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

[NiLuJe]

And to answer jglerner re: splitting the thread: We already discussed it a bit the first time around, and it's still not something I want to do .

With very, very few exceptions, the issues/instructions are the same between fw 2.x & fw 3.x. The hack themselves work in exactly the same way. That'd just make me have to repeat myself in two threads instead of one .

And, for all intents and purposes, we can probably consider the fw 2.x to be a 'frozen'/'dead' platform, so nothing new's gonna happen on that front.

[NiLuJe]

To workaround the issues some of you have encountered when switching fonts on FW 3.x, you'll find here a bunch of font sets packaged as an update file.

To use these, just upload the file corresponding to your Kindle model to the root of your Kindle, and "Update Your Kindle", just like a hack . You shouldn't need to restart your Kindle at all after that .

(Of course, for these to do something, you'll have to have the Fonts Hack installed!)

Now, if you want to package your own fonts like this, it's gonna be a bit more cumbersome than usual. You'll be needing a Python 2.x environment, and OpenSSL. If you're on OS X/Linux, you shouldn't have to do anything, that should already be part of your system. On Windows, you'll have to install both.
Python: http://www.python.org/download
OpenSSL: http://www.slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html (The Light installer should be enough)

Download the kindle-fontpackager-1.0.N.zip file attached here, and unpack it somewhere easy to find. For the purpose of this post, I'll assume it's unpacked in ~/Kindle on OS X/Linux, and C:\Kindle on Windows.

Also take note of where the fonts you want to use are located (And, as always, they'll have to follow the usual naming scheme). I'll assume they're in ~/Kindle/Fonts (C:\Kindle\Fonts on Windows).

Open your favorite Terminal emulator (cmd by default on Windows), and do:

OS X & Linux

cd ~/Kindle/src
python ./build-update.py ~/Kindle/Fonts

Windows

cd C:\Kindle\src
build-update.py C:\Kindle\Fonts

If you're not missing any font files, you'll end up with the update .bin file you need in ~/Kindle (C:\Kindle on Windows) .

[no1bossman]

I have a 3G version so I was wondering if my unit uses the host computer as a gateway with the USB network feature will it still attempt to communicate over the 3G network at the same time? I'm a international user currently with wireless disabled & downloading ebooks via USB.

[Anarel]

The wiki page helped me a bit more with this than the original post.

When I want to change the font from what it is now to something else, do I take the font files from the linkfonts folder on my Kindle or the fonts file from the font.bin I downloaded and unpacked? x_X

[kiat]

Hi

Can I know what is the purpose of running the jailbreak?

Do I need to run that before running the screensaver hack?

[NiLuJe]

@no1bossman: No tethering is automatically enabled with the USBNet hack. You have to start/stop it manually. So, you're probably still using the 3G network. (Or nothing if it's off ). it won't magically enable any kind of networking to the outside world, just PC<->Kindle .

@Anarel: Er, what? You take them (and by 'them', I mean the *new* fonts) from wherever you want, so long as they're named correctly, and you copy them *to* the linkfonts/fonts folder *on* your Kindle. o_O

@kiat: The sole purpose of the jailbreak is to enable us to use custom update files. So, yes, you need it.

[jglerner]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

And to answer jglerner re: splitting the thread: We already discussed it a bit the first time around, and it's still not something I want to do .

With very, very few exceptions, the issues/instructions are the same between fw 2.x & fw 3.x. The hack themselves work in exactly the same way. That'd just make me have to repeat myself in two threads instead of one .

And, for all intents and purposes, we can probably consider the fw 2.x to be a 'frozen'/'dead' platform, so nothing new's gonna happen on that front.

If it's OK for you, it's good for me!

Thanks for the direct answer.

[mubertmumphrey]

As promised earlier, here are images of Adobe Garamond Premier Pro semibold on my Kindle. Again, this was converted from otf to ttf with High-Logic FontCreator, which seemed to do a better job than FontForge. The second and third screenshots are at font size 4, and the last image is size 3. At size 4, the font size seems very close to the original serif at size 3, except there is slightly more vertical spacing (which could always be adjusted with the font software).

[no1bossman]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@no1bossman: No tethering is automatically enabled with the USBNet hack. You have to start/stop it manually.

Sorry to be a pain. How do I disable tethering? I only ask because I don't want the 3G connectivity on for too long while I figure it out.

[NiLuJe]

@mubertmumphrey: Note that you should be able to use the OTF directly. Just rename them. (I'm using some OpenType CFF fonts without any issue right now) . They should be a bit sharper and less fuzzy if the hinting is good. But it depends on how you prefer your fonts to look, sharp or fuzzy .

@no1bossman: There is no tethering until you atually start it yourself, that's what I just said.

[mubertmumphrey]

Wow, really? Behold my stupidity. It boggles my mind then that the file size of the converted ttf files are a magnitude larger than the original otfs. If otf is an extension of ttf, you'd think the files would likely be smaller.

[NiLuJe]

@mubertmumphrey: If it's using CFF (cubic) curves instead of TT (quadratic) curves, they're usually a bit smaller. Also, no TrueType bytecode hinting instructions, which can take up a shitload of space . Also depends on how much your software compress the font file itself . Bottom line, just saying 'OpenType' doesn't really tell you much about how the font is really outlined .

The foundry will usually give a more accurate description, like OpenType CFF, OpenType PS/Type2, or OpenType TrueType, so that's not really a problem when you're actually browsing/buying fonts, but when you stumble upon a file on your hard-drive, it can be a pain to tell the difference unless you know what & how to look for .

[mubertmumphrey]

Thanks for the clarification, I only wish I knew so much about font formats.

I copied over the original otf files and now the font looks quite off. I compared the images up close, and it's interesting how different the anti-aliasing is. The ttf version looks fuller with edges less defined, while the otf version seems to be cutting down on the number of interpolated pixels at the expense of creating artifacts.

The attached image is of the original Adobe Premier Pro semibold font in OpenType format. The text is identical to the third image of my previous post.

[kiat]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@no1bossman: No tethering is automatically enabled with the USBNet hack. You have to start/stop it manually. So, you're probably still using the 3G network. (Or nothing if it's off ). it won't magically enable any kind of networking to the outside world, just PC<->Kindle .

@Anarel: Er, what? You take them (and by 'them', I mean the *new* fonts) from wherever you want, so long as they're named correctly, and you copy them *to* the linkfonts/fonts folder *on* your Kindle. o_O

@kiat: The sole purpose of the jailbreak is to enable us to use custom update files. So, yes, you need it.

Thanks!!

Working perfectly now

[NiLuJe]

@mubertmumphrey: Yeah, that does look like what the K3 would do with an OTF (or a TrueType font with bytecode hinting instructions, and the bytecode hinter enabled, for that matter) with slightly off hinting (or hinting tweaked for other renderers...).

So, yeah, it's a bit hit & miss depending on the fonts... (You can get an idea of how it'll look like on a K3 when using FreeType on a PC, with the hinting at the highest level, the bytecode hinter enabled, and the autohinter disabled).

With a full Linux system, you can usually avoid these kind of issues, either by using the autohinter (wich was the default on a lot of distribs for a long time, because of patents issues), or by having an extensive fontconfig configuration with explicit bci/autohint blacklists for some fonts/foundries, depending on the desired size of the font. Unfortunately, on the K3, those settings are frozen (except for the browser, and even then, that might not be true, I haven't checked).

To give you an idea, my local fontconfig config file is 200 lines long... And that's just for a few specific fonts/foundries handling, most of it for the MS Core fonts . (But I freely admit to being pretty anal about font rendering on my computer, so... ). And I usually do end up using the autohinter over bci for everything except MS fonts, both because I usually prefer how it renders fonts, and because it pretty much solves any issue a font might have because of crappy embedded hinting instructions .

AFAIK, MS' ClearType renderer avoid some of those issues by using the hinting instructions differently, and an extended blacklist system.

No idea about Apple & Adobe's renderers, but I guess they usually do try to avoid showing things like that to the user . (Not that familiar with those, the OS X font rendering pretty much makes me want to tear my eyes out... And again for every website embedding text rendered like that in images... For the few times I used Acrobat, Adobe's one seems pretty nice & solid).

EDIT: Attached some screens of ftview to demonstrate how settings change everything with FreeType... (first is Lucida Sans, crappy hinting, second is Consola, very specific hinting, last is DejaVu Serif, very marked hinting tailored to FT). Most of my FontConfig tinkering usually ends up in settings like in the second column (which will look like crap on a CRT screen, in case anyone still has one of those :P).