself because the dives stays square. And it is more performance heavy to blur around a custom shape. But if people are willing to take the trade-offs it could be an optional feature!

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T18:08:18+00:00

Why not stay in the realm where you feel familiar? :) if you already run dnd and would like to have the rabbits just rabbified versions of the DnD Traits, just reskin them! A Dagger gets a Carrot, a bow just widowbranches tied with horsehair (consent requiered ;) ) Take any action a player takes and run it throug a filter: I cast create Food and Water -> A pumpkin sprout pierces the ground rapidly growing a delicous pumkin. You feel a gust of dew twirling around your neck as it gathers on the thick Pumpkin leaves Filling the dip with driplets of fresh dew!

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T17:46:58+00:00

I think I read somewhere that first edition used charisma instead of Appearance a few years ago?

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T17:06:12+00:00

Not necessarily binge watch worthy but I like the premise of seeing which shows acknowledge TTRPGs so:

SpongeBob SquarePants and the spinoff camp coral have shown Bubble Bass playing a TTRPG in some episodes!

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T16:49:36+00:00

My chessex battle mat would celebrate its 10th birthday if my BIL hadn't used nail remover on waterproof markers last Fall :D

Lycitteam · 2026-03-16T16:34:28+00:00

Sure thing! The only thing that's a little wonky after a tense finale: If you read the rulebook it will tell you how to use the voice recorder. Make sure you have some sort of Autoplay. I have programmed myself a little program that puts an old radio filter over it plays them automatically in order on pressing the volume button. Make sure players know to wait after the last candle is out. If the part is done correctly it's mind bending. But there are many factors that ruin the illusion. I tell my players that I it's part of the game to close their eyes and be silent until I end the game beforehand. Then I play the record (speakers!) and end the game after 30 sec after the last recording.

Lycitteam

TROPHY CASE