iPhone Text Wrap/Word Re-Flow Discussion Page
September 5th, 2010
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by Carlton Flowers · Filed Under: Uncategorized
TEXT WRAP, WORD WRAP, TEXT REFLOW – WE WANT IT ON THE IPHONE!
The purpose of this blog page is to discuss the lack of text reflow (also called “word wraping”, “text wrapping”, and other names) on iOS4 with the iPhone 4 and 3GS. I am the proud owner of my second Apple smart phone device, the iPhone 4. I rely on my iPhone to read articles and information on the internet to stay on top of breaking news in the areas that I do business. But the biggest annoyance that I have with my iPhone 4 is horizontally scrolling from side to side when reading articles after you have zoomed in on the text to make it more readable.
I had the opportunity to check out 2 Android devices and noticed that they both wrap the text dynamically when you zoom in. They are Sprint’s Evo 4G and Verizon’s Droid X. You can zoom in on the text of an article and size it large enough that makes reading easy. When you zoom in far enough to have 2 to 3 words width and flick the page downward, you can speed read an article with incredible ease. This is a huge huge benefit to me, since reading is one of my primary uses of my smart phone.
I would imagine that the brains over in Cupertino could easily figure this out and update iOS4 to enable this function. But up until now, all I have discovered are excuses. I’ve been told that you don’t need word re-flow because it messes up the alignment of pictures. I could care less about the alignment of pictures when my primary purpose is to facilitate rapid reading. I’ve also heard the excuse that the Retina Display of the iPhone 4 is so good, you don’t need to zoom in that far because the text is so clear. That actually is more lame of an excuse than the first.
As great of a device that the iPhone 4 is, this is the one black eye that I want to see fixed. I am now aware that I’m not the only iPhone geek out there in the world who wants to see text wrapping happen on iOS4. Now we have a place to gather and discuss this issue. My goal is to build a following large enough that we actually have our voices heard by the techies at Apple headquarters.
I want Apple to remain on top of the pile of all the new smart phone devices. I’m tired of seeing all these new Android devices coming with the one feature that I miss the most. Let’s help Apple understand that this benefit is worth the effort they will have to take to provide this to their loyal followers. Please make a brief comment if you would like to see text wrapping enabled on iOS4. If you are against text-wrapping for some strange reason, or if you think it is of no benefit, don’t post here. Let this page remain for those that want this feature. Thanks, and let’s get this discussion going!
Carlton Flowers
iPhone Geek
UPDATE! I have found a temporary solution to the text reflow issue with the Safari browser! Read about it in my latest blog post here:
http://carltonzone.com/blog/quasi-text-reflow-on-an-iphone/
I agree with you entirely about the lack of text reflow on the iPhone. It is (almost!) a deal breaker for me too. Keep pushing!
One year later and several more blog posts about this, and still nothing. Apple just refuses to address this.
When increasing font size with wrapping, the size of ALL fonts must be increased… otherwise the feature is useless. Consider the web page below:
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/io/datastreams.html
This page contains discussion text and a different font for the code examples. I’ve found iPad browsers that will resize and reflow text, but none that will resize the text of the code examples at the link above.
I completely agree that this feature should have been one of the very first features implemented in the Safari browser. The fact that Apple refuses to address this issue makes me furious. I made the switch, after many years of frustration, from PC to Apple. But if Apple insists on ignoring the needs of its customers then I will just switch again to Android. Don’t know about the rest of you but I will not put up with this kind of nonsense.
I agree. It is a crime not to have this. It is relatively old tech so why one earth it isn’t on ios5 when other competitors are useing text wrap. You spend a lot of money on iPhone/iPad and unexpect simple things like this to be on them or at least aps to allow the function but nothing exists.
I think that there’s not too much out there on this because most iPhone users are progressive users, what I mean is that when the iPhone first came out they got one then upgradeds through to the curt one. When the iPhone first came. Out txt wrapping was new and if they have not gone back to android or other systems they probably don’t even know it exists. Which may account for the lack of support for this very important blog.
I think apple aren’t interested as the guys up high don’t read much on there’s, they have well paid PA,s to read for them. And people that don’t read much on there’s is fine however haveing this function won’t affect them so why not have it. I never use the camera on my phone as I have a proper slr that dosnt mean I moan that the camera should be taken off.
Apple need to sort this out, they pride them self on ease of use and user experience and this is serverly affecting web browsing experience
Fix it it’s easy to do!!!
Without a doubt. I’m even considering switching over to evo for that feature only. I also do lot of reading on my iPhone regarding web pages, forums, new articles and so on. As it get later in the evening it gets more difficult for me to see the words. As a matter of fact, i think my eyes have gotten worst because I use my iphone so much. But now, I’m finding myself at times being reluctant about using my iphone because I anticipate on it not being an uncomfortable reading experience. I love my iphone but when I saw the evo word wrap I hoped that iphone would then realize the need for that feature. If they don’t adopt that feature soon, I’m going to have make a switch for health reasons!
Did you ever pull the trigger on that EVO 4G, Paul?
While not a user of an iPhone but an iPod touch 4g I totally agree. I have really poor vision but find the device very useful despite this fact. However, I am about out of mind over this issue. How hard can it be to wrap the text so we don’t have to swipe back and forth and back and forth. If I do go to buy a smart phone in the future it won’t be an Apple unless this is resolved. I too have looked at the Android phones and love the browser. When I saw how it wrapped the text so well, I was like how hard can it be and how can such an innovative company be so stubborn by omitting this feature? Apple products are great but what appears to be Apple arrogance may be their down fall. The Apple stock bubble just might pop.
This is the dealbreaker for me on the iphone. I can’t read text that small without eye strain.
Excellent posts! It is nice to know that I am not the only frustrated person out there regarding this issue. I agree with everyone thus far. This is such a small fix, yet Apple seems to find no reason to address it. Smart phones are often used as “mini” tablet computers. In my case, I would rather just use my iPhone than to purchase an iPad for $500 and have to worry about paying for another 3G service. I would be happy using my iPhone 4 to consume content on tech blogs and the likes if the text reflow problem was addressed. Get on it, Apple!
I totally agree with this – along with MANY other gripes I have with Apple’s arrogance that THEY know what’s best for us! Got some news for you Steve – not in the UK where the HTC Desire outsells the iphone 4 on a 3 to 1 ratio with one of the networks. I so wanted to make the iphone 4 my next phone, especially as I know that I will get the ultimate in professional set-up service with them at the retail outlet point where they are brilliant on customer service but this is the deal breaker for me and it will now be an HTC Desire thank you very much! And Steve, if you’re not careful Apple’s next product may well be a LEMON if you don’t listen to people because the Android product is only going to get even better.
Good post, mate. HTC makes excellent devices, and I think you will be very satisfied with it. Did you ever make the purchase?
Excellent post Mike! I didn’t know that about the HTC Desire in the UK. That is very interesting. That kind of competition pushes companies to do better, so hopefully that will motivate Apple to connect with their loyal customers and be better listeners.
hey PDF Reader Pro app does that for iphone … i tried and its cool
That is a great app for iPhone. Thanks, Ahmed!
Agree 100%. It is a royal pain to scroll back and forth to read. I had the iphone 2G, 3G, 3GS, and then iphone 4. But once I tried Android with text reflow I sold my iphone 4 and stayed with Android just for this one thing alone. If iPhone had it I’d be back, but now there is now way I could use an iPhone 4 without it.
I am thinking about getting the Iphone 4, but text reflow is a MUST. As a lot of you guys say, it’s a deal-breaker for me too. Safari is great for a lot of things, but if I want to do a lot of reading very quickly, then I need something that wraps and reflows the text as I zoom. Word from some other Blogs is that the Atomic Browser App does this. Is everyone SURE there is not a SINGLE iPhone app available that does this? Any insight would be helpful. I agree with the writer of this blog, I can’t BELIEVE that this isn’t a bigger issue for iPhone users. I guess most of them don’t read. But scrolling back-and-forth, left and right CONSTANTLY while you’re reading is just nonsense. I guess a lot of iPhone users don’t read, or something….
Also, you would think it would be an EASY update to safari…
What about perfect browser or iCab? are you guys trying these? it doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but a secondary browser for heavy reading purposes is crucial. I want to get the iPhone, but I am waiting for someone to confirm that this is possible on the Iphone.
Ahmed – yes, it is a cool app! This is a simple programming task that can be done for Safari.
Lego – Thank you for posting this, and I have recently discovered Atomic Browser, and YES, it does have somewhat of a text reflow function. It is manual, meaning it will not correct the text when you zoom in, but you can select the font size on compliant sites (especially mobile sites) and it will reflow the text when the type gets bigger! This is the ONLY reason I haven’t ditched my iPhone. I am going to shoot a video and write a post to report about the Atomic Browser. Now I certainly don’t understand why Apple can’t get this fixed for Safari. You are right, it just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. It is just plain stupid. Who ever thought scrolling sideways was a good thing, while often waiting for graphics to reload each time you scroll over to finish a sentence? It’s beyond me. I laughed loudly when you said iPhone users must not read! That could be the case! Excellent post, I will respond. Stay tuned! Oh, and I will check out that iCab app too. Thank you!
I have a Samsung i760 that recently gave up.
I want the new iphone when it comes out on Verizon about January. If it doesn’t have text wrap, I’ll have to go with Android. I like the iphone, but the ability to text wrap is critical, to me.
Good post, Mike. Fortunately, there is a halfway-good solution to this. It’s called the “Atomic Browser”. It has resizing of text, and will reflow upon activation. It will not reflow the text when you pinch zoom, but it’s better than nothing. I wrote a new blog post about it here —> http://bit.ly/heXvPU
Text wrap in iOS a must for me as welll. I have heard that Mercury Web Browser for iOS does this now BUT I have yet to try. I still use HD2 wt WM6.5.3 and Opera Mini 9.7x which has excellent text wrap when zooming in on a website.
I also noticed that iPad email cleint allows you to zoom in on the body text of an email without text rewarppping. I cannot beliebve that the company who makes “computers for the rest of us” has not addressed both these issues.
My 2 cents.
Claude H.
Claude, I agree wholeheartedly. I shouldn’t have to buy a 3rd-party browser to get text reflow on my Apple device. I really don’t get why Apple is so hard-headed about this.
Just get it fixed, bump those silly apps, I’m too old to be fuss’n with these toggle switches, Please Steve Jobz, if it’s last thing u do!!!
Having used a HTC Desire for the last 8 months I recently changed jobs. My new employer issues iPhones. My new workmates were stunned to learn that text reflow existed on the android platform … they hadn’t realized what they were missing! As the CIO I am now extending our purchasing to include range of android handsets, and this option is being taken up almost always to gain text reflow, not just for the browser bu also for email, where it is equally important.
So wake up Apple … you are alienating otherwise devoted consumers because of a lack of insight into what they really want: a simple and easy way to read text on a small screen without squinting or scrolling.
As you no doubt guessed, I kept my HTC Desire, for the reflow and for swype … another thing Apple needs to look closely a including in the next release of iOS.
Just switched from Evo to iphone. Feel that the iphone is superior on every level, except for this one. I just called them to inquire, and was met with, “well, that’s how it’s intended to be.” Seems ridiculous to me, and like it should be an easy fix, if they so chose…
Forget iphone. HTC Thunderbolt’s huge 4.3 inch text reflow is a joy. Reading is easy, fun and profitable. Android forever. Cheers
Excellent comments, folks! I’m still stunned that Apple has ignored this issue altogether. I had hoped we would see this in iOS5. I don’t think it’s going to happen. And also, I’m a BIG fan of HTC. I am going to be purchasing a Samsung Galaxy S2 for myself, and probably 2 HTC Inspires for my college kids. HTC makes great devices. I will check out the Thunderbolt.
I sure hope the Apple patent infringement lawsuit against them doesn’t hurt them as a company. I also hope the results of that don’t spill over to other Android handset hardware manufacturers.
I currently own an HTC droid incredible and was anxiously awaiting the release of the iphone 5 for verizon,. The I love my phone but feel like I am missing out on a lot of better apps. I kid you not, then this whole text wrapping issue has completely changed my mind. There is absolutely no chance ill i’ve own an iphone unless safari is fixed. Apple is one of the most talented, and yet worst companies on the planet. The ill now be looking at the upcoming droid bionic instead. PS, as I was reading this on my phone the text was wrapping flawlessly.
Niq, it’s sad, but entirely true. I would add that Apple is HARD-HEADED. Why they have to be this stubborn I have no idea. I’m on an Android device now, and I’m staying put. Something I did find out, though, is that different builds of Android for different phones have different text reflow settings. For example, on my Samsung Galaxy S2, I can double tap and reflow the text using the native browser, but it will only allow me to zoom in one level. On a Droid X, you can pinch to zoom and it will dynamically reflow the text no matter how far in you go. I was a bit disappointed when I found this, but fortunately, the Opera Mini browser has dynamic text reflow, and I use it extensively. On the iPhone iOS version of Opera, there’s no pinch zooming OR text reflow. Sad situation. If you are still stuck with an iOS device, you can use Mercury Browser and Atomic Browser, but they don’t work on certain sites. I use my phone HEAVILY for reading. That’s why text reflow will ALWAYS be a deal-breaking issue for me.
Text reflow is essential for business communication.
It most certainly is, Dr. J!
My post on an Android tablet forum today (in response to an initial post saying that there was no word wrap in Google’s Android Honeycomb tablet version) is relevant to this discussion:
“Only yesterday did I confirm this ridiculous situation by going to Best Buy and seeing for myself what I had imagined to be the case. So today I Googled “Android tablet word wrap” and easily found this post.
I’m registering just to second it and hope that others will see it.
Unfortunately there is another fatal flaw with Android that affects both phones and tablets and that is the lack of any native accessibility. With Android you cannot change the size of fonts and this is an insult to older users with vision problems or indeed any visually-impaired person.
With an iPhone you can do this. I’m sorry to say that with Android you cannot.
Even the best informed, say at xda developers, strongly complain about this lack of accessibility.
Do we have to wait for Larry Page to turn 40 (coming up soon) and get his reading glasses?
It’s time for Google to meet their social responsibility to all users.
Android’s tablet OS should have word wrap (also called text flow) and at least vision accessibility.
If Google is consolidating their OS for phones and tablets let us hope that the next phone OS does not take a step backwards by removing word wrap from phones!”
So iPhones have accessibility but Android phones do not. Android phones have word wrap with the native browser but iPhones don’t.
And neither iPads nor Android tablets have native word wrap!
Correction: Looking at the new Motorola Droid Bionic today I see that Motorola phones do not have text reflow. (I confirmed this with a Motorola Photon).
So browser text reflow is not a characteristic of Android but a feature of HTC Sense.
I do not know if Samsung Android phones word wrap in the browser.
You are not correct. I have a bionic and it DOES have text reflow on regular websites. However, on mobile sites they cannot be made larger, much less choose text reflow. I use text reflow on regular sites all the time- it is why I got Android. You pinch and zoom, then double tap to reflow the text.
You have hit upon something, it is dependent upon the hardware manufacturer and NOT on Android, per se. My Samsung Galaxy S2 has partial text reflow. You can double tap, and it will in fact zoom in and reflow the text, but only on one level. You cannot continue to zoom in and get the text to cascade. But when using the Android Opera Mini browser, you have full dynamic text reflow on the Galaxy S2. ALSO, you have full reflow when using the Pulse news application. I am on Pulse all day long, and use it extensively. That saves the day for me, and now I do the majority of my reading on technology using Pulse.
I agree. I just bought an iPhone 4s after owning Android for a couple years and that one feature (text wrap) I miss a lot.
I was so glad to get rid of my iPhone 4 and get my hands on my Galaxy S2 you just do not know… I am reading MUCH easier now with the larger screen and text reflow. It is quite liberating!
Correction to wrong post about text reflow- Android has text reflow, period. Motorola phones have it also with Android. You pinch and zoom, then double tap.
More bad news- Windows Mango devices do not have text reflow. Looks like my aging eyes can’t go back to iPhone, can’t go to windows Mango, and will have to stay with Android.
No reflow for Windows Mango? Well maybe Steve Ballmer should spend more time researching the features of his operating system for improvements instead of bouncing all over the stage hollering like a ding dong.
I just switched from an Droid Incredible (Android) to the iPhone 4S and find the lack of text wrapping to be the biggest disappointment I have with the iPhone experience. I keep looking for a browser that will support it, but maybe it can only be fixed with an OS update. That there is no option to support this seems just insane. I used it constantly on my Android. Without it, I just don’t use the iPhone for reading much of anything. It is a phone; what a let down. I can only guess that it is not found on the iPhone because of some intellectual-property problem.
-Pat
Hello Pat! It is frustrating, and I feel your pain just like Bill Clinton himself. I don’t see Apple ever addressing this. They will always come up with some lame excuse. I have given up hope on that end. However, you do have a couple of browsers that you can use that will at least allow you to set the font size higher, and they reflow the text on most websites (some are not coded to allow for it). Go check out my post on the Mercury Browser here, and you will get the scoop! Thanks for commenting, and keep in touch! http://carltonzone.com/blog/a-new-iphone-browser-that-is-a-step-towards-perfect/
I don’t think that Apple actually has any intention to correct this problem ever. As long as their Web browser is next to useless for browsing 80% of the content, Apple’s app store keeps automatically growing when various content providers are forced to create apps for iPhone to make their stuff available in legible format. And Apple is happy to point out how huge app store they have – of course without a mention that 60% of the apps were created just to overcome the issues with iPhone’s Web browser.
On the other hand, Apple has listened to its users and provided the solution: the famous retina display. You just need to use a magnifying glass or microscope when Web browsing on iPhone. I’m sure there is already a plethora of accessories (eg iScope) available which make you look really cool when using your iPhone for Web browsing.
This site saved me from buying an iphone. Thanks. My wife has an ipod so i tested it and verified everything that people have said here I loaded Opera mini app and even though the browser has a setting for text reflow it does not work on apple.
I decided to buy an Android phone, and tested every phone available. I found that as others have that only HTC has full dynamic reflow. Motorola and Samsung only reflow to one text size by tapping. Only HTC does it with pinching to any text size. I want to get the upcoming Samsung Nexus to be available on Verizon but this issue may make this not possible. The current Nexus available from Sprint does not reflow and I cannot find anywhere if the new one will. It is ridiculous that I should have to load a browser on a “state of the art” phone, and these others do not do full dynamic wrap anyway. Does anyone know if Samsung have updated their browser?
Yes, we need a text reflow feature on the iPhone / iPad when using the built-in Mail application or the Mobile Safari web browser. After you pinch and zoom both of these apps should provide automatic text reflow to prevent you from having to constantly pan left and right on the screen.
I’m also a trainer / instructor and have found that my visually impaired students really need this basic feature that is standard on other mobile devices. It would also be great to be able to just touch and hold on a block of text and have the device just read it to you without having to copy and paste it into another text-to-speech app.
As a Desire owner, I confirm it is a key advantage of HTC Sense UI. I recently tried Samsung Galaxy S2 and hated the lack of text reflow. The Sense Phone app beats Samsung too.