Last updated on 12 May 2026
The web is a huge library containing infinitely useful resources. The pages of this gigantic amount of knowledge would often benefit from being more readable. The eye and attention of the user are constantly captured by visual hooks that encourage zapping and hinder concentration and reading.
We can fix it. Here are three extensions that make it possible to clean a web page with one click to keep only the essentials and obtain a page that is clearly legible and without unnecessary distraction. Farewell complex page layouts, advertisements, pop up and other catch-eye.
Table of Contents
ClearThis
A simple and no frills extension for Chrome or Firefox. This service takes any web article or page and returns to you with one click only the relevant content laid out for easy reading. By the way, all unnecessary content will have disappeared including ads, popups, etc. If you do not want to install the extension, you can also simply add learthis.page/?u= in front of the URL of the page you want to "clean up".
Link: ClearThis
Outline
This service, to which I dedicated an article, also makes it possible to do a little cleaning and clean a web page with a click of any unnecessary distraction. Outline does even better. It also makes it possible to annotate the content of the page. Practical. Available via an extension for Chrome, you can also indicate on its homepage the URL of the item you want to clean. You can then either annotate and add comments to passages in the text or highlight them. Ideal for studying a text online.
Link: Outline
Mercury Reader
Mercury Reader also offers some interesting additional options. Too bad it does not offer other solutions than an extension for the Chrome browser. Once in place, you can activate it via a simple keyboard shortcut. Mercury reader removes ads and distractions, leaving only text and images for a great reading experience on any site. You will also be able to customize the result by playing among other things on the choice and size of the font. Another interesting option is to export the content of one or more web pages to your Kindle e-reader with one click.
Link: Mercury Reader
English
I tried ClearThis on the websites of certain newspapers which reserve some of their articles for their paying subscribers, I access the entire article without being subscribed!
In the same vein, Print Friendly & PDF makes it possible to manually simplify the display in several steps. And EverNote, too, when using the "simplified article" capture function.