Kindle for iOS 4.9 released

Kindle for iOS 4.9 released has been released with a new font and a lot of other formatting changes. I haven't had time to test it yet, so hopefully this is an improvement.

What's New in Version 4.9

At Amazon, we've been hard at work to make reading on Kindle even better and more enjoyable. Several exciting improvements offer faster reading with less eye strain. Available today on hundreds of thousands of books, and coming soon to all Kindle books.

Faster Reading, Less Eye Strain
Hyphenation plus smoother word spacing result in faster reading with less eye strain. Improved character placement increases word recognition speed at any font size.

Beautiful Page Layout
Drop caps, text, and images that automatically adapt to always look great no matter what your screen or font size. Print-like layout dynamically adjusts for any combination of screen size and font setting.

Large Fonts, Without Compromises
Enjoy reading with larger font sizes without compromising your reading experience. Page layout and margins automatically adapt to look great with even the largest font sizes.

Bookerly - The Font for Readers
Bookerly is a new Kindle exclusive font designed for reading on digital screens. Warm and contemporary, Bookerly is inspired by the artistry of the best fonts in modern print books but is hand-crafted for optimal readability at any screen size. Bookerly is available on most Kindle books.

Just a quick glance at Bookerly and it looks like perhaps they used Caecilia and made it narrower like they do in the Kindles with Caecilia Condensed. No time yet to do a side by side comparison, but it certainly looks like Caecilia to me.

No new margin settings. Same boring three settings that will most likely never change. Same boring three line spacing settings too.

[kyteflyer]

Looks a bit like the old Mac "Bookman" font, to me. Don't like it much.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Kindle for iOS 4.9 released has been released with a new font and a lot of other formatting changes. I haven't had time to test it yet, so hopefully this is an improvement.

It will be an improvement for some ebooks. Here's Amazon's announcement:
http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=as_li_ss...HEQ6GU2X4TITAC

[brianca]

The hyphenation is something that's always made me crazy on Kindle. Nice to see some progress there.

I've always preferred Caecilia Condensed on Kindles over the normal Caecilia because it allowed more characters per line and thus fewer awkward line breaks or huge spaces between words. Bookerly does much the same as far as the normal Caecilia available on Kindle for iOS. I have long wanted Amazon to add Caecilia Condensed to the iOS version of Kindle. It does make for an improvement in character and word spacing, but I still think it looks very much like Caecilia slightly modified. But for me that is okay as Caecilia has long been my favorite Kindle and Kindle for iOS native font.

I still wish Amazon would allow us to adjust the margins down to a more realistic size. Even on my iPhone 6 Plus the stupidly wide margins (even at the most narrow setting) waste so much line space.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I still wish Amazon would allow us to adjust the margins down to a more realistic size. Even on my iPhone 6 Plus the stupidly wide margins (even at the most narrow setting) waste so much line space.

I've always wondered why Amazon hasn't allowed for lesser margins. I don't see how such wide margins are useful.

[LovesMacs]

After installing the update, I noticed that Kindle for iOS now displays the estimated reading time remaining. It may have done that before but I hadn't noticed until today.

Bookerly looks familiar but I haven't yet compared it to other fonts.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I've always wondered why Amazon hasn't allowed for lesser margins. I don't see how such wide margins are useful.

Wide margins allow you to read more quickly, because you don't need to move your eyes as much along each line. That's why newspapers are printed in narrow columns.

These typographical things are based on centuries of practical experience; they aren't arbitrary.

[kyteflyer]

I would still like to be able to make a margin choice. iBooks is horrible in that department. Worse than kindle

I want narrow margins too. Newspapers were always crappy to read because of the word spacing, word breaking, and handful of words per line. I cannot believe they were easier and more conducive to reading due to the narrow column. They were headache inducing. And now newspapers are all but extinct. Even an iPhone 6 Plus or any other large screen smartphone is still narrow enough to do away with the margins and still be able to see the entire line of text. Besides, I could care less about research. What works for an individual might be totally unique, so why not allow us to set the damn margins as we want them set. It isn't like it cannot be programmed or that the universe would implode if they allowed customized margins!

[tomsem]

At least the margins are very consistent/normalized on iOS now. On my Fire and the Android app, the margins are often bigger than they should be, depending on how the book was formatted.

[pwalker8]

For the most part, I like the Kindle update. I find the new font to be easy to read. Can't have everything, but I found it to be a worthwhile update.