Reader add-on research

[ianb]

Stuff to look at:

• Activate Reader View
• One Page Reader
• Automatic Reader View
• Open in Reader View
• Tranquility Reader
• Reader
• Activate Reader View Bookmark Version
• SimpRead - Reader View
• Auto Reader View

[ianb]

Activate Reader View – Add-ons for Firefox

Pretty simple, adds an icon to the toolbar:

Always forces into reader mode (doesn't toggle out), though on a complete unsupported page it doesn't seem to do anything. I actually can't get it to work on any page that doesn't have the normal reader mode icon, huh.

[ianb]

One Page Reader – Add-ons for Firefox

I can't figure this one out. I finally found an article on a supported site, but I ain't seeing nothing. No buttons anywhere. Go figure.

[ianb]

Automatic Reader View – Add-ons for Firefox

The only interface to this is in addon preferences:

It allows an opt-in list, a checkbox to try to do everything in reader mode, and a opt-out list (for when you have that checkbox checked).

It claims you can enter wildcards, but it doesn't work for me, but when I have full domains in there then it works. If you go to an article page on the list then it goes to reader mode. If you undo reader mode it sticks, but on reload it goes back to reader mode. If I click on the link back to the article (which normally takes you out of reader mode) then it goes back to reader mode.

Looking at the code, the approach is basically like this project, but with slightly different detection of reverting out of reader mode.

[ianb]

Open in Reader View – Add-ons for Firefox

It only seems to add a context menu, and I can't understand the point:

It doesn't work on links, only on the page itself. It has an extensive post-install page but I really don't get it.

[ianb]

Tranquility Reader – Add-ons for Firefox

This adds an icon:

It uses some other library to do a reader mode, not the built-in mode. It's not entirely great, but it's okay. It replaces the page in-place, basically wiping out the previous page. Clicking on it again basically reloads the page, reverting the mode.

It's got a big list of features that I don't quite understand:

• Compatible with NoScript
• Save content offline for reading later. The tranquility view is saved locally on your computer
• Ability to export/import the offline content.
• Ability to customize default font, font-size, font color, background color, and width of the reading area (you can use https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_picker.asp to pick a suitable color code - thanks to user JA for feedback on this)
• Create and manage your own preset configuration of the various options/preferences
• Add/edit notes/annotations to portions of the offline content; collate annotations with context for a summary of all your notes and annotations.
• Unobtrusive Menu at the bottom of the screen (displayed on clicking on the (+) symbol on the bottom right corner of the screen) provides additional features
• Additional links are now available through a "More Links" button in the Menu at the bottom of the screen
• Left clicking on a link in the Tranquility view will also open the link URL in the Tranquility view in the current tab
• Firefox for AndroidOS is supported from version 3.0.5 - please check the release notes for this version for limitations on AndroidOS.
• Transform only a portion of the webpage by highlighting the text and then running Tranquility (right click context menu option - "Tranquilize Selection". Available from 3.0.7; not supported on AndroidOS.)

It's got a big pref list:

Eh.

[ianb]

Auto Reader View – Add-ons for Firefox

This adds a button:

It's similar to Automatic Reader View, and to this project. When you click the button you get:

And when you are visiting it puts a checkbox on the icon:

Getting and staying out of reader mode works slightly better than automatic reader mode.

It has a repo here: https://github.com/pmarchwiak/auto-reader-view/ – the core code is a bit more complicated than I'd expect.

[ianb]

Reader – Add-ons for Firefox

Adds an icon:

Reminds me of a bookmarklet. Has its own parser, and overlays an iframe onto the page with the readable content. Has a kind of shadowbox effect, and you can click on the background to get back to the article.

If you hover over the lower part of the reader page you get some controls:

The settings button lets you control font, size, italic, bold, font color and background color, anchor color, the width of the box, the margin, and how transparent the overlay is.

The other controls let you print or email, though both seemed to have bugs. The add-on page is very excited about how many colors you can select.

It claims an auto-scroll feature which I couldn't get to work (Ctrl-Shift-S). I think it just slowly scrolls the page without intervention.

[ianb]

Activate Reader View – Bookmark Version – Add-ons for Firefox

Oddly this one force-activates reader view, but as a bookmark. The location of the bookmark is about:reader?url=about%3Ablank, but I'm guessing the add-on intercepts the click somehow. I guess it makes it so you can put it in your bookmark toolbar somewhere?

[ianb]

SimpRead - Reader View – Add-ons for Firefox

The description is all in Chinese (I think?) so its hard to understand exactly. There's a toolbar button, but it just goes to settings:

More interestingly there's two context menu options. The first one asks you to select a DOM element (by hovering) then it shades out all other elements, giving a kind of calmed view of the page:

The ... takes you to a bunch of share and save options.

The second option is more like a reader view, but you also select the DOM element first. It includes a progress indicator bar on the top. It seems to maintain some but not all styling (maybe using the stylesheet but with some structural changes).

They are clearly trying a bunch of stuff with this one, but I can't understand most of it :(