KOReader on Kindle – Mystery Fonts

[Fussbudget]

Hi everybody :-)

On my recently jailbroken Kindle Scribe (1st gen.), KOReader’s font menu lists a number of amateurish novelty fonts:

Ankle Biter Mono B
Ankle Biter Single B
Cadia Mono
Cadia Single
Florio Mono
Florio Single
Intruding Cat Mono A
Intruding Cat Single A
Juicy Gossip Mono A
Juicy Gossip Single A
Kadigan Mono D
Kadigan Single D
Notewright Mono
Notewright Single
Rainy Winter Mono D
Rainy Winter Single D
Salty Dish Mono A
Salty Dish Single A
Sunroom Mono
Sunroom Single
Tragic Marker Mono A
Tragic Marker Single A

I didn’t consciously install these fonts nor – apart from dictionaries – any additional packages, plug-ins, themes etc. KOReader on my Kindle Voyage doesn’t have them. So I wonder how they arrived on my Scribe. Were they introduced during the Véra jailbreak?

Anyway, I would like to get rid of them. But when I look at the Kindle Scribe’s directory (via USB File Manager, on a Mac) I can’t see any corresponding files, neither in ./fonts, ./koreader/fonts nor anywhere else. (However, there are some legitimate fonts whose files I can’t see, either, eg Code2000 or STHeitiTC.)

Any ideas how to remove these unwanted fonts greatly appreciated!

[mergen3107]

What’s your firmware version?

[Fussbudget]

Kindle 5.19.6 (4832190042)

[mergen3107]

I don’t think these are system fonts.
Make sure you fully removed UI plugins. They sometimes ship with their own fonts.

[Fussbudget]

Originally Posted by mergen3107

I don’t think these are system fonts.
Make sure you fully removed UI plugins. They sometimes ship with their own fonts.

I never installed *any* plug-ins.

[mergen3107]

Ok, someone else confirmed on Discord that 5.19.6 has these fonts.
They are system fonts, so I would NOT recommend messing with them.

Instead, you can open a feature request on KOReader’s Github page to allow hiding fonts from the UI. It is not currently implemented

[Fussbudget]

Mergen3107, thank you for following up on this!

Originally Posted by mergen3107

Ok, someone else confirmed on Discord that 5.19.6 has these fonts.
They are system fonts, …

Does that mean these fonts are part of the original firmware provided by Amazon? I doubt it.

Or rather, that they were installed in the process of jailbreaking firmware 5.19.6?

Originally Posted by mergen3107

… so I would NOT recommend messing with them.

I see, but—how exactly would I go about messing with them if I wanted to? :-)

Originally Posted by mergen3107

Instead, you can open a feature request on KOReader’s Github page to allow hiding fonts from the UI. It is not currently implemented

Actually, I do want to know what has been installed on my devices, and for what purpose. Hey, I didn’t choose my user name at random.

[Ebookus]

do you understand what a jailbreak is? jailbreak does no install anything at all.

[mergen3107]

Yes, they are. Most probably some of their font licenses expired so they got new ones. At least Caecilia was removed.

Those are non-text fonts with symbols and stuff, which is 99% used somewhere in the system. So please careful

[mergen3107]

If you really want to mess with them, here be dragons.
Make sure to install usbnetlite + two-file auth + enable on boot.

System fonts are usually in /usr/java/lib/fonts/ folder. However, I don’t think if you delete them they will disappear, since most of the system stuff is deployed with squashfs. Which you also can edit…

If you still think that this “fuss” is worth doing instead of a simple FR on Github, then who am I to stop you

[latepaul]

Another way to make changes is if you edit koreader.sh.

There's a couple of lines like this:

# export external font directories (In order: stock, stock custom (both legacy & 5.9.6+), stock extra, font hack)
export EXT_FONT_DIR="/usr/java/lib/fonts;/mnt/us/fonts;/var/local/font/mnt;/mnt/us/linkfonts/fonts"

If you remove /usr/java/lib/fonts from that list it won't show any of the fonts in that directory. Then you don't have to actually delete them. Of course if you want some but not all then you probably want to copy the fonts you do want into another directory, /mnt/us/fonts for example.

I'm not really an expert on this so take it with a pinch of salt but I did try it out and it seems to work.

[mergen3107]

Keep in mind that you would need to edit koreader.sh every time you update KOReader though