Features • Installation • Usage
betterread is a simple Chrome/Edge extension that changes the CSS style of a website for better reading experience. The extension is useful when browsing sites that:
- have all their body layout left-aligned,
- have small fonts,
- have no or little line-height
- have more than 80 characters long sentences.
SPECIAL NOTE: The extension takes a general approach and is not always site specific, therefore, it will not work on all websites. Where it shines are old webpages that are not designed for readability.
For supported sites, betterread applies tailored CSS instead of the generic defaults. The on/off state is remembered per site — toggling on Reddit does not affect Hacker News, and vice versa. State also persists across page navigations and browser restarts.
Currently supported sites:
| Site | Notes |
|---|---|
Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com) |
Improved layout and font sizing |
All other sites fall back to the generic CSS. Adding support for a new site requires only a new entry in SITE_RULES (in js/background.js) and a corresponding CSS file under css/sites/.
At this time, you can only install the extension from its source. First of all, download the extension zip file. After you have downloaded the file, unzip it to a destination of your choice. Next, open the "Extensions" page (chrome://extensions/) in the browser and turn on the "Developer mode". Click on the "Load unpacked" button and select the directory where you unzipped the extension. The betterread extension is now installed.
To use the extension just click on the extension icon to toggle it on or off.
Here is a list of websites the extension has been tested to work.