iPhone: The Missing Manual, 13th Edition

Chapter 13. Safari

The iPhone’s web browser is Safari, a lite version of the same one that comes on the Mac. It’s fast, simple to use, and very pretty. On the web pages you visit, you see the real deal—the actual fonts, graphics, and layouts—not the stripped-down mini-web on cellphones of years gone by.

Safari has most of the features of a desktop web browser: bookmarks, autocomplete (for web addresses), scrolling shortcuts, cookies, a pop-up ad blocker, password memorization, and so on. About all it’s missing is Java, Flash, and other plug-ins.

Safari Tour

Don’t be freaked out: The main screen elements disappear shortly after you start reading a page. That’s supposed to give you more screen space to do your surfing. To bring them back, scroll to the top, scroll to the bottom, or just scroll up a little. At that point, you see the controls again. Here they are, as they appear from the top left:

• The website menu (aA). This menu is new in iOS 13, and it’s a real winner. Tap it to open a panel of options that will apply just to this website (next page, left).

  For example, there are the A and A buttons, which make all the text bigger or smaller—a blessing in times of tiny type. (Tap the percentage number between them to jump back to original “100%” size.)

  Show Reader View makes all the ads, boxes, banners, and other junk disappear. Only text and pictures remain, for your sanity-in-reading pleasure. See “Reader View”.

  As noted, when you scroll down a page, Safari automatically hides ...