Helping With Reading Poorly Formatted Web Pages With A Chrome Extension

yerrag

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This post is about me sharing with you a tool I find to be very helpful when reading web pages. This web pages would often be articles that leave a lot to be desired in terms of page layout design and of poor typography. Some pages have a large left and right margin, leaving very little space for content, and the words are so small it does not invite us to read at all. This poor layout seems to be something we can't get away from, and have to put up with. Perhaps these pages are made to fit better on cellphones, but on larger notebook or desktop screens, they become a sight for sore eyes. Occasionally, we encounter a poor mix of the elements of typography. In the typewriter era, we would use underlining in order to emphasize words or paragraphs. These days, underlining has been superseded by the use of boldface type. Using italics also add another helpful visual element to what we're reading. Yet we sometimes find the uneconomical use of these elements that not only have the appearance of a ransom note, but really distracts the reader. The orderly flow of reading is interrupted by the noise of the mish mash of poorly employed elements of type. It hurts the eyes and robs the reader of a good read. Since reading is already losing out to its video competition, it makes even more sense not to waste good ideas on poor layout and type choices.

Thankfully, when faced with such transgressions, as a reader I turn to a tool that I can install as extension called Mercury Reader. I use Chrome as my browser on my notebook, and this is a godsend. I click on this icon, which is visible to the right of the address bar, and voila! a well-formatted page comes up. It's like I'm reading from a book. Advertisements are stripped away as well. If it's too bright, you can change to a dark mode, so that the background becomes dark, and the type becomes white. And type size can be made larger as well.

The extension is called Mercury Reader.

I hope you give it a try. It will make your reading experience better. If you have any questions, just let me know.
 
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yerrag

yerrag

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You're welcome. It's been out there for a while. Just find that I have depending on it more than ever.
 
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Does it come for FireFox?

Stopped using chrome coz stupid google has not fixed that
New tab flashes white before showing theme background image
bug yet. issue since Sep 14 2009 !
makes you almost get epilepsy when opening new tabs especially at night. Destroys your eyes
So annoying :|
 
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