Accessibility and reading comfort

Writing should be comfortable for everyone. The editor has a few settings made for that, and most of them are free for every writer. The rest of the site is built to the same standard.

A reading font that is easier on your eyes

In the editor’s Format menu, at the bottom, is your reading font. It changes only how the editor looks to you while you write. It never changes the piece, the published view, or your exports, and it is free for everyone.

• OpenDyslexic is designed to be easier to read if you are dyslexic. Its letters have weighted bottoms and distinct shapes, so they are harder to flip or blur together.
• Atkinson Hyperlegible, from the Braille Institute, is built for low vision: its letterforms are drawn to be told apart at a glance.

Turn either on or off whenever you like. Because it is yours alone, you can read in OpenDyslexic while your reader sees the piece in whatever font you set for it.

Bigger, more open text

If you want the piece itself to read larger or with more room, the Format menu also sets the body size, the line spacing (with a custom value if the presets are not quite right), the space before and after each paragraph, and the page margins. Unlike the reading font, these belong to the piece, so they carry into the published view and your exports. Pair a larger size with looser spacing for an airy, low-strain page.

A calmer screen

Focus mode (in the editor’s More menu) hides the surrounding toolbar and widens the page down to just your words, which helps if motion or clutter is distracting. Select it again to bring everything back. Your work keeps saving the whole time.

Typewriter mode (also in the More menu) keeps the line you are writing on centered on the screen instead of letting it sink to the bottom edge. If tracking your text near the bottom of the window is tiring, this keeps your eyes in one steady place. Turn it on or off whenever you like.

Keyboard in the editor

You can drive the core of the editor without a mouse:

• Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) opens find and replace.
• Tab and Shift+Tab indent and outdent.
• On the ruler, focus a margin or indent handle and nudge it with the arrow keys.
• Esc closes the find bar and open menus.
• Type / for the block menu, navigable with the arrow keys and Enter.

The editor also works with your browser and operating system tools: page zoom, system text size, and high-contrast or dark mode all apply. Inkbreaker has a built-in dark mode in the top menu.

Across the rest of Inkbreaker

The editor is not the only part built for access. The whole site is made to the WCAG 2.1 AA standard, the one most accessibility laws and screen readers expect. Here is what that covers.

Keyboard

You can use every part of Inkbreaker without a mouse.

• Every page starts with a “Skip to main content” link. Press Tab right after a page loads and it appears, so you can jump straight past the navigation.
• All controls (buttons, links, fields, toggles, tabs, menus) are reachable with Tab and Shift+Tab, in a logical order, and activated with Enter or Space.
• Menus, dropdowns, and tab strips move with the arrow keys; Esc closes any open menu or dialog.
• Whatever you are focused on shows a visible outline, so you never lose your place.
• When a dialog opens, focus moves into it and stays there until you close it, then returns to where you were. Nothing traps your keyboard.

Screen readers

The site is marked up so a screen reader can describe it accurately.

• Every page uses proper landmarks (navigation, main content, footer) and a real heading order, so you can jump between regions.
• Buttons, links, form fields, and toggles all carry a real name, including icon-only buttons.
• Images that carry meaning have alt text; images that are purely decorative are hidden from the reader so they do not add noise.
• Anything that updates on its own (a saved-confirmation, a new notification, an unread count, a toast) announces itself instead of changing silently.

Color and contrast

• Text and controls meet the WCAG AA contrast ratios (4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text, icons, and focus outlines) in both light and dark mode.
• Contrast is checked automatically every time we build the site’s color system, so a change that would dim text below the standard does not ship.
• Color is never the only signal. Links inside a line of text are underlined, and a status (such as a warning or an error) is always paired with words or an icon, not shown in color alone.

Motion and zoom

• If your device is set to reduce motion, animations across the site quiet down to match. This includes the shimmer on loading placeholders and the loading spinner, which settle into a calm, still state. You do not have to change anything in Inkbreaker for that to take effect, and nothing important relies on an animation to be understood.
• The site responds to your browser zoom and a larger system text size, so you can enlarge everything to read it more comfortably.
• Inkbreaker also has a built-in dark mode in the top menu, separate from any editor setting.

Report an accessibility problem

If a page is hard to use with a keyboard, a screen reader, or at high zoom, tell us and we will treat it as a bug to fix. Open Support, choose the Contact tab, and describe the page you were on and what got in your way. The more specific you can be (the page, the control, the device or assistive tool you use), the faster we can fix it.

Questions

Does my reading font change what readers see? No. The reading font is just for your own editor view. Readers see the piece in whatever document font you chose in the Format menu (or the default).

Is it free? Yes. The reading fonts, font size, spacing, focus mode, typewriter mode, and the keyboard shortcuts are free for every writer.

Can I make the editor easier to read without changing the piece? Yes, two ways: set your personal reading font (above), and use your browser or device zoom. Both leave the piece untouched. The Format menu’s size and spacing, by contrast, do change the piece.

Which font is best for dyslexia? Try OpenDyslexic first. Some readers prefer Atkinson Hyperlegible or a plain sans-serif. There is no single right answer, so switch between them and keep whatever reads easiest for you.

See also: Finding your way around the editor.