launch Brave Browser with Reader View - MacOS

readme.md

How to enable a "Reader View"-like function in a Chromium browser with chromium-dom-distiller in MacOs.

MacOs

To make available in OS X, open with parameter --enable-dom-distiller. Then on any Web page, click the Hamburger icon and "Distill Page".

In Terminal

Command args can be added with a shell script (see BraveReader.sh for example), or bash alias, as follows.

alias bravereader="open '/Applications/Brave Browser.app' --args --enable-dom-distiller" # Brave browser with Reader View

Open from Spotlight or /Applications

For convenience, can create a MacOs app in Automator.app.

1. Open Automator.app
2. File / New / Application
3. Add shell script
4. paste "open '/Applications/Brave Browser.app' --args --enable-dom-distiller" in the shell script
5. Save as /Applications/.app
6. Open your browser via double-click or command-space and type <MyAppName>.app

This uses Chromium DOM Distiller.

Windows

Use a Windows Shortcut with a parameter

Alternatives

The flags to turn on chromium-dom-distiller do not appear available. Tested in Version 0.58.21 Chromium: 71.0.3578.98 (Official Build) (64-bit) chrome://flags##enable-reader-mode and chrome://flags#enable-reader-mode-toolbar-icon

BraveReader.sh

# from Terminal.app
open '/Applications/Brave Browser.app' --args --enable-dom-distiller

on linux, you can just replace open '/Applications/Brave Browser.app' with brave.

uh this can now be enabled in chrome://flags/

uh this can now be enabled in chrome://flags/

this setting appears: chrome://flags/#enable-reader-mode and displays brave:// ...
this does not: chrome://flags/#enable-reader-mode-toolbar-icon

restarting after setting chrome://flags/#enable-reader-mode to Enabled produces no visible effect in Chrome or Brave, on my machine. Are you able to see a "reader" icon, @tycho01?

Yeah, in the menu I now see an added 'Distill' entry. :)