Reader

Tsumihon includes a full-featured reader with four page layouts, three reading directions, intelligent page preloading, and a distraction-free interface that gets out of your way while you read.

Reading Layout and Direction

These are two separate settings, and keeping them separate is what lets a right-to-left book be read one page at a time on a phone and two-up on a tablet.

Reading Layout — how pages are arranged:

Single Page — one page at a time.
Horizontal — continuous horizontal scroll.
Double Column — two pages side-by-side, the way a printed book opens. Best on a tablet or in landscape.
Vertical — continuous vertical scroll, which is also the webtoon layout: pages flow as one strip with no breaks.

Reading Direction — which way the pages advance:

Right to Left — the traditional Japanese direction, matching the layout of Japanese publications.
Left to Right — standard Western direction, for translated or Western-style comics.
Top to Bottom — traditional webtoon.

Image Fit Mode — how each page fills the screen: fit to width, fit to height, fit to screen, or original size.

Setting the Reading Direction

Reading direction can be configured at two levels:

Per-book — set the reading direction on any individual book’s detail page. This overrides the global default for that specific book.
Global default — set a default reading direction in Settings that applies to all books that do not have a per-book override.

This flexibility means you can keep RTL as your default for Japanese-layout books while switching individual Western comics to LTR without changing your global preference.

Gesture Controls

The reader responds to standard touch gestures for a natural reading experience:

Tap left/right edges — advance to the next or previous page (sides are swapped in RTL mode).
Swipe horizontally — flip between pages in paged reading modes.
Swipe/scroll vertically — navigate pages in vertical scroll and webtoon modes.
Tap center — toggle the reader overlay (page controls, progress bar, navigation).
Pinch to zoom — zoom in on a page for detail viewing.

Page Preloading

To ensure smooth, uninterrupted reading, the reader preloads upcoming pages in the background. As you read, subsequent pages are fetched and cached ahead of time so they display instantly when you navigate forward. This is especially important for online reading where pages are loaded from a remote source.

Distraction-Free Mode

When the reader is active, the app’s sidebar navigation is automatically hidden to maximize screen space for the content. This distraction-free mode ensures that the full display area is dedicated to the pages you are reading, with no persistent UI elements competing for attention.

Reader controls (page slider, navigation, settings) are accessible by tapping the center of the screen, and they auto-hide after a brief period of inactivity.

Reading Progress Tracking

Tsumihon automatically tracks your reading position for every book. When you return to a book, the reader resumes from the last page you viewed. Progress is saved continuously as you read — there is no need to manually bookmark your place.

If you have cloud sync enabled, your reading progress is synced across devices so you can pick up where you left off on any device linked to your account.