Customize the reading experience
Page layout, color theme, brightness, contrast, page transitions, and film grain.
Bookil’s reader has a settings sheet with the controls you’ll use most. Open it with the Aa button in the top bar while you’re reading.
On iPhone, the sheet opens at a compact height and can be dragged up for more room. On iPad, it opens as a popover next to the Aa button.
The sheet is split into three sections, ordered from most to least frequent use.
Page layout
Choose how pages are laid out on screen.
- Single — one page at a time. The default.
- Double — two pages side by side. The cover stays alone; if the last page is odd, a blank slot fills the spread.
- Auto — Bookil picks Single or Double based on the available width. iPhone and iPad in portrait usually stay on Single; iPad in landscape with enough width switches to Double.
Auto uses the available width, not the device orientation. Split View and Stage Manager affect the result.
Binding direction
Pick which side the spine is on. Affects swipes, tap zones, and the order of pages in Double layout.
- Default — uses your global setting from Settings → Default binding.
- Left — left-to-right reading (typical for English).
- Right — right-to-left reading (typical for Japanese books and manga).
This setting is per book. The label “This book” reminds you that changes only affect the current PDF, not your global preference.
Color theme
Recolor the page without modifying the PDF.
- Default — no color change.
- Sepia — warm cream background. A strength slider appears below; slide left for a subtle tint, right for a strong one.
- Black — full color inversion. Pages turn dark for low-light reading.
Black mode doesn’t have a strength slider, and film grain is disabled while Black is active.
Brightness
A slider from 0 % to 100 %. Bookil dims the page by painting a black overlay; your device’s system brightness isn’t touched, so leaving Bookil doesn’t carry the dim into other apps.
The lowest setting doesn’t reach pure black, so the page is always readable.
Contrast
A slider from −100 % to +100 %, with 0 % in the middle. Stronger contrast deepens blacks and brightens whites; lower contrast softens the page.
The slider works the same way whether you’re in Default, Sepia, or Black.
Page transition
Pick the animation between pages.
- Slide — pages slide across the screen. The default.
- Fade — pages cross-fade.
- Curl — the page curls like turning paper.
- Scroll — pages flow continuously instead of turning. In Single layout, scroll is vertical; in Double layout, scroll is horizontal.
The previous None option has been removed.
Film grain
Turn on a subtle paper texture to soften glare. A strength slider lets you dial how strong the grain looks.
Film grain is disabled automatically when Color Theme is set to Black.
What’s not in the sheet
A few related settings live elsewhere:
- Default binding direction is in Settings → Default binding.
- Sidebar position (left or right) is in Settings → Sidebar position.
- Keep screen on while reading is in Settings → Display.
See Settings reference.