Chrome speed reader extensions to master speed reading:
1. Spreed
Spreed helps you speed read using a technique called rapid serial visual presentation, or RSVP, to help you read text faster. This technique helps to reduce sub-vocalization or reading out each and every word, unconscious re-reading and helps eliminate too much eye movements, which are the main things that generally reduce reading speed.
There are many ways you can use Spreed -
(i) Click on the Spreed icon and and select spreed current website (Alt+V) or
(ii) Select text of the page you're reading and select "Spreed selected text" from the menu which you can access by right clicking or
(iii) Hit Alt + V after selecting the text or
(iv) You can also copy-paste any text from the web and paste it into Spreed. For doing that, click the Spreed icon and select "Paste text into spreed" or
(v) Only hit Alt + V to automatically extract the contents of the webpage you're reading and open in Spreed.
2. Readio Speed Reader
Readio is an open-source Chrome extension for speed reading. If you want to improve your reading speed but don't want to bother using a bloated extension, this should be the choice for you since it's pretty lightweight and open-source.
You can read speed read using this extension in three different ways -
a) Tap the extension icon and open the editor by clicking on "Open Editor" and paste selected text.
b) Click on "read current page"
(c) Select a piece of text from any webpage and right-click with the mouse. Choose "Read selected text with readio".
3. Readline
Readline makes it easy to speed read. Just select the text or hover the cursor over a paragraph, press Alt and tap it.
Alternative ways to use readline are -
(i) Select text and press spacebar.
(ii)Hold Alt, then select your paragraph.
(iii) You can also choose to autostart speed reading with Readline automatically after selecting your paragraph of text.
All the above options can be turned on by going to the options page. Click on the Readline icon and tap the “Options” to go to the options.
You can also decrease or increase the reading speed according to your choice.
4. Shift Reader
Shift Reader will help you not only speed read but also read the entire paragraphs of any webpage in a distraction-free mode. There you can freely speed read without any other elements disturbing you.
You can also press Alt + S on any webpage for quick launching Shift Reader. Other ways of using Shift Reader are -
(i) By pressing the play button on the top-left corner of the page.
(ii) Pressing spacebar
(iii) Clicking on any text of the webpage (not a hyperlink) to starting reading from that position.
For saving your stats and performance over time, you'll need to create an account with Shift Reader. You can check out many details of your improvement like reading speed increase over time, number of words read,
With Shift Reader, not only can you choose your WPM of choice but you can also select the number of words highlighted per chunk. Highlighting more words trains you to read faster and more words in one go, which results in increased reading speed.
For saving your comprehension level, hover over the emoji icon at the bottom-right corner of the page and select your comprehension level - whether it was Good, Neutral or Poor. You can also change the background color and font size from the settings.
5. Speed Reader
If you want just a simple extension for speed reading without many features, you can use this. You just have to select the text you want to speed read and select Speed reader from the right click menu.
Some options available are to pause or restart speed reading and change the WPM (300 - 500).
6. Splash Reader
This extension differs from other speed reading tools in the sense that it helps us to not lose context of the text. While speed reading with extensions, we might lose sense of where we are and what are are reading? Is the text from a bulleted list or just a paragraph?
That's where Splash Reader comes to help. It gives speed readers a context and lets us easily toggle between speed reading and normal reading. It automatically pauses speed reading after a paragraph to give context.
To start speed reading with Splash Reader, just highlight a text of a paragraph and it will start working. You can also manual control the toggling of speed reading and normal reading without automatic intervention with the help of the Space bar.
Just pressing the space bar will give you the ability to stop and start speed reading and will let you toggle between speed mode and normal reading mode.
7. Hyper Read
Hyper Read makes it super easy to speed read. Just select the text of the page that you want to speed read and tap the Hyper Read extension icon.
You can change the font size and also the speed limit (200 - 950) WPM.
8. Sprint Reader
This speed reader for Chrome is open source. To speed read using this extension, we need to select the text or a paragraph of a webpage and right click and select “Sprint read selected text”.
After that, the popup window will appear and you can either press the play button or use the spacebar to get started.
It also provides options for speed reading text from the clipboard and previous two histories.
We can also check details from the Statistics tab and change a variety of options from the “Advanced” tab such as pausing after a paragraph. All the options can be accessed by clicking on the “More” button on the “Advanced” page.
9. Reedy
Reedy is also a free and open-source Chrome extension for speed reading but the advantage of this extension over the previous one is that you can increase the speed reading limit to 2000 WPM!
To use it, select the text that you want to read and press Alt + S or right-click and select "Launch Reedy".
10. Read Fast
This is a beautifully designed speed reader for Chrome and is also very easy to use. You just need to click the extension icon and it will start speed reading.
There are some options to increase or decrease the speed, from 25 WPM, all the way to 1000 WPM and some interesting modes are also available -
Flash Mode - The common way of speed reading which displays words by flashing one word at a time.
Diamond Mode - Shows words in a vertical way.
Two word mode - For speed reading two words at a time instead of just one word which makes the process of reading a bit faster than the normal one-word mode.
Three word mode - For speed reading three words at a time.
Four word mode - This is the mode that you'll want to use if you want to extremely improve your speed reading skills.
The reading font can also be changed and there are three available - Sans Serif, Serif and Mono space.
11. Instapaper
Instapaper is mainly focused on clutter-free reading. It is used for saving articles you find online for reading later in a distraction-free mode. The bonus point is that it also comes with a speed reader.
So if you love to read, want to save articles to your archive for later and also want to enjoy the benefits of speed reading, Instapaper is the perfect Chrome extension for you.
To save articles for later, right-click and choose Save to Instapaper from the context menu.
For speed reading, just click on the speed reading icon after you open instapaper.com and the speed reading mode will start. Click the left-mouse button or spacebar to start or stop speed reading.
You can also adjust the reading speed according to your liking. It also offers more settings like changing the background color and fonts.
Best speed readers for Chrome
The above were some of the best speed reading extensions to read extra fast for the Google Chrome browser. You can use each one of them and see which fits your needs the most. So get ready and enjoy your speed reading journey!
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