How to use Reading Pencil
A small pencil that keeps your place, like a finger under the line. It moves along the line you are reading at your pace, then down to the next, and remembers where you stopped.
Add Reading Pencil to Chrome Free, from the Chrome Web Store
Start it
On a page you want to read, start it in one of three ways:
- Click the Reading Pencil icon in Chrome’s toolbar and turn the switch on.
- Press Alt+Shift+R (on a Mac, Control+Shift+R).
- Right-click a paragraph and choose Start reading here. On a Mac trackpad, click with two fingers.
Can’t see the icon? Click the puzzle piece in Chrome’s toolbar, then the pin next to Reading Pencil.
Then, on the page
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Space | start or pause the pencil |
| ↑ ↓ | a line back, or a line on |
| Click a line | move the pencil there |
| Esc | put it down, or bring it back |
| Alt+Shift+R | turn it off on this page |
Come back later
On a long page, your place is kept. Start the pencil there again and it waits on your line. Or click the Reading Pencil icon, choose Where you left off and pick the page: it opens at your line, and Space reads on.
Make it yours
The toolbar window holds a few choices: your pace (Slow, Average, Fast or a speed of your own), a pencil or a plain line, six colours, which hand holds the pencil, how strongly the line is lit, and whether it keeps to the article.
Good to know
- It only appears when you start it, and only on that page. A reload or a new page puts it away.
- It can’t run on Chrome’s own pages, the Chrome Web Store, or PDF files.
- To change the shortcut, open
chrome://extensions/shortcutsin Chrome.
Private
Nothing you read leaves your computer: no account, no tracking, no ads. Read the privacy policy.
Questions
Message @threatner_ on X.