Firefox is a popular web browser and one of the most popular browsers in use today. It’s also a powerful tool for customization, and one of the ways you can customize Firefox is by using its built-in reading format options. To customize the reading format for webpages in Firefox, open Firefox and click on the three lines in the top left corner of the main window. This will open a menu with three options: The first option is called “Formatting.” This option allows you to change how text appears on webpages. You can choose to have text appear in a normal font, a bold font, or a italic font. The second option is called “Text Size.” This option allows you to change how large text appears on webpages. You can choose to have text appear as small text, medium text, or large text. The third option is called “Fonts.” This option allows you to choose which fonts are used on webpages. You can choose to use Mozilla’s default fonts or any custom fonts that you have installed on your computer. The fourth and final option is called “Text Formatting.” This option allows you to change how words are formatted on webpages. You can choose to use all capital letters, all lowercase letters, or none of these formatting options. The final result will be different depending on what type of page you’re working on: A normal website will look like it was written in a regular font while an e-commerce website will look like it was written in a more expensive font such as Arial or Helvetica.
Note: A bookmarklet version is available at the TidyRead Homepage for use in Firefox & non-Firefox browsers.
Before
As an example we chose one of the webpages here at the site to show what can be done using TidyRead. The “Before Look”…
After
As soon as you have installed the extension you will see a vast difference in the appearance of online articles. Here is the article shown above with the default settings for TidyRead in effect.
Here is a closer look at the “Toolbar” at the top. Notice the tiny “red symbols” displayed in the various categories…they serve as an indicator of the setting in effect at the moment for each category.
The “Right Click Menu” for the “Status Bar Icon”…
Note: There is a “Toolbar Button” available for those who prefer using it over the “Status Bar Icon”.
With just a couple of clicks you can really change the appearance of the entire article.
Yet another example set at a narrow width with a dark background.
Perhaps the choices available are not exactly what you were looking for but that is easy to fix. Click on the “my Button” to access the custom settings and choose the colors you like best.
If you want to change additional items such as the font or text alignment just use the “More Menu”. You can also use the menu to print the article too.
Printing
If you do decide to print the article the entire thing will shift to the left side of your browser once you click on “Print” in the “More Menu”.
Here is the “Print Preview” for the article shown above…no need to worry about the colored background trying to print out as well.
Options
If desired you can change the automatic display settings for TidyRead.
You may also adjust the types of webpages that TidyRead will be active on, the keyboard shortcut, and the operational modes.
Note: The other two “Options Areas” allow you to set custom lists for “always or never displaying” particular webpages.
Conclusion
If you prefer using a custom display for reading webpages and articles then TidyRead will definitely be a welcome addition to your favorite browser.
Links
Download the TidyRead extension (Mozilla Add-ons)
Download the TidyRead extension or bookmarklet (TidyRead Homepage)
