I got fed up with reading online. Every article I open comes
wrapped in cookie banners, autoplaying videos, sidebar ads, and
subscribe popups. Chrome has a built-in reader mode but it only
works on a handful of sites and has zero customisation. Firefox's
is better but I'm a Chrome user.
So I built READR — a Chrome extension that strips any webpage
down to just the content.
The core is Mozilla's Readability.js (the same library behind
Firefox Reader View), so coverage is broad. It handles Medium,
Substack, Wikipedia, news sites, research papers, most blogs.
When Readability fails it falls back to a paragraph-density
heuristic.
It runs entirely in the browser. No server, no telemetry, no
account required. Settings sync via Chrome's storage.sync API.
The extension has four permissions: activeTab, scripting,
storage, tabs — nothing broader.
Free features: reader overlay, dark/light theme, font size,
line width control, ESC to close.
Pro ($19.99 one-time, no subscription): PDF export via
window.print() with a print stylesheet that isolates the
overlay, and auto-open on domains you specify.
Built with vanilla JS, no framework. The whole extension minus
Readability.js is under 600 lines.
Interested in feedback on: sites where extraction fails badly,
whether the Pro features are the right ones to charge for, and
whether $19.99 one-time feels right or too high/low.
I got fed up with reading online. Every article I open comes wrapped in cookie banners, autoplaying videos, sidebar ads, and subscribe popups. Chrome has a built-in reader mode but it only works on a handful of sites and has zero customisation. Firefox's is better but I'm a Chrome user.
So I built READR — a Chrome extension that strips any webpage down to just the content.
The core is Mozilla's Readability.js (the same library behind Firefox Reader View), so coverage is broad. It handles Medium, Substack, Wikipedia, news sites, research papers, most blogs. When Readability fails it falls back to a paragraph-density heuristic.
It runs entirely in the browser. No server, no telemetry, no account required. Settings sync via Chrome's storage.sync API. The extension has four permissions: activeTab, scripting, storage, tabs — nothing broader.
Free features: reader overlay, dark/light theme, font size, line width control, ESC to close.
Pro ($19.99 one-time, no subscription): PDF export via window.print() with a print stylesheet that isolates the overlay, and auto-open on domains you specify.
Built with vanilla JS, no framework. The whole extension minus Readability.js is under 600 lines.
Chrome Web Store: https://wushu75.github.io/readr
Interested in feedback on: sites where extraction fails badly, whether the Pro features are the right ones to charge for, and whether $19.99 one-time feels right or too high/low.