Idara Reading Time
Active Installs
0+
Last Updated
August 26, 2026
First Released
June 2, 2026
Download History (Last one month)
Contributors
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.
- 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
Screenshot Gallery
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No. Everything runs locally on your site. No external requests, no analytics, no tracking.
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).
Changelog
1.0.1
- Tested up to WordPress 7.1.
- Updated Plugin URI to the plugin page on the Idara Studio site.
1.0.0
- Initial release
