: : Red Dog's Travels : :: January 2012

Saturday, January 28, 2012

SOLVED: iPhone Safari Text Reflow Issue

If like me you've been quietly cursing Apple for stubborn and myopic attitudes with regards text reflow support on iPhone Safari browser, then you'll be pleased to hear that an elegant solution is now here.What is text reflow some of you may ask? Well if you read this forum post on your iPhone, you will see that when trying to zoom in and view the text, the text does not wrap allowing you to elegantly speed read, flowing up and down the page with a flick of your thumb. Instead, you have to squint and swipe left and right to view the text. Despite numerous requests from users, Apple's response has been that text reflow is not necessary because of Retina display. But no matter how sharp text on a screen may be, it is not enjoyable having to squint to read and digest content on your device. Moreover, on that note, why do visually impaired users have to connect their iPhones to Itunes in order to enable Accessibility features? Why not have this feature available from either the application menu or iPhone settings.

For Android users, this is not an issue. As to my knowledge, all devices support well implemented text reflow by default, but if you're thinking of jumping ship all is not lost. Enter Mercury browser for the iPhone. Must admit I stumbled across this alternative browser because it was mentioned alongside Atomic browser as supporting text reflow. I normally don't search for alternative iPhone browsers as Opera and Dolphin for iOS I found lacking compared to the stock Safari.

Well a quick check of both Atomic and Dolphin previously installed and forgotten on my iPhone 3GS showed that whilst Atomic provided text reflow support, it was not smooth, and there were a few text elements overlapping. So I downloaded Mercury browser and was blown away! A really elegant and cool interface, that blows Safari out of the water. with full accessibility features. No gimmicky iOS 5 hit READER button solutions here. Just full and true text reflow at a touch of a button. No need to ditch your iPhone for that Samsung Galaxy S2 you've been eyeing.