Reading

Bindle's reader shows a clean copy of an article, saved on your device, in the type and colors you choose. It keeps your place on every device, can scroll for you, and can flash the words one at a time. Books open in the same reader (see Books).

Open and Put Away the Reader

Tap a link that has an offline copy, or choose Read Offline from its menu, and the reader slides up over the library. It covers the whole window, sidebar and tab bar included, so nothing beside it moves. A video link says Watch Video instead (see Videos).

The reader is never closed by accident. These put it away into a bar at the bottom of the window, still open:

• The down chevron at the top left (Collapse Reader).
• A swipe down on the reader's top bar, or pulling the page down past its top.
• Escape, or choosing another list in the sidebar.

While it is put away the reader keeps its place, Listen keeps playing, and the library under it works as usual. Hands-free scrolling pauses.

Mac: The reader's toolbar stays at the top of the window while you scroll, so the window's buttons and Collapse Reader are always there. Only Minimal Mode hides it; click the text to bring it back. While the reader covers the window, the toolbar holds only the reader's buttons, with Collapse Reader first, right after the window's buttons. The sidebar and the list's buttons come back when you put the reader away.

The Reader Bar

The bar shows "Reading" with how far you are (such as "45% read"), the title, Play or Pause while Bindle reads aloud, an up chevron (Expand), and a close button. Tap the bar or swipe it up to bring the reader back.

• iPhone: The bar sits just above the tab bar, on every screen.
• iPad: Mac: The bar sits along the bottom of the window. While Bindle reads aloud it becomes a small player: the article's picture, a position line you can drag, the time left with when you will finish under it, previous sentence, Play or Pause, next sentence, and the speed. In a narrow window it drops the position line and speed first, then the skips and time left.

The close button, Command-W, archiving the article, and reaching the end of Next Unread close the reader for good.

The Reader's Toolbar

Across the top of the reader:

The minutes left assume a reading pace of 230 words a minute.

An article whose page carries a large picture near its start opens with that picture across the top, the title and byline set on it and fading into the page.

Bars That Get Out of the Way

As you scroll down, the bars slide away so the article has the screen; scroll up, or tap the text, and they come back. A thin progress line stays along the top. A tap at the very top of the screen never jumps you back to the start of the article.

A Private Copy, Read Offline

The reader shows Bindle's own copy of the article, made with Readability (the same method as Firefox's Reader View) and kept on your device. It works with no connection at all.

When Bindle fetches a page to make that copy, it sends no cookies and no referrer, so the site does not learn where you came from, and it reads the page with the page's own scripts turned off. Only when that finds no article does Bindle load the live page with its scripts on, and even then it refuses cookies and blocks images, media, and fonts while it reads. A site you sign in to is the one exception (see Site Logins).

If a page says where it really lives (its own address, or where it ended up after redirects), Bindle records it and opens, shares, and copies that address from then on. Link details show "Cleaned" when that happened.

For how copies are kept, how much each device stores, and page snapshots, see Offline and Storage.

Appearance

Choose Appearance in the toolbar to change how the reader looks. Changes apply at once and never lose your place. They are kept on this device.

Font

Each name in the panel is shown in its own font.

Whatever the font, the headline is set in New York and the site under it in small caps, and the first full paragraph opens with a large initial letter in the accent color. Mono and OpenDyslexic keep their own face for the headline and skip the large initial, as does the Starship theme.

Pages

Layout in the Appearance panel chooses how the text is laid out. Books and articles each have their own, so you can read books in Pages and articles in Scroll:

• Scroll (the default): one long page you scroll down.
• Pages: the text is set in pages, like a book's, and you turn them.

To turn a page, tap near the right or left side, swipe left or right, press the arrow keys, Space, or Page Down, or on iPad squeeze or double-tap your Apple Pencil (see Turn Pages with Apple Pencil). The page curls over like paper, and you can faintly see its text through the back as it turns. With Reduce Motion on, pages change at once instead, and in the Starship theme they slide.

When the screen is wide, such as an iPad held sideways or a wide Mac window, Pages shows two pages side by side like an open book, and each turn turns the leaf over the spine.

In Pages, a book opens on its cover: the closed book, as thick as its length and as worn as it looks on your shelf, swings open at your place and rises until your page fills the screen. Tap to skip it. To open straight to the page, turn off Open from the Cover under Layout in the Appearance panel, or Books: Open from the Cover in Settings, under Reading. Each page has a running head with the title or the chapter (Running Head in the Appearance panel changes it), the edges of the pages show at the side of the screen, thinning as you read, and the paragraphs are set like a printed book's unless you turn off Typeset Like a Book. Your progress shows in a thin bar under the title while the controls are showing. On the Mac a swipe on the trackpad or a turn of the wheel turns one page. A tap in the middle shows or hides the controls. In a book, turning past a chapter's last page opens the next chapter, and turning back before its first page opens the last page of the one before.

Your place is kept when you switch between Scroll and Pages, and your other devices open at the same place whichever layout they use.

In Pages, the Scroll button turns pages for you: each page stays as long as its lines take at the speed you choose, then turns. Turning a page yourself, or touching the page, waits a moment before it goes on. Tilt to Scroll is only offered when scrolling.

Size, Spacing, Width, and Justification

• Size: the smaller and larger buttons step through 15, 17, 19, 22, 25, and 29 points. The default is 19.
• Spacing: the space between lines: Compact, Normal (the default), or Relaxed.
• Width: the length of a line: Narrow, Medium (the default), or Wide.
• Justification: how lines end: Ragged Right (the default), Justified, which sets every line flush with both sides, or Hyphenated, which also breaks long words at the end of a line so the spaces stay even.

Theme

With System chosen, the panel also shows "Pure Black in Dark Mode": on, System uses black instead of dark gray when your device is in dark mode. With Starship chosen, it shows "Interface Sounds" instead.

The reader's bars and the footnote card follow the theme, and a book's chapters all keep the theme you pick while reading. The reader bar, when you put the reader away, keeps the app's own paper, light or dark with your device, as the library does.

Minimal Mode

Turn on "Minimal Mode" to hide everything but the article. Tap the text to show the controls. The listen bar and the scroll bar start shrunk to a small pill in the corner in Minimal Mode.

Your Place on Every Device

Bindle remembers where you are in each article and syncs it to your other devices. Your place is kept by paragraph, so it lands on the same words on any screen size or font.

Opening Where You Left Off

An article you are partway through (between 3% and 97%) opens where you were, with a Start Over button for a few seconds.

When another of your devices has read it more recently, the article opens at that newer place. If this device was somewhere else, a "Back to where you were" button takes the place of Start Over, so you can return to your own place.

Picking Up From Another Device

If another of your devices reads further while the article is open here, Bindle offers "Further on" with that device's name. Choose Jump to go there, or Dismiss. The offer goes away on its own after a few seconds. Bindle never offers a place behind you while you read, and never sends a notification for it.

The Way Back

Every jump inside the reader keeps a way back: Jump, Start Over, Contents, a link to another chapter, a highlight, or a passage an answer in Ask cited. A "Back to where you were" button appears for about 10 seconds (20 with VoiceOver), or until you have read on a screen or more. After it goes, More still offers Back to Where You Were while the article is open.

When an Article Counts as Read

Opening an article no longer marks it read. Bindle marks it read once you have read 90% of it, by scrolling, listening, or speed reading. A video counts once you have played 90% of it. An article short enough to fit on one screen counts as soon as it opens.

Jumping to a place does not count: an unread article reopened at 95% is marked read only once you read back across 90%. There is no toast; the unread dot simply goes.

Choose Mark as Unread from More and Bindle stops marking it until you close the reader. Opening a link in the browser still marks it read, since Bindle cannot see how far you got. A book is marked finished only at its very end (see Books).

Continue Reading

When you come back to Bindle after reading, it offers the article you were reading on this device, at your place. The offer appears in the reader bar as "Continue reading" with the title, how far you got, Open, and a close button. It stays until you answer it.

Bindle offers an article when you open the app fresh, or come back after at least 5 minutes away, and the article:

• was read on this device within the last 3 days,
• is partway through (between 3% and 97%, by your synced place, so an article you finished on another device is not offered),
• has an offline copy here, is not archived, and is not already open.

When you left the article open, Bindle simply reopens it where you were instead (see Bindle Reopens Where You Left It), so there is nothing to offer.

Close the offer and it tucks into the Last Opened button in the toolbar, and stays away until you read something else.

You can also continue reading from:

• iPhone and iPad: The Home Screen: touch and hold Bindle's icon and choose Continue Reading.
• Mac: The menu bar: Bindle's menu bar item has Continue Reading.
• Shortcuts and Siri: the Continue Reading action (see Shortcuts, Widgets, and Focus).

To turn the offer off, turn off "Offer to continue reading" in Settings > Reading > Reader. It is on by default, and turning it off also removes the Home Screen action.

Turn Pages with Apple Pencil

iPad: Your Apple Pencil can turn the pages while you read, so you can hold it like a page turner:

• Squeeze (Apple Pencil Pro) turns to the next page in Pages, or moves down a screen in Scroll, as Space does.
• Double-tap (Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (2nd generation)) turns back a page, or moves up a screen in Scroll.

The Pencil doesn't need to touch the screen. Nothing turns while a menu, a panel, or a sheet is over the page. If you set squeeze or double-tap to Off in the Settings app under Apple Pencil, Bindle leaves that gesture alone too.

The first time Bindle sees your Apple Pencil over the reader, it shows how this works. Got It keeps it on, and Turn Off turns it off. To turn it on or off later, or to see how it works again, go to Settings > Reading > Reader and use "Apple Pencil turns the page".

Hands-Free Scrolling

Bindle can scroll the article for you in two ways:

• Auto-Scroll moves the page at a steady reading pace.
• Tilt to Scroll iPhone and iPad: moves the page as you tip your iPhone or iPad.

Choose Scroll Hands-Free in the toolbar, or press P. One tap starts the way you last scrolled, and its icon shows which. iPhone and iPad: Touch and hold the button to choose Auto-Scroll or Tilt to Scroll.

Only one thing drives the reader at a time: starting to scroll stops Listen, and starting Listen stops scrolling. Putting the reader away pauses scrolling.

Auto-Scroll

The speed is a multiple of an ordinary reading pace (230 words a minute): 0.5x, 0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x, 2.5x, 3x, 3.5x, or 4x. The default is 1x, and Bindle remembers your last speed on this device. The pace is set in lines, so a larger font or wider spacing moves the page faster to keep the same pace.

Scrolling yourself always wins. Swipe, use the scroll wheel, or press a scroll key and the page holds; it carries on by itself once you have let go and the page has been still for a moment. Auto-Scroll stops at the end of the article. With "Articles: archive and go on by itself" on, the end counts down, then the next article opens and keeps scrolling. Books do the same with their next chapter when "Books: go on to the next chapter by itself" is on.

Tilt to Scroll on iPhone and iPad

Hold the device the way you like to read and keep it still. The bar says "Hold steady" for about a second while Bindle learns that angle; that angle becomes level. Then:

• Tip the top of the screen away from you to scroll down, toward you to scroll up.
• A small tilt does nothing. Tip further to scroll faster.
• Choose Recenter to make the angle you hold now the new level.

Tilt needs no permission. The Mac has no tilt.

The Scroll Bar

While scrolling is on, a slim bar sits under the article, even with the other bars hidden:

The bar shrinks itself a few seconds after you start or last touch it. Tap the pill to open it again; once you do, it stays open until you stop.

Press [ for slower and ] for faster, and P to pause or resume. The toolbar hides itself a moment after scrolling starts; tap the text to see it again.

Pause When You Look Away

Bindle can pause Auto-Scroll when you look away from the screen and carry on when you look back, using the front camera. Turn on "Pause scrolling when you look away" in Settings > Reading > Reader, or tap the eye on the scroll bar. It is off by default, and turning it on asks for the camera. The first time you use Auto-Scroll, Bindle offers to turn it on.

• It watches only during Auto-Scroll (and Speed Read), never during Tilt to Scroll.
• No face, or your head turned well away, counts as looking away. The page pauses a moment after you look away and carries on just after you look back. It only undoes its own pause, never one you made.
• Frames are looked at on your device and never kept.
• While the camera watches, the screen stays on. If the page stays paused because you looked away, the screen may sleep again after 5 minutes, and the camera stops; choose Play to start again.
• While the camera runs, other audio, such as a video in Picture in Picture, may pause.

iPhone and iPad: On a device with Face ID, a Camera choice appears under the setting: "Face tracking (ARKit)", the default there, or "Face detection (Vision, 5 fps)". Other devices, including the Mac, use face detection.

Speed Read

Speed Read shows the article one word at a time in the middle of the screen, so your eyes stay still. Choose the hare in the toolbar, or press F.

Each word is held at the same spot, with one letter near its front in the accent color to rest your eye on. A thin line shows your place in the article. Bindle pauses a little longer at commas, longer at the end of a sentence, longer still at the end of a paragraph, and a touch longer on long words. Each time you start, it begins a little slow and eases up to your speed over a few seconds.

Swipe left for the next sentence, or right to go back to the start of this one. On a keyboard, Space plays and pauses, the left and right arrows step a sentence, the up and down arrows change the speed, and Escape or F closes.

The speed runs from 150 to 1,000 words a minute in steps of 25. The default is 300, and Bindle remembers yours on this device.

Each time you press Play, the first word holds for 3 seconds, all in red, and the red fades from the outside letters in until only the focus letter is red; then the words start. On iPhone and iPad you feel a sharp tap each second and a heavier one as the words begin. With Reduce Motion on, the red steps in once a second instead of gliding. Looking back after a look-away pause, or stepping a sentence, starts at once.

Speed Read opens at your place and moves your synced place as it goes. Closing it scrolls the page to the last word you saw. With look-away pause on, looking away pauses it, and looking back rewinds a few words so you do not miss any. At the end it asks whether to Archive or Close; Play reads again from the start. With "Articles: archive and go on by itself" on, it counts down on Archive and Read Next instead, then archives the article, opens the next, and speed reads it. Tap Stay to keep the article. In a book it reads on into the next chapter.

Opening Speed Read stops Listen, a video, and hands-free scrolling.

Images

Tap a picture in an article to see it full size over a black background. Pinch or double-tap to zoom (Mac: double-click, or use the trackpad). The caption shows at the bottom. Choose Share Image to share it, and close it with Close, a pull down, or Escape. A picture that is also a link opens the viewer too; the link is on its long press or right-click menu.

Videos in the Reader

A YouTube link, or a page that is a video, is saved as its transcript (YouTube's captions) or, when there is none, its description. The reader plays the video above the text. Search, Listen, highlights, and your place work on the transcript like any article.

• Only the transcript is saved for reading offline; the video itself always plays online. With no connection, the player shows the video's picture and "The Video Needs a Connection".
• Choose Hide Video in More to read the transcript alone, and Show Video to bring it back.
• Listen pauses the video while it reads.
• Playing 90% of the video marks the link read.

Links in an Article

Tapping a link in an article opens it in your browser. To keep it in Bindle instead:

• iPhone and iPad: Touch and hold the link and choose Save to Bindle, first in the menu. The menu also has Open, Add to Reading List, Copy Link, and Share.
• Mac: Control-click or right-click the link and choose Save to Bindle.

Bindle saves it as it would any link, and confirms with "Saved 1 link" or "Already saved".

The More Menu

More, at the end of the toolbar, holds:

A book's More menu leaves out what only a web page can do. Some items appear only when they apply.

The End of an Article

After the last paragraph comes Finished, then a card for what opens next: the next link in Up Next (or "Up next in today's digest"), else the next unread link that has an offline copy, in the order of the list you came from. Tap the card to read it.

• Archive and Read Next archives this article and opens the next.
• Keep and Read Next opens the next and leaves this one as it is.
• Just Archive archives the article and puts the reader away.

With nothing to go on to, the end offers only Archive.

Go on by itself: turn on "Articles: archive and go on by itself" in Settings > Reading > Reader, and once you have touched or scrolled the page, reaching the end counts down on Archive and Read Next ("Archive and Read Next in 3"), its color filling across the button, then archives the article and opens the next. Scroll back up to stop it, or tap Stay Here. "Go on after" sets the seconds.

Quick Actions

iPhone and iPad: A small frosted dot on the edge of the reader lets you act on an article without reaching for the toolbar.

• Touch and slide: touch the dot, and a fan of actions opens toward the page. Slide to one and let go. Let go back on the dot to cancel.
• Tap: tap the dot, and the fan stays open. Tap an action, or tap elsewhere to close it.

The dot is faint while you read and follows the reader's theme. VoiceOver offers each action on the dot itself.

Edge Swipe

iPhone and iPad: You can do without the dot. In Settings > Reading > Reader > Quick Actions, set Open With to Edge Swipe. Then swipe in from either side of the reader: the fan opens where your finger came in. Keep sliding to an action and let go, or let go near the edge to cancel. Scrolling and selecting text near the edge work as before.

When the reader opens, two faint bars on the sides show where to swipe. There is no Move Button with Edge Swipe, since there is no dot to move. VoiceOver still offers each action, on a Quick Actions button at the right edge.

Actions

The fan holds up to seven actions, chosen from Archive, Star, Open Website, Share, Mark as Read, Remind Me, Read By, Copy Link, Send To, Listen, Appearance, Start Over, Minimal Mode, and Scroll Hands-Free. The default fan is Archive, Star, Open Website, Share, Mark as Read, Copy Link, and Listen. Delete is never offered, since letting go is too easy.

Move Button always comes last. Choose it, then drag the dot to another height on either edge, or drop it in the middle of the bottom edge.

Quick Actions Settings

In Settings > Reading > Reader > Quick Actions:

Position, Height, and Reset Button Position are for the dot, so they hide with Edge Swipe.

Slot 1 sits at the top of the fan, or at the left from Bottom Center. These settings stay on this device. The Mac uses its toolbar and keys instead.

Site Logins

Some sites show only a preview unless you subscribe. Signing in to such a site in Bindle lets offline copies, snapshots, and the reader get the whole article. It is the one exception to Bindle's cookie-free fetching, and only for the sites you sign in to.

To sign in:

• Choose Sign In to This Site in the reader's More menu.
• Or go to Settings > Saving & Storage > Site Logins, type the site's address (or a link from it, such as your library's link to a database) under "Add a site", and choose Sign In.
• When a copy looks like a paywall's preview, the reader says "This may be a preview" with Sign In and Not Now. Not Now stops asking for that site on this device.

The site's own sign-in page opens in a sheet, with a bar across the top while it loads. If the page can't load, the sheet says why, with Try Again. Choose Done when you are signed in, or Cancel. If you saved a password, Fill Password types it in and sends it, or says "No sign-in form on this page".

Each site in Site Logins shows its status, with Sign In Again, a username and password to "Sign in automatically" (Save), and Sign Out. With a saved password, Bindle signs in again on its own, once, in the background when the site signs you out; otherwise it asks you. After you sign in, copies from that site are made again with the whole article, and a note says how many, such as "Signed in to The Atlantic, saving its 4 articles again".

A login's cookies and password stay on this device, in its Keychain. They never sync and are never sent to your other devices. Sign Out removes them; copies already saved stay.

Keys, Snapshots, and Handoff

• Keys: the reader has single-key shortcuts for nearly everything here. See Keyboard Shortcuts, or press ? in the reader.
• Page snapshots: to see the page as the site showed it, choose View Snapshot in More. See Offline and Storage.
• Handoff: walk up to another of your devices with an article open, and it offers to continue at the same place. See Your Devices.