Description
Idara Reading Time is a focused, single-purpose Gutenberg block that does one thing well: shows readers how long your post will take. It also offers an optional scroll progress bar — a thin bar pinned to the top or bottom of the page that fills as the visitor scrolls.
Idara (إدارة) is an Arabic word meaning “studio” or “administration” — the brand behind a growing family of carefully crafted, single-purpose Gutenberg blocks.
Why this and not a full block suite?
Most block plugins ship 30+ blocks you’ll never use, slowing your editor and your frontend. Idara plugins are deliberately small. This one is under 25 KB. CSS and JS load only on pages where the block is present — never globally.
Features
- Estimated reading time, calculated server-side from your post content
- Display as a single value (“3 min read”) or a friendly range (“2–3 min read”)
- Adjustable words-per-minute (50–600)
- 4 icon styles: clock, timer, hourglass, or none
- Optional scroll progress bar with color, height, and position (top/bottom)
- Hide on short posts (e.g. don’t show on anything under 2 minutes)
- Custom prefix and suffix text
- Inherits theme typography and text color via block supports
- Full Site Editing (FSE) compatible — works inside block templates and template parts
- Block toolbar shortcuts for icon cycling and range toggle
- Semantic, accessible markup with ARIA labels
- No tracking, no external requests, no third-party services
- Translation-ready
Use cases
- Blog posts where readers want to gauge time investment
- Long-form articles where the scroll progress bar improves engagement
- Documentation sites
- News and magazine layouts
Development
Source code and build tools are available on GitHub:
https://github.com/sajid-ansari-65/idara-reading-time
The src/ directory contains the unminified JavaScript (ES modules, JSX) and SCSS. Run npm install && npm run build to compile.
Screenshots
Block in the WordPress block inserter — find it by searching “Reading Time” 
Block selected in the editor with toolbar shortcuts for icon cycling and range toggle 
Block settings sidebar — Display, Calculation, Scroll progress bar, and Advanced panels 
Display panel — icon style picker (clock, timer, hourglass, or none), Single/Range format toggle, and custom prefix/suffix fields 
Calculation panel — adjustable words-per-minute (default 200 WPM) and hide-on-short-posts toggle 
Scroll progress bar panel — enable toggle, live mini-preview, position (top/bottom), height, and color picker 
Frontend — reading time with clock icon displayed in a post, with scroll progress bar visible at the bottom of the page 
Frontend — reading time with hourglass icon displayed below the post title in a blog layout
Blocks
This plugin provides 1 block.
- Reading Time Smart reading time block with optional range display and scroll progress bar.
Installation
- Upload the plugin folder to
/wp-content/plugins/, or install via Plugins Add New Upload Plugin - Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu
- Open any post or page in the block editor
- Insert the Reading Time block where you want it displayed
- Configure icon, format, and progress bar from the block settings sidebar
FAQ
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How is reading time calculated?
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The plugin strips block markup, shortcodes, and HTML from the post content, counts the remaining words, and divides by your chosen words-per-minute setting (default 200). The minimum displayed value is 1 minute.
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Does it work with Full Site Editing block themes?
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Yes. You can place the block inside any block template or template part — for example, inside a “Single Post” template just below the Post Title block.
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Will this slow down my site?
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No. The entire plugin is under 25 KB, ships no jQuery, and makes zero external requests. Its CSS and JavaScript are enqueued only on pages that actually contain the block — never site-wide — so pages without it load exactly as before.
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Does the scroll progress bar affect performance?
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The frontend script is a tiny vanilla JavaScript file (under 1 KB) using a passive scroll listener and requestAnimationFrame. It is enqueued only on pages where the block is present.
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Can I style the block?
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Yes. The block fully supports WordPress block color and typography controls. The frontend uses simple class names:
.idara-rt,.idara-rt-icon,.idara-rt-text,.idara-rt-progress-wrap, and.idara-rt-progress-bar. -
Does this plugin track users or send data anywhere?
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No. Everything runs locally on your site. No external requests, no analytics, no tracking.
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How do I display reading time as a range?
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In the block settings sidebar, click the “Range” button under Format. You can then choose how wide the range should be (1 to 5 minutes spread).
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Idara Reading Time” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Idara Reading Time” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.0
- Initial release