When you read a lot of things online, you run into some inconveniences pretty soon. First of all reading from a screen just isn’t ideal. I’m not sure what it is, the angle, the light or something else, but it’s more tiring and slower than reading from paper. I also do quite some reading on my smartphone, especially in mobile Google Reader and find it more comfortable to be able to change the viewing angle of the screen (looking down instead of horizontal).
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to try out many e-readers yet to see if they are more convenient. I can really imagine that a true e-reader, with e-ink and without backlight can be easier to read. I did hold an iPad last week and thought it was nice, but you’re still looking into a light and it’s also quite heavy for reading for longer periods of time while holding it with one hand.
Still there’s much to read online. Many of us read a lot online, blogs, articles, forums or informational and news sites. With all the flashing advertising and strange design choices of some websites (light grey text on a white background, really?) it doesn’t get easier to read online. Now Readability is a plug-in from Arc90 in the form of a bookmarklet for Firefox and Safari or an extension for Google Chrome. It takes the text from a webpage (and does a good job of locating just the main text) and displays that on screen without any other disturbances. To install go to this page. You can choose the font, size and whether you want black on white or white on black text. Then drag the bookmarklet button to your bookmarks or your bookmarks bar. Then click on the button anytime you are reading something, such as this webpage.
It greatly increases the readability of any webpage or blog, it also works with an online RSS reader such as Google Reader. I’ve also used ad-blockers. They also improve your reading experience by removing distractions, but not as much as Readability because it leaves the text how it is. And it’s debatable whether it’s morally justified to remove ads, while they pay for the writer and creator of the page. With Readability you first see the regular page with ads and then create a better to read page to do some real reading. Let me know if you have tried it and what other solutions you know for better reading online (short of printing the internet).
To install on Firefox or Safari go here, or to install the extension Readability Redux (which does the same) in Google Chrome go here.