New iOS 15 Books App Reader Menu Controls

Apple refined the reading experience in iOS 15 by streamlining the Apple Books reader interface and improving its menu controls. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the reader menu updates introduced in iOS 15, highlighting the reorganized Appearance menu, enhanced theme options, reading layout toggles, and integrated brightness adjustments designed to make reading more customizable and distraction-free.

In iOS 15, the primary reading controls remain centered under the "aA" icon in the navigation bar, but the menu interface was reorganized to reduce clutter. Tapping this icon presents a compact popover that houses the essential visual settings in one place, allowing readers to modify their experience without navigating away from the current page.

Continuous Vertical Scrolling

The reader menu makes switching reading orientations more accessible. Readers can switch between traditional horizontal page-turning and continuous vertical scrolling with a single tap inside the menu. Enabling vertical scroll allows readers to glide through text smoothly, similar to reading a webpage.

Streamlined Themes and Color Modes

iOS 15 enhanced color accessibility by offering quick-select themes within the reader menu:

Preset Themes: Readers can choose from Light, Sepia, Gray, and Dark/Black backgrounds.
Auto-Night Theme: The menu allows readers to toggle an automatic shift to dark mode based on ambient lighting or system-wide Focus and Dark Mode schedules.

Typography and Font Controls

Text customization is immediately available at the top of the menu:

Font Size Adjusters: Simple plus (+) and minus (-) buttons let readers scale text up or down instantly.
Font Selection: A dedicated submenu provides direct access to optimized digital typefaces, including San Francisco, Georgia, Palatino, New York, and Athelas.

Integrated Brightness Slider

Instead of requiring users to swipe into the iOS Control Center, the Books reader menu includes a built-in display brightness slider. This slider adjusts the luminance strictly within the app, allowing readers to adapt to low-light environments without altering their global device settings.

Minimized Interface Chrome

To reduce distractions, the controls and navigation bars automatically fade out when reading begins. Tapping anywhere in the center of the screen restores the top menu bar, which houses the consolidated reader settings, table of contents, bookmarks, and in-text search controls.