1. Match the theme to the light in your room
Bright white pages in a dim room is the worst combination. Switch to sepia in daylight — the warm tint mimics good-quality paper — and to dark mode after sunset. PDFcove keeps the theme per session and per device, so you only set it once.
2. Scale text up until lines feel calm
You should not be squinting. Bump the text size until a line of body text spans roughly 60–80 characters, then stop. Your shoulders will relax with your eyes.
3. Turn on focus mode for deep work
Focus mode hides the toolbar and surrounding chrome, leaving only the page. Combined with full-screen, it removes nearly every micro-distraction your eyes are drifting toward.
4. Read in pages, not endless scroll
Continuous scroll encourages skimming, which makes you re-read and tire faster. Switch to page-flip mode and treat each page as a small unit — read it, highlight what matters, turn the page. The rhythm helps both comprehension and stamina.
5. Take read-aloud breaks
When your eyes start to ache, tap read-aloud and let the page narrate while you look away from the screen, stretch, or close your eyes. Even a couple of minutes of listening instead of staring helps reset.
6. Highlight sparingly — your brain hates yellow walls
A textbook page painted entirely in highlighter is the same as no highlighter at all. Use the four colors as small categories (definition / example / question / important) and keep the marking light. You'll review faster and re-read less.
7. Pick up where you stopped, the next day
Closing the tab when your eyes are done is the right move. PDFcove remembers the page, the theme, and the text size per document, so tomorrow's session starts in the same comfortable state — no re-finding, no re-tuning.