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Speed Reader: One Word at a Time

v0.1.0 Productivity Coming soon

Read articles faster, one word at a time. Your eyes stay in one spot while the words come to you, in a calm full-screen reader.

Coming to Chrome Web Store Privacy Policy Support

What is Speed Reader?

Speed Reader shows the text of the page you are on one word at a time, in a full-screen reader on top of the page. There is no scanning across lines and no losing your place. This technique is called RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation).

How it works

Click the toolbar icon or press Alt+Shift+S. Speed Reader finds the main text of the page by itself, counts down from 3, and starts.

Space or click: pause and play
Up and down arrows: faster or slower, while you read
Left and right arrows: skip back or ahead 5 words
R: start over. Escape: close
Click the progress bar to jump to any point

At the end you see how many words you read, how long it took and your average speed.

Good to know

Chrome does not allow extensions on browser pages such as chrome:// or the Chrome Web Store, and Speed Reader does not read PDF files.

Who it’s for

Students working through long reading lists
Professionals catching up on articles and reports
Anyone who wants to read more in less time, without distractions

Features

One click on the toolbar icon, or Alt+Shift+S, then a short 3, 2, 1 countdown and the article plays
Finds the article: menus, ads and sidebars are skipped. Select a passage first to read only that part
Focus letter: every word is aligned on its highlighted focus letter, so your eyes never move
Full keyboard control: pause, speed up or slow down, skip back or ahead, start over
Natural rhythm: short pauses after commas and full stops keep long sentences easy to follow
Your settings: 100 to 1000 words per minute, 1 to 3 words at a time, font size, light or dark theme
Pick up where you left off: optionally remember your speed and your position on each page

What it doesn't do

Send the text you read, or anything else, to a server of ours or anyone else’s
Include analytics, tracking or an install ping
Require an account, login or sign-up
Limit how much you read
Read the page until you open the reader

Permissions

Every permission this extension asks for, and why it needs it.

storage

Saves the reader settings in chrome.storage.sync, and, only when “Remember reading position per page” is on, the word position per page address in chrome.storage.local (at most 100 pages, oldest removed first).

Content script on all websites

The reader works on any article you open, so its script is present on every site. It reads the page text only when you open the reader, and it listens for the in-page shortcut key. The text is shown in an overlay on the page and never sent anywhere.

Privacy first

Speed Reader collects nothing and makes no network requests. The page text is read in your browser and only shown in the reader. Your settings stay in your browser. No account, no analytics, no server of ours involved.

Read the privacy policy →

Support

Need help with Speed Reader: One Word at a Time, found a bug, or have a feature request? Get in touch and we'll get back to you.

Help and FAQ → [email protected]