December 6, 2009 at 05:44We read large texts in Firefox
It's no secret that twitter is good because you can read about something big in a small amount of text. This is certainly good, but when you need to study the subject thoroughly and from all points of view, this approach will not help, because it does not always reveal the opinion of even the author of the tweet.
That is, I want to read really large and interesting texts, but is it so convenient? Of course not, it’s not at all convenient.
Why? I would like to know the answer to such a question. In fact, there are quite a few reasons, but they are all secondary. I’ll probably name a couple:
1. Design of an article (width and color of text and page, advertising, breakdown of text by paragraph, etc.)
2. Scrolling (yes, ordinary scrolling that forces you to switch your attention to the mouse)
It’s most difficult to deal with the design, this is already paid attentionZakharS ( Fast reading and screen width ).
A dirty hack with disabling page styles is certainly nice, but I would like something more interesting. Therefore, we’ll look at a few Firefox add-ons designed to make reading easier.
- eReader . Conceived as a book reader in Firefox. At the moment, forgotten, although it had sufficiently developed capabilities. (works with older versions of Firefox).
- Read Easily . Adds a button and hotkey to quickly turn off styles. (works with older versions of Firefox).
- Textise . Creates text versions of the page being viewed. Unfortunately, it works quite slowly and adds extra text.
- Blank Your Monitor + Easy Reading 1.9 BYM : Changes the color scheme to a darker one to “save” energy (controversial statement). (experimental addition). The greasemonkey " Tired Eyes " script has similar functionality ."which, when you press F2, turns on the“ white text on black background ”mode. There are several bookmarklets with similar features. I like“ Night ”-“ Turns off the light in the browser ”from this page. - Accessibar Adds a panel for changing various parameters text (font, background color) + can say the English text (works with older versions of Firefox). - Readability -. a simple tool that makes reading online easier, by removing unnecessary blocks from the page by changing the page style to more readable There are several . redustanovok also available as a bookmarklet, download and set up which can be a developer page . Upd:
Video man (eng) . - TidyRead has functionality similar to the previous one, but unlike it, it can automatically change page styles based on trusted lists. The advantages should also include the fact that the extension quite accurately selects the main text and graphics of the article. Upd: Video-man (eng) .
- RSVP Reader . It promises acceleration of 3.5 times due to the fast scrolling of text in a special panel on top. Upd: Video-man (eng) .
- SpeedReader! Similarly, only reading is done in a separate window. (works with older versions of Firefox).
These are probably all add-ons that are designed specifically to improve the quality of reading in firefox. However, there is a workaround, such as using the Dafizilla ViewSourceWith extension , by setting up the source code to open in a "real" reader program such as Fbreader (the method does not work with all readers). Also need to mention the script for greasemonkey
Page Width Resizer (adds transparent borders by moving which you can change the page width), Default FullZoom Level extensions (can automatically adjust the size of text and images to fit in the Firefox window, in width; it’s very useful for netbook owners in reviews) and Link Queue & Preview Sidebar (useful for owners of wide screens; preview links in full width and save a quick reading list). Read It Later
extensions (read-later list with the possibility of going offline) and zotero (more than just a cataloger) help to sort and save the reading list for later . Zotero is developing quite fast (<reviews> still mindmap to fasten to it ...), can automatically download information about articles from various sources, add by ISBN, DOI and PMID, as well as import full texts of articles from various scientific information search engines (Sciencedirect, Scopus and others). There are already additional extensions to zotero such as Zotero bibliography Locale Switcher (allows you to change the bibliography export language) and Zotero Scholar Citations (imports a citation index from Google Scholar; Upd: more details here .).
A mouse can "enhance" the Grab and Drag add-on using Acrobat-style scrolling. Upd: There is also an Autoscroll bookmarklet, with adjustable scrolling speed.
Personally, I often use Tired Eyes (for small texts), TidyRead (for large texts) and a reader program, through Dafizilla ViewSourceWith, for truly large articles.
Finally, I advise you to use add-ons for compiz “Negative” and “Color filter” to increase readability in any application. And also calm music, for example such .
Upd1: If you did not find the add-on you need in the article, you can pay attention to the greasemonkey add-on - Greasefire , showing all the scripts available for the current page. Such scripts can significantly improve the style of the page and change the functionality of the page, for example Jakkers Google Reader, helping to increase usable space (again netbooks) and view full texts directly in Google Reader without going to other pages. Or, for example, Google search results can be improved (even remove send data to Google, especially for surviving) with a script GoogleMonkeyR Supplement Stylish Brand , can also visually edit the page styles. Search capability is built in by default in addition. There are a lot of additions, so if you want to test everything, use Firefox test profiles to prevent additional “bonuses” due to possible incompatibilities. Upd2: If you need to preview links without going to other pages, Interclue is convenient
, which, unlike add-ons of similar CoolPreviews, can extract the main text of an article without formatting (also evaluate file size, view images, pdf, youtube, etc. ; font size and other parameters are easily customizable); Video Man (Deutsch) . Review of comments: About printing - 1 , 2 , 3 ; other browsers - console , Opera . Upd3: Still, I will mention the epubReader extension for Firefox - reading books in ePub format from the browser
. Initially, I did not include this extension in the list, since I did not encounter such a format, however, according to the mentioned article, the format is very popular “in the West”. This extension is more than enough to appreciate the book (reading fiction in Firefox is not for me).
That is, I want to read really large and interesting texts, but is it so convenient? Of course not, it’s not at all convenient.
Why? I would like to know the answer to such a question. In fact, there are quite a few reasons, but they are all secondary. I’ll probably name a couple:
1. Design of an article (width and color of text and page, advertising, breakdown of text by paragraph, etc.)
2. Scrolling (yes, ordinary scrolling that forces you to switch your attention to the mouse)
It’s most difficult to deal with the design, this is already paid attentionZakharS ( Fast reading and screen width ).
A dirty hack with disabling page styles is certainly nice, but I would like something more interesting. Therefore, we’ll look at a few Firefox add-ons designed to make reading easier.
Face change
- eReader . Conceived as a book reader in Firefox. At the moment, forgotten, although it had sufficiently developed capabilities. (works with older versions of Firefox).
- Read Easily . Adds a button and hotkey to quickly turn off styles. (works with older versions of Firefox).
- Textise . Creates text versions of the page being viewed. Unfortunately, it works quite slowly and adds extra text.
- Blank Your Monitor + Easy Reading 1.9 BYM : Changes the color scheme to a darker one to “save” energy (controversial statement). (experimental addition). The greasemonkey " Tired Eyes " script has similar functionality ."which, when you press F2, turns on the“ white text on black background ”mode. There are several bookmarklets with similar features. I like“ Night ”-“ Turns off the light in the browser ”from this page. - Accessibar Adds a panel for changing various parameters text (font, background color) + can say the English text (works with older versions of Firefox). - Readability -. a simple tool that makes reading online easier, by removing unnecessary blocks from the page by changing the page style to more readable There are several . redustanovok also available as a bookmarklet, download and set up which can be a developer page . Upd:
Video man (eng) . - TidyRead has functionality similar to the previous one, but unlike it, it can automatically change page styles based on trusted lists. The advantages should also include the fact that the extension quite accurately selects the main text and graphics of the article. Upd: Video-man (eng) .
"Auto show" text
(something similar is often used in speed reading training programs)- RSVP Reader . It promises acceleration of 3.5 times due to the fast scrolling of text in a special panel on top. Upd: Video-man (eng) .
- SpeedReader! Similarly, only reading is done in a separate window. (works with older versions of Firefox).
These are probably all add-ons that are designed specifically to improve the quality of reading in firefox. However, there is a workaround, such as using the Dafizilla ViewSourceWith extension , by setting up the source code to open in a "real" reader program such as Fbreader (the method does not work with all readers). Also need to mention the script for greasemonkey
Page Width Resizer (adds transparent borders by moving which you can change the page width), Default FullZoom Level extensions (can automatically adjust the size of text and images to fit in the Firefox window, in width; it’s very useful for netbook owners in reviews) and Link Queue & Preview Sidebar (useful for owners of wide screens; preview links in full width and save a quick reading list). Read It Later
extensions (read-later list with the possibility of going offline) and zotero (more than just a cataloger) help to sort and save the reading list for later . Zotero is developing quite fast (<reviews> still mindmap to fasten to it ...), can automatically download information about articles from various sources, add by ISBN, DOI and PMID, as well as import full texts of articles from various scientific information search engines (Sciencedirect, Scopus and others). There are already additional extensions to zotero such as Zotero bibliography Locale Switcher (allows you to change the bibliography export language) and Zotero Scholar Citations (imports a citation index from Google Scholar; Upd: more details here .).
A mouse can "enhance" the Grab and Drag add-on using Acrobat-style scrolling. Upd: There is also an Autoscroll bookmarklet, with adjustable scrolling speed.
Personally, I often use Tired Eyes (for small texts), TidyRead (for large texts) and a reader program, through Dafizilla ViewSourceWith, for truly large articles.
Finally, I advise you to use add-ons for compiz “Negative” and “Color filter” to increase readability in any application. And also calm music, for example such .
Upd1: If you did not find the add-on you need in the article, you can pay attention to the greasemonkey add-on - Greasefire , showing all the scripts available for the current page. Such scripts can significantly improve the style of the page and change the functionality of the page, for example Jakkers Google Reader, helping to increase usable space (again netbooks) and view full texts directly in Google Reader without going to other pages. Or, for example, Google search results can be improved (even remove send data to Google, especially for surviving) with a script GoogleMonkeyR Supplement Stylish Brand , can also visually edit the page styles. Search capability is built in by default in addition. There are a lot of additions, so if you want to test everything, use Firefox test profiles to prevent additional “bonuses” due to possible incompatibilities. Upd2: If you need to preview links without going to other pages, Interclue is convenient
, which, unlike add-ons of similar CoolPreviews, can extract the main text of an article without formatting (also evaluate file size, view images, pdf, youtube, etc. ; font size and other parameters are easily customizable); Video Man (Deutsch) . Review of comments: About printing - 1 , 2 , 3 ; other browsers - console , Opera . Upd3: Still, I will mention the epubReader extension for Firefox - reading books in ePub format from the browser
. Initially, I did not include this extension in the list, since I did not encounter such a format, however, according to the mentioned article, the format is very popular “in the West”. This extension is more than enough to appreciate the book (reading fiction in Firefox is not for me).