Italic Bookerly appears bold on Kobo

Falafelteller · 04-18-2026, 10:38 AM

Hi, I uploaded Bookerly font to Kobo (don't judge) I edited the settings as described with Fontforge, unfortunately, italic appears bold italic on my Kobo Libra 2. That is probably? because I changed the font weight of Bookerly in advanced settings in my Kobo to less, to match my kindle. It seems though that only the weight of regular gets changed, not of italic. How can I 'fix' that?

Daniel Jackson · 04-19-2026, 02:06 PM

The weight setting in the font file itself and the weight setting on Kobo are two different things. The font file weight is fixed and will not be affected by the weight in advanced settings. Changing the weight in advanced settings should cause all variants of the font to display differently, and not leave italic unaffected. If you're sure you've followed all Font-Forge steps to change the weight in the font files correctly, the issue might just be the file names. Make sure they are exactly like this:
Bookerly-Bold.ttf
Bookerly-BoldItalic.ttf
Bookerly-Italic.ttf
Bookerly-Regular.ttf

Sirtel · 04-19-2026, 02:18 PM

If you downloaded the font from the internet, it may be faulty. It's well known that one of the Bookerly fonts floating around online doesn't display correctly on a Kobo. As I don't use Bookerly, I have no idea if you can fix it with FontForge or not.

DNSB · 04-19-2026, 02:44 PM

I seem to remember a while back, that if you opened Bookerly Italic with Font Forge and dug into Element => Font Info => OS/2 => Panose tab, the font weight was incorrectly set to Bold . If you changed it to Book or Medium—check the regular variant and use whatever was set there—and then recopied the font file to your Kobo, after a restart it displayed okay. OTOH, you might want to look for a newer Bookerly font set. 1.201 does not show this issue.

Edit: Check this from the Kobo section of the MobileRead Wiki: Fixing Custom Fonts To Display Correctly .

JSWolf · 04-19-2026, 07:16 PM

The problem with the faulty Bookerly was not an issue if you read room as RMSDK has very good font handling. KePub, not so good.

Colonel Cathcart · 04-20-2026, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

I seem to remember a while back, that if you opened Bookerly Italic with Font Forge and dug into Element => Font Info => OS/2 => Panose tab, the font weight was incorrectly set to Bold . If you changed it to Book or Medium—check the regular variant and use whatever was set there—and then recopied the font file to your Kobo, after a restart it displayed okay. OTOH, you might want to look for a newer Bookerly font set. 1.201 does not show this issue.

Edit: Check this from the Kobo section of the MobileRead Wiki: Fixing Custom Fonts To Display Correctly .

I had to do the Panose weight change for Bookerly 1.201 for it to display properly on my device a while back (double-checked the version to make sure I'm not mistaken).

Falafelteller · 04-20-2026, 10:41 AM

Rebooting the Kobo fixed the problem. Everything looks perfect now. I am not kidding.

fogice · 04-27-2026, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falafelteller

Rebooting the Kobo fixed the problem. Everything looks perfect now. I am not kidding.

Ah, yes. Always reboot the Kobo after installing or deleting fonts.

JSWolf · 04-27-2026, 01:59 PM

You don't need to reboot if these are new fonts (new to the Kobo). But if you update the fonts, then you should reboot.

04-18-2026, 10:38 AM	#1
Falafelteller Enthusiast Posts: 46 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2023 Device: Kindle Paperwhite SE, Kindle Oasis, Kobo Libra Colour	Italic Bookerly appears bold on Kobo Hi, I uploaded Bookerly font to Kobo (don't judge) I edited the settings as described with Fontforge, unfortunately, italic appears bold italic on my Kobo Libra 2. That is probably? because I changed the font weight of Bookerly in advanced settings in my Kobo to less, to match my kindle. It seems though that only the weight of regular gets changed, not of italic. How can I 'fix' that?

04-19-2026, 02:44 PM	#4
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 51,958 Karma: 180003020 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	I seem to remember a while back, that if you opened Bookerly Italic with Font Forge and dug into Element => Font Info => OS/2 => Panose tab, the font weight was incorrectly set to Bold . If you changed it to Book or Medium—check the regular variant and use whatever was set there—and then recopied the font file to your Kobo, after a restart it displayed okay. OTOH, you might want to look for a newer Bookerly font set. 1.201 does not show this issue. Edit: Check this from the Kobo section of the MobileRead Wiki: Fixing Custom Fonts To Display Correctly . Last edited by DNSB; 04-19-2026 at 02:53 PM. Reason: Added link to wiki item

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04-19-2026, 02:06 PM	#2
Daniel Jackson SG-1 Posts: 39 Karma: 39846 Join Date: Dec 2021 Device: Libra 2	The weight setting in the font file itself and the weight setting on Kobo are two different things. The font file weight is fixed and will not be affected by the weight in advanced settings. Changing the weight in advanced settings should cause all variants of the font to display differently, and not leave italic unaffected. If you're sure you've followed all Font-Forge steps to change the weight in the font files correctly, the issue might just be the file names. Make sure they are exactly like this: Bookerly-Bold.ttf Bookerly-BoldItalic.ttf Bookerly-Italic.ttf Bookerly-Regular.ttf

04-19-2026, 02:18 PM	#3
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 15,156 Karma: 247594217 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	If you downloaded the font from the internet, it may be faulty. It's well known that one of the Bookerly fonts floating around online doesn't display correctly on a Kobo. As I don't use Bookerly, I have no idea if you can fix it with FontForge or not.

04-19-2026, 07:16 PM	#5
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 83,491 Karma: 153646249 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	The problem with the faulty Bookerly was not an issue if you read room as RMSDK has very good font handling. KePub, not so good.

04-20-2026, 10:41 AM	#7
Falafelteller Enthusiast Posts: 46 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2023 Device: Kindle Paperwhite SE, Kindle Oasis, Kobo Libra Colour	Rebooting the Kobo fixed the problem. Everything looks perfect now. I am not kidding.

04-27-2026, 01:59 PM	#9
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 83,491 Karma: 153646249 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	You don't need to reboot if these are new fonts (new to the Kobo). But if you update the fonts, then you should reboot.