Strategies for spending more time reading on ling without straining ones eyes

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Hey everyone.

I’ve been using ling for the last year and a half to learn Italian. I usually spend around 30 minutes to 1 hour reading on link each day (depending on how busy my schedule is). However, I find that my eyes do get quite sore after spending too much time staring at my laptop or phone. I was just wondering if anybody has any advice or tips on how to spend prologued periods of time reading on link without causing ones eyes to strain too much.

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Hi, Ryan!

You can use a Dark Mode - Extension for your browser.
See for Firefox, for example:

There´s a slight delay when displaying web pages using “darkreader”.
But it improves reading on LingQ and many other websites a lot!

Hope that helps
Peter

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download this for desktop: f.lux: software to make your life better (justgetflux.com)

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4

I have same issue when working on computers… My eye doctor says to take breaks and use eye drops… When staring at a screen you tend to blink less. Blinking helps to moisten your eyes, so less blinking means more dry eyes, which can cause more eye strain, affecting vision quality.

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I can not read more than 15 minutes in LCD screen: computer, phone or iPad. It just makes too much eye strain, really no fun for reading. So I use an Android Eink reader for Lingq. It is only black and white. But it is so much better for my eye. I imported my ebooks to Lingq and read hours daily without feeling uncomfortable in the eye.

I was used to reading in Kindle, but looking up unknown words in Lingq is much easier than in kindle, so now I read more in Lingq with my Eink reader. The drawback is in black and white EInk reader you can not distinguish the highlighted words, so I did miss the color sometimes. If Lingq providing some support for the Eink devices would be my dream tool for reading. Highlight word can be bold or underline, not must be colored.

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Here doctors in Germany call me half blind. My goal is to read as much as possible using lingQ maybe another year make a proper breakthrough then fully switch on to reading physical books. I do not think so my weak eyesight can handle it forever.

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Which android reader you using?

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Hi, Asad!

I think @xingmingc is right: switching to an e-ink reader is probably the way to go if we want to read on LingQ for an extended period of time every day. I’m thinking about buying one myself (here’s a comparison of different models in German that I found this morning: E-Ink Reader Vergleich & Tests - Unsere 11 Empfehlungen).

A dark mode browser extension is already an improvement not only for LingQ, but also for other websites. But for longer reading sessions, such an extension might not be sufficient.

Have a nice weekend [despite the notorious German Sundays :-)]
Peter

PS -
In the meantime, I recommend using a dark mode browser extension for reading on LingQ.
It really makes a difference!

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Hi, jacoanicic!

I don´t know which kind of E-ink reader @xingmingc is using, but a few models are discussed in this LingQ thread from 2021:

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The eReader I am using is Boox Flow. It is only available in China. The spec of Flow is almost the same as Boox Nova 2. Comparing to Boox Nova 2, the Boox Flow lack of the note-taking feature; but it includes a speaker and a case with physical key for page turning. I found the speaker and physical page turning key is pretty practical for Lingq. But also keep in mind that Lingq Android is not directly support the physical key for page turning. I have to install another app Easy Scroll to make it working.

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11

After looking at a few e-ink readers online, I find these two BOOX models interesting for reading on LingQ:

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12

I read on the Kindle, then just click through the same text on LingQ with the keyboard shortcuts and mark words as needed.

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13

Your brightness is probably too high. Lower the brightness of your screen (I personally set it as low as I can get it). Consider using an app that adjusts your lighting according to the rising and setting of the sun, such as f.lux. Lastly, try and make the font as large as you can get it and use dark mode at night.

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I agree that this is a good (and relatively cheap) low tech strategy:

  • Reading longer texts on Kindle (with or without prior conversion with Calibre)
  • Using LingQ (with flux and a dark mode browser extension) on a computer just for marking words on an as needed basis.
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I was wondering. What’s the difference between this f.lux and the true tone + dark mode for macOS or iOS? Thanks.

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maybe this could be a good idea for an advance student that doesn’t need to go through many unknown words afterwards but it could be indeed a valuable option to try.

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This could be an interesting idea to keep using LingQ with an ink reader like that. But the colors would be a problem, how can you distinguish a blue from a yellow all the time. I suppose many time you can go by intuition but in the long term could be annoying. Maybe in this case the blue words could be darker or something.

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Maybe on your computer, using the web version you go through your blue words quickly; then for a reading purpose; you can use an e-reader. If my understanding is correct?

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I was referring to the Eink Android reader, or similar Book Nova they were talking about here. I’ve never used and ink reader with LingQ installed.

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I am using LingQ on a mono-color Eink e-reader (Boox Flow). The blue, yellow words and known word can not be distinguished. They are all show in the same black and white. When I face a word unknown, I just tap it and lookup its meaning.

There is also color Eink reader (BOOX Nova3 Color) available, as mention by PeterBormann. By that the blue and yellow word shall be able to be distinguished.

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