VISION — The Clearview

Unblur the Web. See Everything.

A Chrome Extension that silently removes CSS blur filters, paywall overlays,
sign-in gates, and scroll locks — with zero popups, zero interruption.

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Table of Contents

• What It Does
• Screenshots
• Themes
• Installation
• How It Works
• File Structure
• Permissions
• Known Limitations
• Changelog
• Contributing
• License

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What It Does

Most paywalls don't actually hide content from your browser — they just blur it with CSS or place a div overlay on top of fully-loaded text. VISION detects and removes all of it:

Technique	How Common	VISION
filter: blur() on content	★★★★★	✅ Removed
backdrop-filter frosted overlay	★★★★☆	✅ Removed
Fixed overlay div (paywall box)	★★★★★	✅ Removed
Sign-in / register gate walls	★★★★☆	✅ Removed
overflow: hidden scroll lock	★★★★☆	✅ Unlocked
max-height content clamp	★★★☆☆	✅ Unlocked
Opacity fade / text truncation	★★★☆☆	✅ Restored
-webkit-text-security dots	★☆☆☆☆	✅ Cleared
Server-side truncation (NYT, WSJ)	★★☆☆☆	❌ Not possible

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Screenshots

Extension Popup — 3 Themes

_{🌑 Night (default)  ·  ⚡ Cyberpunk  ·  ☀ Classic — switchable live from the popup}

Before & After

_{Left: blurred paywall with sign-in wall  ·  Right: fully readable after VISION runs}

Capabilities

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Themes

VISION ships with three built-in themes switchable live from the popup:

Theme	Style	Font	Default
🌑 Night	Black bg, silver text, surgical mono	Space Mono	✅
⚡ Cyberpunk	Deep purple bg, neon pink + cyan, animated glows	Orbitron + Share Tech Mono
☀ Classic	White bg, black text, clean serif	EB Garamond

Theme choice persists across sessions via chrome.storage.

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Installation

Option A — Load Unpacked (Developer Mode)

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Drdhx/vision.git
cd vision

2. Open Chrome  →  chrome://extensions
3. Enable "Developer mode"  (toggle, top-right corner)
4. Click "Load unpacked"
5. Select the /vision folder

The VISION icon appears in your Chrome toolbar immediately — it runs automatically on every page.

Option B — Download ZIP

1. Go to Releases
2. Download vision-extension.zip
3. Unzip and follow steps 2–5 above

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How It Works

Engine Overview

content.js injects at document_start — before the page renders — and runs a 6-pass fix system:

Pass 1 → injectCSS()               Global !important CSS override (filter, overflow, opacity)
Pass 2 → removeBlurs()             Element-level inline filter removal
Pass 3 → removeScrollLocks()       Unlocks body, html, and all content containers
Pass 4 → removeOverlays()          Paywall & sign-in wall detection + removal
Pass 5 → revealHiddenContent()     Restores opacity-hidden text, removes max-height clamps
Pass 6 → restoreInteractivity()    Removes pointer-events:none tricks

Then re-runs at +1.2s and +3.0s to catch lazy-loaded paywalls.

Overlay Detection Logic

// An element is flagged as a wall if ALL conditions match:
// 1. Position: fixed / absolute / sticky
// 2. Covers > 40% viewport width AND > 25% viewport height
// 3. z-index > 50
// 4. Visible (not display:none or opacity:0)
// 5. Class/ID matches any of 50+ paywall keywords (paywall, subscribe,
//    signin, register, gate, premium, modal, piano-, tp-, …)
//    OR inner text contains phrases like "sign in to continue",
//    "subscribe to read", "members only", "get full access"

SPA Support (MutationObserver)

A debounced MutationObserver watches for dynamically injected walls with a 600ms settle delay. Re-fires on childList, subtree, style, and class attribute changes — handles Medium, Substack, and other React / Vue SPAs that inject paywalls after initial load.

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File Structure

vision-unblur/
├── manifest.json          Chrome Extension config (Manifest V3)
├── content.js             Core fix engine — runs on every page
├── popup.html             Extension popup UI (3 themes + scan log)
├── popup.js               Theme switching, scan log, run button
├── background.js          Service worker — tab events & re-injection
├── .gitignore
├── icons/
│   ├── icon16.png
│   ├── icon48.png
│   └── icon128.png
├── screenshots/
│   ├── hero.png
│   ├── popup_all_themes.png
│   ├── before_after.png
│   └── features.png
└── README.md

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Permissions

Permission	Reason
activeTab	Read and modify the current tab's DOM
scripting	Programmatically inject content.js when needed
storage	Persist theme preference and fix counters locally
tabs	Re-inject content script on SPA navigation
<all_urls>	Run on any website

Privacy: VISION never reads, collects, or transmits page content. It stores only your theme choice and block count — locally on your device.

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Known Limitations

Scenario	Status
CSS-blurred content	✅ Works
Overlay / modal paywalls	✅ Works
SPA navigation (Medium, Substack)	✅ Works via MutationObserver
Server-truncated content (NYT, FT, WSJ)	❌ Content never reaches your browser
chrome:// internal pages	❌ Chrome blocks extensions here
Chrome PDF viewer	❌ Sandboxed — extensions cannot access

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Changelog

v2.1.0 — Latest

• Rebuilt 6-pass content engine from scratch
• Sign-in wall & register gate detection (50+ keywords + inner text scan)
• document_start injection with all_frames: true
• Scan log terminal in popup with animated blinking cursor
• chrome.scripting injection fallback for tabs that missed the content script
• Default theme: Night Mode
• Debounced MutationObserver — prevents re-run loops on dynamic sites
• Re-injection on tab navigation events via background.js

v2.0.0

• Three themes: Cyberpunk, Night, Classic
• MutationObserver for dynamically injected paywalls
• Per-page and all-time fix counters
• Popup UI redesign with mode toggles

v1.0.0

• Initial release: CSS blur removal + overlay detection

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Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.

git checkout -b feature/your-feature
git commit -m "feat: describe your change"
git push origin feature/your-feature
# Open a Pull Request

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License

MIT © Dhanush D

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Built by Dhanush D  ·  github.com/Drdhx

If VISION saved you from a paywall today, consider giving it a ⭐