Can anyone recommend a text-based web browser for the Mac?

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Level 1

50 points

Can anyone recommend a text-based web browser for the Mac?

I get trouble seeing, migraines, and nausea from "modern web design" with sticky headers, modals, and more and more animation everywhere.

I have been using Waterfox, but sometimes my animation-blocking fixes fail, and sometimes web sites fail.

I figure a text-only or text+static images browser would solve a lot of

my problems, if it doesn't add flashing cursors, or its own animation, and has some way to open "modern web pains" in a less painful manner.

I know about Lynx and Browsh. I even tried Lynx. But both rely on the Terminal window, so they're hard to read. I figure it *should* be possible to use a user-customizable window, like my ebook reading software, but Idon't know of any text-based browsers that do that.

Is there something I've missed?

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Jan 30, 2019 3:34 PM

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Answer 1

Roote

Level 4

1,643 points

Jan 31, 2019 8:17 AM in response to Marja E

1. Try disabling images. Preserves web page layout.

Safari: from Safari's menu bar navigate to Safari > Preferences > Advanced and click Show Develop menu in menu Bar. From Safari's menu bar navigate to Develop and click Disable Images. Close and reopen any open web pages.

Chrome: type or copy and paste (without the quotes) "chrome://settings/content/images" into the address bar and press Enter. Click Show all (recommended) which will change to Do not show any Images. Reload any open web pages.

Firefox: type or copy and paste (without the the quotes) "about:config" into the address bar and press Enter. Click I accept the risk!. In the search bar type (without the the quotes) "permissions.default.image". Double-click the corresponding search result. Change the integer value from 1 to 2 and click OK. Reload any open web pages.

2. Try disabling styles. Preserves images.

Safari: from the Develop menu click Disable Styles.

Chrome: Install and use an extension such as Web Developer Toolbar or CSS-Block. Alternatively, Command + Option + J to open the console, type or copy and paste (without the the quotes) "document.querySelector("head").remove();" and hit Enter. Command + Option + J again to close the console.

Firefox: from Firefox’s menu bar navigate to View > Page Style and select No Style.

3. View the text-only version of Google’s cache of a web page. Add (without the the quotes) "cache:" to the beginning of a web address and hit Enter. Click Text-only version. Alternatively, after adding "cache:" highlight the text string in the URL from the very end up to the first ampersand (&) and add (without the the quotes) "strip=1". Hit Enter. Will not function on all webpages. If you have trouble accessing the Text-only version link to click because of a sticky header try using Kill Sticky.

4. Use Textise to view web pages as text only. More conveniently, drag the cross-platform bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmarks bar to toggle between a source web page and the Textise version. There are text formatting options available.

5. Try the Just Read extension for Chrome. It functions with web pages, not just articles. Also make use of the reader views in Safari and Firefox for articles.

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Answer 2

Marja E Author

Level 1

50 points

Jan 31, 2019 10:35 AM in response to Roote

Thank you.

I need to block browser animation, such blinking cursors, and Firefox's Quantum tab throbbers, as well as web-page animation. Currently I use Waterfox, because I can use about:config to disable the blinking cursors, and it doesn't have such awful tab throbbers.

Disabling styles may help. But it doesn't keep sites from autoscrolling. X( And it really needs some way to load all pages without styles, without having to load with styles and then go through extra steps every time. Same for Reader Mode, Textise, etc.

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Can anyone recommend a text-based web browser for the Mac?

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