Files, search and PDF
Browse, search and organise your files.
Litesum Library is the place your files are found: browse, search and organise your photos, videos and documents, with a built-in PDF reader, editor and converter, all on your own computer. It is inspired by the workflow Adobe Bridge established, built with Litesum's own code and interface. Work started on 19 September 2026 from William's development plan, and this page says only what its ledger has verified on screen.
- Started
- 19 September 2026, from William's development plan
- Two programs
- The browser, and a PDF application in its own window
- PDF engine
- PDFium, pinned by hash, behind Litesum's own interfaces
- Graphics card
- None required. Library deliberately uses no GPU.
No screenshot yet. One replaces this panel when the interface settles.
What it can do today
Built and reachable in the current build.
A count of what exists, not a judgement of quality. Confirmed by the Library team on 2026-09-19.
Browse a folder the moment it opens
Nothing is indexed before you can look: a folder lists live, with drives and a folder tree beside it. Verified on screen by a thirteen-check drill, and recorded as a claim to re-check the day an index exists.
Open a PDF in its own window
A PDF opens in a separate Litesum Library PDF application rather than a tab in the browser, with page navigation, zoom, fit width and fit page. A second document joins the same window as a tab, not a second process.
The PDF window outlives the browser
Close the browser politely, or end it outright from Task Manager, and the PDF window keeps drawing its page. Tested literally, both ways, by the on-screen drill, which counts the page's pixels after the kill rather than only checking the window is there.
Convert PDF pages to PNG or JPEG
Convert ▸ To Image, or Ctrl+Shift+I, writes the pages you choose at the resolution you choose. Verified end to end: the drill presses the keys and reads the written file back with Windows' own decoder at the size 150 DPI implies.
Open a file from the command line
Given a path, Library starts on that file, selected in its folder. Double-clicking a file in Explorer to open it in Library is not yet possible, because nothing has been installed and no file type is registered.
Files
What it opens and what it saves.
| Format | Opens | Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes, in its own window | Pages as PNG or JPEG | Reading: navigation, zoom and fit. Convert ▸ To Image writes chosen pages at a chosen resolution. Saving the PDF itself, page operations, annotations and editing are not yet reachable. | |
| Images, video, audio, RAW, documents | Listed, not previewed | — | Every file is listed with its kind and properties and can be shown in File Explorer or opened with the system's application. No previews yet, RAW included. |
Requirements
What you need to run it.
- Operating system
- Windows, 64-bit. Built and drilled on Windows 11. The minimum version is a support decision the plan requires and it has not been taken, so no older version is claimed.
- Graphics
- No graphics card requirement. Library uses no Vulkan and no GPU by decision, so it starts even when a graphics driver is unhappy.
- Signing
- Not yet released, not signed and not installable; no installer has been built yet. The licence gate is not written.
Not yet supported
What it does not do, in the team’s own words.
This list is as load-bearing as the capability list. Each item is a recorded decision or a known gap, and the page must not imply otherwise.
- Indexed search
- Not started. The PDF engine trial showed that loading a dense page's text costs about two milliseconds, which is why search will be indexed rather than live.
- Previews
- None yet for images, RAW, video, audio, documents or PDFs in the browser. Two of the image formats need a Qt module that is not installed.
- Storage map
- Folder totals, the size tree, the treemap and duplicate finding are not started. Nothing will ever be deleted automatically.
- Tags, ratings, collections
- Not started, with metadata reading and sidecars as Litesum's own module.
- PDF editing
- Page operations, annotations, saving, redaction, signing and forms are not started; the toolbar shows each group disabled with a note of what it will do.
- Conversions
- PDF to PNG and JPEG work; PDF to BMP is built and not yet drilled; the other eighteen, OCR among them, are not started.
- Open in Photo, Enhance, Motion or Web
- Not started, and the receiving side exists in no application yet.
- Grid view, favourites, file operations
- The Grid view refuses by name; favourites, copy, move, rename and the recycle bin are not started.
When a membership ends
Nothing is gated yet. The intention is that paid work in Library means exporting, batch work and printing, and that browsing, viewing and searching never are.
That is the Library team's proposal, not yet a rule in the code: no licence gate exists in Library today. Whether conversions, OCR and saving an edited PDF count is William's decision, still open. The settled rule is stated here in the same words as the other applications' before Library is offered for sale. A browser that refused to browse would be a broken product, and nothing on disk is ever touched by a refusal.
Membership
Litesum Library is included in Litesum Complete.
Planned at £9.99 per month for every released Litesum application — 6 are being built to launch together — on 2 computers, cancellable from your account page. Everything you open, edit or export stays on your own computer — never uploaded, never used for training, never held behind a subscription.
Questions
About Library.
- Help articles for Library are written alongside the application.
- Release notes and progress
- Ask something else
Is this a Lightroom-style catalogue?
No. Library is an asset browser in the Bridge tradition: it browses the folders you already have, will index them for fast search, and will show where your storage goes. The plan is for RAW files to show their embedded preview with an explicit label, never a developed image; developing them is Photo's job.
Does it have to index my whole drive before I can use it?
No. Browsing is live from the first moment, and that is verified. Indexing, when it arrives, is planned with pause, exclusions and disk-space limits, and it will never fetch online-only placeholder files.
Will it delete duplicates for me?
Never automatically. Duplicate finding is planned as a staged check that verifies before anything destructive, and deleting is always a distinct, explicit action.
Does anything leave my computer?
No. Browsing, PDF reading and every planned conversion run locally; the plan rules out any remote service for conversion.
When will Litesum Library be available?
There is no date. Litesum Library is planned as part of the six-application launch, and the launch happens when every application meets the release bar — not on a date. The early-access list hears first.
Will it be included in Litesum Complete?
Yes, once released. One membership covers every released Litesum application at no extra cost.
The rest of the suite
The other five, on the same membership.
LitesumEnhanceMake small images bigger, sharper and clearer.In development
LitesumPhotoEdit, retouch and compose with layers.In development
LitesumPublisherDesign pages for print and digital.Planned · not started
LitesumMotionEdit video and audio on a timeline.In development
LitesumWebDesign websites with direct control of the code.In development
Purpose from William's Library plan, relayed by the Grand Designer on 19 September 2026. Capabilities, formats, requirements and limits from the Library ledger's verified rows and standing measurements at commit 1f0b622, confirmed and corrected by the Library manager the same day; the lapsed-membership line is the Library team's proposal, with the open part named, because nothing is gated in the code.