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GNOME Web Browser is Adding a Reader Mode (omgubuntu.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

An anonymous reader writes: An experimental reader mode will ship in the next version of GNOME Web, aka Epiphany. The feature is already available to try in the latest development builds of the GTK Webkit-based web browser, released this week as part of the GNOME 3.29.3 milestone. Reader mode (also known as "reader view") is a toggle option that strips a web page down to its bare text. All bespoke styling, background images, buttons, branding and page ephemera is removed. You get a distraction-free, text version of a web page. Because reader mode use its own custom .css to present web content it is (sometimes) possible to adjust a page's text size, background color, and/or layout for improved readability. There's no indication (yet) of customisation options being available in GNOME Web's version.

65 comments

  1. News? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most browsers have had this or an extension for this for...years.

    Also, who uses Epiphany? Even when i was using Gnome, I didn't use Epiphany. As far as browsers go, its not a very good one at all. Maybe things have changed in the last few years.

    Even when KDE was trying so hard to push Konqueror I didn't use it much. I tried for a while, just like with Epiphany but then Firefox gets downloaded and Konquerer is never touched.

    Why do these DE projects insist on shipping their own mediocre crapware browsers built on HTML rendering kits that are subpar to other open source projects? (chromium and firefox specifically).

    1. Re:News? Really? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      The other question is how many people really use this feature in the current browsers too?

      Most web developers are pure crap in following standards, and they do what they know what works, but not why it works. When the Reader view comes in play and messes up the styling data can be put in less then logical order.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re: News? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair, Konqueror led to WebKit which led to Safari.

    3. Re:News? Really? by WinstonWolfIT · · Score: 1

      I use document mode in Firefox routinely. If I get shut out for running Adblock, I refresh and load the document before the block loads. Annoying video that loads that my settings can't block, same thing. Like many, I prefer the text over the presentation much of the time.

    4. Re:News? Really? by stoneguy · · Score: 1

      I must be missing something obvious. Just where can I select this document mode? Not anywhere I can find in FF Quantum 60.0.2. Should I be using another FF version?

      I want to save web pages/sites for input itnto Calibre. Making epub snapshots of websites is useful, but Calibre gets pretty lost in convoluted CSS. Calibre's author doesn't intend the product to be used quite this way. I'm still a occasional supporter though - it's great at what he designed it to do.

    5. Re:News? Really? by WinstonWolfIT · · Score: 1

      There's a page-like button at the right side of the address bar which displays for sites that have a document tag. Try Wikipedia first to find it. I didn't have to do anything special, but if not there it should be in your toolbar buttons to select. I'm running under Windows and Android, can't speak for other distributions.

    6. Re:News? Really? by stoneguy · · Score: 1

      Thanks for your suggestion, but of course me using Linux vs you using almost anything but, that didn't help. However, I DID manage to locate it in the View Menu dropdown shortcutted as Ctl-Alt-R. Perfectly logical once you know it.

      Hope this relieves any other bafflement on the topic

  2. really? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 0

    There's still a gnome specific web browser?

    1. Re:really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, so what? There's a Windows one, and a macOS one, and an Android one. Many OS's and user UI's have a specifir web browser. What's the problem?

    2. Re:really? by ArchieBunker · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I just learned gnome has its own fucking virtual filesystem for things like removable drives. That is something the OS should be handling not your goddamn window manager.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    3. Re:really? by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      Don't worry, Red Hat is already doing this: they put Gnome components into the core of their new filesystem (Stratis).

      I don't know whether to laugh or weep.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    4. Re:really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      Every OS specific browser SUCKS bigly.

      There is a reason no one uses any of the browsers you mentioned, other than the android one, and personally I don't even use that one but download the firefox privacy one instead.

    5. Re:really? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      I just learned gnome has its own fucking virtual filesystem for things like removable drives. That is something the OS should be handling not your goddamn window manager.

      I vaguely remember Gnome having a browser component, for things like help files (which I guess could make sense, and which KDE had as well).

    6. Re:really? by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      It's because Gnome want's to be OS agnostic and so that you e.g can open a networked file over ssh with gedit, something that most OS:es require a mount for.

    7. Re:really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really, minus one? Someone wasted mod points on an anonymous post that was both true and relevent to the article to mod down?

      Let me guess..........an Edge or Safari fan was offended when it was pointed out their favorite browser is crap?

      I'm sure Edge and Safari render stack exchange just fine for you so you probably don't need to worry about using anything other than your toy browser. ;)

    8. Re:really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously, why is any effort being spent to maintain that piece of shit?

    9. Re:really? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      I see the gnome devs have arrived, lol

    10. Re:really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It has a gnome name, but is really used by what I may call the gnome clones : XFCE, LXDE, Mate, Cinnamon, and a longer list still (Unity, Budgie, Pantheon?) and LXQt (which depends on Qt instead of GTK)

      Would you agree it's the file manager's job? Many file managers depend on gvfs, and it's used for USB drives as well as "views" like the trash can, a "My Computer" view if available, network browsing of samba/smb shares, etc.
      You can use some file manager without these features, or use an alternate daemon (e.g. spacefm is a fork of an older LXDE's pcmanfm, and the author made its small own daemon to mount drives), or mount your drives manually, or have a helper app (like "gigolo"), or use KDE which just does its own different things.

  3. Re:People use the GNOME browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Exactly!

    This is bad idea because won't display my YouTube videos and AmazonTM affiliate links properly.

  4. what? :)) by campuscodi · · Score: 1

    There's a GNOME browser now? :))

    1. Re:what? :)) by afranke · · Score: 1

      It’s only been 16 years (18 if you count the Galeon years, since Epiphany/GNOME Web is a fork of it).

    2. Re:what? :)) by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

      I have been using GNOME for a long time, and didn't know it had a browser.

    3. Re:what? :)) by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      Yes, Epiphany is pretty old, most distributions don't bother showing it because it's pretty much the Internet Explorer of the GNU/Linux world.

      Someone presumably forgot to tell GNOME's developers that there already are tools to download Firefox built-in to most distributions, so the need for a Firefox download tool like IE in GNOME is tiny.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    4. Re:what? :)) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have been using GNOME for a long time, and didn't know it had a browser.

      That's because like McOS, they expect one to just know about all the features in their software to avoid cluttering the DE.

    5. Re:what? :)) by SumDog · · Score: 1

      I used Galeon way back in the day (2001/2002 I think). I really loved it back then. Great browser. I would check it out today, but I uninstalled most of the gnome packages on my desktop. :-P

  5. I don't get reader mode by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I never understood the point of reader mode except for those 1996 era web pages that have never been updated and have horizontal scrolling. For that ultra-rare circumstance, I don't need a whole browser feature that basically puts it in the mangled mess of print preview mode. For those ultra-rare circumstance, printing to a PDF is probably sufficient.

    1. Re:I don't get reader mode by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Centers text, omits cruft, enlarged font. And in most instances gets the full text of an article behind a paywall.

    2. Re:I don't get reader mode by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      You know those articles that get cut up into 12 different page loads complete with a huge border of ads around each page?

      Yeah, reader mode gets rid of all that shit and makes one scrollable article you can read, like it should be.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
  6. Sooo... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So this pretty much does what HTML was originally designed for?

  7. The Death Knell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Elegy For *BSD

    I am a *BSD user
    and I try hard to be brave
    That is a tall order
    *BSD's foot is in the grave.

    I tap at my toy keyboard
    and whistle a happy tune
    but keeping happy's so hard,
    *BSD died so soon.

    Each day I wake and softly sob
    Nightfall finds me crying
    Not only am I a zit faced slob
    but *BSD is dying.

  8. Oh Clearly, how I miss you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The best implementation of this on other browsers was the extension Clearly (brought to you by the Evernote people). It's defunct now.

    I used it all the time.

    1. Re:Oh Clearly, how I miss you. by NeilO · · Score: 1

      Totally agree. Did you know the Evernote web clipper plugin for Chrome still has a "Simplified article" view? It's meant to help you simplify the page content before you clip to Evernote, but often I just use it to read the article without clipping.

      One caveat: that plugin displays an overlay that you can collapse but not entirely hide, because it's the UI for clipping the article to Evernote. It makes sense in the context of what the plugin is trying to help you do, and it's still better than nothing.

  9. Need a Windows version by jfdavis668 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sounds so good, they should port it to Windows.

    1. Re:Need a Windows version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Systemd is required to browse the web now so cant port to anything.

    2. Re:Need a Windows version by jfdavis668 · · Score: 0

      There's a systemd Windows port? I need to check that out.

    3. Re:Need a Windows version by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      Windows sure could use a more modern init than the System Services that they have currently.

    4. Re:Need a Windows version by doconnor · · Score: 1

      Firefox has had it for years.

    5. Re:Need a Windows version by WinstonWolfIT · · Score: 1

      Chrome does as well, though I've only tried it once or twice, but it seems to work well. As I recall, it depends on a document tag to decide what to present so it's not foolproof.

  10. I want side-by-side split-pane browsing by johannesg · · Score: 2

    What I really want in a browser is this: I want the window to be split horizontally into two panes. The left-hand pane contains a site, such as the Slashdot frontpage. Clicking on a link opens whatever you click on in the right-hand pane, replacing what was already there. It would let you skim articles quickly without opening an ungodly number of tabs.

    I suppose I would also be ok with decreasing memory usage per tab, but I guess that ship sailed long ago...

    1. Re: I want side-by-side split-pane browsing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can't you implement this easily with frames?

    2. Re:I want side-by-side split-pane browsing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tried Firefox extension "Tile Tabs WE" ? There are others too.

    3. Re: I want side-by-side split-pane browsing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but youâ(TM)d need a grease monkey script to rewrite all the anchor links in the first frame to open documents into the second frame.

    4. Re:I want side-by-side split-pane browsing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What I really want in a browser is this: I want the window to be split horizontally into two panes. The left-hand pane contains a site, such as the Slashdot frontpage. Clicking on a link opens whatever you click on in the right-hand pane, replacing what was already there. It would let you skim articles quickly without opening an ungodly number of tabs.

      It's called an RSS reader: http://www.vienna-rss.com/

    5. Re:I want side-by-side split-pane browsing by johannesg · · Score: 1

      Thanks, that's really useful! I don't really like the fact that it opens two windows, but otherwise this is exactly what I meant.

      What other options are there? I'd like to see if there are any that feel better...

  11. Just can't help myself... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Making the web better by taking it back to 1998!

  12. Of course it would by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Gnome developers are constantly thinking of new ways of needlessly using all the resources available in your system.

  13. what's it called? by 4im · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Stripping bare to text? Might just use one of the classics, like w3m, links, lynx.

    Or while we're at it, telnet to port 80, pipe through openssl as neccesary?

    No kidding though, I still regularly use w3m from the command line to circumvent "funny" JavaScript stuff used to block access if you visit a site "too often" (pay after limited use news sites), or just plain avoid all those pesky ads especially with pop-in video and such.

    For you web developers out there, this is also a rather healthy test of your websites - if it won't properly deliver content in such a text browser, they will also suck from a search engine perspective, and probably from the usability side too. Obvious exemptions for picture or video oriented websites.

    1. Re:what's it called? by tepples · · Score: 1

      if it won't properly deliver content in such a text browser, they will also suck from a search engine perspective

      When was this last tested? Last I checked, Google both operated a web search engine and published a web browser supporting JavaScript. Also last I checked, Google Search indexed JS-only websites. I wonder if these are related.

      and probably from the usability side too

      At least the accessibility side of usability has this covered. Karl Groves, the author of Mother Effing Tool Confuser, has explained that assistive web browsers nowadays run JavaScript.

  14. Nice ADA Feature by Only+Time+Will+Tell · · Score: 1

    This will be a nice feature for those with vision impairments. My mother is blind in one eye and only has limited vision in the other. If this can increase website text to be really large and boost the contrast, it would be a great help.

  15. Re:People use the GNOME browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks to creimer's dedicated band of trolls, this Slashdot video got nearly 1,700 views and made $50+ in affiliate fees from Goat C shirt sales!

  16. Re:People use the GNOME browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thanks to creimer's dedicated band of trolls, this Slashdot video got nearly 1,700 views and made $50+ in affiliate fees from Goat C shirt sales!

  17. Reader Mode for email by yurikhan · · Score: 1

    Somebody should invent Reader Mode for email.

    Seriously, just about every HTML mail message I get from my coworkers has small font size, non-default font face, non-black text, a humongous signature, or any combination of the above.

    Bonus points for also dealing with discrete contramotion whole-thread-in-reverse-order messages.

    1. Re:Reader Mode for email by LordFolken · · Score: 1

      Use mutt and pipe html mails through w3 for formatting.

  18. Kazehakase by LordFolken · · Score: 1

    Gnome lost it, when they killed the kazehakase browser. This thing was vi for the web.. but it didn't fit with gnome's feature reducing pattern.

    for those curious:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  19. Doesn't sound like it'll work by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    There has been plenty of web pages I've encountered that won't display even text unless you have javascript enabled for it (I use NoScript). Many other sites bundle the actual content along with the ads on the same server as the ads, so if you exclude the ads, it breaks the page and you don't see the content. Of course all of these problems are not the fault of this Gnome browser, it's a pernicious disease that's been infesting the Web for a long time now.

  20. Congratulations on catching up! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Great! Another New feature that Opera (The real Presto-based one, not the shitty corpseskin-wearing Chrome one) had over a decade ago!

    Progress! \:D/

  21. Re: People use the GNOME browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So you made $50 in 3 months? Bravo sir.

  22. sure destroy the web by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mean dont get me wrong im all for quicker browser but this + apples stuff is only going to hurt publishers which make most people's reading and viewing content. if you dont like a site and its ads or user tracking you should go to somewhere else, else your just freeloading.

  23. Yuck by DarkRookie · · Score: 1

    Is it just me, or does Gnome 3 look like garbage.
    Biggest offender of having non-Window controls in the title bar.

    --
    The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.