I made something for you.

The New Zealand Herald got a snazzy new redesign in their printed edition as well as their website (though some say it’s a shameless rip-off of the Guardian website), I think it all looks pretty good aside from one thing. The website the text is a bit small, and a bit cramped, so it’s not very nice to read. Not everyone feels this way, some people love it, but I don’t like it, and judging by twitter I’m certainly not alone.

I find it really hard to read articles on the new @nzherald design. It's like the text is too compact, feels like an effort to read 🙁

— Robyn Gallagher (@robyngallagher) September 10, 2012

It’s a smart-looking redesign, but the body text is too small. Wonder if we’ll see a responsive version eventually.

— Matthew Buchanan (@mrb) September 9, 2012

I’m not clear on how the typography made it through testing without this being noticed, but apparently someone from the Herald has seen the response, and has promised that they’ll do something to solve it. But who knows when that will be?

I use the Herald site almost every day, and right now I find it hard to read.

So, I’ve solved the problem myself.

I did that by creating an extension for the Google Chrome web browser that tweaks the type in Herald articles, it increases the font size, and makes the line height a little taller. Quite subtle changes, but to me they make a big difference.

It’s called Readable Herald and it’s available right now, free of charge.