Ask HN: Thoughts on Browser Reader Modes?

3 points by gear_envy 4 years ago | 1 comment

Reader modes have become a very important browser feature for me. I can't read an article on the internet these days without them. They allow me to avoid the autoplay videos, newsletter subscription popups, and the other annoying web design trends that plague news and publication websites. Sometimes I can even skip the paywalls!

Here's a low-effort comparison between the readers on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

Chrome: Hidden by default, accessible via chrome://flags, a choice of three fonts (Serif, Sans-Serif, and Monospace), white/sepia/dark modes, and a content scale slider. Clearly not a priority for Chrome devs.

Firefox: Accessible by keyboard command (Option+Command+R on Mac), Two fonts only (Serif and Sans-Serif), font size adjustment, white/sepia/dark modes, and independent height and width adjustments for content. You also get a read aloud feature and a Save to Pocket button if happen to use Pocket.

Edge: 3 fonts (Calibri, Sitka and ugh, Comic Sans), text size slider, 3 text column sizes, and a lot more colors for reader theme than just white/sepia/dark. Probably has the most extra features. Access with F9, translation, line focus, grammar tools, and a read aloud that I prefer over Firefox's.

Here's a previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28286493

What do you all think about reader modes? Essential or ignore-able?

dredmorbius 4 years ago |

Essential. I could pretty much have written your Ask HN myself.

I've been using an e-ink tablet for the past year as my principle driver. Mobile browsers ... pretty uniformly suck for various reasons, though I'm finding the mix of Firefox and EInkBro, an e-ink-optimised browser, to be generally useful. Each supports the other's weaknesses.

On desktop, I've extensively tweaked Firefox's Reader Mode through a userContent.css script (I can post that on request), which adjusts the output to my preferences.

A recent discovery has been EInkBro's "save as ePub" feature. Unlike a save-to-PDF, this doesn't merely save individual articles to separate files, but can compile a "book" of articles. This might be a set of daily reading, a set of articles on a given topic, or any other organisational basis you might want. Those can then either be re-opened in EInkBro itself or a separate e-book reader --- I generally prefer the latter as the formatting and controls are better-suited to books.

https://toot.cat/@dredmorbius/107958709435468728

But yeah: web design isn't the solution. Web design is the problem.

(A point I've maintained for years now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9041142 https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...)

micahdeath 4 years ago |

I use it to bypass all of the JavaScript popup fluff: Cookie Usage, Newsletter Opt-in, Popup Blocker Warning, Large Headers & Footers; I keep my Text/Windows Large for accessibility and this usually trashes the websites to where I can't even close Newsletter opt-in windows.