Import your EPUBs and PDFs from Calibre, cloud storage, or the Files app. Open a book and tap the screen to reveal the toolbar.
Open the theme panel and choose a dark preset, or set your own text and background colors. Go true black for OLED or pick a softer dark gray. Changes apply instantly.
Turn on automatic switching and justRead moves between your light and dark themes by time of day. Your theme choice saves per book, so every title opens exactly how you set it.
Set your background to pure black and the pixels on an OLED iPhone or iPad switch off completely. Deeper contrast, less glare, and longer battery life when you read at night. Text fills the screen edge-to-edge with no bright borders to distract you.
Toggle the top and bottom reading bars on or off independently. Hide everything for a pure black page, or keep a thin progress bar at the bottom. Either way the dark background carries through every menu, panel, and table of contents.
Save a light theme and a dark theme, then let justRead switch between them on a schedule: by time of day, at sunrise and sunset, or following your system appearance. No more diving into settings every evening.
Pick from ready-made presets or build your own. Each preset stores its own text color, background color, and link color. Tap once to switch, and your choice carries across the whole reading view.
Set any text and background color with full RGB control. Warm cream on charcoal, soft gray on black, or high-contrast white on deep blue. Tune it until reading feels effortless, then save it per book.
A built-in 20-20-20 timer reminds you to rest your eyes while you read in the dark. Every 20 minutes a gentle overlay suggests looking 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Your page position stays exactly where you left it.
The same dark themes scale to the larger iPad screen. Read a single column in portrait or two columns in landscape, both on a true black or custom dark background that fills the display.
iPhone and iPad keep separate layout settings, so you can run tighter margins and two columns on iPad while your iPhone stays single-column. Your dark theme follows you across both.
Real control over how reading looks after sunset
Most readers offer one dark theme: a flat dark gray that still glows on an OLED screen at night.
justRead lets you set a pure black background that switches OLED pixels off entirely, plus any custom shade in between. Less glare, deeper contrast, better battery.
Other apps apply one theme everywhere. Switch a novel to dark and your reference PDF flips too.
justRead saves your theme and colors per book. A black-background novel and a sepia textbook keep their own look, automatically.
Toggling dark mode by hand every evening gets old, and following the system means giving up your own colors.
justRead switches between your own light and dark themes by time of day or at sunrise and sunset, with the exact colors you picked.
Why justRead has the best dark mode on iOS
| Feature | justRead | Other Apps |
|---|---|---|
| True Black / OLED | Pure black, pixels off | Dark gray only |
| Custom Colors | Full RGB text + background | 3-5 preset themes |
| Auto Day/Night | By time, sunrise/sunset, or system | System-follow only or none |
| Per-Book Themes | Saved per book automatically | Global only |
| Eye Care | Built-in 20-20-20 timer | Not available |
| Formats | EPUB and PDF | EPUB only |
See what readers are saying on the App Store
Fantastic eReader
Best app I've found for syncing with Calibre. Customization rivals the great Marvin app, with superior library management.
Great app, responsive dev
The reading experience is already top notch. Really exciting to see where this app develops over time.
Excellent and complete
Beautifully designed and a pleasure to use. The developer had a clear plan from the very first version.
Excellent
Really well designed, and so pleasant to use.
Reading as you want it
A great new iOS epub reader with responsive developers actively adding features. Configure your reading experience just the way you like it.
The best reader on the App Store
Absolute control of customization. Custom font support. The ability to vote on next features and development.
My new mobile happy place
A beautifully made reader app. Love the statistics and how it works with my 5,000+ book library and cloud storage.
Comprehensive epub reader for iOS
Finally an app that manages a book collection and acts as a fully functional reader. Streams from Dropbox without using phone storage.
Everything you need to know about dark mode in justRead
Yes. You can set the background to pure black, which switches off the pixels on an OLED iPhone or iPad for maximum contrast and lower battery use. You can also pick any softer dark shade if you prefer.
Yes. justRead gives you full RGB control over text color, background color, and link color. Build any dark theme you want, from warm cream on charcoal to high-contrast white on black, and save it as a preset.
Yes. Save a light theme and a dark theme, then turn on automatic switching by time of day, at sunrise and sunset, or following your system appearance. justRead moves between them for you.
Yes. Your theme and colors save independently for each book. A novel can use a true black background while a PDF keeps a sepia tone, and each one opens with its own look every time.
Reading on a dark background reduces glare in low light, which many readers find more comfortable at night. justRead also includes a built-in 20-20-20 timer that reminds you to rest your eyes while you read.
Yes. justRead supports the system Differentiate Without Color setting and high-contrast color combinations. Because you control every color directly, you can build a palette that works for your vision.
No, justRead does not include text-to-speech. It is a focused reading app for EPUB and PDF, with dark themes, custom colors, and per-book settings rather than audio playback.
Yes. Every dark mode feature is available during the free 7-day trial with full functionality, no account needed. After the trial, monthly ($2.99), yearly ($24.99), or lifetime ($59) plans are available.