The Mercury API that powers the full-page reading in this plugin is shutting down soon. This plugin will still work with context menu (select the text and right click) parsing afterwards, but that's all.
I am in development on a new plugin for RSVP called stutter. It will be a cross-browser, modern code, implementation. If you forked this repo for your own tool, you might want to check out the code base on stutter instead for future work. The parsing heart is the same, but everything is using modern build tools and ES6 classes. Full page parsing is done locally by means of Mozilla's Reabability library. No more back-end server means it works offline and locally!
Speed reading via rapid serial visual presentation
Get the plugin!
Select text on any website by dragging over it with your mouse. When you right click on your selected text, choose the "Read Selected Text" option to launch the reading bar.
Pauseby clicking on the words in the reading bar.Resumeby clicking on the words in the reading bar again.- Change or finesse your reading speed by expanding the options panel on the left.
This tool handles all of the parsing and display logic on the client-side. There is no dictionary look-up or database of words referenced. Everything is parsed by regular expressions. Even with these limitations, read offers some unique features.
Rapid serial visual presentation allows for readers to keep their eyes focused on a single point on the page, saving a massive amount of time normally lost in reading. As the speed of this serial presentation increases, sub-vocalization also decreases and astounding speeds can be reached with great comprehension.
When the eyes read a word, there is an optimal focal point placement around 30% into the word to support easiest understanding. We handle this shift in the alignment of the words for you based on the word length.
Speed reading via RSVP is all about the timing. How long we display any given word can have a massive impact on the reading experience. Here's a few ways we optimize that experience.
Contrary to expectations, reading small words can actually be more difficult than reading words of medium length. Long words also take a longer time to process. These extra delays are built into our rendering code.
When you encounter a period, question mark, exclamation point or other punctuation, additional time is provided to process the sentence or fragment. This helps avoid the feeling of a run-on sentence.
The tool also gives an additional pause between paragraphs to help contextualize and process information as you read it.
- v2.0.6 - Code cleanup and fixes. No more unnecessary number punctuation breaking (@knod contribution)
- v2.0.5 - Added loading icon while fetching full-page text through Mercury for better UX
- v2.0.4 - Readability shut down its API, so I've migrated to a new one called Mercury
- v2.0.3 - Explicitly set word-wrap properties to override sites that add breaks
- v2.0.2 - Added Numeric Delay option to slow down numbers
- v2.0.1 - Allow users to Read at speeds up to 1500wpm (increased from 1200).
- v2.0.0 - Completely rebuilt access to the Readability API by using a proxy. Now supports HTTPS.
- v1.0.0 - We are now parsing the page to get only the relevant article content!
- v0.4.0 - 3 new configurable settings, liquid UI
- v0.3.7 - All settings are stored in chrome sync.
- v0.3.5 - Abandoned Unicode Symbols and just embedded images so I could use a better font.
- v0.3.4 - DroidSans is a pack of lies. DejaVuSans has proper symbols.
- v0.3.3 - Apparently you have to fully embed custom fonts. Boo.
- v0.3.2 - Font fix for PC (missing unicode chars)
- v0.3.1 - CSS fixes
- v0.3.0 - Added a drop-down menu for options and a restart button
- v0.2.2 - Better WPM settings
- v0.2.0 - Read icon reads whole page
- v0.1.3 - Fixed pause/play and alignment
Unless stated otherwise, everything in this repository is dedicated to the public domain through the Creative Commons Zero license - zero rights reserved.
If you find a bug or want to suggest a new feature, please log an issue over here. I welcome pull requests!