Edge-Touch Pager: A Firefox add-on for ebook-style scrolling on the web

[mossblaser]

Hello there,

For anyone using Firefox (for desktop or Android) on their reading device, especially E-Ink based ones, you might the little Firefox add-on I've been developing, Edge-Touch Pager, useful.

Edge-Touch Pager lets you scroll a web page by a whole screenful at a time by touching the left or right edge of the screen. Paired with DarkReader set up to force all pages to use high-contrast black-on-white text I've found this makes browsing on E-Ink devices extremely comfortable and natural.

I hope this add-on proves useful to some of you and I'd be glad to hear any feedback you might have as I'm always looking out for ways to improve the E-Ink browsing experience.

Unlike other extensions which I've tried (such as ereaderify) Edge-Touch Pager works correctly on both mobile-friendly and unfriendly pages. It also intelligently adjusts how far it scrolls to avoid parts of the page being hidden behind fixed headers and footers (even those ones which change size as you scroll). Also, it allows you to press-and-hold when you need to click on something near the edge of the screen rather than scrolling.

Unlike using an E-Ink specific browser, you get all the benefits of using a mainstream browser: a polished and well integrated UI along with potentially more timely security updates. I've also found DarkReader's many heuristics often do a better job of enhancing web page contrast and inverting white-on-black pages than those used by many custom browsers.

NB: Installing all but a few mainstream add-ons on Firefox for Android is infamously annoying. See this article for instructions on installing custom add-ons like Edge-Touch Pager. Whilst you can use Firefox Nightly from the Play store (per those instructions), I personally use Fennec F-Droid which is a build of the latest stable Firefox but with various trackers removed and support for custom extensions enabled. This avoids Nightly's occasional bugs and as a bonus wins you some improved privacy. Also, if you want to avoid the faff of creating your own extension collection on the Firefox Add-on site, you can use mine with user ID 16623711 and collection name 'eink'.