Rekto Digital LLC

WorkCase study 02 / 03

Cartoon It

A consumer AI product that turns everyday photos into personalized comic gifts. Try it free, pay once, no account.

Type
Consumer web app, generative AI
Model
Pay per download, from $3.99
Users
Gift buyers, couples, families
Our role
Product, design, engineering, launch
Status
Live
Visit cartoonit.art Try the creator
cartoonit.art
Cartoon It website
Cartoon It on mobile

The problem, and how we approached it.

The problem

Most gifts are interchangeable: they would work for anyone, which is the opposite of the point. Custom illustrated portraits exist, but they are slow, expensive and a gamble until they arrive.

People want something personal, fast, and they want to see it before they pay.

Our approach

We designed the whole funnel around a free, full-page preview. A three-step creator (story, photos, design) generates a complete comic that keeps the people recognizable.

Customers only pay once, when they want the clean files. No subscription and no account.

Six pieces, one product.

  1. Story templatesLove Story, Little Hero, Family & Friends, and more, built around real occasions.
  2. Five art stylesDreamy anime, manga, heroic comic, 3D animated and classic comic.
  3. Private uploadsPhotos are deleted within 24 hours. Guidance helps people pick photos that work.
  4. Free previewThe whole page is generated and shown, watermarked, before any payment.
  5. One-time checkoutFrom 1 page to a 3-page story with a custom cover. No account required.
  6. Print-ready deliveryWatermark-free PNG and A4 PDF, ready to share or print.

Under the hood

Preview-first, by design.

Giving away the full result before payment only works if generation is dependable. The pipeline takes the chosen story and style, keeps each person's likeness across panels, and produces the watermarked page; payment unlocks the clean files.

  • Generation with Google Gemini, keeping people recognizable across panels
  • Server-side image processing with Sharp
  • Uploads kept in private storage and deleted within 24 hours
  • Stripe checkout, then PNG and print-ready A4 PDF
  • Occasion landing pages and a blog for organic search
  1. 01
    Story

    Pick an occasion and a template.

  2. 02
    Photos

    Upload up to six photos, privately.

  3. 03
    Design

    Choose format, mood and art style.

  4. 04
    Preview

    The full comic is generated, watermarked.

  5. 05
    Checkout

    One-time payment, no account.

  6. 06
    Deliver

    Clean PNG and A4 PDF.

What it runs on.

Frontend

  • TypeScript
  • React
  • Vite
  • Tailwind CSS

AI & media

  • Google Gemini
  • Sharp
  • Headless Chromium

Storage & payments

  • Vercel Blob
  • Stripe

Documents

  • jsPDF

Quality

  • Vitest
  • Testing Library

Hosting

  • Vercel

Inside the product.

Real photos and their comic versions
Real photos and their comic versions
Five art styles
Five art styles
How it works, in four steps
How it works, in four steps

Screens from cartoonit.art.

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