Font, ScreenSaver & USBNetwork Hacks for Kindle 2.x, 3.x & 4.x

[bartveld]

Personally, I like to read in Times New Roman, but that font isn't rendered very well on the Kindle. Of course I can try out all the fonts I have installed on my PC one by one, but I wonder if anyone has tried out serif fonts with good results, i.e. not fuzzy, not too thin etc.

[mubertmumphrey]

I'm using Adobe Garamond Premier Pro in semibold, and it looks excellent. Adobe Garamond is the font used in the Harry Potter series. The font was otf format, so I converted it to ttf using High-Logic FontCreator for Windows (which seemed to do a better job that than the open source program FontForge, unfortunately). I'll post pics when I get a chance.

[nubreader]

@NiLuJe

hey mate, i am back.
couldn't get it to work...
will stick with the default fonts then..

but thanks again!! for the support

Edited

hard to give up.. i gave it one more go without the fontin package.
install the font hack fresh.
overwrote the fonts with helvetica2
auto-reboot, no go..
did a hard reset.. .. no go. (it always end up with the task bar and the "boy reading under the tree" picture on the home screen)

looks to be I am fated to stay with the default fonts
dun matter, am still happy with my SS

[nubreader]

dun mind this post..

[flandroid]

Originally Posted by mubertmumphrey

I'm using Adobe Garamond Premier Pro in semibold, and it looks excellent. Adobe Garamond is the font used in the Harry Potter series. The font was otf format, so I converted it to ttf using High-Logic FontCreator for Windows (which seemed to do a better job that than the open source program FontForge, unfortunately). I'll post pics when I get a chance.

I'd love to see pics. I tried Garamond Premier Pro regular and was less than impressed, and if you post pics I can compare yours versus what I might get converting my semibold with a web tool.

If you do post some, could you also mention which size you're using on the Kindle?

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@nubreader: Yeah, I imagine . That's why I went the package way first, it should be completely "scary screen" free .

@jswinden: Yeah, the rendering engine settings are now pretty unforgiving to crappy hinting in fonts... Unless you know how to tweak them and are willing to spend possibly quite a bit of time with trial and error, it's harder to get a 'nice' rendering on the first try. And even then, it's a matter of taste in how you prefer your fonts to look (ie. the endless fuzzy vs. crisp battle ^^).

Well you gave it a good try and I'm certainly grateful to you for doing so. I really like the screensaver hack. Fortunately as far as fonts go I really like the K3 sans serif font, but I prefer it in bold. So for now I will just convert my books with calibre and add the body { font-weight: bold; } CSS statement to make all the text bold. That works well, but of course the bad part is that converting an Amazon book means that it can no longer be synced with other devices. But for me that is not a big issue.

Thanks for all your work!

[NiLuJe]

@gargoyle67: It's not a full hack, it's just the fonts, so, no don't uninstall anything.

@Tvangeste: Yeah, I might have to tweak the SSHD startup again to really handle stale pidfiles properly. And start the hack later, because I guess the actual firewall init script is started later, which would explain why that didn't work .

@nubreader: Er, just to be sure, have you tried the Fontin package, or not?

[nubreader]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@nubreader: Er, just to be sure, have you tried the Fontin package, or not?

no, not too sure when to use it.

1.on a fresh hack install
2.on a failed font swaped
3.on a failed font swap but have the default fonts back on
or
4.after i uninstalled the font hack

not too daring to venture

[NiLuJe]

@nubreader: You just need to have the fonts hack installed & active .

Just to make sure the framework isn't already doing crazy stuff, it may be better for this test to try this on a fresh hack install, but anytime after the font hack install should be fine .

[nubreader]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@nubreader: You just need to have the fonts hack installed & active .

Just to make sure the framework isn't already doing crazy stuff, it may be better for this test to try this on a fresh hack install, but anytime after the font hack install should be fine .

supposedly if the package does work,
thereafter, will the drag and drop route still work for me?
or do i have to package the fonts each time i wanna to try a new font?

[NiLuJe]

@nubreader: You'll probably have to package font yourself, yep. :/

@Tvangeste: /etc/sysconfig/iptables is part of the rootfs checksumed files, so if it ever gets updated, that update will fail. I'm pushing v0.21.N now, which *should* fix both issues

Bump USBNetwork to v0.21.N

* Fix SSHD stale pidfile handling. it should now start correctly even after a crash/hard-reboot with usbnet enabled.
* Fix SSH over WiFi when using the auto feature.

[nubreader]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@nubreader: You'll probably have to package font yourself, yep. :/

@NiLuJe: any idea why the usual drag and drop isnt working for me?

[gargoyle67]

Well I did go ahead and un-install the font hack before trying the one on the other page Needless to say I got an error with the update, Now when I try to re-install the font hack I just get a U007 error I take it I need to some how un-install the update hack ? but you didn't include an un-install for the update

[NiLuJe]

@nubreader: Not really ^^. I'd guess some kind of weird framework+fuse issue, where each one is trying its best to keep hold of the file... One another weird idea would be to try to switch fonts only when the Kindle is asleep, but that's pretty much a shot in the dark ^^

@gargoyle67: Er, the font package is just that, fonts. It won't do anything except put 12 files in a directory without the fonts hack . So, really, it doesn't need an uninstall, it just puts files in the linkfonts/fonts directory .
And an U007 error usually means that your Kindle is not jailbroken .

EDIT: Just tried (again), the Fontin package, and it works fine here. It did convince me to switch Sans & Sans_Bold to the unhinted ones, because the hinting on these ones is horrible .

[nubreader]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@nubreader: Not really ^^. I'd guess some kind of weird framework+fuse issue, where each one is trying its best to keep hold of the file... One another weird idea would be to try to switch fonts only when the Kindle is asleep, but that's pretty much a shot in the dark ^^

will that have any adverse effect? i mean swapping fonts when the device is asleep?
the thing i dun understand is, how is it so that, it is working for the others but not for me.. lol.
it is the same device, no?