
Show HN: Increase your readability and productivity with this simple extension - ryzalyusoff
https://readermode.io
======
franciscop
This functionality has been baked in Firefox for a long time and I use it
quite often. Not only makes the ads and other clutter disappear, but it also
removes most of the "disable your adblock" unclosable popups.

It is definitely one of the super-nice things to have baked in straight in the
browser, and probably one of the major differences I see between Chrome and
Firefox in day-to-day usage. I _just_ wish that somehow it was persistent for
certain rules, but I can see how that is a slippery slope.

~~~
oefrha
Chrome has had a builtin DOM distiller for a while (not sure if still guarded
by an experimental flag, on my phone now so can’t check), but it’s primitive
and worst of all reloads the page on exit.

~~~
mtm7
I can confirm that it's still loaded by an experimental flag. As a word of
warning to anyone who wants to try it: the design isn't suited for reading at
length (120 character line width, set in Courier). It's really not that great.

Firefox and Safari have decent reading modes, though.

~~~
oefrha
> 120 character line width, set in Courier

Um, it’s not? Chrome 78 on macOS here, text is rendered in 14px Roboto,
content box width is 75% (on 2560px viewport). I find it fairly pleasant to
read, my only problem is page reloading on exit as I already mentioned.

Edit: The mode is gone after updating to 79, seems to be gated by a command
line switch now. What the hell.

~~~
mtm7
Ah, I stand corrected. The content box width is indeed based on the viewport
size. My text, however, is still rendered in 14px Courier on macOS (and even
given a .monospace class), so I'm not sure what's going on there.

I just updated to Chrome 79 and now the distilled mode is gone. For anyone
who's looking on how to re-enable it, here's a thread:
[https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/22576539](https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/22576539)

------
thrwaway69
[https://ibb.co/XC8h2gq](https://ibb.co/XC8h2gq) There is some manipulation
going on here. This was posted in other places as well.

~~~
gman83
What tweeting out that your product is on HN isn't exactly "manipulation"

~~~
dang
Asking for upvotes is against the rules:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)

Soliciting booster comments is even more against the rules.

------
AndrewStephens
Safari has this feature built in as well. It is particularly useful on mobile
devices. It will even follow Next Page type links to condense a multi-page
article into a single scrolling page.

I find it somewhat ironic that Reader Mode's own site is filled with large
images, tiny pop-out boxes, and a tweet carousel. But it certainly isn't the
worst product website I have seen.

------
gnicholas
The font is not called "OpenDyslexics", it's "OpenDyslexic". Also, it's kind
of odd to say you support multiple dyslexic-friendly fonts when it's really
just one font in bold/italics/mono. Perhaps some people would consider mono to
be its own font (though I've never known anyone who preferred OD Mono, and I
work in the accessibility world). But for sure bold and italic are not
considered to be separate fonts by lay people.

~~~
ryzalyusoff
Thanks for pointing that out! Will make changes asap! :)

------
cvs268
Is there an option to justified-align the declutterred text?

If not, can you add one?

(Sorry, i don't have chrome to try it out. Justified alignment is what I miss
in Firefox Reader mode.)

~~~
cvs268
Meanwhile, i finally got off my lazy ass and figured out how to add justified-
alignment to the Firefox Reader View.

NOTE: Involves restarting Firefox.

1\. Locate the Firefox _profile_ directory on your system.

On Windows, this is typically a directory like :

    
    
      C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile-directory>
    

The definitive method to locate the profile directory would be to visit the
_about:support_ page in Firefox, and check the value of the property _Profile
Folder_.

2\. Within the above identified profile directory, open the sub-directory
_chrome_. If a _chrome_ sub-directory does NOT exist within the profile
directory, create it.

3\. In the above _chrome_ directory, create an empty file _userContent.css_.

4\. Open the above _userContent.css_ and add the following lines to it :

    
    
      .moz-reader-content {
          text-align: justify;
      }
    

5\. Force custom stylesheets

Visit the _about:config_ page in Firefox, search for the property
_toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets_ , and ensure it is
toggled to _True_.

6\. Restart Firefox.

7\. Open a page, switch to reader mode, and enjoy the justified text!!
\\(^.^)/

------
onreact
Really neat. Thank you for taking care of accessibility issues as well.

I don't have Dyslexia but when having migraines I can't read online properly
anymore so that will help.

I just wonder whether it's worth the fuss as I have Reader View in Firefox
already.

~~~
ryzalyusoff
No worries at all! Ah I see, let me know if there's any any specific features
that you want. IMO, you should give it a try as it is more than just a Reader
View like the one in firefox as it has many more features, especially the
Dyslexia features that you just mention :)

~~~
lucasverra
do you plan to port the extension to FF ? I like their baked in feature but
yours take it to another level.

~~~
ryzalyusoff
Yes, Firefox and Safari version will be coming soon! :)

------
bananamerica
Seems nice.

1\. When I click on "not interested", the page jumps to the top

2\. Vimium does not work on pages altered by the extension. Sadly, that's a
dealbreaker for me.

3\. Maybe the icon is too similar to outline.com.

~~~
ryzalyusoff
Thanks for the feedback! Will get it sorted asap! :)

------
ryzalyusoff
With just one single click, you can remove clutter, ads and distractions from
any articles, thus improving your readability and productivity. Here’s the
highlight of what this extension can do/offers:

It comes with dyslexia support, text annotating and highlighting, text-to-
speech and many other customization tools.

Here’s the quick highlights of what it has and can do:

\- Distraction-free and ad-free "Reader Mode"

\- Theme customization

\- Custom CSS

\- Print pages

\- Fullscreen mode

\- Auto-run ability

\- Deletion of unwanted elements

\- Save edited pages

\- Share To Twitter

\- Dyslexia Fonts

\- Dyslexia Ruler

\- Text To Speech

\- Outlines

\- Text annotating and highlighting

\- Note List

\- Auto-scroll functionality

\- Dark Panel Mode

\- Google Search

\- Google Translate

You can use "hackernews20" code at checkout to get 20% discount :)

~~~
onreact
Sounds good. Do you plan to support Firefox as well?

I don't use Google spyware - only for testing things.

~~~
ajot
Firefox does have a built-in reader mode, although it doesn't have this many
features. Have you tried it?

~~~
petepete
I use it all the time. It also allows me to bypass cookies/GPDR modals for
sites I plan on dipping into for a single article.

------
pxtail
This example from homepage which shows techcrunch article side by side with
plugin's output doesn't look good to me. To be honest I'm finding TC article
formatting and font size much better to read (ads are not visible with
ublock), in addition publication date and author is displayed.

~~~
ryzalyusoff
Ah i see. Ok, will consider changing the example soon. But if you are using
the plugin, you could cuztomize everything (fonts/background/width/colors
etc.), and also you could turn the date, author and original url on/off.

------
mtm7
I’ve been using this extension for a couple weeks and it does everything I
want it to. My favorite/most-used feature is the customizable font and
background colors. I’m glad you give your users granular control.

Btw, you’re on the front page of HN :)

~~~
unityByFreedom
Have you really only been on HN for 25 days? The number of young accounts
which don't appear as green in this thread is staggering.

~~~
mtm7
Yes, that's correct. The author is fairly active in the indie maker community,
so maybe he pulled on his network?

~~~
2jaer
Think he 100% did but nothing wrong with that.

------
mikaelmello
Hey, loved it!

Just a nitpick: when trying to test it with a Medium article, I was already a
few paragraphs down when I clicked on "Not interested" (for now) in the popup.
This scrolled the page back to the top.

~~~
ryzalyusoff
Thank you! And oh, i missed that that's for letting me know will fix it asap
:)

------
gtsteve
I like this extension, nice work.

One thing I couldn't find was activation keyboard shortcuts, and the ability
to dismiss it by hitting esc. It'd be nice if it had that.

~~~
ryzalyusoff
Thanks! You can edit the shortcut by going to chrome://extensions/shortcuts .
But oh yeah, will add esc feature asap thanks for letting me know! :)

------
2jaer
Seems great, trying it now. A good few of these comments and upvotes seem to
be from ops friends. (Based off a quick twitter search). Nothing wrong with
that

~~~
dang
Yes, there's something with getting friends to upvote and (especially) to post
comments in threads. We want people to upvote and comment because they ran
across something that they personally found intellectually interesting, not
because a friend has something to promote. Promotional use of HN undermines
the intended use of the site, which is why these behaviors are against the
rules:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)

------
mddanishyusuf
I already know about this extension and it's worth to buy. I'm using it when I
love to read stories. Awesome.

~~~
ryzalyusoff
Thanks man!

------
rodcoelho
how did you come to this pricing model? I'm confused about why you chose to
make the pro a $20 one-time payment, but the education is $99/month

~~~
ryzalyusoff
Hi the PRO version is $20(or $15 now), as it is a one time fee for a limited
license, eg. 1/5/10\. Meanwhile the education is $99/month as it gives you
Unlimited Licence.

------
teddyh
…for Chrome only.

~~~
ainiriand
... because Firefox includes something very similar already.

------
unityByFreedom
is this for real? an ad for a paid extension is #1 on hn? also with tons of
comments missing articles? Come on..

~~~
oefrha
All these unsubstantial “I love it” comments are indeed very suspicious. Not
to mention many browsers have this feature built in.

(I know this post is treading the line on insinuations about shilling. Sorry
dang.)

~~~
2jaer
Yeah, seems to be his twitter friends and/or groups

~~~
dang
It's against HN's rules to ask friends to upvote and (especially) to post
comments in threads. We want people to upvote and comment because they ran
across something that they personally found intellectually interesting, not
because a friend has something to promote. Promotional use of HN voting and
commenting is opposed to the spirit of the site, and the community is
adamantly against it, as you can see from the comments making objections to
the earlier pattern in the thread.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)

~~~
unityByFreedom
Thank you for drawing this line clearly. Frequently elsewhere I see mods
decrying self-promotion, yet there should be nothing wrong with posting your
own material (otherwise, what is the internet for, only consumption?). The
problem comes when you beg people from outside the community to give you
recognition through forced comments/votes.

------
1hakr
Lone it. The ad-free/ distraction free experience for reading articles that I
have been waiting for!!

~~~
ryzalyusoff
Thanks man!

