Helvetapaper

a minimalistic theme for Instapaper

Helvetapaper is a Greasemonkey Userscript for Instapaper. Helvetapaper gives this terrific web application a minimalistic, cleaner and more objective look and feel with a focus on the bare minimum functionality. See Fig.1 for a screenshot.

Helvetapaper is highly inspired by all the Helvetica userscripts out there, but most of all by the Documentary Film Helvetica, directed and produced by Gary Hustwit in 2007.

Screenshot of Instapaper with Helvetapaper theme
Fig.1 Screenshot of Instapaper themed by Helvetapaper.

Helvetapaper hides some features of Instapaper. This was a deliberate decision. Currently I do not use all features of Instapaper.

If you are missing features which are important for you, fork Helvetapaper and customize it for your personal needs.

New Features

On the other hand, Helvetapaper adds some nice new features which are vital for my daily usage of Instapaper. The following enhancements, as shown in Fig.1, are currently implemented:

Helvetapaper Identity

Helvetapaper is based on the Helvetica typeface. Considering web fonts, the Helvetica font is reliably installed on Mac OS only, on Windows OS one should use Arial as a fallback. But there still exist some rendering flaws and other drawbacks when using Helvetica on Windows OS.

font-family: "HelveticaNeue-Light", "Helvetica Neue Light", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif;
Fig.2 Helvetapaper CSS Font Stack (source)
  1. #FFFFFF
  2. #F2F2F2
  3. #E2E2E2
  4. #BBBBBB
  5. #444444
  6. #FF2200
Fig.3 Helvetapaper Color Scheme

Helvetapaper Usage

The Helvetapaper userscript works with Greasemonkey for Firefox and with Greasekit for Safari. Helvetapaper may also be used with a Site Specific Browser like Fluid.app or Mozilla Prism.

How do I install Helvetapaper?

Just click on the button below:

Install Helvetapaper

How do I update?

The Helvetapaper userscript contains an userscript updater function which checks once a week for updates on userscripts.org and will notify you about a new version of Helvetapaper.

Development

Since Helvetapaper relies on Instapaper, which I expect to change its code base from time to time, the userscript needs ongoing updates. To be up to date, you may follow this project on Github.

Feedback

Be encouraged to give me feedback about problems, bugs or feature requests.
Please use Twitter or drop me an issue on Github's Issue Tracker.

Open Issues

Current issues to improve Helvetapaper:

Fork me on GitHub