Problem with book readers.

[chubb3g114]

Hi
New to Ipad so please be gentle.
I have downloaded the App Readmill, loaded a book, but the font was far to big but could not find any means of changing it. Found a start up guide and there should be an icon on the top drop down of "Aa" but there is not. I then downloaded the app, Ibooks, got the guide and it is the same there should be "Aa" but it is not there, I have a sun, a magnifying glass and what looks like a ribbon. If I tap the sun icon the drop down menu is just for brightness no fonts.

chubb3g114

 

[The OB]

You could go to Settings>General and change text size there. But it's puzzling why you don't have the aA provision in iBooks.
Andrew


From Oz using Tapatalk Pro

 

[J. A.]

The icon for enlarging font size in iBooks can be found in books purchased from the iBooks Store:




It's next to the magnifying glass.
You can't find something like this in PDF's (and supposedly in books saved to iBooks from somewhere else). What you'll find there is the sun you described:




To enlarge these, put two fingers on the screen and slide them apart (different directions).

 

[twerppoet]

For most reading apps:

If you do not see the controls at the top (and sometimes bottom) of the screen, tap in the middle of the screen. The controls toggle on/off so that you can get them out of the way when you are reading.

This is true of iBooks and the Kindle app. I don't know about the app Readmill, since I don't use it; but as I said, this behavior is pretty standard for reading apps.

As Johanna says, if you are reading a PDF, the ability to change font size is probably not present. That is because PDF is a layout format meant for printing. Changing font size really messes with it's original intended purpose.

If the app does not allow the pinch gesture for zooming, look into the Zoom feature in Settings > General > Accessibility. This is less flexible than the pinch gesture, but is universal, not dependent on the app's features.

 

[twerppoet]

. . .
You can't find something like this in PDF's (and supposedly in books saved to iBooks from somewhere else). . .

All books in the standard ePub format should allow font-size changes. I have several side loaded ePubs that work fine.

Books created with Apple's iBooks Author (their textbooks format) normally don't allow font size changes. Like the PDF format, layout is very controlled and would have problems reflowing the text for different font sizes.

For those, the Accessibility Zoom feature is the only way to get a closer look. Though turning the iPad to Portrait mode might help. The font is usually larger that way. Some of the textbooks will allow this, and some won't. It's up to the author/creator to permit the alternate reading mode.

 

[twerppoet]

One last note on Apple's textbook format.

When you are in portrait mode, you can resize the text. Portrait mode has two columns, one for the resources (video, pictures, audio) and a larger column for text. It's pretty easy to reflow that, so it does.

It took me a while to find a textbook formatted book that had portrait mode, so I could test it. Most of the books I have in that format aren't actually professional quality textbooks; they are short books on quick subjects, or magazine style tip's and/or guides. Having a textbook look good in both free flowing portrait and layout controlled landscape mode requires quite a bit of planning and extra work; which is why I suspect most lock it down to just landscape.

The quickest way to tell if a book you've opened is a standard ePub, PDF, or textbook is the controls that come up when you tap in the center of the screen.

ePubs controls appear without a bar, as if they were just part of the page. The background is the same as the rest of the text. Font and icon color vary depending on your reading mode (White, Sepia, or Night).

textbooks have a heavy gray bar with white icons and text.

PDF's have a white bar with blue icon and text. Except the document title, which is in black. It's similar to the ePub's look when in White mode, except the bar is defined and the Aa controls will not be there; and a few other minor things.

 

[twerppoet]

BTW, the iPad User Guide is available both as a PDF on their site, and as an ePub through the iBooks Store.