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Reintroducing Postlight Reader

A decluttering browser extension for more comfortable reading.

Gina TrapaniCEO
Image with the words Postlight Reader on the left with the rocket icon on top. In the middle of the image is a screenshot of a typical online article full of ads and various other distracting elements. On the right-hand side is another screenshot of the same article but with the Postlight Reader extension added, thus showing only the article itself without the ads.

Most of the World Wide Web is beautiful chaos, but when you want to read an article online, you just want to focus on the words — no ads, clutter, or distractions. That’s why we’re excited to reintroduce one of our most popular projects, Postlight Reader (formerly Mercury Reader).

Postlight Reader is a browser extension that clears the clutter from web pages for comfortable, focused reading. It’s available to download and use for free for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers. Here’s how it works:

Once you install Postlight Reader, you’ll have a new button in your browser toolbar:

Screenshot of an online article. The Postlight Reader extension button is shown on the top right-hand corner. The button is turned on and the article page has no visible ads.

When you decide to read an article online — like this one! — press that button to clear away ads and focus on the words. Or use the Command + Esc key combination to activate Reader view.

You can also customize your Reader look and feel based on how you like to read. Change the typeface and text size, or turn on the dark theme for more comfortable reading at night:

Screenshot of an online article page. On the top of the screen are shown ways to customize the text size and typography, as well as a way to turn on dark theme.

Finally, in Reader view, you can send any article to your Kindle with one click.

Install Postlight Reader for free in your browser right now: It’s available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

For developers

Postlight Reader is powered by the Postlight Parser, a free, open source web parser. Developers: The Postlight Parser (formerly Mercury Parser) is available for use in your projects. Get the Postlight Parser code on GitHub.

Happy reading!

Gina Trapani (she/her) is CEO at Postlight. Send her a note at gina.trapani@postlight.com or follow her on Twitter.

Story published on Oct 26, 2022.

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