Settings
The settings are in groups, as on your reader. Names in bold are the names on its screen. Your reader shows only what it can use.
Open and use the settings
Hold Select on the home screen to open the main menu, then choose Settings. On a touch screen, swipe down from the top edge to open the quick panel and choose Settings. The reading menu has it too, under More.
The list has three parts: Books, Device and Customise. Open a group to see its settings. A short line under each setting says what it does. Search at the top of the list finds a setting by its words.
Tap a setting to switch it or to choose a value. With buttons, move to it and press Select. For a number, Left and Right change it, Select keeps it and Back returns to the earlier value. On a touch screen a number has minus and plus buttons. Changes apply at once.
Advanced settings at the end of the list also shows the settings that are rarely needed. While it is off, a page that has such settings ends with More. Developer options (under System, an advanced setting) adds a Developer group for measuring and testing. You do not need it.
The groups
- Books: Reading, Words, Library, and Reading statistics and Progress sync when those plugins are on.
- Device: Display, Sleep screen, Controls, Keyboard, Buttons and gestures, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Power, Date and time, System, Screen lock, Updates, Set up PaperPaw and About PaperPaw.
- Customise: Profiles, Customise menus, Appearance, Home screen, Manage plugins, Rules and Plugin settings.
A group shows only when your reader can use it and its plugin is on. Wi-Fi and Updates are for the X4 and X4 Pro, Bluetooth for the X4 Pro. Android has no Sleep screen. Passwords and keys shows once you have saved one.
Reading
Reading (under Books) holds the settings for book text, on smaller pages: Text, Layout, Hyphenation, Publisher's formatting, Display, Status lines, Marks, Reading aloud, Reading aids and Behaviour. Text, Layout and Hyphenation hold what Font and layout in the reading menu changes. There you can also change it for one book only: see Reading.
Text
| Setting | What it does | Choices | Starts at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Font | The font of the book text. | Book's font and the fonts you add | Book's font |
| Font size | The size of the book text. | 6 to 40 pt | 11 pt, and 9 pt on the X4 and X4 Pro |
| Font weight | Makes any font darker and bolder. Helps on light screens. | +0 to +4 | +0 |
| Text colour, Paper colour | The colour of the letters and of the page. Only on a colour screen. | A list of colours, or Own colour | Black, White |
Discover fonts on this page adds fonts, and with them larger sizes. See Fonts.
Layout and hyphenation
| Setting | What it does | Choices | Starts at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line spacing | The space between lines. | 80 to 250 % of the font size | 135 % |
| Margins | The space between the text and the edge of the screen. | 0 to 30 mm | 4 mm |
Justify text, Indent paragraphs and Hyphenate words are on at first. Hyphenate words breaks long words at the end of a line, in the language of the book. Paragraph spacing, which leaves some space between paragraphs, is off. Advanced settings add Top and bottom margins, Line breaking, Hanging punctuation and more.
Publisher's formatting uses the layout of the book itself and is on at first. Off shows the text plainly. While it is on, these say which parts you follow: Book's alignment, Book's indents, Book's text sizes, Book's spacing, Book's fonts and Book's margins (all on) and Book's line spacing (off).
Display
| Setting | What it does | Choices | Starts at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Night mode | Light text on a dark page. Invert pictures also turns covers and photos to negatives. | On, Off | Off |
| Full refresh | Flashes the screen after this many page turns to wipe ghosts away. 0 never flashes. See Reading. | 0 to 1000 pages | 6 pages |
| Smooth text | Gives letters soft gray edges. On a black and white screen every page then flashes and turns slower. | On, Off | Off on a black and white screen, such as the X4's |
| Text contrast | How dark letters are drawn. | Lighter, Normal, Darker, Darkest | Normal |
| Sharpness | How crisp letters look. Sharp draws them a step darker and without gray edges, sturdier and cleaner. Soft draws them a step lighter. You can set it for one book. See Reading. | Soft, Normal, Sharp | Normal |
| Text darkness | How bold letters are on a black and white screen. Full helps on pale screens. | Light, Normal, Full | Normal |
Status lines sets what the lines above and below the page show. Marks sets how highlights and links look. Reading aloud sets speed and timer, and is not on the X4 and X4 Pro. Reading aids holds helpers such as Bold word beginnings. Behaviour holds things like Footnotes and the Reading app.
Library
- Library folder: the folder with your books. It starts as
booksand stays as it is when you reset the settings. - View: List (at first) or Covers. See Library. The setting Covers: Black and white (at first) answers faster, Gray is finer.
- Sort by: Recently read (at first) or By title.
Display
- Turn the screen: Upright (at first), On its side, Upside down or On its other side.
- Fast changes (X4 and X4 Pro, where the screen allows it): how menus and a moved selection are drawn. Panel's own (slowest, cleanest) is the choice at first. Quick, little ghosting, Quicker, some ghosting and Quickest, more ghosting are faster and leave more ghosts, which the next page turn or full refresh clears. See Troubleshooting.
- Front light (X4 Pro): 0 to 100 %, off at first. Light colour goes from cool white (0) to warm (100 %) and starts at 30 %. Light off after switches the light off when nothing was pressed or touched, and the next press or touch brings it back without turning a page: Never at first, or After 30 seconds, After 1 minute, After 2 minutes, After 5 minutes.
Sleep screen
- Show: what the screen shows while the reader sleeps. E-ink keeps it without power. A sleeping cat (at first), The book's cover, My pictures, The page with a picture, Widgets, The logo and "Sleeping" or The page as it is. Without a cover or a picture, the cat shows.
- Pictures folder: the folder for My pictures,
sleepat first. It takes JPEG, PNG and GIF files, one after the other. The page with a picture adds Picture position, Picture size and more.
Controls
| Setting | What it does | Choices | Starts at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Button layout | What the buttons do. Left-handed turns the tap zones round on a touch screen. Two buttons is for a device with two buttons or a page turner: a short press moves, hold forward to select, hold back to go back. | Standard, Left-handed, Two buttons | Standard |
| Swap the page buttons | Turns the two page keys round while you read, not in menus. | On, Off | Off |
| Arrow keys stay on the page | At the first or last entry of a page, the arrows go round on that page. Only the page keys turn pages. | On, Off | Off |
| Button response (X4 and X4 Pro) | How fast the buttons answer on battery. Faster answers sooner and uses more battery. Saving uses less, and a very short tap may be missed. | Saving, Normal, Faster | Normal |
With Arrow keys stay on the page off, the arrows go on to the next page after the last entry. The setting changes lists and grids, not how pages turn in a book. Some plugins from the store follow it only after an update. See Reading.
Buttons and gestures is a group of its own. It shows what every button, tap and swipe does and lets you change it. More controls, such as Long press, Bookmark corner and Hold for next chapter, are advanced settings.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi opens the page with your networks and these settings. It is there on the X4 and X4 Pro; elsewhere the system does Wi-Fi. See Wi-Fi.
- Connect when needed (on at first): Wi-Fi comes on when a plugin wants the network and joins a saved one. Switch off after switches it off after its last use: 1 minute at first, or 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes. On while charging (on at first) keeps Wi-Fi on in a saved network while the reader charges.
- Join first: Last picked (at first) or Strongest, when several saved networks are in reach. Device name is the name your router and other devices see.
Power
| Setting | What it does | Choices | Starts at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power mode | How PaperPaw spends the battery. Saving puts off what can wait. Offline keeps the radio off. You can also set it in the quick panel. See Power and sleep. | Auto, Normal, Saving, Offline | Auto |
| Saving below, Offline below | The charge below which Auto switches to Saving or to Offline. | 5 to 50 % and 0 to 30 % | 20 % and 10 % |
| Normal while charging | Auto chooses Normal while the reader charges. | On, Off | On |
| Sleep after | Minutes without use before the reader sleeps. 0 means never. | 0 to 120 minutes, in steps of 5 | 10 minutes |
| Switch off after sleeping | After about this long asleep, the reader switches itself off. A low battery switches it off even on Never. X4 only: the X4 Pro switches off at once. | At once, After 15 minutes, After 30 minutes, After 1 hour, After 2 hours, Never | After 30 minutes |
Date and time
- Clock: 24 hours (14:05) (at first) or 12 hours (2:05 PM).
- Week starts: As the language has it (at first), Monday or Sunday. Calendars and reading statistics use it.
- Time zone: Automatic (system) at first, or a zone from the list. If your reader does not know your zone, choose it here. The setup guide asks only when it needs to.
System
- Language: the language of menus and messages. More languages come as plugins.
- Hints (on at first): the first time a screen opens, a short note says what its controls do. Show hints again shows them once more.
- Community plugins (off at first): also shows plugins that others publish. They are not reviewed, and code plugins get full access. See Plugins.
- Clean up storage: removes what PaperPaw keeps for books it cannot find any more. It asks before it removes your places, bookmarks and notes.
Screen lock
- Screen lock: asks for a code when the reader starts and wakes. Off (at first), PIN, Pattern (touch screens only) or Password. Changing it asks for the code in use. After five wrong tries, the next try waits half a minute.
- Lock after waking up (on at first): when it is off, only a real start (power on or restart) locks, not waking from sleep. On the X4 on battery, every wake counts as a start. Lock now locks at once. The lock keeps others from casual use. It does not keep out someone who takes the files.
Updates
Updates (X4 and X4 Pro) opens Update, where you search for a new PaperPaw and install it. See Getting started.
- Look for updates (off at first): about once a week, while Wi-Fi is on anyway or the reader charges. A newer version waits in the settings, marked New.
- Beta updates (off at first): for testing, and they may have bugs. On a beta, the next beta comes anyway.
Set up PaperPaw and About PaperPaw
Set up PaperPaw opens the setup guide again, with the same questions as at the first start. See Getting started. About PaperPaw shows the version and the licences.
Appearance and Customise
| Setting | What it does | Choices | Starts at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Menu text size | The size of the text in menus, lists and the status line. Book text does not change. | 7 to 24 pt | 8 pt |
| Contrast | Strong draws gray hints and notes in black. | Normal, Strong | Normal |
The text size starts at 8 pt on every reader. A size you chose yourself stays. Advanced settings add Headers, Corners, Selected row, Lines between rows, Row height and more. Theme and Widget look show when plugins bring them.
Home screen sets Columns (3 at first), Rows (0 at first: as many as make the cells about square), Tool names (on) and Status line at the top (on). To change what is on the pages, see Getting started.
Profiles keeps named sets of reading settings. Customise menus moves, removes and adds menu entries. Manage plugins switches plugins on and off. Rules does something when something happens. See Plugins.
Restart and reset
A plugin you switch on or off in Manage plugins says Starts after a restart. or Stops after a restart., and the bar at the bottom offers Restart now. The settings themselves apply at once. Restart at the end of the settings list asks first (Restart or Cancel). Your books and settings stay.
Reset to defaults at the end of a page puts that page's settings back once you answer Yes, reset. Folders, accounts and passwords stay.
Reset all at the end of the list does it for every page. Your language, folders, accounts and passwords stay. Buttons and gestures has its own Reset buttons and gestures.
Not answered here? Ask us