Customizing your Kindle to fit all your needs is pretty easy. Here are nine tips to help you out.

Once you've equipped yourself with a Kindle, the indispensable companion to any book lover, you might think it's time to just settle into a good chair and start reading. But not quite.

There are a lot of settings you can change to enhance your reading experience on your device, from changing the display format to fiddling with the lighting settings. Here are eight tips and tricks to take your reading experience on Kindle to the next level.

What, you might wonder, is warm light? It's a feature available on some Kindles, which adds yellowness to the screen's white light. There are plenty of benefits to using warm light, including making it easier to fall asleep at night.

As we mentioned, not all Kindles can use warm light. At the time of this writing, this feature is only available on the Kindle Oasis 3, which came out in 2019, and the 11th-generation Kindle Paperwhite and the Paperwhite Signature Edition, which both were released in 2021.

Using warm light on your Kindle is pretty straightforward with any of these devices. Swipe down from the top of your screen to reveal the settings menu. Under Warmth, adjust the slider to whatever you want. The warmer the screen, the more orange the light will be (though the image below doesn't show it).

You can also create a schedule. Tap Schedule to open the Warmth Schedule page, where you can either input manual times you want the warm light to turn on or select Automatic. The latter adds warm light at sundown.

If Wi-Fi is on, sundown is calculated by reference to the actual times. If it's off, your Kindle will use generic times (e.g., 7 am and 7 pm) to dictate this.

While all modern Kindle screens are front-lit by a varying number of LED lights, auto-brightness is a feature available only on the Kindle Oasis and Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition. If you're not sure about which Kindle device you should buy, the extra features might be worth investing a little more on the more expensive devices.

With auto-brightness, the screen brightness adjusts automatically using an ambient light sensor. But if you're dissatisfied with the current level of brightness, you can adjust it manually, just like in the more basic Kindles.

Swipe down from the top of your screen to open up the settings menu. Above the warmth slider, you'll see the Brightness section.

Move the slider with your fingertip to your preferred level. You can even go all the way down to 0 if you feel like it. Note that this doesn't turn off the auto-brightness. You'll need the tick box next to Auto Brightness to do that.

As an alternative to reading at night using warm light, you may want to turn on your dark mode instead. This inverts the typical colors on your page, so the background is now black, and the writing is white.

The screen is still front-lit. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to see it in the dark, but the darkness means the light is much more muted. If you're lying next to someone in bed, you're less likely to disturb them with dark mode.

Swipe down to reach the all-important settings menu by swiping down from the top of your screen. Tap the rightmost icon, labeled Dark mode, which is illustrated by a half-shaded circle. And voilà—dark mode activated. If you want to turn it off again, just tap the button once more.

Your Kindle can display your reading progress in different ways when you're making your way through a book. This simply tells you what percentage of the book you've read, which is handy when you're doing things like updating your reading progress on Goodreads.

The options to show your reading progress are page in book, time left in book, time left in chapter, and location in book.

The time is calculated based on the speed at which you flip through pages. We've found that it can be a little off, but in general, it provides a pretty good estimate. Location in book provides a string of numbers that aren't generally very helpful, while pages match up to pages on paper books and are only available on Kindle-purchased ebooks.

To reach the progress menu, tap a page in your book somewhere near the top and tap the Aa button. Select More, and then tap on Reading Progress. This opens up the list of reading progress methods; choose one and tap back on the page of your book to close the settings and get back to reading.

While you may prefer not to see the clock while you're reading, to avoid getting distracted, being able to check the time without having to glance up from your screen is great.

To show a clock while reading, tap a page in your book near the top of your screen, click on the Aa button, and then tap More. Finally, toggle Show Clock While Reading on. You'll be able to see the clock right at the top of your screen. Ensure to turn on your Wi-Fi, which will automatically set the time.​​​​​​​

In general, Kindles come with two types of screensavers: you either see ads for random books or bland images of objects like pencil tips. You can, however, set up a third option (if you have a Kindle without ads, for which you usually have to pay an extra few dollars).

Assuming you don't care if everyone knows what book you've been reading, you can make the cover of your most recent book a screensaver as well.

Go to your Kindle's home screen and swipe down from the top of your screen to bring up the settings menu. Then, tap on All Settings. Now, select Device Options.

The first item you'll see on that page should be Display cover, which will show the cover of the book you're currently reading on the lock screen. Toggle this option on and tap the X button in the top right corner to exit settings.​​​​​​​

Now you have more exciting screensavers. Bear in mind, however, that this only works for books purchased directly from Amazon, not side-loaded ebooks, and will only work if your Kindle doesn't show ads when it's locked.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, you may not want anyone to get into your Kindle at all. This is where a device passcode comes in.

From Kindle's home screen, swipe down from the top of your screen to bring up the settings menu. Tap on All Settings and then select Device Options. Now tap Device Passcode, and this lets you set a numerical password that locks your Kindle.

Now, every time you turn on your Kindle again, you'll have to enter the passcode to get in. You can turn it off again easily by repeating the same steps.

You can do plenty to improve your reading experience, notably by changing how the words look on the page.

For instance, themes will let you change the spacing between the lines in your book. To change it, open a book and tap near the top of your screen to bring up Settings, which you're undoubtedly very familiar with. Tap the Aa button and make sure you're in the Themes tab. You'll see several different options available: compact, standard, and large.

The images demonstrate what the theme does. Large, for example, will create bigger spaces between the lines; compact will reduce them. Choose whichever theme fits all your needs. You can repeat the same steps to change to a new theme.

If you're struggling to read small words, you can also increase their size and boldness. Open a book and tap near the top of your screen. Tap the Aa button and then select Font, where you'll see sliders to change the font size on your Kindle. You can also play with the Bold settings, but this isn't available on a side-loaded MOBI book).

Tap the plus or minus signs to adjust the size. Note that, you can also change the display size on your Kindle to make navigating it much easier.

Reading on a Kindle can be pretty much what you make of it. Whether it's changing the screen color and brightness, choosing a new screensaver, or adjusting your font layout, there are countless ways to refine the Kindle experience, so reading is as effortless as possible.

Namera previously wrote for Book Riot and now covers entertainment technology for MUO, particularly relating to reading. She graduated with an English degree and is currently in law school. Hobbies include listening to true crime podcasts, reviewing books, and petting her cat Tiggy.

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