As of late 2025, Apple has a mammoth 50% market share within the pill section, marking the iPad because the default alternative for a lot of. Once you pair that with an industrial construct, long-lasting battery, and a software program expertise that no different pill producers appear to come back near, it is clear why the iPad has been so successful. The present lineup caters to all types of buyers — whether or not college students on a good funds or artists who want the iPad Professional’s ProMotion show.
With all of the skilled software program out there for iPadOS, it is generally simple to overlook the fundamental issues a pill does higher than a smartphone, which incorporates studying books. There is a mature market of devoted e-readers just like the Kindle that supply e-ink shows and month-long battery lives, however when you already personal an iPad, repurposing it as an e-book reader is straightforward. This fashion, you need not carry round a purpose-built e-book gadget.
Out of the field, the iPad’s show is sharp and comfy sufficient to learn books on, however there are a few toggles you possibly can flick to make it an excellent higher match as an e-reader. Most of those modifications will be made by means of the settings app, and we will even reap the benefits of the customization choices within the official Apple Books app, which comes preloaded on all iPads.
1. Alter your iPad’s show settings
From the iPad mini’s comparatively compact 8.3-inch show to the iPad Professional’s spacious 13-inch panel, you have got number of display screen sizes when purchasing for a pill from Apple. Regardless of variations in panel applied sciences and refresh charges, the show expertise throughout all fashions is usually fairly nice — which we mentioned in our iPad mini assessment. That stated, for the reason that iPad is designed to deal with extra than simply static textual content, it is not precisely optimized for an e-reader-first expertise.
For starters, you may wish to disable auto-brightness whether it is continuously being dialed up or down whereas studying books. You often do not discover this with all the things shifting round on the display screen, however it could trouble you whereas studying books. To disable auto-brightness in your iPad, navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Show & Textual content Dimension, scroll all the way in which down, and flick the “Auto-Brightness” toggle off.
Now you can manually fine-tune the brightness whereas studying books. In the event you learn rather a lot in mattress and the iPad’s lowest brightness setting continues to be a bit too vibrant, you possibly can play with one other accessibility function. In the identical menu, faucet the “Scale back White Level” toggle and use the slider to dim your iPad’s show additional. Turning on the “Daring Textual content” choice may additionally come in useful. Underneath Settings > Show & Brightness, you possibly can set the “Auto-Lock” choice to “By no means” to stop your iPad’s show from sleeping.
2. Activate True Tone and Evening Shift
A part of the rationale the Kindle is a best-seller is because of the advantages of e-ink show know-how. It reduces eye pressure, boosts battery life, and makes textual content seem extra pure. The iPad’s LCD or OLED show helps all its different use circumstances much better than an e-ink show ever may, but it surely does not fairly really feel as comfy as one when flipping by means of a whole bunch of pages in a single session.
On trendy iPads, you possibly can navigate to Settings > Show & Brightness > True Tone, and switch the choice on. True Tone is an Apple-exclusive function that measures the depth and shade of the sunshine in your atmosphere, then makes delicate changes to the iPad’s show to match your ambient environment. Turning this function on will actively regulate your display screen’s white stability and colours to reduce eye pressure. True Tone can also be out there on iPhones and Macs, however it will probably take a while to get used to.
In the event you learn earlier than mattress, utilizing the iPad’s built-in blue mild filter could also be a good suggestion. It is related in observe to True Tone, however will be manually tweaked for a extra substantial impact. Navigate to Settings > Show & Brightness > Evening Shift, and switch the toggle on. You may schedule Evening Shift to begin and cease robotically primarily based on the time of day, and manually choose the colour temperature as nicely.
3. Customise the Apple Books expertise
Although you have got a handful of third-party e-book reader apps you possibly can obtain for the iPad, the preloaded Apple Books service is what the corporate desires you to make use of — and it is truly a well-rounded app. In the event you do not have already got it put in in your iPad, you possibly can seize it without cost through the App Retailer. You should use it to browse books, learn samples, and buy them. Past the system settings we have tweaked up to now to make the iPad ebook-friendly, there are customization choices you possibly can tweak instantly within the Apple Books app.
Begin by opening a title in Apple Books, then faucet the tiny icon within the bottom-right nook of the display screen. Head to “Themes & Settings” to customise features of your studying expertise, corresponding to font dimension, show brightness, and page-turning animation. You may as well cycle by means of a few themes when you’re not a fan of the default white background.
Tapping on the “Customise” button additional provides you entry to a couple superior controls. You may change the font, toggle daring textual content on or off, and fine-tune line, character, and phrase spacing. In case you have turned off auto-brightness within the earlier steps, the slider within the Apple Books app helps you to manually brighten or dim your iPad’s display screen a bit quicker.
4. Arrange a Focus Mode for studying
The introduction of Focus Mode on the iPhone has been among the best options in iOS currently, and the identical performance carries over to the iPad, Mac, and even your Apple Watch. Focus Modes allow you to handle notifications and calls by whitelisting sure apps and contacts in your gadget. As an example, you possibly can create an “At Dwelling” Focus Mode that blocks all notifications from Slack and Gmail, and have one other profile that does the other when you’re at work.
There are a handful of preconfigured Focus Modes you possibly can shortly toggle between, however Apple helps you to create customized ones with their very own algorithm. In the event you learn rather a lot in your iPad, making a Focus Mode particularly for this exercise makes whole sense. To create one in your iPad, navigate to Settings > Focus, and faucet on the “+” icon. You may already see a steered “Studying Focus” template within the checklist — if not, choose “Customized” and rename it to your liking.
Customizing a Focus Mode includes choosing apps and contacts that you just wish to permit notifications from. This fashion, you will not be bombarded with distractions when you’re engrossed in your favourite novel. You may set it up in order that your studying Focus Mode robotically activates while you launch an app like Apple Books. In case you have a handful of reading-specific apps, you possibly can even create a customized house display screen in your Focus Mode.
