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Table of Contents

Read books in the Books app on iPad

In the Books app , use the Reading Now and Library tabs at the bottom of the screen to see the books you’re reading, the books you want to read, your book collections, and more.

Reading Now: Tap to access the books and audiobooks you’re currently reading. Scroll down to see books and audiobooks you’ve added to your Want To Read collection and books you’ve sampled. You can also set daily reading goals and keep track of the books you finish throughout the year.
Library: Tap to see all of the books, audiobooks, series, and PDFs you got from the Book Store or manually added to your library. You can tap Collections to view books sorted into collections, such as Want to Read, My Samples, Audiobooks, and Finished.

A screen in the Books app. At the bottom of the screen are, from left to right, the Reading Now, Library, Book Store, AudioBooks, and Search tabs—the Reading Now tab is selected. At the top of the screen is the Reading Now section, which shows the books currently being read. Below that is the Want to Read section, which shows books you may want to read.

Read a book

Tap the Reading Now or Library tab, then tap a cover to open a book. Use gestures and controls to navigate as follows:

Turn the page: Tap the right side of the page or swipe right to left.
Go back to the previous page: Tap the left side of the page or swipe left to right.
Go to a specific page: Tap the page and move the slider at the bottom of the screen left or right. Or, tap and enter a page number, then tap the page number in the search results.
Close a book: Tap the center of the page to show the controls, then tap .

The page of a book open in the Books app showing the navigation controls at the top of the screen, from left to right, for close a book, table of contents, the appearance menu, search, and bookmark.

Tip: Turn iPad to landscape orientation to view two pages at once.

When you finish a book, personalized recommendations appear to help you discover your next read.

Change text and display appearance

Tap the page, tap , then do any of the following:

Adjust the screen brightness: Drag the slider left or right.
Change the font size: Tap the large A to increase the font size or tap the small A to decrease it.
Change the font: Tap Fonts to choose a different font.
Change the page background color: Tap a circle.
Dim the screen when it’s dark: Turn on Auto-Night Theme to automatically change the page color and brightness when using Books in low-light conditions. (Not all books support Auto-Night Theme.)
Turn off pagination: Turn Vertical Scrolling on to scroll continuously through a book or PDF.

The appearance menu in a book is selected showing controls for, from top to bottom, brightness, font size, style of font, page color, auto-night theme, and scrolling view.

Bookmark a page

When you close a book, your place is saved automatically—you don’t need to add a bookmark. Bookmark pages you want to return to again.

Tap to add a bookmark; tap it again to remove the Bookmark.

To see all your bookmarks, tap , then tap Bookmarks.

Highlight or underline text

Touch and hold a word, then move the grab points to adjust the selection.
Tap Highlight, then tap to choose a highlight color or underline.
To remove a highlight or underline, tap the text, then tap .

To see all of your highlights, tap , then tap Notes.

Add a note

Touch and hold a word, then move the grab points to adjust the selection.
Tap Note, then enter note text.
Tap the page to close the note and continue reading.

To see all of your notes, tap , then tap Notes. Swipe left on a note to delete it.

Share a selection

You can send text selections using AirDrop, Mail, or Messages, or you can add the selection to Notes. If the book is from the Book Store, a link to the book is included with the selection. (Sharing may not be available in all countries or regions.)

Touch and hold a word, then move the grab points to adjust the selection.
Tap Share, then choose a method.

You can also send a link to view the book in the Book Store. Tap a page, tap , then tap .

Access your books on all your devices

To keep your Books information updated across your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, sign in with the same Apple ID on each device, then do the following:

Sync Reading position, bookmarks, notes, and highlights: Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud, then turn on both iCloud Drive and Books.
Sync Reading Now, Library, and collections: Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud, then turn on both iCloud Drive and Books. Then go to Settings > Books, and turn on Reading Now.

See Set up iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Access your books on your Mac

To see your books, audiobooks, and PDFs on your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then do one of the following:

macOS 10.15 or later: Click Apple ID, select iCloud in the sidebar, then select iCloud Drive. Click Options, then select Books.
macOS 10.14 or earlier: Click iCloud, then select iCloud Drive. Click Options, then select Books.

To see your collections, bookmarks, notes, and highlights on your Mac, open Books, choose Preferences, click General, then select “Sync collections, bookmarks, and highlights across devices.”

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iPad User Guide