On e-ink, the volume rocker turns the page. Everywhere. Books, comics, web pages, articles, the feed list, the inbox, the day page: press down for the next screen, up for the previous, and the page changes at once with no glide, which is exactly what e-ink is good at. Two quick presses go back.

Where it works

• Books and comics. The next page, the next panel in panel mode, the previous with up.
• The Net. A web page steps one screen at a time, so a long read is a series of pages rather than a scroll.
• Articles and letters. A feed article or an email pages the same way.
• Lists. The feed list, the inbox, the Notebook and the Log advance a screen per press.
• The day page and notes. Down moves to the next page of a note; on the day walk, the same buttons step Today → All Stars → All Picks → note.

Which buttons

Boox tablets emit either volume keys or page keys from their side buttons depending on the model; Ledgable accepts both, so whatever the device calls them, they page. On a phone-shaped e-ink device the volume rocker on the edge does it. A Bluetooth page-turner clicker that sends volume keys works too.

Double-press goes back

Two presses of the same key within a third of a second is Back, the same gesture Boox uses system-wide. The first press still pages immediately, so paging never waits to find out whether a second press is coming; a stray page turn on the screen you are leaving is the price of instant paging on every other press.

Why it matters

Reading on e-ink is about not touching the screen. A thumb on a rocker, a page that appears whole, no swipe, no animation, no smear. Ledgable is built so a whole evening of reading, books, articles, mail, can be done with one thumb.

On iPad and iPhone

There the page is turned by tap or swipe, as iOS expects, and a Bluetooth keyboard’s arrow keys and space bar page the reader.