Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) is a way to display text that allows much higher than usual reading speeds, at little or no reduction in reading comprehension. With RSVP, words are displayed one by one, at a fixed pace, and at a fixed screen location. This eliminates the need to track the position of words on a page, prevents subvocalization, and minimizes distraction while reading.
Although the reading speed (measured in words per minute, or WPM), can be chosen arbitrarily, higher frequencies tend to result in lower reading comprehension. This makes RSVP most suitable for quickly scanning uncomplicated articles, and less useful for texts with high information density, overly long or unusual words, or overly complex sentence structure.
Fortunately, many texts worth reading are neither overly complex nor particularly dense. The Read! bookmarklet enables you to read more of them in less time!
| Escape | Quit. | 1 | Set speed to 100 WPM. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Space | Toggle pause/play. | 2 | Set speed to 200 WPM. |
| Left arrow ← | Back to previous sentence start. | 3 | Set speed to 300 WPM. |
| Right arrow → | Forward to next sentence start. | 4 | Set speed to 400 WPM. |
| Period . | Manual step: pause, and skip to next word. | 5 | Set speed to 500 WPM. |
| Plus sign + | Increase reading speed. | 6 | Set speed to 600 WPM. |
| Minus sign - | Decrease reading speed. | 7 | Set speed to 700 WPM. |
| 8 | Set speed to 800 WPM. | ||
| 9 | Set speed to 900 WPM. | ||
| 0 | Set speed to 1,000 WPM. |
On GitHub: https://github.com/maksverver/read/.
Written by Maks Verver.