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I’m loading this on my iPhone. It’s completely unreadable unless I manually switch to reader mode. Why can’t Apple fix Safari to make sites like this render at

I’m loading this on my iPhone. It’s completely unreadable unless I manually switch to reader mode. Why can’t Apple fix Safari to make sites like this render at humane font sizes? They literally control how it renders.

avalys 5y ago
This is exactly what Reader View does. On my iPhone the address bar flashes “Reader View Available” when I load that site. But you can also get to it from the context menu that includes other website settings.
- roywiggins 5y ago
  Both Firefox and Chrome on Android render it readably without reader mode though, it's fair to wonder why Safari can't do the same.
  - the_other 5y ago
    Firefox (macOS & iOS) and Safari (macOS and iOS) render it almost exactly the same as their platform counterpart, and pretty close cross-platform. It's simple HTML with few display directives so I don't find this surprising. What are you seeing?
Robotbeat 5y ago
Really? I actually read it fine as-is, and I’ve got the smallest iPhone (SE 2020) and a badly cracked screen. I much prefer this plain HTML style, and it’s easy to change the font size, pinch to zoom, rotate to landscape, or use reader mode. I actually prefer this to the non-zoomable “mobile”-ified modern webpage. The larger view makes it easier to keep track of where I am in the text versus a contextless feed of huge font text. Try holding your phone in landscape!
- politician 5y ago
  Yeah. I know how to rotate my phone and I also like plain text pages. I don't like that Safari thinks rendering Times New Roman on a recent iPhone in what is effectively 2-point font and waiting for me to switch to Reader Mode is a good experience. A better experience would be for Safari to render it in Reader Mode by default for sites where it would look better by default. How could it possibly do this you ask? Render the pages to an offscreen buffer run an image readability heuristic to pick the one with better properties. Convert it to a bitmap and select the less dense one.
the_other 5y ago
The fact that Reader View can help you out suggests that in fact the site was made well. I absolutely don't want Safari "fixing" web content unless I ask it to (i.e. Reader View). I'm short sighted, use pinch-to-zoom and pan&scan about 95% of the time I'm using a computer. I'd rather this kind of content than most "fancy" web pages. (a well designed, readable blog is preferable-still).
shawkinaw 5y ago
Besides Reader View as mentioned by others, you can increase the zoom of the page (accessible in the “aA” button to the left of the URL.) This particular site renders pretty well at 200% on my phone in portrait. The zoom is site-specific so it won’t screw up any other sites. It’s generally a good way to make desktop sites legible.

avalys 5y ago

This is exactly what Reader View does. On my iPhone the address bar flashes “Reader View Available” when I load that site. But you can also get to it from the context menu that includes other website settings.

roywiggins 5y ago
Both Firefox and Chrome on Android render it readably without reader mode though, it's fair to wonder why Safari can't do the same.
- the_other 5y ago
  Firefox (macOS & iOS) and Safari (macOS and iOS) render it almost exactly the same as their platform counterpart, and pretty close cross-platform. It's simple HTML with few display directives so I don't find this surprising. What are you seeing?

Robotbeat 5y ago

Really? I actually read it fine as-is, and I’ve got the smallest iPhone (SE 2020) and a badly cracked screen. I much prefer this plain HTML style, and it’s easy to change the font size, pinch to zoom, rotate to landscape, or use reader mode. I actually prefer this to the non-zoomable “mobile”-ified modern webpage. The larger view makes it easier to keep track of where I am in the text versus a contextless feed of huge font text. Try holding your phone in landscape!

politician 5y ago
Yeah. I know how to rotate my phone and I also like plain text pages. I don't like that Safari thinks rendering Times New Roman on a recent iPhone in what is effectively 2-point font and waiting for me to switch to Reader Mode is a good experience. A better experience would be for Safari to render it in Reader Mode by default for sites where it would look better by default. How could it possibly do this you ask? Render the pages to an offscreen buffer run an image readability heuristic to pick the one with better properties. Convert it to a bitmap and select the less dense one.

the_other 5y ago

The fact that Reader View can help you out suggests that in fact the site was made well. I absolutely don't want Safari "fixing" web content unless I ask it to (i.e. Reader View). I'm short sighted, use pinch-to-zoom and pan&scan about 95% of the time I'm using a computer. I'd rather this kind of content than most "fancy" web pages. (a well designed, readable blog is preferable-still).

shawkinaw 5y ago

Besides Reader View as mentioned by others, you can increase the zoom of the page (accessible in the “aA” button to the left of the URL.) This particular site renders pretty well at 200% on my phone in portrait. The zoom is site-specific so it won’t screw up any other sites. It’s generally a good way to make desktop sites legible.