A React and TypeScript-powered digital library that converts PDFs into page-flipping books with real-time search, category management, favorites, dark mode, and AI-generated summaries powered by Gemini AI. Built with Vite, Tailwind CSS, Supabase for backend storage, and react-pageflip for smooth interactions.
Managing and reading PDFs in a digital library feels clunky. Users bounce between file managers, struggle with poor reading experiences, and lose track of what they've read. Static PDF viewers don't encourage engagement, and organizing large document collections becomes tedious. People wanted a modern way to browse and read their book collections that felt native and intuitive.
Lifewood transforms this experience into a beautiful digital reading space. The app converts PDFs into interactive flipbooks with smooth page-turning animations, making reading feel natural and enjoyable. Users can organize books into categories, mark favorites, search content, and even generate AI summaries using Gemini.
Tech stack: React handles the interactive UI, PDF.js extracts content and pages, react-pageflip delivers the page-turning animation, and Supabase manages storage and user data. Vite keeps the build fast and Tailwind CSS creates that clean, Apple-inspired aesthetic throughout.
Smooth page-flipping experience: react-pageflip with configurable animations creates that tactile book-turning feel that standard PDFs don't offer
Smart organization: Category management and favorites let users build their personal library without friction, and Supabase keeps everything synced across devices
AI summaries: Gemini integration generates instant book summaries, helping users decide what to read without manually skimming through pages
This project taught me how much UX matters with reading experiences. I discovered that small interactions like smooth animations and thoughtful navigation can transform how people engage with content. Working with PDF manipulation was trickier than expected, especially handling different file formats and maintaining performance at scale. If I built it again, I'd add real-time collaboration features so teams could share and annotate documents together.