Reader View in Browsers

Many browsers, not all, have a feature called "Reader View." Perhaps some don't call it by that name.

It is a feature where a page can be viewed with the content rendered like it might be in an ebook reader.

There are no ads. There is no header. No footer. And no JavaScript is effective.

The browser window contains only what the browser has determined is the article or main content on the web page.

Because Reader View has no annoying ads, no popups, and no gratuitously moving attention grabbers, the feature can be used to eliminate distractions. And so it is used.

How do your pages look in Reader View?

Not all browsers make Reader View available. I work mostly on Mac. Browser's Chrome and Opera do not have the feature. But Firefox, Vivaldi, Safari, and Tor do make it available. (UPDATE: The above was written in 2019. In August 2024, I noticed Chrome makes something similar available at their "More Tools | Reading Mode" menu item.)

It is prudent to have a look and see what people see when they use Reader View to read your pages. What they see or don't see may be surprising.

As an example, the Reader View in some browsers, perhaps all browsers, divs and other elements marked with CSS display:none; are displayed in Reader View — as if CSS display:none; didn't exist.

As another example, CSS position and float properties might not be honored. The result can be images or other content out of place or missing altogether.

The feature generally can be launched by tapping a document or book icon on the browser's address bar. The icon is located somewhere on the right or left of the URL of the web page being viewed. Here are two images of a reader-view icon, one from Safari and one from Firefox.

The Safari reader-view icon (the first image above) is near the left end of the web page URL in the address bar and appears as a tiny document with a few lines of text, without a border. The Firefox reader-view icon (the last image above) is near the right end of the web page URL and looks somewhat like a tiny bordered document.

Other browsers that provide Reader View have somewhat similar icons on the address bar, generally representing a document or a book.

Some pages can't be rendered for Reader View. For those pages, the browser hides the reader-view icon. The home page of Willmaster.com, for example, does not render in Reader View.

Different browsers render their Reader View differently. There seems to be no standard.

That is a compelling reason to check your pages in the Reader View of as many different browsers as it is feasible to use.

Generally, what the browser shows in Reader View is what's between the article HTML tags, if the page has those. Or between main HTML tags, if the page has those.

Also generally, content between aside HTML tags and between nav HTML tags won't appear in a browser's Reader View of a web page.

Those aren't rules, just observations. Still, using the above HTML tags, a person can reasonably hold the belief that they have at least some control over what does and does not publish in a browser's Reader View.

Use the Reader View of various browsers to see what others see when they view your pages with Reader View.

(This article first appeared with an issue of the Possibilities newsletter.)

Will Bontrager