Speed-Reading Add-Ons For Chrome And Firefox

by Dan Vlasic on 13 April 2014 · 6456 views

If you would like to enforce your favorite browser with speed-reading add-ons while you work online, you may want to check out the following extensions.

With the recent announcement of Spritz on Galaxy S5, speed-reading received another popularity boost. Speed-reading feature come included with some applications, and those apps that are based on Spritz principles search for a single focal point in words, visually representing one word at a time at short intervals displaying words, one by one at high speeds.

This technology is extremely useful for portable devices, like smartphones and tablets, but it is also convenient for tackling longer works in less time. When you read without any speed-reading software, the average reading speed is, according to some research, 200 words per minute. With Spritz technology, you would be able to read 4 times faster. We will dwell on reading applications for portable devices in the next article, but today we will list several add-ons that enable speed-reading in Chrome and Firefox.

Chrome

The choice of speed-reading extensions available on Google Chrome Web store is extensive, but Spreed stands apart thanks to its handful of settings offering comfortable reading experience.

The options to customize are really extensive so you can adjust reading speed, font size, display color, highlighted focal point and keyboard shortcuts.

To speed read with this extension, you need to highlight text on any webpage and right-click on it. You will see a “spree selected text” on the drop-down menu.

Another extension worth mentioning is Sprint Reader, which also comes with a lot of customizable options you may want to tweak, but keep in mind, it doesn't do well with numerical values, which makes it less reliable.

Firefox

Firefox speed-reading add-on options are pretty scarce and Reasy seems to be one of the most honorable offering extensive customization options. As you would usually do with add-ons, you head to the add-on page and click add to Firefox. Once the installation is complete, you will be able to speed read using Reasy. You will need to highlight text and the Reasy window will pop up, delivering the words according to the Spritz technology.

If you want to customize font, shortcuts, color scheme, you need to open the Add-on manager and click the options button to customize Reasy. It is worth noting it also works just fine with Ice Dragon, and probably with many more Firefox clones.