[Kindle Touch] Font Hack

[ixtab]

This thread concerns the Kindle Touch only, and there probably won't be any software updates anymore. If you want to change the reader fonts on a Kindle Paperwhite (FW 5.3.1 required!), see this post.

Version 1.3.2



Download fonthack-1.3.2.zip (Firmware 5.1.*) or fonthack-1.2.zip (Firmware 5.0.*) from here and install according to the README file. It's not explicitly stated in that file, but of course the Jailbreak is required before attempting installation.

There is also a bug-fixed version of the freetype library that is optional on Firmware 5.0.*, but highly recommended on Firmware 5.1.*. See this post for more information.

Links to some pre-packaged fonts can be found in the Wiki. Feel free to add links to new packages there (provided the respective fonts can be legally distributed).

A note about fonts on the Kindle Touch:

• The Serif (S) font is what is used by default for reading books. This is also the font which is used for displaying the book titles and author names on the Home Screen.
• The Sans Serif (SS) font is used for displaying the Menu Items. You can also select this font to read books.
• The Condensed (C) font is only available for reading books, after selecting the appropriate entry ("condensed") in the display configuration dialog.
• The Monospace (M) font is only shown in rare circumstances, usually when system output is displayed to the user. This includes the "System" pane of FontHack itself, but also some of the hidden shortcuts of the Kindle, or possibly a few specially formatted passages of a book that you're reading.

Source code: https://bitbucket.org/ixtab/ktfonthack


Original starting post:

Spoiler:

Hi,

since this has been asked repeatedly here, I have looked into how the fonts on the KT can be changed.

(click here to see the old screenshots).

I'm attaching the files for reference. Note that I don't recommend or condone these exact fonts. I simply chose them because they drastically differ from the default ones.

Here's what I did:

# /tmp/hack/ contains the files from the zip
mntroot rw 
mkdir /tmp/root/.fonts
cp /tmp/hack/*.ttf /tmp/root/.fonts
cp /tmp/hack/99-ixtab.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/
cd /tmp/root/.fonts
mkfontscale
mkfontdir
fc-cache -v -f
killall cvm

I found the information from various sources, like https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kind...nd_3.x_Kindles http://charles-reace.com/Kindle_Hacks/fonts/ https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...complete_fonts http://www.freedesktop.org/software/...nfig-user.html to name a few.

It's pretty useful to run fc-match (sample usage: "FC_DEBUG=1025 fc-match -s sansserif") to find out what is going on.

Note that this seems to apply for the Java-based UI only. (E.g., the browser still uses the other fonts). I didn't bother to dig any deeper.

The key to the entire thing is the fontconfig .conf file. There is *a lot* that can be done in there, and I only did the bare minimum. This can certainly be improved. The sample file simply overrides the font which would normally be chosen as the preferred one with the one of the added fonts. Note that your mileage may vary, especially if you use a localized Kindle: the default font choice also depends on the locale!

Anyway... if you enjoy this kind of hack, this information is hopefully useful to get you started. Have fun!

[diba]

ixtab, I see you are using periodicals now as well ;-)

[ixtab]

well, I sort of had to, in order to debug the MessageFormat stuff

[victor_2203]

Is it possible to make a script which could be launched from the Yifanlu's GUI Launcher to make the font selection more easy? It would be great!! Be able to choose the font that you want from a visual menu.

[NiLuJe]

Ha, neat .

Good to know they use fontconfig more or less properly .

For those trying to figure this out, you might also want to check the fontconfig stuff in the K3 fonts hack (I went with a config a bit more intrusive, but the simple match->assign on the default font family used here is a neat idea ).

I still plan on checking this (ie. Fonts on the Touch) out in detail, as soon as they're available on the French KS... -_-".

One other thing to check: If you use a font with bigger glyphs, and a part of the UI text overruns, does it still horribly breaks the UI, or is the text cropped?

[JustAMan]

I experienced issues while translating - sometimes translated stuff was too big and it was cut in "random" place (that is, in the middle of the word) and ended with "...". No UI broken, though.

[diba]

So still to be very careful with the lenght of expressions in translation. Some things are gonna be changed after seeing them in the buttons.

[JustAMan]

Yup, I had to rewrite several translations up to four times until they suited my sense of wellness

[jglerner]

Oh... I´m dreaming again on my lovely Georgia fonts...
I´ll watch this thread daily until we can have our preferred fonts back.
Just keep us updated, please!
P l e a s e . . .

[ixtab]

I personally will probably not put much more effort into this, because I don't see a reason to change the fonts.

My post was just meant to give pointers on how to get started to other devs who are interested in this. If you want to change fonts, get your hands dirty and put some effort in it

[jglerner]

I would be satisfied if I´d more than one choice of font like there´s on the Nook Simple Touch, I think I´m not asking too much, If BN can do it why not Amazon?

[hybernation]

Originally Posted by jglerner

Oh... I´m dreaming again on my lovely Georgia fonts...
I´ll watch this thread daily until we can have our preferred fonts back.
Just keep us updated, please!
P l e a s e . . .

I have georgia (a nice fat bold one) working on my KT.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=163

After I fattened up the default fonts I replaced the condensed one with a Georgia I doctored up from the windows ttf file.

[jglerner]

hybernation!

You're the best! Thanks a bunch!

[zamana]

A doubt: after you apply this procedure, the stock fonts are lost?

Thanks.

[ixtab]

hybernation's procedure, yes.
fontconfig procedure, no. (it was from the beginning designed to be as unintrusive as possible; it still obviously has to modify the font cache and /etc/font/conf.d directory, but both of these are easily "reversible")