Blackenizer for Firefox?

May 26, 2005 12:06 PM

Is there a greasemonkey extension or something for Firefox that will unobtrusively change websites so they have a black background with white text? Basically, I want everything to look like Maddox's site, for the same reasons he designs his site that way:

"I've chosen a black background for most of my text because it's easier on the eyes than staring at a white screen. Think about it: your monitor is not a piece of paper, no matter how hard you try to make it one. Staring at a white background while you read is like staring at a light bulb (don't believe me? Try turning off the lights next time you use a word processor). Would you stare at a light bulb for hours at a time? Not if you want to keep your vision."

posted by monsterhero to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Even easier than greasemonkey would be a user stylesheet.

Even easier than css, would be to go into Tools|Options|General|Font & Colors, and set up white text on black background and then check "Always use my colors".
posted by orthogonality at 12:14 PM on May 26, 2005

http://patcavit.com/2005/03/01/11/

You might also want to look at Platypus:

http://platypus.mozdev.org

which makes it pretty easy to create a script that applies a style change to any (or all) web pages of your choice.

-- Scott
posted by srt19170 at 12:38 PM on May 26, 2005

Platypus does the opposite when you hit "b". I bet you could tweak it pretty easily.
posted by mecran01 at 1:58 PM on May 26, 2005

In FireFox there is a preference under the "General" tab to adjust fonts and colors. On that screen you can pick a black background and white text (or any color combo you want). Then choose "Always use my: Colors".

That will effectively change all websites to those two options. May get funky results on some pages. Give a try!
posted by qwip at 2:59 PM on May 26, 2005

I've occasionally wished for a gadget that would do exactly the opposite - white text on black is painful, and I can't stand reading sites formatted that way. But "always use my colors" is far too blunt an instrument; it mucks up the whole web, when it's only a few pages that offend.

Is there anything like Greasemonkey for Safari?
posted by Mars Saxman at 3:40 PM on May 26, 2005

D'oh! I got's to start reading previous post before I lend my "wisdom". On post-preview, what orthogonality said.

As for OS X, you can do this on a site specific process using OmniWeb 5. Choose "Show Site Preferences" and then choose "custom".
posted by qwip at 4:19 PM on May 26, 2005

I have two "reformat" links in my personal toolbar.

Erg. I tried to simply post the links, but Metafilter filters the javascript. So you can't see them work on this page directly.

In general, they're are called bookmarklets, and I think I made mine here. Basically, you make a small bit of javascript that you drag as a link to your toolbar. When you click on it, it executes the javascript and modifies the style sheet for just the page you're currently on. You can override *anything* about the CSS - it's really powerful. The second link helps you make them and has a page of examples.

For what it's worth, I don't have white-on-black - it actually burns the lines of text into my retina. The bright lines are always at the same spacing around the center of my retina, where I'm focusing on any given line, and the contrast is enough to make the lines persist when I look away. That's a bit annoying. So I use cream (#ffffdd) on gray (#333333) which works well for me. I also change the font, size, text width, etc. It's awesome for any page with lots of text that isn't formatted nicely - I just reformat the whole thing to my preferred reading style. Seriously, it's really useful.
posted by whatnotever at 7:50 PM on May 26, 2005