Viewing web pages on a mobile phone is sometimes a frustrating experience, but Reader view in Safari on the iPhone helps remove the clutter. Customise the colours and fonts for a better view.

Adverts on web pages can be a major source of irritation and various web page objects like buttons and menus can also spoil the browsing experience. They get in the way when what you want to do is to read an article.

In addition to this, mobile phones have small screens that can make a web page’s content too small read for some people. The latest iPhones have much bigger screens than they used to, but even so, browsing the web on a phone is still sometimes awkward.

There are ways around this mobile display problem and this website for example, works reasonably well on a small screen because the design adjusts itself to fit. Google has been pushing websites to implement designs that adapt to phones and most do. However, adverts are not always kept out of the way of the main content.

Unfortunately, a few ads are a necessity for many sites because they pay the bills, which means that you don’t need to pay to browse the site and read articles. Hopefully, they don't get in the way.

Use Safari Reader mode

To avoid the clutter on web pages and to view only the content you are interested in – the body text and images – you can switch to Reader mode in Safari on the iPhone and iPad.

Open the Safari browser and go to a website. Select an article and it may or may not be easy to read, depending on the design. You can try one of the articles here or at RAWinfopages other website. In fact, you might even already be reading this on an iPhone or iPad.

Tap the button at the left side of the address box to switch to Reader view (pull down to show the address bar if you don't see it). It looks like a series of horizontal lines, but it does not appear on every page, so try a few if you do not see it. It shows on web articles and not the home pages of websites.

Notice the difference when it is available. The menus, buttons, adverts and all the rest of the clutter on the web page is hidden. What is left is a beautifully simple and easy to read article. It looks fantastic.

Normal view vs Reader view

Customise Reader view on the iPhone

The Reader view icon turns black and a new icon is now displayed at the right hand side of the address box. Tap it to display a panel with useful options for customising reader view. For example, there are four background colours ranging from white to black. Press the one you want.

You can also select the font to be used for the body text and you might find that one is easier to read than another. Tap each font and the text instantly changes so you can see the effect.

The little and large A at the top are for adjusting the size of the text. Tap the little A to shrink the text so that more of it fits on the screen, or press the large A to increase the text size and make it easier to read.

The last two screen shots show Reader mode with two different backgrounds. Select the font, size and background colour that suites you best and Safari will remember it.

Reader mode is not available on every web page because some do not suit it. The home page of RAW Apps for example, is just a list of links to articles, so Reader mode is not available. Select one of those articles and the Reader mode button appears. Don’t forget to use it to clean up the display.

Enable Automatic Reader view on the iPhone

You can enable reader mode manually whenever you need it and it is easy enough to select. However, there are two hidden options that are not obvious. Press and hold the reader button when you see it on a site and a menu slides up from the bottom of the screen.

There are two options and one is to always use reader view on the current website and the other is to always use reader view on every website. It is your choice - enable it manually when needed, always on this site or always everywhere.