I wonder whether this has an effect on eyestrain or reading longevity.
Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier
121–130 of 273 posts
Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier
#122I'm initially inclined to dismiss this as ugly and distracting, especially with the default colors being very similar to the traditional link/visited HTML colors. It would be worth exploring further if the claimed improvements are true. I'd especially be interested in exploring ways to incorporate this into better designed color schemes so that it doesn't look so much like a unicorn vomited on the page while preservi…
An alternative bookmarklet would be to apply the gradient to the line your cursor is over, and just move your cursor at the pace you read lines.
For me, that'd be completely unworkable.
Moving the mouse/cursor down the page line at a time to read? _Seriously?_
Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier
#123It doesn't make me read any faster and I have the feeling I pay less attention to the content. Am I the only one?
Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier
#124I tried their test and had no improvement in reading speed. I also use my mouse to read on a desktop (highlight end of one line and start of the next) as I go, so I think this product is just not made for me.
Ever try reading on a phone/tablet while riding on a subway car? Might be worth it there!
Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier
#125Hmmmm... I'm sure it'll need a linked scientific study to actually back up the claim. (And every speed-reading product I've seen has usually had a decrease in comprehension rate...) It's a clever idea, but anecdotally, from my experience, I'm finding it slows down my reading -- I'm having a hard time processing the blurbs because I don't read "linearly" -- I scan content to find the relevant parts, and the color chan…
I normally read around 600 to 1000 wpm (depending on how dense or vapid it is). This speeds up my reading wayyyyy past that. 1500 wpm? And I was barely trying. It does look super fucking ugly, but it totally works for me. They need to bring in an army of designers and make software geared towards legal assistants / lawyers because they need this desperately.
We are going to be integrating with Casetext (YC S13), which is an upstart competitor to Lexis/Westlaw. They're looking to revolutionize legal case research, and we're glad to be a part of it!
Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier
#126This is surprisingly effective and awesome.
I created a (very hacky) style sheet to do this in calibre: https://gist.github.com/osuushi/6456804 . It gets a bit out of alignment when a paragraph wraps to a new column or page, but over all it gets the job done.
Edit: I fixed it to do one color transition per line, like the original.
Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier
#127The bookmarklet wasn't working for me on Chrome (permission errors), so I threw together a Chrome extension with the highlighting code: https://github.com/egonSchiele/beeline
There's already a Chrome extension from the Box.net 2012 Hackathon:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/beeline-reader/lca...
Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier
#128Hmmmm... I'm sure it'll need a linked scientific study to actually back up the claim. (And every speed-reading product I've seen has usually had a decrease in comprehension rate...) It's a clever idea, but anecdotally, from my experience, I'm finding it slows down my reading -- I'm having a hard time processing the blurbs because I don't read "linearly" -- I scan content to find the relevant parts, and the color chan…
I don't understand why you'd change foreground colours instead of background colours....
Either way, quick experiment shows it to be horrid for me.
Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier
#129Interesting concept. Do they have a research paper out describing the results in more detail? A couple of problems: 1) beelining doesn't work well with links in text 2) Doesn't work on Hacker News at all.
I tried it on HN as well and the same issue. Otherwise looks as a great idea!
Re: Show HN: Ditch Black Text to Read Faster, Easier
#130As an academic who has to give a lot of conference papers I bet this would be great for reading off an iPad or laptop without losing my spot.