Readability: a simple tool for simplifying the web

Readability is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you’re reading.

It’s a simple bookmark that you put on your browser toolbar and then click when you want to simplify a web page. On a blog it removes all the sidebars and ads, allowing you to focus on the main content. On a regular site it can be useful for reformatting the font and column width. Here’s an example:

“Before”

Note the excessively wide “column.” Actually, the text runs right across the page width, meaning that your eyes have to work very hard to scan across the width of the text.

“After”

See how much easier it would be to read the text in a proper column?

Here’s another “before.”

Ironically, this one is in an article about website clutter. Note that the entire web page is off to the side of the browser rather than centered. The “sidebar” is actually in the center of the screen. And the article surrounded by distracting images, ads, and navigation. This makes it much harder to concentrate on the article.

And here’s “after.”

Centered, clean, simple.

This kind of tool is very useful when you want to use the connectivity of the web, but still maintain a sense of mindfulness and simplicity.

To enable Readability, just go to their site and follow the simple instructions (1. choose your settings, 2 drag the button to your browser toolbar, 3 click on the button when you want to simplify a page).

Incidentally, the new safari 4 browser from Apple has this as a built in option.