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Kitaab: 1st eReader, ePublisher for Urdu Language

Developing the much needed FIRST eReading and ePublishing solution for Urdu and other RTL Languages.

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Kitaab: 1st eReader, ePublisher for Urdu Language

Kitaab: 1st eReader, ePublisher for Urdu Language

Kitaab: 1st eReader, ePublisher for Urdu Language

Kitaab: 1st eReader, ePublisher for Urdu Language

Kitaab: 1st eReader, ePublisher for Urdu Language

Developing the much needed FIRST eReading and ePublishing solution for Urdu and other RTL Languages.

Developing the much needed FIRST eReading and ePublishing solution for Urdu and other RTL Languages.

Developing the much needed FIRST eReading and ePublishing solution for Urdu and other RTL Languages.

Developing the much needed FIRST eReading and ePublishing solution for Urdu and other RTL Languages.

Arslan Zaidi
Arslan Zaidi
Arslan Zaidi
Arslan Zaidi
1 Campaign |
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
$202 USD 4 backers
1% of $20,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

The background

“Kitaab”, Urdu word for “book”, is a brainchild of “Ideal Ideaz”, a software house founded by a group of friends, all sharing the same vision to do something impact-ful for the society as well as themselves.

Urdu is world’s 3rd biggest language* (mixed with Hindi by some analytics) and is written right-to-left. Spoken primarily in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Middle-East and by the large community of Asian people living in US, UK, Canada and Australia. The language offers a deep literary heritage and is considered as one of the sweetest languages in the world. Unfortunately, the literature is dying because of the declining trend of book reading which in turn is caused by rising prices of paper books and decreasing affordability of people. eBooks can revive the book reading habit by offering books which are,

  • Free (belonging to public-domain or copyright free)
  • Paid but very cheap as compared to paper-back editions
  • Easily accessible online
  • Easily readable giving the best eReading experience
  • Encouraging amateur authors to publish their works free of cost
  • Encouraging professional authors to sell their books to a much larger audience around the globe

Though, the concept of eBooks exists in the society but only in a form that people scan books, create static PDFs and upload. The proper eBook creation process is not followed because there is no such platform yet which can display right-to-left languages’ text as easily as left-to-right’s. Furthermore, interface of the platform in the same language is also needed. Even further, the eBook creation process is lengthy and requires considerable time, money and effort because of composing the manuscripts in digital form and then using development techniques to generate optimized eBooks in the proper epub format. Therefore the concept remains limited.

The statistical analysis of such resources offering scanned images as books show that the people do want to read eBooks but they are helpless.

  • A static PDF can be “read” but not “enjoyed”
  • PDF books are almost impossible to read on mobile devices
  • There is no dedicated mobile app for Urdu eBooks reading, having the interface language in Urdu too
  • Available collection is not very vast, specially the classic literature
  • In scanned images, you do not have the customization features offered by eBooks (font style, size, color, line height, spacing, background color, day mode, night mode etc.)
  • Due to piracy, authors and publishers remain hesitant

So we develop Kitaab

Kitaab is a complete eReading and ePublishing solution for not only Urdu but all right-to-left (RTL) languages. 

Scope includes, 

  • Free Android and iOS app optimized for RTL eBooks reading
  • ePublishing mechanism by which Urdu books will be made available in industry standard EPUB format
  • Generating a vast library of FREE eBooks belonging to public-domain and copyright free
  • Digital Rights Management (DRM) system to handle piracy on copyrighted books
  • Platform for publishers and authors to sell their books in ebook form
  • Translation of other languages masterpieces to Urdu, thus bridging the societies
  • Primary interface language as Urdu, secondary language English
  • English eBooks can also be read with as much ease as Urdu
  • Exciting social sharing features not yet offered by any eReading app
  • Expanding the horizons to include other RTL languages like Arabic and Persian

We need your support!

Kitaab is a mega project and despite of having all the necessary vision, experience and skills, we lack just one thing, the financial resources to carry out the full scale development and building the free online library of Urdu classic books. At our own, we have successfully completed the ver 1.0 for Android. Our major cost heads are,

  • Development of Android app
  • Development of iOS app
  • Acquisition of public-domain books and their conversion to digital form. This is a significant cost head which has raised the cost of overall project, but is as crucial as the development itself.
  • Developing an owned DRM system
  • Developing a web platform where users can submit their ebooks to be uploaded on Kitaab
  • Online marketing to create awareness
  • Offline marketing in universities, literary circles, events, book fairs

The challengers!

Optimizing for an RTL language on machines and softwares which all work in LTR format was the foremost challenge which has been overcome with unique algorithms and innovative techniques. Generating a significant free library of ebooks to start with is quite a comprehensive challenge which involves considerable money alongside the effort. The current DRM systems for ebooks offered by providers like Adobe are too costly to be integrated and will kill the concept of providing cheap books to the people of under-developed countries. Thus developing a new and owned DRM system is another challenging task for which some algorithms have already been planned and need to be field tested before deployment.


Contribute to a whole culture!

By contributing to this project, you will help more than 900 million Urdu speakers around the globe (stats by Encyclopedia Britannica) to read their favorite books on mobile which will in turn,

  • Help to revive the literature of a centuries old language
  • Literature educates societies thus producing more tolerant, talented, creative and lively individuals 
  • Encourage authors to write more as their creativity is delivered to more people

If we do not meet the funding goal, then our development pace will be significantly hit. Library building costs are almost as high as the development and is one of the primary success factors of this product. No classic library - no Kitaab!

Current Status and Launch Plan

  • We have launched Android based first version on Play Store with a limited number of books
  • Public Domain Library is being worked upon and is the only bottleneck at the moment. Due to our limited resources, this phase is eating much time and effort.
  • DRM and Paid Books category will be included in second version and is dependent upon the funding we raise.
  • iOS app development will be started as soon as we raise a certain amount of funds to bear the cost.

Download Kitaab

You can download Kitaab from Play Store on your Android phone now.
Help us realize a DREAM

Whether you know Urdu or not, a contribution to this project will be a contribution to a better educated society of millions of people living in every corner of the world. If you know any Urdu/Hindi speaker around you then do share the word with him and ask him to get ready to download Kitaab on his mobile. 

Stay tuned to our official website

Our official website is
Currently showing pre-launch version. It will soon display a section of Online Library, Acknowledgements, Publish your book section and a book discussion social forum.

Q. I don't know Urdu, is Kitaab for me?

Yes, Kitaab fully supports English, Arabic, Persian and other languages' ebooks too. Kitaab's interface is available in English as well. Along with our own Urdu library, we have connected Kitaab to English online libraries like Project Gutenberg and Feedbooks etc. Once we are done with Urdu, then we will expand to Arabic and Persian as well and make interfaces available in those languages.

Q. Don't you think you are asking too much?

Absolutely not, as Kitaab is a complete end-to-end solution. It's not only an ereader, not only a library, not only an epublisher, not only an online book store..it is all of them at once. We have to do it all because these all are linked and are meaningless in absence of other. The library building requires acquisition of books, requires manpower to convert them to digital form, requires time as it is a laborious process hence the cost of library built-up phase is almost equivalent to the development of rest of all modules together. In fact, such a project would take much more finance to be developed if it were based in US or UK etc. Our costs are far lesser because we are Asia based.

Q. What can I do if I cannot fund?

Even just 1 penny of yours will be another step towards changing a whole cultural trend. But if you can't then you can definitely help us by sharing the word with your friends, sending us comments to encourage, and showing us your commitment to download the app once it is launched. We will still be grateful to you.

Looking for more information? Check the project FAQ
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Choose your Perk

Acknowledgement in App

$10 USD
We will put your name in the list of all those who helped making Kitaab and your name will be published in the Acknowledgement section.
0 claimed

Publish and Sell yourself

$15 USD
If you are an author yourself, then we will charge you nothing if you publish on Kitaab and sell your book to the readers. All the price goes to you. (After cutting the Google and iOS app store's commission)
0 claimed

2 Paid Books FREE

$20 USD
Any 2 books of your choice from the Paid Books section. (Paid Books will be available in ver 1.2)
Estimated Shipping
June 2016
0 claimed

Free T-Shirt

$20 USD
A high quality tee having Kitaab logo will be shipped to you as a gesture of thankfulness.
0 claimed
Ships worldwide.

Beautiful paper diary

$25 USD
A handy, handsome, useful paper diary for you!
0 claimed
Ships worldwide.

Access to premium version

$35 USD
Help us now and we will assist you when the app is launched. You will be given premium ad-free version.
Estimated Shipping
June 2016
2 claimed

A watch, mobile or more..

$150 USD
A watch, a mobile phone or anything else. Let us know what you desire.
0 claimed
Ships worldwide.

South Asian apparel

$500 USD
Anything from a list of traditional apparel like Qameez Shalwar (dress), Traditional Waist Coat, Peshawari Chappal (shoes), Kolha Puri Chappal (shoes), Asian women jewelry, Jinnah Cap, Sindhi Topi (cap), Ajrak (traditional folk shawl).
Estimated Shipping
June 2016
0 claimed
Ships worldwide.

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