5 Tips for Reading on Your iPhone & iPad

Did you know that the average American spends more than 15 hours every week reading on their iPhone?

While reading on your iPhone or iPad can be a great experience, there are also several challenges and annoyances.

Here are 5 tips and tricks, you may not know about, that will make reading on your iPhone & iPad easier and even more enjoyable…

1) Safari Reader View

Reader View is a Safari feature that reformats web pages in ways that are both more readable and more useful. It gets rid of most of the distractions on web pages, including the navigation, advertisements, and other side content.

This makes it much easier to focus on the content and read web pages on an uncluttered screen.

To enter into reader view, Just Tap “AA” in the address bar and choose Show Reader View.

Tap “AA” again to see some options…

Tap the smaller “A” to reduce the font size, or the larger “A” to enlarge it.

You can also tap “Font” and then choose a new Font style from the list that appears. Personally, I find it easier to read a serif font like Times New Roman or Georgia (with the little feet on the bottom of the letters). The serif font keeps your eyes tracking across the sentences easier.

Tap on a color (white, off-white, gray, or black) to change the Reader Mode’s color scheme.

Tap AA again if you want to hide reader view.

2) Automatic Reader View for Select Websites

You can also configure Reader View as a default for a specific website.

I like using this automatic reader view option for reading my regular news sites.

Tap the AA Reader View icon and then choose Website Settings. This site-specific menu lets you configure multiple settings for the website, including turning on “Use Reader Automatically.”

3) Accessibility Settings for Al

Your iPhone includes several Text Accessibility Options, including the ability to make text bold, bigger, smaller, or adjust the contrast. These options were designed for people with vision problems, but even if your vision is perfect, they are worth testing for your personal reading preferences.

Just go to Settings > Accessibility > Display and Text Size.

These options are a blessing for anyone with impaired vision, but also make the iPhone much more accessible for us older folk. These options make your entire iPhone or iPad easier to read.

4) Read to Me

It’s great to be able to read on your iPhone, but when the text gets really long or complex, it can get tiring causing reader fatigue.

That’s when being able to hear the text read aloud can make it much easier to consume and digest the content.

Just go to Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content.

Here, you can enable “Speak Selection,” which allows you to highlight text, and then tap “Speak.”

If you switch on “Speak Screen,” your iPhone will read the entire screen aloud whenever you swipe down from the top with two fingers.

5) Dark Mode, True Tone, and Night Shift

The darker your environment gets, the harder it is to read your iPhone.

But your iPhone has some settings to fix that issue so you can enjoy using your iPhone in a dark room without straining your eyes or having to turn on a lot of lights.

Dark Mode

Enable Dark Mode on your iPhone under Settings > Display and Brightness. If you’d like Dark Mode to turn itself on whenever it gets dark outside, choose “Automatic.”

True Tone

Below the “Dark Mode” options on the iPhone is a switch for “True Tone.” The True Tone setting adjusts the white balance onscreen to reflect your ambient environment. “True Tone” helps make the screen look white, not blue or green. When viewing a webpage, your eyes are less strained as a result.

Night Shift

A third option is called “Night Shift”. Night Shift is a setting that brightens the screen at night and shifts it to a warmer (yellower), more orange-toned light, which is easier on your eyes.

Night shift is especially useful if you read in bed at night. It helps your body naturally drift off to sleep at the end of the day. The warmer light signals your brain that the sun is setting, and it’s time to go to sleep.

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