How to install custom fonts on kindle?

[chongjasmine]

How to install custom fonts on kindle? What steps do I need to take? Do I need bold or italics or bolditalics or regular, all of them or just one? Once I find the right fonts, what steps do I need to take to install it?

[Sirtel]

You'll need regular, italics, bold and bold-italics. Drag and drop the font files to the folder named "fonts" on your Kindle (I don't remember if this folder is there by default; if not, create it). That's it.

[chongjasmine]

So I need all 4 types to install a font in kindle?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by chongjasmine

So I need all 4 types to install a font in kindle?

Yes. Unless the books you read never have any bold or italics in them.

[BionicGecko]

Maybe just a precision to Sirtel's comment, you don't strictly need to install the italics and bold variants, i.e. you'll still be able to read your book, however the parts of the book in italics, bold, or both, will be rendered as standard text, so you will not see (or be aware of) the nuance the author chose to convey.

[chongjasmine]

Thanks, BionicGecko. That is what I want to know.

[chongjasmine]

How to name the font files so that Kindle can differentiate between regular, bold, italic or bold italic of the same font.

Also, some of the font I downloaded only have regular. How do I create bold, italic and bold italic version or such font?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by chongjasmine

How to name the font files so that Kindle can differentiate between regular, bold, italic or bold italic of the same font.

Also, some of the font I downloaded only have regular. How do I create bold, italic and bold italic version or such font?

You don't. You either find a font you like that has all 4 font families or you don't use it. I do suggest you remove your regular only fonts.

[chongjasmine]

How to name the fonts? I mean for instance, comic san. How to name the regular, italics, bold and bold italics of it so that the kindle knows they are variants of the same font.

[chongjasmine]

Also, can I save the variants of a particular fonts in a folder like for instance, save all 4 variants of comic san font in a comic san folder and paste the comic san folder in the font folder of kindle? Or must I paste only the fonts and not a folder in the kindle.
The reason I ask is because folders make it easier to keep track of the fonts.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You don't. You either find a font you like that has all 4 font families or you don't use it. I do suggest you remove your regular only fonts.

You're right in terms of what the OP should do.

But be maximally pedantic, with tools such as FontForge it is *possible* to synthesise bold and italic versions (bold basically being done by overlaying a copy of the original strokes on the new ones, offset; italic by skewing them), but honestly unless you already know what you're doing it'll be pretty painful and the result is unlikely to look very good. The font rendering library the Kindle uses actually has native code to do this but it needs explicitly turning on and the Kindle doesn't do that, probably *because* it doesn't look very good.

... though the crudity of fonts synthesised this way might be balanced out by the relative rarity of bold and italic in most books. But, oh dear, not all books. I wish people who put people's thoughts in italic didn't do it when that leads to the book having entire pages or chapters in italic, but alas such books do exist. From major publishers.

[chongjasmine]

Can I save the variants of a particular fonts in a folder like for instance, save all 4 variants of comic san font in a comic san folder and paste the comic san folder in the font folder of kindle? Or must I paste only the fonts and not a folder in the kindle.
The reason I ask is because folders make it easier to keep track of the fonts.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by chongjasmine

How to name the font files so that Kindle can differentiate between regular, bold, italic or bold italic of the same font.

You don't need to do anything to the file names...the Kindle software looks inside the font file to figure out the details (regular, bold, italic, etc.).

You copy the font files to the /fonts directory on your Kindle. If you create directories within the /fonts directory and put the font files there, the Kindle won't find them.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by chongjasmine

How to name the fonts? I mean for instance, comic san. How to name the regular, italics, bold and bold italics of it so that the kindle knows they are variants of the same font.

ComicSans-Regular.ttf
ComicSans-Bold.ttf
ComicSans-Italic.ttf
ComicSans-BoldItalic.ttf

There you go.

[chongjasmine]

Thanks.