[Kindle Touch] Font Hack

[Moonraker]

Originally Posted by Stino

Wow! This font hack even works on the new Kindle Paperwhite with firmware 5.3.0.
1.) just plug in the Kindle to your OS
2.) copy an empty file with name USE_ALT_FONTS to root directory of kindle (internally the root device is /mnt/us/)
3.) create an folder "fonts" (/mnt/us/fonts)
4.) copy your fonts to this folder (4 files for each font: Fontname-Regular.ttf, Fontname-Italic.ttf, Fontname-Bold.ttf and Fontname-BoldItalic.ttf)
5.) restart your Kindle and from now on you will see in the "Aa" menu of the standard reader app your own fonts as well
P.S. My Paperwhite is already jailbroken and so I don't know if the jailbreak is necessary for the font hack or not.

Re 2.) What type of file? is it a blank text file i.e. a notepad file?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Moonraker

Re 2.) What type of file? is it a blank text file i.e. a notepad file?

Just a file name, without any contents.

On *nix you would create the name of the empty file by:
touch USE_ALT_FONTS

Not sure how to do that on WinDoze, probably copy an empty file like the directions say.
Just be careful that WinDoze does not add a hidden ".txt" to the file name.

I.E: The file name is a "flag" significant if present or absent.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Moonraker

Re 2.) What type of file? is it a blank text file i.e. a notepad file?

Start Notepad, do not write anything into file, click menu File -> SaveAs and give it name USE_ALT_FONTS
A blank file is file with no contents, not a single byte, no content at all, so you can't say whether it is text, or binary or whatever ;-)

By the way, it seems to be working with *.otf fonts as well.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Stino

P.S. My Paperwhite is already jailbroken and so I don't know if the jailbreak is necessary for the font hack or not.

Doesn't have to be jailbroken. I tried it before jailbreak. Just firmware higher than 5.3.0

[Moonraker]

Thanks guys.

Can't believe how simple it was. Karma to you.

[aceflor]

... and Trebuchet is back ! thanks !!!!

[kathees]

Originally Posted by ixtab

@desirumguy: I have tried to find some tamil ebook in "real unicode" in .mobi format, but did not find any (I only found the ones in TSCII encoding in the thread you mentioned, but without installing the appropriate font, it obviously only displays garbage).

However, I have installed a thai ebook on the device, taken from the second post of this thread (downloaded the epub, and had calibre automatically convert it to .mobi).

It displays properly. (this is actually what I expected, since the KT comes with the Code 2000 font, which should support virtually all languages).

So my suggestion is, before you break your Kindle by installing some weird font hacks, give it a go with the installed font.

I tried a bit more, and created a small HTML test file which I converted to .mobi using this site. As far as I can tell, everything displays properly on the device. I'm attaching the files for reference, so you can check the results for yourself.

Again, this was verified to work on a *standard* Kindle with *no* font hack.

Hi,

When I use your attached file it works perfectly. I can read tamil. But when I converted a pdf using the same site it's not working. I mean it's just random characters which will appear when you don't have the required font. Can you tell me what we should exactly do if I want to read tamil?

Also in your html before converting have you used the unicode to create that?

Originally Posted by desirumguy

ixtab, Worked perfectly!!!

Thanks a billion for the timely advice, and efforts you took to test it. I am happily reading tamil in my kindle now, Thanks again!!!

Can you please explain what you have done to read tamil? It will be a great help...

[jglerner]

Originally Posted by knc1

Just a file name, without any contents.

On *nix you would create the name of the empty file by:
touch USE_ALT_FONTS
...

I.E: The file name is a "flag" significant if present or absent.

On Mac OS X use a terminal and type "touch USE_ALT_FONTS" and save it to your Kindle's root directory.
All other instructions are the same.

I have now the only item I didn't have, the fonts I like.

[techiemonkey]

adamselene, is there any way to display such a long list of fonts in the aa dialog of kindle touch?

[orpheus2011]

Could anyone kindly help me out here...I followed the instructions to get it working on my jailbroken Paperwhite with 5.3.1 installed to the letter, but when I press the fonts menu, only the six stock fonts appear - there is no trace of the additional ones. Please see the screenshot which shows the structure of my Kindle's internal memory. Could anyone kindly point out to what's wrong in my setup?

Many thanks

[Moonraker]

Could anyone kindly help me out here...I followed the instructions to get it working on my jailbroken Paperwhite with 5.3.1 installed to the letter, but when I press the fonts menu, only the six stock fonts appear - there is no trace of the additional ones. Please see the screenshot which shows the structure of my Kindle's internal memory. Could anyone kindly point out to what's wrong in my setup?

I have to select settings/settings/restart before my own fonts show up.

[orpheus2011]

Originally Posted by Moonraker

I have to select settings/settings/restart before my own fonts show up.

Thanks, I restarted manually several times and did the jailbreak too after creating the USE_ALT_FONTS and the fonts directory...but no change, I still get the six stock fonts in the Aa dialog. I went through all steps reading all posts here, but still nothing. Does it have to do with the ttf fonts on the Mac being different and somehow non recognised by the Kindle? Could anyone point me out to a free, open font set known to work?

Many thanks.

[Moonraker]

Thanks, I restarted manually several times and did the jailbreak too after creating the USE_ALT_FONTS and the fonts directory...but no change, I still get the six stock fonts in the Aa dialog. I went through all steps reading all posts here, but still nothing. Does it have to do with the ttf fonts on the Mac being different and somehow non recognised by the Kindle? Could anyone point me out to a free, open font set known to work?

I have Windows 7 and don't understand the Mac.

I am attaching a modified font that I created for you to try. This is the main font that I use.

[orpheus2011]

Originally Posted by Moonraker

I have Windows 7 and don't understand the Mac.

I am attaching a modified font that I created for you to try. This is the main font that I use.

Thanks, I tried these, but yet again - nothing new, same 6 stock fonts. Has anyone had success with Macs, should I try doing these steps through Windows?

[Moonraker]

I don't know. Perhaps someone else will help.

All I can add is that my Kindle is not Jailbreaked.