How to Automatically Enable Reader View for Specific Websites in Safari on Mac

Modern web articles often arrive cluttered with flashing advertising banners, autoplaying floating video players, newsletter subscription overlays, and intrusive social sharing sidebars. While Safari’s Reader View offers an uncluttered, distraction-free environment that strips away web noise and highlights core typography, clicking the Reader icon manually on every newly opened tab becomes repetitive.

Safari on macOS includes a dedicated per-site automation setting that allows you to instruct the browser to engage Reader View automatically whenever you navigate to specific news portals, technical documentation portals, or reference sites. You can also configure the browser to apply Reader View globally across every compatible web domain.

Enabling Automatic Reader View for an Active Website

If you frequently read articles on a particular publication and want Reader View to engage seamlessly without user intervention:

1. Launch Safari on your Mac and navigate to the target website (for example, a news or long-form blogging portal).
2. Navigate to any specific article page that supports Reader View.
3. Right-click (or hold Control and click) directly on the Reader View icon (the small page icon) located on the left side of Safari’s Smart Search address bar.
4. In the contextual pop-up menu that appears, click to check Use Reader Automatically on “[website domain]”.

Alternatively, you can access website-specific settings directly:

1. Click Safari in the top macOS menu bar and choose Settings for [website domain]… (or press Command + , while holding Option).
2. In the drop-down configuration dialogue that appears beneath the address bar, check the box labelled Use Reader when available.
3. Click anywhere outside the dialogue box to dismiss it. From this point forward, whenever you load an article on that domain, Safari instantly switches to the clean Reader layout.

Managing Reader View Permissions Across All Websites

To inspect, modify, or bulk-configure your automatic Reader settings across all visited domains:

1. Open Safari and click Safari > Settings… in the top menu bar (or press Command + ,).
2. Click on the Websites tab located along the top toolbar.
3. In the left sidebar under the General heading, click on Reader.
4. The central management panel displays two distinct sections:
   • Currently Open Websites: Displays all active browser tabs. Use the drop-down menu next to any site to select On or Off.
   • Configured Websites: Displays saved domains where custom Reader preferences have been recorded. You can select domains and click Remove to reset them to defaults.
5. At the bottom right of the window, locate the setting labelled When visiting other websites:. If you want Safari to open every web page in Reader View by default whenever technically possible, change this drop-down value to On.

Customising Reader View Typography, Themes, and Font Sizes

Once automatic Reader View is engaged, tailor the visual presentation to minimise eye strain during prolonged reading sessions:

1. While viewing any active Reader page, click the Appearance icon (the aA symbol) located on the right side of the Smart Search address field.
2. Adjust Font Size: Click the smaller A on the left to decrease font dimensions, or the larger A on the right to enlarge text.
3. Change Background Theme: Select from four calibrated palettes: White (standard daytime contrast), Sepia (warm paper tone for daytime comfort), Grey (reduced contrast for ambient lighting), or Black (true OLED dark theme for low-light environments).
4. Select Typeface: Choose between modern sans-serif fonts (such as San Francisco or Helvetica) or classic serif typefaces (such as Georgia, Palatino, or Times) to match your personal reading ergonomics.