Modern websites are increasingly cluttered with auto-playing video advertisements, massive cookie consent banners, floating newsletter sign-up boxes, and chaotic formatting. This digital noise makes reading a long-form news article or blog post incredibly frustrating. To combat this, Apple built “Reader Mode” into the Safari browser on iOS and macOS. Reader Mode strips away all the CSS formatting, sidebars, and advertisements, presenting the core text and images of an article in a clean, highly legible, book-like format. Even better, you can configure Safari to automatically engage this distraction-free mode the moment you click on a link.
How to Manually Activate Reader Mode
If you only want to use Reader Mode occasionally on specific, particularly annoying websites, you can toggle it on manually.
- Open Safari on your iPhone or iPad and navigate to a news article or blog post.
- Look at the address bar (usually at the bottom of the screen). On the far left side, you will see the aA icon.
- Tap the aA icon.
- In the dropdown menu, tap Show Reader.
The screen will instantly transition to a clean, text-only layout. To exit, simply tap the aA icon again and select Hide Reader.
How to Automatically Turn On Reader Mode for All Websites
If you read a lot of news and prefer the clean layout 100% of the time, manually tapping the button for every single article becomes tedious. You can set Safari to default to Reader Mode globally.
- Open the main Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Scroll down and tap on Safari.
- Scroll down to the “Settings for Websites” section near the bottom.
- Tap Reader.
- Toggle the switch labeled All Websites to the ON (green) position.
From now on, whenever you click a link that leads to a compatible article, Safari will bypass the website’s native design and immediately render the clean Reader layout.
Configuring Exceptions for Specific Sites
Sometimes, Reader Mode breaks the functionality of certain websites (like complex interactive tutorials or shopping pages). If you have enabled the global setting, you can easily create exception rules for specific domains directly from the browser.
- Navigate to the website you want to exempt in Safari.
- Tap the aA icon in the address bar.
- Tap Website Settings.
- Look for the toggle switch labeled Use Reader Automatically and turn it OFF.
- Tap Done.
Safari will remember this preference. It will continue to force Reader Mode on every other website on the internet, but will always load this specific domain in its standard, native view.
Customizing the Reader Appearance
Once you are in Reader Mode, you can customize the typography to suit your vision.
While viewing an article in Reader Mode, tap the aA icon again. A small control panel will appear, allowing you to:
- Change the font size: Tap the small “A” to shrink the text, or the large “A” to increase it.
- Change the font style: Select from highly legible serif and sans-serif fonts like Charter, Georgia, or San Francisco.
- Change the background color: Choose between a stark White, a softer Sepia (excellent for reducing eye strain during the day), a dark Gray, or a true Black (perfect for reading in bed at night).