Nowadays, most people read more in web browsers than elsewhere. The internet is full of fantastic articles, and these Chrome browser extensions give you a better online reading experience.
As great as Google Chrome is, what sets it apart is the vibrant community of developers who make extensions to add features that aren’t yet available in the browser. From better readability and Kindle-like layouts to remembering where you scroll and reading faster, your comprehension is about to improve.
1. Omoguru (Chrome): Customize any website for better reading and attention
Omoguru is a reading invention company that has developed a range of solutions to make it easier for anyone to read. Their Chrome extension is a brilliant example of how they can give people with dyslexia and inattention a better online reading experience. Of course, anyone can use the extension for free. Essentially, Omoguru will change the way text is displayed on any website, customizing it to your requirements. You can choose from seven fonts with sans-serifs and serifs, set how much text you want to magnify on any page, set a custom background color for all pages, and how much space is left between lines.
Like many reading focus extensions, Omoguru also has a reader mode that works for any page that belongs to the article, which you can also enable via the right-click menu. You can turn Omoguuru on and off with a simple toggle in the extension. Omoguru is optimized for news sites, but it also works for web apps like Gmail and Facebook.
Download: Omoguru for Chrome (Free)
2. Scrroll In (Chrome): Remember the last scroll point of any long post
When you read a long article online, you sometimes need to stop and come back later. If you close the tab, Scrroll In remembers where you stopped reading and takes you back to that point when you open the link again.
While Scrroll In will automatically take you to the marker, you can choose to add a new tag or update your old tag. It’s like a charm that can save up to 20 reading points for a single URL; Although the total scroll point is unlimited. All the data is stored in your browser cache, and you can view all your saved scroll points on a simple dashboard.
Scrroll In doesn’t offer a keyboard shortcut, unfortunately, which would make it a lot more convenient. Thankfully, you can set custom keyboard shortcuts in Chrome extensions to save a scroll point or fetch the latest scroll.
Download: Scrroll In for Chrome (Free)
3. Fika (Chrome): With a kindle-like catalog reading mode
Safari, Edge, and Firefox now have a built-in reading mode, and you can also enable reading mode in Chrome as part of an experimental feature. But Fika offers a little more than all of these default features, which is to strip out the clutter from the article and present it in a readable design.
Inspired by amazon kindles, Fika created a table of contents (ToC) for the article based on the subheadings in the original article. You can scroll quickly by clicking on these, and it can serve as a nice sidebar when reading long articles.
Fika also lets you set custom background photos from a set of 25 naturally themed wallpapers, or use custom color backgrounds. The background and font color of the Reader’s Pane can also be changed in the four selections.
As expected, in Fika mode, you can choose from six different fonts, the size of the text (small, medium, large), and the normal or unbiased alignment. There’s also a handy keyboard shortcut (Alt + R) to call Fika, which is surprisingly fast.
Download: Fika for Chrome (Free)
4. Website Read Progress (Chrome): A colored progress bar shows the remaining quantity
When you’re reading a long article, you don’t always know how long the text is. The website reads a progress bar with a colored progress bar to show the amount you have read and the amount you still need to read.
You can choose to display it as a horizontal bar at the top of the page, or a circular bar floating at the top of the page. Both will be filled with a purple bar to show progress. You can also choose what happens when you click on the bar: go back to the home page, go back to the previous page, or close the tab.
Download: Website Read Progress for Chrome (Free)
5. Bionize (Chrome): Scan Articles Faster to Read Quickly
Bionize is a simple extension that utilizes the concept of bionic reading to make it easier for you to read articles online. In short, Bionic Reading analyzes the article and turns certain parts of the text into bold type. Claiming this allows you to read articles faster, especially when you’re scanning or skimming them. Bionize’s makers are based on research showing that our brains read much faster than our eyes allow, and sometimes we have a hard time finding the beginning of a new word or sentence. However, they note that there is no empirical evidence that bionic reading is better, but it’s worth a try.
The Bionic is as simple as clicking on the icon on the extension toolbar, which can be turned on and off. Unlike other extensions like Bionic Reading, this extension doesn’t try to give you a minimalist reading pattern or change the font or size. You can see the original web page, just with the highlights of bionic reading.
Download: Bionize for Chrome (Free)
6. Fready (Chrome): Word Pacer guides your eyes as you read
7. SpeedReader (Chrome): Apply Tim Ferriss speed reading
If you want to learn how to read faster, we’ve got some of the best speed-reading extensions for Chrome, but SpeedReader does something different. It uses Tim Ferriss’ quick-reading approach, which you can use peripheral vision to understand faster.
SpeedReader adds two red lines as margins to truncate the first and last words of the article. The idea is to read from the left margin to the right margin and jump to the next line. You can use this extension to give it a try and see if it helps you.
Download: SpeedReader for Chrome (Free)
Remember to Protect Your Eyes
With so many cool extensions to make online reading easier, you’ll find yourself diving down rabbit holes and spending hours glued to your laptop. But do remember to protect your eyes from prolonged exposure to the screen. In fact, you can install some Chrome extensions to prevent eye strain, alongside the reading extensions to maintain a healthy balance.
