diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f17e1f4524731e73b488cd89c6d6141b095e21f3..27091c63ea7e37a45a2dae7a51c4360111b2283f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 # iiif-image-manipulation
 
 Provide tools for colorization of black & white images and stitching of scanned 
-images of large maps in a IIIF setup.
\ No newline at end of file
+images of large maps in a IIIF setup.
diff --git a/iiif_tools.py b/iiif_tools.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..306bf1c9ad599fbbc6c181aadcd23a265f2f029f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/iiif_tools.py
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+import cv2
+import numpy as np
+import requests
+from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
+
+
+class IIIFAbstractManifest(ABC):
+    """
+    An abstract class for handling IIIF manifests for further processing.
+    """
+    def __init__(self, manifest_url):
+        self.manifest_url = manifest_url
+        super().__init__()
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _load_single_image(self):
+        pass
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _load_multiple_images(self):
+        pass
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def get_image(self):
+        pass
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def get_images(self):
+        pass
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def get_image_range(self):
+        pass
+
+
+class IIIFColorizer(IIIFAbstractManifest):
+    pass
+
+
+class IIIFImageStitcher(IIIFAbstractManifest):
+    pass
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..732cf12fa75a2765162e2f077d02e83e9a4cf243
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+opencv-python
+numpy
+requests
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