Gutenberg 15.3 was released this week with a new “Time to Read” block that calculates the estimated reading time for the post or page using the same method that appears in the details panel. The block displays this information on the frontend wherever it is inserted.
This is the first iteration of the Time to Read block, so it isn’t very customizable yet. Although users can add custom CSS to the block, it only includes alignment controls right now. The block needs Typography controls and more options for customizing its appearance to be consistent with other core blocks.
In 15.3 Duotone filters have been reworked in several ways to make them more portable across themes. Previously, duotone settings were stored as an array of colors. This has been changed so that duotone presets are stored as slugs, making the color swatches available when a user changes themes.
Another change for Duotone filters in this release is the ability to set them globally inside the Site Editor’s Styles panel.
The Site Editor also received several improvements to make the design more clear and consistent, updating the designs for the edit button and the add template modal, and cleaning up the template details popover, among other small changes.
Check out the 15.3 changelog for the full rundown of all the enhancements, bug fixes, and accessibility and performance improvements.
This is great, I really like it when I can see the estimated reading time. I think the perspective of knowing the number of minutes is usually encouraging to readers, myself included. I don’t think most of us know how fast we can read, and when we see a “wall of text” we get discouraged even though in reality it would take us just a few minutes. In my opinion, this is one of the most important features to have on any blog, news section, etc.
Also, as a content writer myself, this calculator also prevents me from overextending my texts when there is no need to make a longer piece.