Reviews for Bionic Reader
Bionic Reader by Rain Jr.
Review by EmSixTeen
Rated 3 out of 5
by EmSixTeen, a month agoGood functionality options when it comes to the actual typography settings it applies, but currently breaks a huge amount of sites.
This would benefit *massively* from two things:
1) the ability to provide class names it will apply to, rather than entire domains.
2) the ability to use a picker to select elements it would apply to, or right click and use the context menu to apply to that element (and that choice being saved).
This would benefit *massively* from two things:
1) the ability to provide class names it will apply to, rather than entire domains.
2) the ability to use a picker to select elements it would apply to, or right click and use the context menu to apply to that element (and that choice being saved).
53 reviews
- Rated 5 out of 5by Trinutown, 2 hours ago
- Rated 4 out of 5by Leonito, 24 days agoThis is great, the only issue I have with it is how domain exceptions are handled when the extension is enabled for all websites: there are no wildcards.
This is annoying on sites that have many subdomains, for example all *.arduino.cc sites are buggy with the extension, so it would be a massive time saver to be able to blacklist all of them with a single entry rather than adding each one manually, and would also avoid missing any in the process. - Rated 3 out of 5by Firefox user 18667913, 25 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 18545670, 3 months agoI’ve been using Bionic Reader for a while now, and it has completely transformed my browsing experience! This extension allows me to change the fonts on any website to match my personal style using the fonts I already have installed on my system. Whether I want to switch to a sleek sans-serif or a classic serif, Bionic Reader makes it incredibly easy.
The interface is user-friendly and intuitive. With just a few clicks, I can customize the fonts on any website, and the changes are applied instantly. One of the best features is that my preferences stick around even after I close the tab, so I don’t have to reapply my settings every time.
Bionic Reader also supports dynamic websites, which means it works seamlessly across all the sites I visit. The ability to restore the original fonts with a single click is a great touch, ensuring that I can always go back to the default settings if needed.
Overall, Bionic Reader is a fantastic tool for anyone looking to personalize their web browsing experience. Kudos to the developer for creating such a versatile and reliable extension! - Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 18261311, 4 months ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 15092195, 5 months ago
- Rated 4 out of 5by MP3Martin, 7 months ago
- Rated 4 out of 5by Greg, 8 months agoThis add-on is super helpful in working and free time, especially when I have a hard time focusing on large blocks of text, so much so that I'm going to be using it for the foreseeable future.
The best part is that it doesn't cost anything like the original Bionic font. I don't believe accessibility should be something you pay for.
The only issue I'm having is that it ends up having an effect that doubles up text repeatedly on Chats with sellers on Etsy and Assistants on banking websites and the like, though I'm not sure why. - Rated 5 out of 5by Shubham Jha, 8 months ago
- Rated 3 out of 5by Fudge, 9 months agoI'm only giving this a 3 stars because I think I have some problems with the add-on. I can't find the save option that shows up under Controls on the help tab. None of the changes I make are saved and I don't know how to do it. I don't know if it's just something I'm doing wrong.
I'd also like to add that it doesn't work on notion.so, which I use a lot. Is this because of other code on the website?
However it definitely works with the default settings on other sites and I appreciate the dev.Developer response
posted 9 months agoHi,
I have installed the addons on Windows and Android (phone) to test and it's working normally. Not sure about Firefox on Linux because I tested it long time ago. They may change the code to render addons on linux (?).
Also, please check the Options GUI again and look for scrollbars. Your OS may shrink/expand the GUI when you increase scaling on your display. Firefox still keep the same maximum size for addons GUI when you scale your display (800x600).
If you still cannot see the GUI like in the screenshot, the Firefox version on your system may render it incorrectly.
For Notion.so. This addons will not work on any webpage that using dynamic content. Because right after the addons modify the text (bionify), the website will insert the original text right after the modified one and break the page. - Rated 5 out of 5by Kadircan Ersahin, 9 months ago
- Rated 4 out of 5by ArcturusK03, 10 months agoThe app works great! The only issue I've had is it absolutely breaks the website Sudowrite.com, which I use for writing. It would have a perfect score from me otherwise.
Developer response
posted 9 months agoHi,
This addons will not work on any webpage that using dynamic content. Because the site will always replace the modified text with their own. Developer response
posted a year agoHi,
I'm not sure about the problem. Please provide more information, for example, operating system and description about the issue.- Rated 4 out of 5by Aaron Liu, a year agoPretty solid! Mostly just works. Breaks a couple of websites though, such as basically any medium website. This extension doesn't work well with translate extensions that also use mutation observers, as the implementation divides everything into lots of separate text elements instead of continuous words with a span, so it works for a second and immediately gets translated into nonsense
(The developer originally responded to this review. I'm re-posting as I have a new feature request and I can't find any other way to contact the developer, though they do respond to every review, which is great!)
This extension also breaks many sites' math equations, such as the math stackexchange and many USACO problems. The delay method isn't sufficient as the equations take a bit longer to render. Is it possible for users to customize how long the extension delays for on all delay domains?Developer response
posted a year agoHi,
I have added a quick fix for math.stackexchange.com and also an option to control delay time in version 1.6.25. You may want to view the website first to see if the problem still persist before adding it into delay list.
Because each website has its own way of implementing math equations, I can only make a quick fix instead of creating a universal solution. For that reason, other websites may still display math equations incorrectly. - Rated 2 out of 5by Remaincense, a year agoToo many bug, for example in below site:
https://techbooks.substack.com/p/why-asking-your-customers-what-they
the page is not normal if you click it, come out so much duplicate text.Developer response
posted a year agoHi,
The site is running a background script and will try to "fix" itself whenever you switch back from other tabs. It will insert the original text along side with the modified one whenever it sees any changes. That will happen with all header nodes. Any extension that inserting custom/extra nodes will have the same problem with this site.
As a solution, you can do the following:
1. Add this site to blacklist (CTRL+ALT+_) or click on OFF button (CTRL+ALT+0) to turn off auto mode.
2. Manually enable bionic style by pressing CTRL+ALT+B.
You will see 1 more duplicate text because the site still try to fix itself. But the extension will not try to apply bionic style to newly created text. - Rated 4 out of 5by Firefox user 13294957, a year ago2 things. Can you please add a feature so that in firefox it ONLY works while on "reader view"https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-reader-view-clutter-free-web-pages ?
the other thing, it breaks some pages like web whatsapp, but I haven't been able to figure out the blacklist vs whitelist in the extension. Can you add tab menu options for "add to whitelist, and/or add to blacklist? thank you.Developer response
posted a year agoHi,
1. Unfortunately, Firefox does not support running extension in Reader mode.
2. To use whitelist/blacklist, you MUST click on "ALL" button to turn it off first. Something like "do not apply to all sites any more" :).
The whitelist is: General -> Domains
The blacklist is: Advanced -> Blacklist Domains.
You can edit content of the textbox directly (add/remove) and then click on SAVE button. The extension will extract domain name from the address and save it for you.
Shortcut key to add to whitelist: CTRL+ALT++ or CTRL+ALT+=
Shortcut key to add to blacklist: CTRL+ALT+- or CTRL+ALT+_ - Rated 5 out of 5by Com|C, a year ago
- Rated 4 out of 5by Isaac Aaron, a year agoVery simple to use, just install and enjoy. Supports Hebrew almost out of the box, I had to add some vowels.
I wish I could apply a blacklist or a whitelist saying something like "do not apply for LAN (192.168.*) addresses. I really like the hotkey the allows disabling for the current site.
Perhaps if used in conjunction with containers? - Rated 4 out of 5by D. Schaaaf, a year agoPretty good and useful add on. Unfortunately, it clashes with Dark Reader. It would be great if this add on would have a positive list (white list) instead of, or in addition to, a negative list (black list). I'd like this add on to only be active on chosen sites.
Edit: A separate negative/positive list for the "DARK" mode alone would be helpful.
Interference with Dark Reader: I can't have Dark Reader disabled for domain XY, and Bionic Reader with "DARK" mode enabled _only_ on domain XY. As soon as "DARK" mode is enabled in Bionic Reader, it applies to _all_ domains (except for the domains on the negative list). "THIS SITE" only works for "Bionic Reading style" but not for "DARK" mode.
Hotkeys are an option. Unfortunately most programs come with their own set of hotkeys. Sometimes they interfere with each other, other times there are simply too many hotkeys to remember. Bad memory might be more common among people who benefit from "Bionic Reading style" ;-)Developer response
posted a year agoHi,
Could you please give me more detail about the confliction with Dark Reader? I can run them together with no issue. If you only need a simple dark mode, you can click on "DARK" button on the Options menu and configure the settings to your liking (Overlay Opacity or Dark Theme).
To use while list, you need to turn off the "ALL" button first. Then, open your favorite site and click on "THIS SITE" in the Options menu. This will add the selected site to the domain list right below.
To add any site to black list, you can paste the link of that website to "Blacklist Domains" under "Advanced" tab in the Options menu.
However, I prefer to use the shortcut key to enable/disable this extension instead of using white list or black list. For example, you can press CTRL+ALT+0 to quickly toggle ON/OFF this extension. For a full list of hotkeys, please check the "Shortcuts" tab in the Options menu. - Rated 5 out of 5by Cr8zy_Ivan, a year agoThis is a really sweet Add-On. I've been looking for a text formatter to use with Outlook Web, and this is the only one I found that works well.
In an ideal world, I would have liked the Dark mode to follow the Text Formatting. The Text Formatting can be applied to specific Webpages, but Dark mode must be applied to all Webpages.
It would also be a great enhancement to have customizable Hotkeys. Unfortunately, in my circumstance, two Hotkeys that I use a lot come in conflict with Bionic Reader: "Ctrl + Alt + =" and "Ctrl + Alt + -", which I use in Google Sheets and Excel to "insert rows/columns" and "delete rows/columns".
I will say however, this is a Kicka* Add-On. Kudos! Very well done.Developer response
posted a year agoHi, thank you for your comment!
I know that I need to add customizable hotkeys as you suggested. I will try to add this feature when I have time to work on it.
Sorry for the confliction with these hotkeys :p! - Rated 5 out of 5by Pfhoenix, a year agoHaving some trouble with the extension inverting the bold, resulting in the end of the words being emphasized. Not sure if this is a known behavior with a workaround/inbuilt fix, but aside from that seems a good extension.
Follow on edit: Figured it out. If you adjust weights appropriately and the strength, it will de-emphasize emphasized content in pages, while also not effectively emphasizing other content due to the limits it has been provided.
Surprise, the 'issue' was once again the user, not the product.Developer response
posted a year agoHi,
I know about the issue you mentioned. However, it is really hard to fix it because many fonts do not use standard strength for their characters. Furthermore, detecting a text that is already emphasized (with custom strength/bold font) may be costly (most of the time, we need to use "getComputedStyle()" in Javascript, which is slow and not efficient).
I'm glad you found the workaround for the issue! I put a lot of effort to build that Options GUI, but not so many people care about it :D! - Rated 4 out of 5by Olivia, 2 years agoWorks great, when it does work.
On some pages, every time you hover over a button, the words on the button get duplicated. So "Done" becomes "DoneDoneDoneDoneDone" and the buttons get bigger every time your cursor hovers over. I saw this in the checkout cart of overstock.com, the mario kart live racer ID creation webpage (while making an ID here: https://mklive.nintendo.com/racer-id/ ) and a few other pages. Had to disable it sadly, then those pages worked like normal.Developer response
posted 2 years agoHi,
It sems that the website is tracking your mouse movement on the button (may be to learn your shopping behavior/how you decide to buy things,...). When It sees change on the text, it will add the original text again. The extension will see that change and apply styling to the new text. This procedure will keep repeating again and again. As a result, you will see "buttonbuttonbutton"....
Unfortunately, whenever I visit "overstock.com", I always get error: "An appropriate representation of the requested resource / could not be found on this server". For that reason, I couldn't make further investigation on that page.
As for now, you can try the following:
- Add "overstock.com" to blacklist.
- Use keyboard shortcuts to disable/enable the extension.
- Turn off ALL button and use Ctrl+Alt+B to manually enable styling for a webpage. - Rated 1 out of 5by anonymous duck, 2 years agoIf I were to make a plugin in an attempt to hack people I'd make exactly this, access to all websites with no public source code. Do NOT download ;)
Developer response
posted 2 years agoHi,
You can easily view the source code of ANY extension on Firefox. They are just simple ZIP files with XPI extension. First, rename the extension from ".xpi" to ".zip" and then extract.
You can read more from here (or just google something like "check firefox extension source code"):
https://superuser.com/questions/771825/how-to-examine-source-code-of-firefox-extension-before-installing-it)
Anything in Open Source doesn't mean that it is safe. Because the one in the repository may NOT be the SAME with the one you INSTALL. This is a simple TRAP that many people will get in.