Everyone knows what kind of website Zhihu is. Today, let’s look at it from a different angle — I’m sharing a small tool to make “browsing Zhihu at work” safer and more efficient.

The Economics of Browsing at Work: Why Zhihu?

I was looking through my own Zhihu account analytics recently and noticed something quite interesting: over 40% of traffic came from the PC side. In the mobile internet era, that number is unusually high.

I also learned from other sources that Zhihu’s traffic on weekends and holidays is noticeably lower than on workdays. What does this tell us?

You’re not the only one browsing Zhihu at work.

For a significant portion of people, Zhihu’s primary use case is — browsing during work hours. And Zhihu happens to be uniquely suited for this:

  • Primarily text-based content: Unlike short videos, there’s no sound and minimal data usage
  • Plenty of professional content: When your boss walks by and glances at your screen, you can genuinely say “I’m looking up technical material”
  • Right-sized articles: A timeline of posts you can read a few minutes at a time, with very little mental overhead

Three Pain Points of Browsing Zhihu at Work

However, some of Zhihu’s PC design choices aren’t exactly friendly for the covert browser:

1. Oversized Images

Article images on Zhihu often take up more than half the screen. No matter how serious the article itself is, a giant image on your display is instantly noticeable to anyone passing by — at that point, saying “I was reading a technical article” doesn’t sound very convincing.

2. Attention-Grabbing Title Banner

When browsing Zhihu questions, there’s a very conspicuous title banner hovering at the top of the page. It doesn’t just take up a full line of space — its white background with black text makes it extremely eye-catching. A passerby can tell at a glance you’re on Zhihu.

3. In-Your-Face Logo

Zhihu’s logo sits prominently in the top-left corner of every page. Anytime someone glances at your screen or you take a screenshot, that brand identity is unmistakable.

The Script Solution

I wrote a Tampermonkey script that targets these three problems head-on:

  • Limit image size: Maximum width set to 300px, turning all article images into unobtrusive thumbnails
  • Hide the title banner: The question page title banner is removed entirely
  • Remove the Zhihu logo: The logo in the top-left corner is hidden

The result: Zhihu pages end up looking like a plain text reader — clean, low-key, and perfectly suited for an office environment.

Installation & Usage

The script is published on GreasyFork:

Install link

Prerequisite: you need the Tampermonkey extension installed in your browser. Once installed, the script takes effect automatically — no configuration required.

Technical Implementation

The script’s implementation is actually extremely simple. At its core, it just injects custom CSS via GM_addStyle:

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// Limit maximum image width
GM_addStyle('.RichContent img { max-width: 300px !important; }');

// Hide the title banner
GM_addStyle('.QuestionHeader { display: none !important; }');

// Remove the logo
GM_addStyle('.AppHeader-logo { display: none !important; }');

Essentially just a few lines of CSS — but remarkably effective. That’s part of the beauty of Tampermonkey scripts: often you don’t need complex logic; just injecting some CSS can dramatically change a webpage’s visual experience.

How It Differs from the “Zhihu Enhancement Tool”

I previously wrote a Zhihu Enhancement Tool, which focuses on information enhancement — displaying comment timestamps down to the second. This script, by contrast, is about visual optimization — making Zhihu look more like a legitimate reading tool in a workplace setting.

Both scripts can be installed simultaneously; they don’t conflict with each other.

If you have other pain points with the Zhihu experience, feel free to leave a comment. You might also want to check out my other Zhihu Enhancement Tool — it shows comment timestamps down to the second, which is great for tracing the timeline of technical discussions.