Reading Spotlight

Dim the surrounding page and use reading aids like a ruler and typography controls for long web pages.

Reading Spotlight is a local, privacy-conscious reading focus aid for Chrome. It keeps the original web page in place and adds a lightweight focus layer that can highlight the current paragraph, dim nearby content, show a manual reading ruler, and adjust typography on article-like pages. It is designed for readers who want less visual noise without switching into a separate reader view. Reading Spotlight does not extract articles into a new page, summarize content, send page text to a server, or collect browsing activity. Key features: - Paragraph Spotlight dims the surrounding page while preserving context around the current block. - Gentle Dim provides a softer mode for feeds and mixed layouts. - Reading Ruler adds a draggable horizontal guide with color and thickness presets, plus an optional persistent line highlight in a choice of colors. - Progress Bar shows paragraph-based reading progress. - Typography Layer adjusts readable content width and line height on article-like pages. - Safe Mode reduces or suspends the focus layer on form-heavy, player-heavy, and app-like pages. - Site Exclusions let users disable the extension on selected hostnames. - Privacy and data controls show and clear locally stored reading progress and excluded sites. Privacy: Reading Spotlight runs locally in the active tab after a user action such as opening the popup, using the keyboard shortcut, or choosing the context menu item. It does not request broad host permissions. Page content, browsing activity, settings, and reading progress are not sent to any external service. Permissions: - activeTab and scripting: inject the reading layer into the current tab after a user action. - storage: save visual preferences, local site exclusions, and optional reading progress. - contextMenus: provide a page context menu toggle. New in 2.1.0: - Reading ruler appearance presets: choose the line color, thickness, and highlight color that work for your eyes. - The ruler highlight now stays on while you read instead of disappearing when you release the handle. - The spotlight follows the text smoothly while you scroll. - PageUp/PageDown jump between sections using the page's headings. - Reading progress is now kept for 7 days (was 24 hours) and is still stored only on your device. - The floating toolbar remembers where you moved it and can be dragged by touch. - A reorganized popup puts the reading aids front and center. - Reliability: your reading position now survives window resizes, page content changes, and extension updates. - Accessibility: screen-reader announcements for pause and focus lock, keyboard-accessible toolbar state, reduced-motion support for keyboard navigation, and ruler keyboard parity.