MTDev – Post Time to Read Block

A custom Gutenberg block that displays the estimated reading time of a post.
Developed by Marta Torre

🧩 About this plugin

This plugin adds a WordPress block that calculates and shows the estimated reading time of a post, based on its content.

It is based on the post-time-to-read block from the Gutenberg repository, which is still under development and not yet available in WordPress core.

This standalone version wraps the same idea with a render callback in PHP for full compatibility and performance.

✨ Features

• Dynamic calculation based on post content
• Shows reading time both in frontend and editor
• Server-side rendering (render_callback) for performance
• Lightweight, uses only @wordpress/scripts
• Built for Full Site Editing (FSE) compatibility

🛠️ Installation

Option 1: Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/martatorredev/mtdev-post-time-to-read.git
cd mtdev-post-time-to-read
npm install
npm run build

Then, activate the plugin from your WordPress admin panel.

Option 2: Production use (no build required)

1. Download the latest release ZIP or manually copy the plugin folder containing:

   • mtdev-post-time-to-read.php
   • The compiled build/ directory

2. Upload the plugin to /wp-content/plugins/ in your WordPress installation.

3. Activate the plugin from the dashboard.

🧪 Usage

• Open the Site Editor and edit the Single Post or Query Loop template.
• Insert the block named "Tiempo de lectura".
• It will display something like:

  Tiempo de lectura: 3 minutos

• The reading time is calculated using an average of 200 words per minute.

📁 Plugin structure

mtdev-post-time-to-read/
├── build/
│   ├── block.json
│   ├── index.js
│   ├── index.asset.php
│   └── style-index.css
├── mtdev-post-time-to-read.php
├── src/ (optional, for development only)
│   ├── edit.js
│   ├── index.js
│   ├── save.js
│   └── style.scss
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── license.txt
└── .gitignore

📚 Based on

This block is inspired by the official post-time-to-read block from the Gutenberg GitHub repository.
It has been adapted to work independently, with improved compatibility and PHP fallback rendering.

📝 License

This plugin is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later.

🙋‍♀️ Author

Developed by Marta Torre
WordPress developer, contributor, and advocate for accessibility, privacy, and sustainable web development.