Apple Books has not received much love in iOS 15, but that will all change when iOS 16 comes out this Fall. The reading app will receive new options that allow you to customize the reading experience for your needs. Choose reading themes for different environments and moods or change font, spacing, text size and other settings. The audiobook player has been redesigned with revamped player controls and a mini player that makes it easy to keep listening as you browse the store. Continue listening to any audiobook you are previewing by purchasing the book directly in the player.
The new Apple Books experience will be available for both the iPad and iPhone. In iOS 15, there was a toolbar at the top of the app that provides access to the chapter index, font adjustments, search tools, and bookmarks, but in iOS 16, everything has been moved to the bottom of the app. There’s a single tappable icon at the bottom of the book interface to access the settings. It provides a distraction-free reading experience. Tapping on the button brings up all of the available settings in the Books app. The top menu bar features the table of contents, while there’s also an option to tap in to see all of your bookmarks and highlights.
Tapping on Themes and Settings brings up options to change the font size and the color of the background. There are a few new color options in iOS 16, including a lighter gray, a different shade of white, and a light yellow. Tapping on Options brings up different fonts and the option to bold the text. There are easy to access Accessibility settings for adjusting line spacing, word spacing, and character spacing, along with toggling on full justification. Apple has also changed the way that pages turn, and they have got rid of the skeuomorphic page system.
Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past twelve years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
