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The most underused browser feature: reader mode

frankgroeneveld.nl

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Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#211

Post by dredmorbius »

I'm a huge fan of Readability Mode and use it often. It's proof that Web design isn't the solution, Web design is the problem.

For those who are using e-ink devices, or even just standard tablets, EInkBro is another immensely useful tool. Yes, it's a standalone browser, not a mode on Firefox, Safari, Vivalti, etc.

https://github.com/plateaukao/browser

(Available through Google Play, F-Droid and other sources. Android-only, sorry iOS fans.)

What it offers over standard browsers is that it's optimised for e-ink displays. That is, it favours pagination over scrolling, runs to full-screen, can easily adjust font size up or down (no more itsy-bitsy-teen-weenie-yellow-polka-dot HN fonts), bold text, and has its own reader mode as well.

Even on a standard tablet, some of these features are a huge step above and beyond the mainstream browsers.

The feature-set is limited, some of the UI is a bit rough, and a few things are just plain broken (if you need to edit entries in the JS or Cookie enabled/disabled sites ... you have to delete all data and start over again).

That said, my usage is evolving from sending individual pages to EInkBrow when I want to do long-form reading, to using it at least part-time as a primary browser. (Mozilla Fennec Fox is my first choice, still.) The browser is stable and very much usable despite this. The developer is responsive to requests and bug reports.

What's most refreshing is that the design principle is readability of Web content, as determined by the user, and not by the page author or publisher.

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#212

Post by asdff »

schlupfknoten wrote: post #143
dijit wrote: post #11

I think I have to share my incredulation; I always use Reader Mode on Safari iOS: lots of sites are quite literally unreadable otherwise.

Unfortunately, I have recently started encountering more sites where Safari just doesn't offer the Reader Mode option.

The arms race continues

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#213

Post by BeetleB »

dang wrote: post #209
BeetleB wrote: post #125

Reader mode really helps me in printing as well. Old comment of mine: Printing is something I started to do some months ago. Instead of keeping the tab open for weeks, I decided I'd print anything I want to read and place it a physical "inbox". Some tips: I print 2 pages to a side, so 4 pages per printer paper. Even long articles don't use too much paper, and for my eyes it's still readable (there are a few articles…

Please don't copy-paste comments on HN ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27921786 ). It lowers signal-noise ratio and isn't really how curious conversation works. If you want to refer to another post, that's fine of course, but in that case use a link and perhaps add some new info if any is relevant. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Hi dang,

Is this a new rule? I often find people copy/pasting older comments of theirs that is relevant to the current conversation.

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#214

Post by subscribeNOW »

larodi wrote: post #141

one little known feature of reader mode, no matter if firefox's or safari/mobile is that more often than you would expect, it kind of magically goes through pay-walls. so you get to see articles that require subscription or payment or else, with a single click. this happens so often that makes one wonder whether is due to some devs being lazy (hiding the actual content) or is by intent kept for savvy readers. also do…

> whether is due to some devs being lazy or is by intent kept for savvy readers

Neither, the business value isn't there, not enough people use Reader Mode to warrant spending the dev time to close the hole. It's coming soon though, and I'm building it. Sorry!

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#215

Post by subscribeNOW »

bryant wrote: post #17
eurasiantiger wrote: post #12

Many sites already work around this, and reader mode only shows a blank page or the contents of the disavow human rights box.

> Many sites already work around this, and reader mode only shows a blank page or the contents of the disavow human rights box. Refresh while in reader mode. The DOM with most paywalls is destroyed post-render, not before it reaches the web browser. Refreshing in reader mode prevents client side scripts from executing and rewriting the DOM. I'm presuming this is to be search engine friendly, but I'll leave it to the…

> The DOM with most paywalls is destroyed post-render

This has changed for most major sites. Users behind the paywall are served a "truncated" version of the article that never included a full version of it. The days of "press Esc before it finishes loading!" are coming to an end it seems.

The truncated version is still more SEO-friendly than a blank page as it has the headline and partial content.

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#217

Post by mariusor »

marvindanig wrote: post #182
mariusor wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kobo devices have out of the box integration with Pocket, which Mozilla supports natively.

Proprietary tablet vs. a browser feature on the open web–which option would you take?

I'm not sure what exactly you're arguing against.

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#218

Post by jabroni_salad »

dredmorbius wrote: post #211

I'm a huge fan of Readability Mode and use it often. It's proof that Web design isn't the solution, Web design is the problem. For those who are using e-ink devices, or even just standard tablets, EInkBro is another immensely useful tool. Yes, it's a standalone browser, not a mode on Firefox, Safari, Vivalti, etc. https://github.com/plateaukao/browser (Available through Google Play, F-Droid and other sources. Android…

Thanks for linking that, I'm going to try it on my reader when I get home. I like my boox for most things I try to use it for, but right now the pain point is all the royalroad webnovels I'm addicted to.

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#219

Post by freediver »

k1m wrote: post #70

Any developers who'd like to contribute to improving how article content is extracted from web pages should check out Mozilla's Readability repository: https://github.com/mozilla/readability I'm currently trying to bring the PHP port up to speed here: https://github.com/fivefilters/readability.php We use an older version as part of our article extraction for Push to Kindle: https://www.fivefilters.org/push-to-kindle/

Another robust solution is Tranquility reader which exists as an extension and has better accuracy than Readability at the expense of speed.

https://github.com/ushnisha/tranquility-reader-webextensions

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