Suggestion: Reader View

Bronze Contributor

A suggestion about Reader View:  Please consider giving users the options to:

 

(1)  change the background color from parchment to white;

(2)  change the font from serif to sans-serif; and

(3)  increase the font size.

 

The attached screenshots contrast Reader View in Edge Chromium with Reading View in Firefox, Edge Chromium left, Firefox right.   The Firefox pane is very close to how I would set up Reading View if I had those options.  It isn't whim; I'm in my 70's and things like contrast, font and font size make a difference.

 

Reader_View_Suggestion.jpg 

5 Replies

@tomscharbach The Firefox reader view actually allows you to control the font, background color, text color and more. My guess is that those kinds of controls will also be worked into the Edge Chromium reading view tool before they issue a true "version 1.0" release, but may not be their first priority. Some other, more complicated under-the-hood features they've announced (like "Internet Explorer mode") are probably going to consume more of their time, with user-facing features like these not being developed until they have a pretty stable foundation to set them upon. I could be wrong, though, as I'm not a developer or anything.

@rjbwdc  "The Firefox reader view actually allows you to control the font, background color, text color and more."

 

I agree, and the controls (serif/sans-serif, font size, column width, line spacing, and background) are are readily accessible from a side menu and remarkably easy to use.  I use Firefox in Reading View (relatively long technical and legal articles) much more than I use EdgeHTML because of those controls and because the Reading View pages are easily printed to PDF.

 

Firefox Reading View Controls.jpg

 

"My guess is that those kinds of controls will also be worked into the Edge Chromium reading view tool before they issue a true "version 1.0" release, but may not be their first priority. Some other, more complicated under-the-hood features they've announced (like "Internet Explorer mode") are probably going to consume more of their time, with user-facing features like these not being developed until they have a pretty stable foundation to set them upon. I could be wrong, though, as I'm not a developer or anything."

 

You pose an interesting question.  The answer, I suspect, is going to have a lot to do with how Microsoft perceives its targeted customer base for Edge Chromium at the time of release.  If the targeted base is businesses and enterprise customers, then the features most important to that base will have priority in development.   I suspect that Microsoft will not release until the core user-facing features/functions of EdgeHTML are incorporated into Edge Chromium, but whether Microsoft will add "above and beyond" features before release to distinguish the new browser from Chrome is anybody's guess at this point.

@tomscharbach From what little I've seen of the way they are talking about this new Edge, I think they are trying to target businesses and consumers at the same time. It seems to me like they want this to be the new do-everything browser—and my guess is that there's definitely room for that to happen.

The kinds of controls we're talking about are pretty standard for a reading view at this point—no one is going to release a native reader mode or a reader mode plugin without them. If Microsoft has moved reading view out of flags and is instead turning it on by default, then my suspicion is that they WILL add the kinds of controls we are talking about BEFORE Edge Chromium moves out of Beta.

But even if that's the case, back-end things like Explorer mode seem so complicated that they would probably want to make sure those are working cleanly and reliably before putting the final touches on the front-facing things like reading mode. Sort of like building the interior of the house before putting up the siding and the shutters? My guess is that their focus from here on out will be under-the-hood, rendering-engine-related things, then front-end design-related things, then finalizing the version 1.0 release.

Again, though, I'm talking from a place of absolutely zero anecdotal or professional insight. Pure, uneducated speculation.

Apart from the suggestions put forth by @tomscharbach above, here are a few more things I'd like Edge team to do with Reader View:

  • Use the browser-default sans-serif or serif font set by the user instead of forcing "Sitka Text".
  • If the browser is in dark mode, the Reader View should also be in dark mode.
  • Better support for printing pages in Reader View.

@tomscharbach @naiyerasif @rjbwdc 

 

We appreciate all of your great feedback, and taking the time submit screenshots of your issues.

 

We are working to improve everything still, and that's why we appreciate all the feedback 

we can get for these preview channels of our new browsers.

 

You will notice that we have improved and added/fixed many things since the preview builds have been released, and I can only see this feature being improved also.

 

Thanks for your feedback,

Frank