The tablet edition.
iPad and Android tablets, with a two-column reader that finally does long essays justice.
The pile, as it should be: patient.
A phone is a fine place to read four paragraphs and a poor place to read four thousand words. Tablets have always been the right shape for the kind of writing people keep on their stand — and Paperstand sits on them properly, rather than stretching the phone layout and calling it support.
Two columns, when the essay earns them
Held in landscape, a long issue sets in two columns at a measure of roughly sixty-six characters — the width typographers have argued for since long before screens. Short issues stay in one column, because two columns of three paragraphs is a pamphlet pretending to be a broadsheet. The reader decides per issue, from its actual length, and you can override it.
The stand, on a bigger table
The list and the issue now sit side by side, so moving between pieces does not mean leaving and returning. Your place is kept per issue and syncs across every device signed in to the same account, which means the paragraph you stopped at on the sofa is the paragraph you resume at on the train.
- iPad, including Split View and Stage Manager.
- Android tablets and foldables, with a layout that follows the fold.
- External keyboard shortcuts for the four things you actually do.
Offline reading is not here yet. It is on the roadmap, and it is a bigger piece of work than it looks.