Inside a book, the settings button at the top of the page opens a panel called "How this looks". Your child can change the paper, the spacing, the night light and a few reading aids there. These choices are saved on the device rather than in your account, so each tablet or phone keeps its own, and a different device starts with the usual settings. The typeface and the text size are yours to choose, in your settings.
What your child can change
| Setting | Choices | Starts as |
|---|---|---|
| "Paper" | Cream, White, Mist, Peach, Mint, Sky, Sand, Night | Cream |
| "Space between lines" | Normal, Roomy, Airy | Normal |
| "Space between words" | Normal, Wide, Widest | Normal |
| "Night light" | At bedtime, On, Off | At bedtime |
| "Line marker" | On or off | Off |
| "Fade the rest" | On or off | Off |
| "Quiet sounds behind the story" | On or off | Off |
| "Page-turn sound" | On or off | On |
A little more about each:
- Paper. Peach, Mint, Sky and Sand are soft tints, offered because some readers find dark text on a bright white page hard to hold on to, and which tint helps is different for each reader. Night is a dark page.
- Space between lines adds room between the lines, which helps a reader who loses their place going down the page.
- Space between words adds room between the letters and between the words, which helps a reader whose words seem to run together.
- Line marker puts a bar under the line your child is reading. They tap the strip beside the words to move it.
- Fade the rest works while the book is being read aloud: the sentence being read stays bright and the others go quieter. Everything is still there to look at.
- Quiet sounds behind the story plays a soft sound that suits the page, under the words. It steps back while the book is being read aloud.
- Page-turn sound is the sound of a page moving when your child turns one.
Both sounds stay off while the night light is on, and while your child is listening with "Just listen".
If the device itself is set to ask for more contrast, the page follows that as well.
The night light
With "At bedtime", the page turns a warm, dim color and the pictures soften during the bedtime you set for your child. "On" keeps the page warm at any time, which can help in a dark car in the afternoon. "Off" keeps the usual page, even at bedtime, for example when you are reading together in the evening.
The night light uses the clock on the device, and it changes by itself when bedtime starts, without your child having to close the book. It does not stop your child reading.
If you have not set a bedtime, "At bedtime" does nothing, and the panel says that a grown-up can set one. You set it on your child's Safety page, under "Time and bedtime". See Time limits and bedtime.
When reading aloud stops
In a book with a recorded voice, the panel also has "Stop reading aloud after", with the choices "Grown-up's", "10 min", "20 min" and "30 min". "Grown-up's" follows the number you chose in "Stop reading aloud after, in minutes" on your child's Safety page, and is where it starts.
The time only counts while the book is actually being read aloud, and nothing counts down on the screen. When the time is up, the voice stops and a warm screen with Pip covers the page, with the words "That is enough for tonight. The rest will still be here tomorrow." Your child can choose "One more bit" or "Close the book". A choice made in this panel applies on that device.
What stays with you
The typeface ("Lexend", "Atkinson Hyperlegible" or "OpenDyslexic"), "Text size", "Colours" and "Less movement" are in your child's Settings, in the card called "How it looks". They follow your child to every device, and your child cannot change them from inside a book. How the page looks explains each one.
If a choice in the panel does not seem to stick, the browser may be set not to keep site data, for example in a private window. The book still works with the usual settings. If that is not the reason, ask us from Help in your dashboard.