Vivaldi Web Browser 1.11 Brings Enhanced Reader Mode and Accessibility Features

[MacRumors]

Vivaldi web browser, the spiritual successor to Opera 12, reached version 1.11 on Thursday, bringing an improved Reader Mode, animation controls, and advanced accessibility features to the highly configurable Mac app.

Vivaldi, which claims to be the most customizable browser for power users, has quietly been carving its own niche in the desktop web browser market and now boasts over 1 million users. The browser is aimed at staunch technologists, heavy internet users, and previous Opera web browser users disgruntled by Opera's transition to the Blink layout engine, which removed many popular features.

First up in v1.11, there are tweaks to Vivaldi's existing Reader Mode, which offers a clutter-free reading environment by stripping off unwanted advertisements, videos and other distractions. Users can now adjust the settings at the top of the page they're currently viewing in the Reader Mode, including the ability to choose the font type and size of the text, set the column width and line height, as well as select either dark or light background.

On top of those changes, Vivaldi's custom Themes add another dimension, allowing users to choose their custom Theme and apply it to the Reader Mode. Custom Themes in Vivaldi also have programmatic support to enforce minimal contrast, which aims to make the browser more comfortable for people with visual impairments.

Elsewhere, Vivaldi now offers a simple way of turning off GIF animations, for people who react to flashing images and want to avoid them. Clicking on the Toggle Images icon in the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen reveals three options for loading animations - always, once or never.

There's also an improvement to Editable Mouse Gestures in Vivaldi that let users execute a command with a simple movement of the mouse. In version 1.11, users have increased control over this feature with the ability to set the minimum stroke length for the gesture they want to register. Additional accessibility options in this version also include quick commands and keyboard shortcuts, and the ability to zoom on selected pages and set a zoom level on a per tab basis.

Vivaldi browser is a free download for Mac available directly from the Vivaldi website.

Article Link: Vivaldi Web Browser 1.11 Brings Enhanced Reader Mode and Accessibility Features

 

[jonnysods]

I'm always open to move to a lightweight browser. I'll check this one out and see how she stacks up.

I use chrome for browsing and safari for dev work.

 

[Te0SX]

I am using Vivaldi for months now. I just love it more and more with every update. Its Start Page is stunning, with speed dial, it's unique look and features that will put your browsing life in order with the best possible way, with these not huge, not small thumbnails that can be shown the loaded page or a custom picture. It's working smoother, better, is more organized, more beautiful. It's far better than its competition. Again, everything is customizable! I love how tabs work and all these features like Tile etc. History view became sick and works smoother and smoother with every update. Panel just works perfect. It's also really lightweight and fast. Congrats to dev team.

Give it a chance and I am sure most of you won't look back for a long time!

 

[TIGOS]

I´m using Opera 46 for now, i´ve already tried Vivaldi some times.

Only thing that Vivaldi needs to be perfect is a bookmark sync. That will be great

 

[veggiespam]

Vivaldi is written by the original authors of Opera after they sold the company off. It picks up where Opera left off and is a nice browser for many things.

My biggest complaint however, is the lack of Proxy settings. It uses the system Proxy configuration and does not have it's own set-up. Thus, if you're doing website testing and want to record/inspect the traffic, you need to change the OS-level Proxy settings which also affect other apps. So, Vivaldi gets relegated to "browsing" instead of "work". Unfortunate.

 

[TIGOS]

About proxy, same for Chrome: using the Windows proxy setup

Could be like Firefox with own network settings

 

[Kes.Siebring]

Does it support any type of ad/js blocker ?

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Love it and watched it grow into one of the worlds best. If they had the money they could make their own rendering engine.

 

[Vanilla35]

I don't think anything will get me to switch from Chrome. Is this any faster? I don't mean faster like Safari, I mean faster like Chrome.

 

[veggiespam]

About proxy, same for Chrome: using the Windows proxy setup

Could be like Firefox with own network settings

On Chrome, get the plug-in called "FoxyProxy" form the Chrome Web Store and it will allow you to use a non-OS proxy, for both Windows and MacOS. I'd also recommend FoxyProxy for Firefox as it makes switching proxies easy when use many of them. FoxyProxy also allows you to export proxy settings from Firefox and import into Chrome if you have a complex setup.

There are Standard and Basic versions; I generally use the Standard one and shut-off the damn animated icon or you'll throw something at your screen.

 

[chucker23n1]

Like Chrome, this doesn't appear to let me use vibrancy (10.10 Yosemite-and-beyond's blurred, translucent backgrounds), making the UI look rather bland. Firefox at least uses vibrancy on its sidebars, which is a start, but I really want it on the tool bar / tab bar.

The browser is aimed at staunch technologists, heavy internet users, and previous Opera web browser users disgruntled by Opera's transition to the Blink layout engine, which removed many popular features.

That's a bit misleading, since Vivaldi, too, uses Blink.

 

[allan.nyholm]

Vivaldi was my default browser for 30 minutes or so. It's great and all but it has to stop making my built-in speakers hiss.
It's a terrible sound and it happens with each cold launch of Vivaldi 1.11 and even some of the first releases of this browser. Imagine that you boot up your iMac and have no music running from anywhere on the computer and then you launch Vivaldi and your speakers hiss at you. Each time. You can quit Vivaldi and launch it again in the same session and it will happen again.

The Vivaldi team has my report on this. They've heard reports of this before but have not been able to reproduce.