How to Read Webtoons and Manga Comfortably in Safari on iPhone
Webtoons and manhwa are made for phones: one long vertical strip, designed to be read by scrolling. But scrolling through a 60-panel chapter by thumb is the least comfortable part of the experience. You swipe too far and miss a panel, or stop mid-reveal to swipe again.
Here’s how to set up Safari on iPhone and iPad so reading comics feels as smooth as the artists intended.
Read from official sources
Official platforms like WEBTOON, Tapas, Tappytoon, Manta and MANGA Plus pay the creators, load faster, and don’t bury chapters under pop-ups. Many have free chapters and work well in Safari. Everything below works on official sites.
1. Give the comic the whole screen
- Hide the toolbar. In Safari, tap the page menu button in the address bar and choose Hide Toolbar. Tap the top or bottom edge of the screen to bring it back.
- Use the compact tab bar. In Settings → Apps → Safari, choose the Compact tab layout if your iOS version offers it, so the address bar takes less space.
- Add your favourite site to the Home Screen. Tap Share → Add to Home Screen. Many sites then open with less browser chrome around them.
2. Make long sessions easier on your eyes
- Dark mode. Most comic sites follow your system appearance. Turn on Dark Mode in Settings → Display & Brightness – the gutters between panels turn dark instead of glaring white.
- Night Shift for evening reading: Settings → Display & Brightness → Night Shift.
- Don’t let the screen dim. If you read at a slow pace, extend Auto-Lock so the screen doesn’t sleep mid-chapter.
3. Save data and battery
- Low Data Mode (Settings → Mobile/Cellular → Mobile Data Options) reduces background data use when you’re reading on mobile data.
- Close other tabs. Comic pages are image-heavy; fewer open tabs means smoother scrolling.
- Content blockers from the App Store can block ads and trackers on unofficial sites, which speeds up loading. Turn them on in Settings → Apps → Safari → Extensions.
4. Let the strip scroll by itself
This is the change that makes the biggest difference. A Safari auto scroll extension moves the strip at a steady speed, so panels arrive one after another the way they were laid out, and you don’t touch the screen until the chapter ends.
Glida is built for this:
- Smooth scroll for vertical webtoons and manhwa – the strip glides at a constant speed you choose.
- Page scroll for manga sites that show one page at a time in a long column – Glida moves one screen at a time on a timer, like turning pages.
- Per-site memory – set a faster speed for an action webtoon and a slower one for a dialogue-heavy manhwa site, and Glida remembers each.
- Pause with a tap when you want to linger on a splash panel, then tap again to carry on.
- On-page controls in seven styles, from a tiny dot that stays out of the art to a progress ring that shows how far through the chapter you are.
Set it up: install Glida, turn it on in Settings → Apps → Safari → Extensions (full guide), open a chapter, tap the Glida icon and press play.
Finding the right speed
Comics need a different speed from text, and different comics need different speeds:
| Format | Scroll type | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| Action webtoon, little dialogue | Smooth scroll | Medium to fast |
| Romance or drama manhwa, lots of dialogue | Smooth scroll | Slow to medium |
| Manga, one page at a time | Page scroll | About 10–15 seconds per page |
| Web novel / light novel text | Smooth scroll | Slow – match your reading speed |
The reading speed test gives you a personal starting point for each format.
Tip: start a little slower than feels natural. A scroll that’s slightly slow is easy to follow; one that’s slightly fast makes you rush every speech bubble.
On iPad
Everything above works on iPad, and comics look great on the bigger screen. Portrait is best for vertical webtoons; landscape works well for two-page manga spreads on sites that support them. If you read in bed or on a stand, auto scroll means you don’t have to reach for the screen at all.
FAQ
Does auto scroll work in the WEBTOON or Tapas apps? No. Glida is a Safari extension, so it works on these sites in Safari, not inside their own apps.
Will it work on every comic site? It works on the vast majority of websites, including sites that load more panels as you scroll. If a site puts its comic inside its own scrolling frame, Glida finds and scrolls that frame.
Can I read right-to-left manga with it? Glida scrolls up and down, and sideways on pages that scroll horizontally. Most manga sites present pages in a vertical column on phones, which works well with page scroll.
Looking for other ways to scroll hands-free? See every way to auto scroll on iPhone & iPad.