Chapter VII
Small
Kindnesses.
Nous adds controls sparingly. Each one serves the reader — not the designer, not the analytics — and each one disappears when the reader does not want it. What follows are the ones earned.
§1 · Size
A step smaller, a step larger.
Not a slider. A slider is an admission that any size will do, and on a reading page any size will not. Three discrete steps — small, medium, large — covering the reasonable range, chosen for the face in use.
The buttons below live-update this page's reading prose. A preference set here is remembered across chapters.
Philosophy begins, they say, in wonder — that peculiar moment when the eye, having rested on some ordinary thing, stays a beat longer than it meant to, and the mind notices that it has noticed.
§2 · Measure
Narrow or wide, never adjustable.
The measure is the line length. Nous defaults to 64 characters (see Chapter IV); this control offers two alternatives — narrow (50ch, for essays) and wide (78ch, for dense passages with code). Not a free slider; measure is a craft decision, not a preference.
We read what we have been. The sentence turns on its hinge; the paragraph breathes; the page waits. What a reader calls a good book is what has met them halfway, and the length of the line is a part of what halfway means.
§3 · Theme
Daylight and lamplight.
Two modes, not three. Daylight (light) and lamplight (dark). The top-bar dots at the upper right of every page toggle between them — the current mode wears a terracotta fill; the other, a plain outline.
Nous respects prefers-color-scheme on first visit, and remembers the reader's explicit choice thereafter.
This paragraph shows its paper changing, but keeps its measure. Notice that ink is never pure black, and paper never pure white — the dark mode is the oil-lamp, not the inversion.
§4 · Bookmark
A place to return to.
A bookmark is the smallest gift a reading system can make. Click the button below; a tick is stored in localStorage along with the scroll position. When the reader next returns to this chapter, a small chip offers to take them back.
Nothing appears until the reader has set a bookmark. Nous does not summon what it was not asked to.
The page saves where you are — a chapter slug and a scroll offset — and nothing else. No identifier, no server round-trip, no persistent record anywhere but this browser.
§5 · Search
Find-on-page, not a product.
Nous does not build its own fuzzy search dropdown with spinners and tabs. A native <input type="search"> in a plain form, plus the browser's own ⌘F, together do the work that most reading pages need. When a real archive warrants it, Nous adds a server-side /search?q= endpoint and renders results as a list; not a popover.
The form submits to the archive on pressing Enter. Within a single page, ⌘F / Ctrl-F remains the most effective reader — use it.
§6 · Settings
One dialog, all the kindnesses.
For the reader who wants the controls in one place, a native <dialog> collects them. Opened with ? or the button below; dismissed with Esc, click-outside, or the Done text. Modal behaviour is the browser's; the chrome is Nous's.
Keyboard-first: reader controls live on the page for visitors who find them; the dialog is for readers who expect one. Neither is load-bearing — Nous reads fine with none of them set.
§7 · Keyboard
The reader who never left the keyboard.
A small set. Nothing the reader must learn; everything they may come to, if they stay.
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| [ | Previous chapter | Moves along the chapter-nav prev link. |
| ] | Next chapter | Moves along the chapter-nav next link. |
| g h | Home | Returns to the book's index page. |
| t | Table of contents | Jumps to the TOC rail (if present on the page). |
| b | Bookmark this place | Same as pressing the bookmark button. |
| ? | Open settings | Dismiss with Esc. |
| ⌘F · Ctrl-F | Find on page | Browser-native. Always works; Nous does not override. |