Comparison

Penumbra Invert vs SpeedReader

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ€” with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Penumbra Invert

Features
Read full description

Invert the brightness of web videos to make viewing more comfortable. Enable the extension when watching a lecture late at night or when a video is too dark in the sun. Penumbra uses a smart invert to maintain accurate color hues.

About

SpeedReader

Features
Read full description

## App Description Reading shouldn't be this hard. SpeedReader is a free Safari extension that lets you speed read any web page using RSVP (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation) โ€” showing one word at a time at a controlled pace. For neurodivergent readers โ€” people with ADHD, dyslexia, or other processing differences โ€” traditional reading is exhausting. Eyes jump between lines, focus drifts mid-paragraph, and articles get abandoned halfway through. RSVP removes the cognitive overhead of eye tracking and line scanning, so your brain just processes. **How it works** Tap the SpeedReader icon in Safari's toolbar. The article text is extracted automatically and words appear one at a time with a highlighted focus point. Tap anywhere to pause, tap again to resume. That's it. **Features** โ€ข Focus-point highlighting โ€” each word highlights its optimal recognition point, the letter your eye naturally anchors to โ€ข Context preview โ€” pause and see the surrounding sentence to re-orient quickly โ€ข Punctuation pacing โ€” periods and commas add natural micro-pauses so content flows like speech โ€ข Speed control โ€” 100 to 600 words per minute โ€ข OpenDyslexic font โ€” toggle the dyslexia-friendly font with one tap โ€ข Light and dark mode โ€” follows your system theme or override manually โ€ข Keyboard shortcuts โ€” on Mac and iPad: Space to play/pause, arrows to navigate โ€ข Text selection fallback โ€” select any text on a page and speed read just that โ€ข Works entirely offline โ€” no data leaves your device No accounts. No subscriptions. No tracking. Free and open source.

Screenshots

Penumbra Invert2 screens
SpeedReader1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Penumbra Invert at 15.0 against SpeedReader's 17.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
Penumbra Invert versus SpeedReader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPenumbra InvertSpeedReader
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyโ€”Every 4 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 โ€” better17.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size1 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVincent SpitaleChris Cantu

In-app purchases

None

Penumbra Invert

No in-app purchases

None

SpeedReader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Penumbra Invert free?
Penumbra Invert is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SpeedReader free?
SpeedReader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Penumbra Invert or SpeedReader have ads?
Neither Penumbra Invert nor SpeedReader shows ads.

Other comparisons