Calm Reader

Strip articles to a clean, distraction-free reading view. Mercury Reader successor.

As of June 2026, Calm Reader has 59 users in the Productivity category.

Usersno change0%
59
59
Ratingno change0%
— reviews
Reviewsno change0%
Version
1.0.0
Manifest V3

History

6 snapshots

Tracking since May 9, 2026.

103.4449.5-4.439999999999998May 9, 2026Jun 7, 2026
View as table
DateUsersRatingReviewsVersion
May 9, 20261.0.0
May 13, 20261.0.0
May 19, 202631.0.0
May 25, 2026381.0.0
Jun 1, 2026961.0.0
Jun 7, 2026771.0.0
Now591.0.0

Permissions & access

Permissions
activeTabstoragescripting
Host access
None declared

Screenshots

Calm Reader screenshot 1Calm Reader screenshot 2Calm Reader screenshot 3

About

Calm Reader — Mercury Reader successor. Pure, distraction-free reading.
Strip away ads, navigation, sidebars, and popups. Enjoy clean, comfortable article reading — just like the original Mercury Reader.
Click the toolbar icon or press Alt + R on any article page to instantly activate Calm Reader.
Features

Clean, elegant reader view powered by Mozilla’s Readability parser (same engine as Firefox Reader View)
Three beautiful themes: Light, Sepia, and Dark (saved across sessions)
Adjustable typography: Serif, Sans-serif, or Monospace fonts with size control (12–28px)
Simple keyboard shortcut: Alt + R to toggle
Minimal sticky toolbar that never gets in the way
Zero clutter — the content is the product

Privacy First
Calm Reader collects no data.
No analytics, no telemetry, no ads, no affiliate links, and no backend.
Your theme, font, and size preferences are saved locally in Chrome storage and synced only to your Google account.
Permissions

activeTab — to reformat the current article
scripting — to run the locally bundled Readability parser
storage — to save your reading preferences

No host permissions, no browsing history access, and no background tab access.
Open Source
MIT licensed. Fully open source on GitHub:
https://github.com/fredgaiotti/calm-reader
Readability.js is Apache 2.0 (Mozilla Foundation).

Category: Productivity
Language: English
Homepage: https://fredgaiotti.github.io/calm-reader/
Support: https://github.com/fredgaiotti/calm-reader/issues

Technical

Version
1.0.0
Manifest
V3
Size
37.52KiB
Min Chrome
116
Languages
1
Featured
No

Metadata

ID
dolnpndkmanjpbglffodjkadalikolgf
Developer ID
u07c612ea5b1f1cdf6137bf8f915079d4
Developer Email
[email protected]
Created
May 8, 2026
Last Updated (Store)
May 8, 2026
Last Scraped
Jun 7, 2026

Data sourced from the Chrome Web Store · last verified Jun 7, 2026.