Reader View

Do you know about Reader View? I can only speak to the Firefox browser, which I've been using for years. In the address bar, over at the right, there's a small page icon:

Click on it and it turns blue, and all the interruptions and distractions in the page layout are stripped away—all the flashing ads, the inline links to other content, the obnoxious intrusive mini-videos—leaving just the text, relevant illustrations, and links. You can toggle it quickly using command+option+R. You can also customize the look of the resulting page using settings found on the left—text type, size, and spacing. Backgrounds too—some studies have found that the ideal background for reading is not white, but that an off-white cream or light gray background is easier on the eyes. I read that in the era of reading on paper, and it might be even more true now that the background on screens is emitting light. (Along these lines, a medium- or low-intensity light placed behind your monitor, creating backlighting, helps relieve eyestrain too.)

It might not work for every site—I think I've encountered a few that don't work. But not many.

It's good for printing articles, too.

I suppose most people know about this already, but, on the other hand, I find it absolutely essential for reading online, so it doesn't hurt to mention it. Might help someone somewhere.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Chuck Albertson: "A big thumbs-up for that one. I've used Firefox for years, and never knew."

Ed Hawco: "The Safari browser also has Reader View. It’s not just good for removing distractions, it’s great for non-dynamic pages (ahem; like this one) that don’t work well on small screens (phones, tablets). It fills the screen properly with the text so you don’t have to do any awkward pinching and zooming."

Mike replies: You don't actually have to pinch and zoom with TOP. Open the site on a phone and double-tap the text area—it will expand to fit the width. Simply turn the phone sideways to enlarge the text further.

Comments

[Markus]

Mike, the first thing I install in every Firefox (and Chrome, whenever I use it) is the addon 'ublock origin', removing many or all of the nausea-causing ads even from normal view. This makes the reading experience so much nicer in the first place, even without the 'reader mode'.

Additionally it helps against tracking (I know, I am a paranoid European...) and attacks through contaminated advertisemant sites.

[psu]

Reader mode is in Safari too. It's one of the better things that exist in the world.

Sites that disable it generally do so to be able to jam more ads down your throat and are to be looked upon with scorn.

[robert e]

A great tip that I'm always forgetting. In the Vivaldi browser, which is based on Chrome, there's a similar icon in the same place--in the address/search bar, at the right-most end, next to the bookmark icon.

[Mike Potter]

Love "reader view". Use it for many of the blogs I read, but have never had the need to use for TOP, as you don't bombard our senses with distracting animations and videos.

[Bernard Scharp]

Annoyingly, on TOP, reader view hides the topic title for me when I'm viewing the page from the front page (where all posts are listed one after the other). I think it's because the header tag for it is outside the div with the content.

If you open a single post, the title is shown as normal

But in list mode, it makes it quite difficult to see where one post ends and the next begins, as the horizontal bars separating the posts are also hidden.

[Josh]

A big, BIG thank you for pointing this out. I’ve known about it for years and never used it but I am SO tired of this experience. Begin reading…a paragraph in - join our mailing list! - read a bit more…video you already chose to ignore at the top tries again for your attention (hey, I think you missed me!), and so on.

[Merle]

I also use the Vivaldi Reader View, mostly to put it in dark mode and increase the font size for easier reading.

The one thing I don't like is that you can only get to the bottom of the Featured Comments. You have to turn off Reader View to read the comments.