Readability

Readability Project Image

Readability is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you are reading.


Readability is a new Firefox add-on that makes reading web pages simpler and more enjoyable. The system strips the superfluous information and shows the main content in a single column of easy-to-read text. It is also a precious tool for printing the web pages in less.

Readability has 64 different styling options. You can choose to style in different colors, change the reading fonts and adjust the size of the text. Users can also add a Toolbar button to the navigation toolbox. Other than the add-on icon Readability supports Toolbar buttons, keyboard short-cuts, panel options and send via email functionality.

Readability contains Autoscroll functionality, too. As the name suggests Autoscroll functionality will let you scroll the pages automatically without using your mouse or keyboard. After you activate the Readability and simplify the page, pressing CTRL + SHIFT + A keyboard combination to start using the Autoscroll.

Install Readability


87 Responses to “Readability”
  1. […] Redeability es una aplicación sencilla de instalar (para aquellos que navegamos con Firefox), que elimina con un simple pinchazo sobre su icono todas las adherencias indeseables, mostrando el texto de manera escueta, a lo sumo con alguna imagen que lo ilustre, en una composición no excesivamente agracida, pero exenta de distracciones y más cercana a lo que Nielsen piensa que debe ser la usabilidad en la web. […]

  2. JanJ says:

    Readability is really great add-on.
    Little error I have noticed – it doesn’t include the readability-print.css file into page header. And I have found out why:
    In file readability.js you have that section, where the css files are appended into page, but var c (that print.css) is not appended – instead var b is appended twice.
    Can you fix that?

  3. Baris Derin says:

    Hello JanJ,

    Great catch! I will definitely fix the problem for next version.

  4. Darin says:

    On my currently nightly build of Minefield (aka, Firefox Next) I can cause the browser to freak out (at least on the Mac) by hitting Cmd+Option+R twice really fast in succession — it goes into an endless loop of formatting. Very entertaining. I don’t know if this is a general problem of it’s specific to my particular setup, but you may want to test it on your system.

  5. DavidC says:

    Hi Baris,

    Left click does not work for Readability with https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1530 installed on 3.7 nightly.

  6. Baris Derin says:

    Hello David,

    I am looking into this problem.

  7. Florian says:

    Is it possible to change the shortcuts? Crtl+Shift+A is already used bei BriefRSS…

  8. Robert Anthony says:

    I am legally blind and trying to find Add-Ons that would make my internet business more “functional.”

    Does Readability provide the benefits and support for the visually impaired?

    Thanks!

    Rev. Robert Anthony
    Orlando, FL

  9. Baris Derin says:

    Hello Robert,

    Some visually impaired users find Readability tool as very useful. It strips out the unnecessary sections from a web page and leaves only the content section for better readability purposes.

    Readability is recommended officially by Access Firefox, which is specially serve accessibility tools and tips.

    http://www.accessfirefox.org/Readability.php

    Give a try using the Readability.

  10. Craig says:

    Really like this add-on. I do have one wish… it would be nice if the same action (keystroke or menu button click) to turn Reader on or off. It feels clunky to do a different keystroke for each.
    If reader on, click = off
    If reader off, click = on
    Thanks

  11. SilverWave says:

    This looks great, just concerned about privacy, I have looked at the arc90.com site and couldn’t see any information.

    What is your take on this?

    Oh and any privacy implications with using the add-on?

    Cheers.

  12. Baris Derin says:

    Hi SilverWave,

    There is no privacy concern about the add-on. All information and functionality stays on the user computer.

    Although not clearly stated on Arc90, I am in contact with the team.

  13. Dennis says:

    Hello Baris,

    I love this extention, but there are some features I missed:
    – Twitter/Facebook integration (I don’t like Facebook, but for the others…)
    – Picture view + zoom function
    – export as PDF
    – more ways to change the style (Fonts, backgrounds, colors)
    – notes and user changes like underline, bold and italic (not changing the complete text)
    – RSS button

    I hope you will think about this ideas and add them to the next version. Thank you for this cool and smart add-on.

    Dennis

  14. antistress says:

    Thanks for the addon
    I’ve tried the same web page as in Apple Ad for Safari Reader (http://www.apple.com/safari/whats-new.html#reader) : http://www.spin.com/articles/qa-ok-gos-damian-kulash
    but unlike Safari ad, the photo vanished

  15. Garrett says:

    One thing I’d really like to see an option for disabling the status bar icon (I have too many of these as it is :D ).

    As a NoScript user it would be nice if Readability could work even when JavaScript is disabled, if that’s possible somehow.

    Other than these minor things this is a great extension and I’ll definitely be using it more than I did the bookmarklet.

  16. Dennis says:

    I forgot two thinks:
    At first it would be great to see Twitter pages through readability and to use it for YouTube videos only for the video and the description, maybe some comments. Hope to get some answers of you.

    Again, thank you for this great application, Dennis

  17. Baris Derin says:

    Hi Dennis,

    Thanks for great suggestions. Some of them are already in the road map.

    For Youtube and Twitter; Actually Readability is designed for readable content sections of the web pages. Because videos and twits (they are comment like sections) are non-readable contents Readability will not managing stripping down those web site pages properly. Readability checks for readable content sections in a web page. But if enough request is submitted we can add a functionality support for Youtube and Twitter, too.

  18. Louis Han says:

    what’s the relationship between this and the arc90 one (http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/) ?

  19. Baris Derin says:

    Hello Louis,

    The add-on is forked from Arc90 bookmarklet.

  20. Jason says:

    The Readability Addon doesn’t seem to work with some sites (e.g. NYTimes) yet the original Bookmarklet does. Can anyone else reproduce this problem? I have NoScript installed but both nytimes.com and arc90 are allowed in the whitelist.