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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

#341

Post by nicbou »

rhn_mk1 wrote: post #275
nicbou wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts about the layout on allaboutberlin.com. I built this website to be as pleasant as possible for the readers, but perhaps I've been staring at it for too long...

I'm following a similar philosophy as the parent (kill fixed elements, disable CSS in extreme cases), and your web page manages to look stylish and readble at the same time. The fixed side bar on the "visiting" page is barely enough to fit on the display, and when I shrink the window (or increase the text enough), bottom items get cut off without recourse. The banners on most pages are so big that I usually see only…

That sidebar was a late addition. It broke the layout on some older pages that don't follow the latest practices. This is one of them, and I'm currently rewriting it completely.

The website should work exactly the same without JS (sans fancy parallax). However I'm curious about your screen resolution. The header is meant to leave plenty of text above the fold.

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#342

Post by mackrevinack »

fomine3 wrote: post #326

IMO most underrated browser feature is "Create shortcut" on Chromium. It can make any website to app-style window and create shortcut, so it can be pinned to Windows taskbar. So it can virtually replace some Electron apps to just a window for web version, so we can save system resources used by each Electron Chromium instances. It's also useful that shares browser profile, and extensions like ad blocker and password…

i was using a think called ICE SSB with firefox 2 years ago but when i updated linux/pop os it stopped working. i think it was made by the crowd who make peppermint os

anyway, as i was searching for that i came across this article. i just skimmed it but it seems like feature might be coming back? https://www.maketecheasier.com/enable-site-specific-browser-...

i think the ICE SSB thing is better though. it lets you add a custom icon and you can search/launch them along with your other desktop apps

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#343

Post by TeMPOraL »

dredmorbius wrote: post #292
amelius wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish somebody would create a DL/GAN/style-transfer tool to automatically change the style of any website into https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/ (regardless of how the website is structured, so deleting the CSS doesn't count)

On emissive / colour displays, this still is my preference: https://codepen.io/dredmorbius/full/KpMqqB On e-ink, the off-white / off-black colour palette is actually something of a probem, though the page otherwise remains highly readable. From the original page, the lack of margins is a problem. Text running straight into the gutter is a readability problem.

This wouldn't be HN without some snark^H^H^H^H^Hconstructive feedback, so... it's perfect, except it's missing a fake quote at the end.

Also, I hate the yellow.

(Am I the odd one out here to prefer cold light to warm light? Warm light makes me seriously sleepy. But everyone I talk to, they all prefer to have warm lightning in their homes. And like with home lightning, I feel the same about webpages. On HN I got used to warm colors over the years; everywhere else I hate them.)

But seriously - great job!

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#344

Post by paulcapewell »

dredmorbius wrote: post #260
omaranto wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Put in a motherfucking scrollbar already. You mean you want two scrollbars? One from the web page and one from the browser window. That seems like an odd choice.

Presently the fashion appears to be none. Worse: the scrollbars which do exist are indicator-only, they cannot be used to actually navigate on the page. On the four mobile devices I routinely have access to, none has an actual grabbable persistent scrollbar for navigation. https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/0hgfswmoti3fi5zgftjecq https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21356511

Amusingly, given this topic, when I clicked your ello link, I had to accept a cookie consent, ignore a request to 'join the creators network' (whatever that means), and the page itself has a floating header.

Oh, and yes, on Chrome on Android I can see a tiny scrollbar when scrolling, but I can't interact with it.

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#345

Post by krylon »

everdrive wrote: post #87

I use this all the time and it's wonderful! It's not underused here. A LOT of the time a webpage will be completely broken / filled with ads / javascript / and other useless garbage. One click and I'm in reader mode, and all that junk is gone and I just have nice clean text, and perhaps a couple of images. Makes me wonder if I can set reader mode automatically for certain pages.

There used to be an extension for Firefox called "Open in reader mode" that adds an item to the context menu for links to... well, open them in reader mode. It's not quite what you want, but I found it to be very helpful.

I haven't used it in a couple of years, though, so I do not know if it is still around/maintained.

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#346

Post by vanderZwan »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #343
dredmorbius wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On emissive / colour displays, this still is my preference: https://codepen.io/dredmorbius/full/KpMqqB On e-ink, the off-white / off-black colour palette is actually something of a probem, though the page otherwise remains highly readable. From the original page, the lack of margins is a problem. Text running straight into the gutter is a readability problem.

This wouldn't be HN without some snark^H^H^H^H^Hconstructive feedback, so... it's perfect, except it's missing a fake quote at the end. Also, I hate the yellow. (Am I the odd one out here to prefer cold light to warm light? Warm light makes me seriously sleepy. But everyone I talk to, they all prefer to have warm lightning in their homes. And like with home lightning, I feel the same about webpages. On HN I got used…

Warm light doesn't make people sleepy, blue light keeps people awake. So basically: you are sleep deprived, the blue light is keeping you awake, and without realizing it you consider that a feature rather than a bug, whereas many other people conclude the opposite. Which is of course fine, you decide what's best for you.

Given how big of an impact good sleep (or lack thereof) has on my physical and mental health I am in the latter camp too, using a red filter on my screens even during day-time, but everyone's situation is different.

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#347

Post by vanderZwan »

bityard wrote: post #246
mperham wrote: post #196

My advice to bloggers: if your blog readability is improved by activating Reader mode, you have a styling bug to fix. Two universal improvements: 1. Bump up your font size. 2. Increase contrast.

Honestly, I see way more blogs with a font size 20% to 50% bigger than what I consider readable. Pro-tip: if the text is so huge that only like 10 words can fit on a line in a non-maximized browser window, your font size is way too big. It's like they are formatted for reading by teleprompter or something.

Could it be that they're optimized for small screens and don't consider the desktop?

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#348

Post by dredmorbius »

paulcapewell wrote: post #344
dredmorbius wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presently the fashion appears to be none. Worse: the scrollbars which do exist are indicator-only, they cannot be used to actually navigate on the page. On the four mobile devices I routinely have access to, none has an actual grabbable persistent scrollbar for navigation. https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/0hgfswmoti3fi5zgftjecq https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21356511

Amusingly, given this topic, when I clicked your ello link, I had to accept a cookie consent, ignore a request to 'join the creators network' (whatever that means), and the page itself has a floating header. Oh, and yes, on Chrome on Android I can see a tiny scrollbar when scrolling, but I can't interact with it.

You'll find that I no longer post to Ello due to numerous issues, including those rather annoying elements you describe.

It's unfortunate as the platform was clean and does do some things well (Markdown and quite nice image display).

It managed to kill off an active discussion community quite effectively however. With an effectiveness that strongly suggests intent.

Believe me, it's annoying for me as well even to visit and link back my old content from there.

More, if you can take the pain ;-)

https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/8yvblh2kk33or_oz5nvmhw

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#349

Post by alessioalex »

dredmorbius wrote: post #292
amelius wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish somebody would create a DL/GAN/style-transfer tool to automatically change the style of any website into https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/ (regardless of how the website is structured, so deleting the CSS doesn't count)

On emissive / colour displays, this still is my preference: https://codepen.io/dredmorbius/full/KpMqqB On e-ink, the off-white / off-black colour palette is actually something of a probem, though the page otherwise remains highly readable. From the original page, the lack of margins is a problem. Text running straight into the gutter is a readability problem.

Love it. Would you mind putting it on Github and making the licence MIT so that I can use it and link back to you? I really like it, makes it so easy to read. Big like for the nice transition on hovering links as well.

Re: The most underused browser feature: reader mode

#350

Post by rhn_mk1 »

nicbou wrote: post #341
rhn_mk1 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm following a similar philosophy as the parent (kill fixed elements, disable CSS in extreme cases), and your web page manages to look stylish and readble at the same time. The fixed side bar on the "visiting" page is barely enough to fit on the display, and when I shrink the window (or increase the text enough), bottom items get cut off without recourse. The banners on most pages are so big that I usually see only…

That sidebar was a late addition. It broke the layout on some older pages that don't follow the latest practices. This is one of them, and I'm currently rewriting it completely. The website should work exactly the same without JS (sans fancy parallax). However I'm curious about your screen resolution. The header is meant to leave plenty of text above the fold.

I usually keep the window small, around 700-800px in height.
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