Books App Gets Redesign in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16

[MacRumors]

Apple in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 has overhauled the design of the Books app, simplifying the interface and adding some new customization tools.

In iOS 15, there's 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, but it's worth noting that it can't be tapped away.

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.

The search interface is also available, and search does not appear to have been updated. There's a one-tap option for locking orientation, bookmarking a page, and accessing the share sheet.

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.

You can turn on vertical scrolling in this interface, and elect to activate Light Mode, Dark Mode, match the device settings, or match the ambient lighting with True Tone.

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.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1534314947856871424

All in all, the changes bring more customization options to the Books app on iPhone and iPad, and access to features like search and bookmarking still takes about the same amount of time despite the fact that they're now in a menu.

Article Link: Books App Gets Redesign in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16

 

[CalMin]

I really want to like Apple Books, but I have a decent sized Kindle Library and with that comes lock-in.

 

[klasma]

It provides a distraction-free reading experience, but it's worth noting that it can't be tapped away.

…so not distraction-free after all. Oh Apple.

 

[japanime]

All in all, the changes bring more customization options to the Books app on iPhone and iPad, and access to features like search and bookmarking still takes about the same amount of time despite the fact that they're now in a menu.

So, it now requires two taps (one to access the menu, the second to perform the function) when it used to require one tap? It might only take a second or two, so I guess "about the same amount of time." But I don't see how this is an improvement at all.

 

[jwolf6589]

Apple in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 has overhauled the design of the Books app, simplifying the interface and adding some new customization tools.

In iOS 15, there's 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, but it's worth noting that it can't be tapped away.

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.

The search interface is also available, and search does not appear to have been updated. There's a one-tap option for locking orientation, bookmarking a page, and accessing the share sheet.

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.

You can turn on vertical scrolling in this interface, and elect to activate Light Mode, Dark Mode, match the device settings, or match the ambient lighting with True Tone.

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.

All in all, the changes bring more customization options to the Books app on iPhone and iPad, and access to features like search and bookmarking still takes about the same amount of time despite the fact that they're now in a menu.

Article Link: Books App Gets Redesign in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16

Good because I use the app often.

 

[jclo]

So, it now requires two taps (one to access the menu, the second to perform the function) when it used to require one tap? It might only take a second or two, so I guess "about the same amount of time." But I don't see how this is an improvement at all.

No. If you had the interface tapped away (which you can do in iOS 15) you'd have to tap to bring it back up and then tap to get to bookmarks or search. Now you tap once on the bottom to get to bookmarks or search. Same amount of taps.

If you read with the menu bar showing in iOS 15, it would be an additional tap in iOS 16, yes. I usually tap that interface away while I'm reading.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

I really want to like Apple Books, but I have a decent sized Kindle Library and with that comes lock-in.

Yeah, I am scattered between the 2 and it's a pain in the rear end.

 

[jclo]

…so not distraction-free after all. Oh Apple.

Yeah, kind of mixed feelings on this. It is a cleaner interface overall because there's no progress bar and no top menu bar at all, but I think I'd still like to be able to hide that little icon. It's less noticeable on iPad.

 

[antiprotest]

Some of these tweaks are so basic that it feels like they must have been pushed back from iOS 14 or 15 (when they should have been there with iOS 7).

 

[4jasontv]

Let me know when they remove they DRM.

 

[GhostOS]

I hope it stops offloading my books into iCloud for no reason, even when I have space on my iPad. It’s super annoying having to re-download stuff again and again.

But I love using the Books app on iPhone and iPad for eBooks and I’m super glad to see it’s getting some attention.

 

[xxray]

Disappointed to see the skeuomorphic page turning get removed. The new animation is so average and clinical. I hope the rest of the changes are nice in practice because Books is my favorite app to read in.

 

[RockTheGlobe]

Wish they hadn't gotten rid of the bar at the bottom that indicated progress through the book and especially the number of pages left in the chapter. That gives me a good idea about whether I had enough time to read an entire new chapter (or how long I had left in a chapter).

 

[sdf]

…so not distraction-free after all. Oh Apple.

…Or you might be easily distracted.

 

[Black.Infinity]

My problem is that even though you purchased a book previously, the same book appears again but doesn’t show download button, it shows a price.

 

[profets]

Wish they hadn't gotten rid of the bar at the bottom that indicated progress through the book and especially the number of pages left in the chapter. That gives me a good idea about whether I had enough time to read an entire new chapter (or how long I had left in a chapter).

yeah this change really confuses me. Bugs me that I have no clue the number of pages left in a chapter.

 

[MallardDuck]

So still no red text on black background, which is the best option for late night reading. Nook is the only one that has it so far.

 

[jimbobb24]

Disappointed to see the skeuomorphic page turning get removed. The new animation is so average and clinical. I hope the rest of the changes are nice in practice because Books is my favorite app to read in.

It was a beautiful and natural animation. Sad to lose it and just turn books into boring web pages.

 

[jwolf6589]

I really want to like Apple Books, but I have a decent sized Kindle Library and with that comes lock-in.

I have the same issue with Kindle. I have a large apple books library and wont touch Kindle for that reason.

 

[Ndndn]

Really wish they’d sort out chapter names in Audiobooks… still ‘Track 1’ etc. Doubly annoying when the Audible equivalents (which they’re essentially using anyway) have that in place.

 

[WhoDaKat]

Such a disappointment. I’ve been clamoring for years about Books. Why are the physical files hidden? I can see where my music, video, and photo files are. Why not Books? It should have its own folder in the Finder side panel like the rest of our media files. Extremely limited on putting books in categories. We should be able to create sub-categories. My family has some where around 1,000 books in our library and it’s a mess trying to find one. Sometimes I need to reference a book but I don’t have all the titles memorized. Multiple levels of categories and sub categories would be great. And some of my books that are part of a series show up correctly, stacked on top of each other, but most do not and we have no way of adding books to the stack! Why?? Where is the rich meta data? I think Apple is still scared to do anything with books as they had their hands slapped for anti trust stuff a while back. Well thank you government! Now my Books app sucks.

 

[matrix07]

There's a single tappable icon at the bottom of the book interface to access the settings. It provides a distraction-free reading experience, but it's worth noting that it can't be tapped away.

.. and how is this improvement? It's not.

I love Books but this sounds annoying. When I read I want to see *nothing* but a book.

 

[matrix07]

Apple has also changed the way that pages turn.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1534314947856871424

..and Wow! They really make it worse, don't they?

 

[fwmireault]

..and Wow! They really make it worse, don't they?

I am a long time user of apple book. Can’t understand why they removed this animation. It’s a small detail that makes reading ebooks more natural. I don’t want to feel like I’m reading a PDF

 

[matrix07]

I am a long time user of apple book. Can’t understand why they removed this animation. It’s a small detail that makes reading ebooks more natural. I don’t want to feel like I’m reading a PDF

Exactly!

And that makes two of us 😀. Using it since iPad 2