Kindle firmware 5.8.5.0.2

[Axanar]

Just went to the Kindle page and saw a new Version of it. Haven't updated it yet!

[cvkemp]

I have updated my voyage, and pw2 not seen any thing new.

[bel3atar]

blank screen after reboot fixed.

[cvkemp]

Originally Posted by bel3atar

blank screen after reboot fixed.

I did not have that issue

[Isamilis]

Anyone can confirm, whether USE_ALT_FONTS still work? I used it on my PW3 (KFW 5.6.5). Many thanks!

[shamanNS]

@Isamilis: Are you claiming that USE_ALT_FONTS thing (as in adding custom font to Kindle's Aa menu, custom font shows up next to all the built-in fonts) worked on fw 5.6.5?? You're not confusing it with this the custom fonts hack which can only override fonts already listed in Aa menu window.

Because the first one used to work on any Kindle Touch and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Gen (up until firmware 5.3.9), without the need for jailbreak. It never worked on any firmware for PW2, PW3, Voyage, Oasis... because that hidden functionality was removed starting with firmware 5.4.0.

The second one requires jailbroken Kindle and should work on any future firmware 5.x.x, you just have to reinstall it each time your Kindle's firmware gets updated.

Or maybe you meant to ask about "FONT_RAMP" flag that enables user to redefine those 8 default font sizes? That is usable on PW1, PW2, PW3...

[Isamilis]

Hi shamanNS, I used USE_ALT_FONTS in my PW3 and Voyage with firmware 5.6.5 without any problem. No jailbreak needed. The fonts are not listed in A menu, but the book can recognise them once installed.

Originally Posted by shamanNS

@Isamilis: Are you claiming that USE_ALT_FONTS thing (as in adding custom font to Kindle's Aa menu, custom font shows up next to all the built-in fonts) worked on fw 5.6.5?? You're not confusing it with this the custom fonts hack which can only override fonts already listed in Aa menu window.

Because the first one used to work on any Kindle Touch and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Gen (up until firmware 5.3.9), without the need for jailbreak. It never worked on any firmware for PW2, PW3, Voyage, Oasis... because that hidden functionality was removed starting with firmware 5.4.0.

The second one requires jailbroken Kindle and should work on any future firmware 5.x.x, you just have to reinstall it each time your Kindle's firmware gets updated.

Or maybe you meant to ask about "FONT_RAMP" flag that enables user to redefine those 8 default font sizes? That is usable on PW1, PW2, PW3...

[dordale]

Originally Posted by Isamilis

Hi shamanNS, I used USE_ALT_FONTS in my PW3 and Voyage with firmware 5.6.5 without any problem. No jailbreak needed. The fonts are not listed in A menu, but the book can recognise them once installed.

Isamilis--Can you expend on this? If the fonts aren't offered as choices in the Aa menu, how do you choose them for the book you are reading?

I currently embed the font I want to use in my individual books and then choose the "publisher font" option. I'd love to be able to add the fonts to my reader rather than embedding them in each book.

Thanks!

[Isamilis]

Hi,

I read arabic books. The arabic font is really bad if it straight use original font from Kindle. So, I use USE_ALT_FONTS and put the fonts in fonts folder. The fonts should be in complete of Italic, Regular and Bold. After that, discoonedt Kindle and wait about 1 minute (or restart the kindle), then open the book, the arabic font is replaced automatically with the new font. I can only activate 1 font one time - so it's kind like substite rather than add new font. Also, this font doesnt appear in "A" menu (same thing also if I didn't use USE_ALT_FONTS, the arabic font also didn't appear there as well).

Sorry for my bad english.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by dordale

Isamilis--Can you expend on this? If the fonts aren't offered as choices in the Aa menu, how do you choose them for the book you are reading?

I currently embed the font I want to use in my individual books and then choose the "publisher font" option. I'd love to be able to add the fonts to my reader rather than embedding them in each book.

Thanks!

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Isamilis

I read arabic books. The arabic font is really bad if it straight use original font from Kindle. So, I use USE_ALT_FONTS and put the fonts in fonts folder. The fonts should be in complete of Italic, Regular and Bold. After that, discoonedt Kindle and wait about 1 minute (or restart the kindle), then open the book, the arabic font is replaced automatically with the new font. I can only activate 1 font one time - so it's kind like substite rather than add new font. Also, this font doesnt appear in "A" menu (same thing also if I didn't use USE_ALT_FONTS, the arabic font also didn't appear there as well).

I always thought that the USE_ALT_FONTS method doesn't work with PW2, PW3, Voyage and Oasis. (I use the font hack on my jail-broken PW2 to override code2000). I've got a couple of questions:

1. What font do you use as the replacement font and what are the file names of the Regular, Bold and Italic fonts that you use?

2. Did you change the stylesheet in your books so that it looks for your replacement font?

[Axanar]

Just a rought guess shot out of thin air!

USE_ALT_FONTS

Copy over your preferred fonts!

Load a HTML Page in your Beta Browser that prints out a sentence or letter of any font installed on your machine ?

*Alternative*

Create an empty book whose style sheet contains references to the fonts that you have installed using USE_ALT_FONTS way.

Not showing the fonts in the fonts selector doesn't necessary mean that the fonts aren't available. It only means that the representing code has been disabled / removed in the fonts selector.

Though! Maybe looking in that reader class might help ?

[Axanar]

Hmmmm ...

I wrote a small script that unzips all jar files and grep through them for specific capital letters files in /mnt/us/. USE_ALT_FONTS does not exist in any of the jar files within the /opt/amazon directory.

for i in `find . -name "*.jar"` ; do
	unzip -p "${i}" | grep -a -o "/mnt/us/[A-Z|_|-]\+"
done | sort | uniq

All above returns is this:

/mnt/us/CJK_FONT_RAMP
/mnt/us/CONTENT_FONT_RAMP
/mnt/us/CONTENT_INDIC_FONT_RAMP
/mnt/us/DISABLE_FLASH_ON_CHAPTER
/mnt/us/DONT_SHOW_ABOUT_COLLECTION_DIALOG
/mnt/us/DONT_SHOW_COLLECTION_SYNC_DIALOG
/mnt/us/DONT_SHOW_JIT_TUTORIALS
/mnt/us/DONT_USE_CLOUD_INDEX
/mnt/us/FONT_RAMP
/mnt/us/INDIC_FONT_RAMP
/mnt/us/INIT_DUMMY_PROFILES
/mnt/us/INIT_DUMMY_PROFILES_FROM_FILE
/mnt/us/NUM_SCRUBBER_CHUNKS
/mnt/us/READING_TIMER
/mnt/us/RFF_TOU_TIME
/mnt/us/SCRUBBER_POLLING_TIME
/mnt/us/UI_QUERY_VERBOSE

[Barty]

@Axanar: this may be a dumb question but are you sure it is actually using your font? If you rename USE_ALT_FONTS and the fonts folder and reboot does it revert to the ugly font?

[Axanar]

Originally Posted by Barty

@Axanar: this may be a dumb question but are you sure it is actually using your font? If you rename USE_ALT_FONTS and the fonts folder and reboot does it revert to the ugly font?

I am the wrong person to ask. I was curious myself because Isamilis claimed to be able to still use USE_ALT_FONTS. After grep'ing through the entire amazon directory of the kindle firmware (PW2 here) I found no traces of anything that loads or tests for USE_ALT_FONT. With other words it shouldn't be working at all. But let's wait what Isamilis has to say.

[shamanNS]

I wonder what would be the difference between CONTENT_FONT_RAMP and FONT_RAMP...