SpeakingOfBrad

Thanks for the tip! Initially I dismissed the idea of installing it as a PWA because I didn’t think it would be very useful. But after all the feedback here, I realized I was wrong. So I just added PWA support.

A tip on the PWA: it’s the only way to get BIGWORDS.PAGE in Fullscreen on mobile.

I just added proper offline support. It can install as a PWA (progressive web app) on iOS and Android, as well as in Edge and Chrome (and probably most other chromium browsers). Once you “install” it as an “app” (usually from a share screen) it will work even if you don’t have an internet connection.

The QR code support is documented here: https://bigwords.page/docs#qr-code

It’s “EZ” in that you don’t control the parameters of how the QR gets created. You can just control where it gets shown, and what it links to (though it does support telephone, SMS, Wi-Fi, email, and location).

The hosted version runs through Cloudflare, and since it’s a static site it caches really well! Don’t ever feel bad about using the hosted version. I’m not worried about bandwidth there. (But self-hosting is fun too!)

Thanks! Like a dummy, I never tested in anything but my own browser. I found a couple of other bugs as well that weren't obvious without Firefox.

Good call. Removed it.

You right. But I only had 80 characters to work with.

That's the OG (Open Graph) Image. It's an image built into the site that's used as the thumbnail for shares on social media and messaging apps. (More info on OG Images here: https://layerre.com/glossary/open-graph-image/)

How could I change the image to be less intrusive? I can't have it show an image of the message you're trying to share, because the server never sees that message. But can I make the default image nicer on the eyes.

I think BIGWORDS.PAGE would be a great companion to a web browser app on those TV devices. I haven't found any good web browser for AppleTV, but if somebody has a browser/kiosk app that let's you send a URL from your phone, that would be really great!

I picked up watching Lanterns mid-season. I would have loved to binge it all once, but I also liked avoiding spoilers by watching every week. I'll definitely be keeping this in mind when looking for new shows to watch.

I had the idea for BIGWORDS.PAGE when I wanted to display a message on a tablet that I had remote management control over, but no physical access. Configuring it to be a kiosk browser is easy, but how do I get the browser to show my message? So I made the URL be the message.

It uses a URL fragment to configure the message. Browsers don't send URL fragments to the server, so I never see your message. There's no backend, and no storage.

All parameters are documented, so generating a message link is easy. There's also a built-in editor to make it extra easy.

https://bigwords.page/#Hello,%20HN!&bg=ff6600&fg=000000&font...

There are a few extra features like slides, animations, and countdowns and timers. QR codes too. Not too fancy, but hopefully enough to be useful.

I know the uses for this are pretty niche. But it may be one of those things that you keep as a nugget in your brain, a tool in your back pocket. Not something you use often, but when you do it makes things just a little bit easier.

It's open source (MIT), and self-hostable if that's your thing.

Let me know what you think.

We have one, and it is useful sometimes. Is it worth the price? I'm not sure. Don't forget that most libraries will print documents for you too. It's probably something like 25¢/page, so it's not really a great deal, but if you don't need to print often it's probably worth it. Plus it supports the library, so that's nice.