estimated-reading-time

Calculate the estimated reading time of a given text (plain text or HTML)

Installation

Browser:

<script defer type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/estimated-reading-time@latest/dist/umd/index.js"></script>

Node:

npm i estimated-reading-time

API

estimatedReadingTime( text: string, format: TextFormat, options: Options ): Result

Parameters:

parameter	type	description
text	string	The text you want to estimate
format	string or TextFormat	Can be either html or plain_text. You can also use the exported member TextFormat as: TextFormat.HTML or TextFormat.PLAIN_TEXT
options	any or Options	{ isTechnical: boolean, wordsPerMinute: number }. The isTechnical param sets the default 250 words per minute to 150. You can also pass in a custom words per minute metric using the wordsPerMinute option.

Result:

parameter	type	description
numWords	number	The number of readable words of the text
minutes	number	The estimated minutes it would cost reading the full text
seconds	number	The remaining seconds (e.g it would cost 7 minutes and 31 seconds) (this is not the total seconds it would cost, but the remaining from the minutes)
roundedMinutes	number	If it costs more than x minutes and 30 seconds it rounds up to the next minute (e.g 7 minutes and 40 seconds = 8 minutes)

Usage:

Browser

Try out the full working example

<script defer type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/estimated-reading-time@latest/dist/umd/index.js"></script>

Using the package in the browser, all the functions are encapsulated inside the EstimatedReadingTime global object.

Plain text

<script>
  // Suppose longer text
  const plainText = `En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor. Una olla de algo más vaca que carnero, salpicón las más noches, duelos y quebrantos los sábados, lantejas los viernes, algún palomino de añadidura los domingos, consumían las tres partes de su hacienda....`;
  const res = EstimatedReadingTime.estimatedReadingTime(plainText, 'plain_text', { isTechnical: false } );
  console.log(res);
</script>

res:

{
  "numWords": 1876,
  "minutes": 7,
  "seconds": 31,
  "roundedMinutes": 8
}

HTML

<script>
  const htmlText = `
    <div class="content">
            <h1>Lorem ipsum</h1>
        </div>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Tempora placeat eaque dolore reprehenderit error animi veritatis? Corporis animi, sapiente ex voluptate, repudiandae nihil fugit soluta fugiat perferendis consectetur, quae id.</p>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Eius accusamus, voluptatibus hic earum quas ea asperiores? Eos nostrum tempora eius impedit, perspiciatis explicabo maxime labore, deserunt ad vel, excepturi repudiandae!</p>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Quam pariatur, esse nisi nesciunt nam consequatur voluptatem magnam necessitatibus perferendis eius recusandae fugiat, adipisci numquam optio! Distinctio magni dicta ex corrupti.</p>
  `;
  // Here we use EstimatedReadingTime.TextFormat.HTML instead of the string "html"
  const res = EstimatedReadingTime.estimatedReadingTime(htmlText, EstimatedReadingTime.TextFormat.HTML, { isTechnical: true } );
  console.log(res);
</script>

res:

{
  "numWords": 92,
  "minutes": 0,
  "seconds": 37,
  "roundedMinutes": 1
}

If you'd want to get the html directly from any element on the page:

// ...
const htmlText = document.querySelector('body').innerHTML;
// ...

Node (CommonJS)

const ert = require('estimated-reading-time');

const { estimatedReadingTime, TextFormat } = ert;
const text = `... any text you want to estimate ...`;
const res = estimatedReadingTime( text, TextFormat.PLAIN_TEXT, { isTechnical: false, wordsPerMinute: 300 } );
console.log(res);

Node (ESM)

Note that in order to use ESM imports your file should have a .mjs extension or either the closer package.json should be of type: "module". Also note that depending on your Node.js version, you may be required to run the script using the --experimental-modules flag.

import { estimatedReadingTime, TextFormat } from 'estimated-reading-time';

const text = `... any text you want to estimate ...`;
const res = estimatedReadingTime( text, TextFormat.PLAIN_TEXT, { isTechnical: true } );
console.log(res);

TypeScript

You can also use the package in your typescript code!

import { estimatedReadingTime, TextFormat, Options } from 'estimated-reading-time';

const text = `... any text ...`;
const options: Options = {
    isTechnical: false,
    wordsPerMinute: 100
};
const res: Result = estimatedReadingTime( text, TextFormat.PLAIN_TEXT, options );
console.log(res);

---

package.json:

{
  "name": "estimated-reading-time",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "description": "",
  "main": "./dist/cjs/index.js", // Por defecto resolverá al fichero de CommonJS
  "module": "./dist/esm/index.js", // Para módulos de ES utiliza este fichero (utilizado por Webpack)
  "types": "./dist/typings/index.d.ts", // Los tipos están en esta ruta
  "unpkg": "./dist/umd/index.js",
  "exports": { // Exportaciones condicionales
    ".": {
      "require": "./dist/cjs/index.js", // Cuando se utilice el paquete con "require" se utiliza este archivo (CommonJS)
      "import": "./dist/esm/index.js" // Para imports, se utiliza el fichero de ESM
    }
  },
  "type": "module", // Definimos que por defecto el paquete es un módulo de ESM
  "files": [ // En npm publicaremos solo los archivos de este directorio
    "dist"
  ],
  // ...