Unable to install fonts on Kindle Voyage

[HFM1101]

Hi,
Having a lot of problems trying to install custom fonts. Would appreciate any advice as font developer is as baffled as me.

Tried to install the font Bionic Reading, a font that is designed with the first few letters of each word to appear in bold. The developer sent me both .otf and .ttf files, neither have worked.

I have also tried a different type of bionic font from a different company. That was in .ttf and that also didn't work. There are videos on YouTube of folks able to put these fonts on their Kindles, but it won't work for me.

I have a Kindle Voyage, version 5.13.6. No other update available.

I plug the device in, go into the folder 'fonts', drag & drop the extracted font files into the Kindle folder.

The fonts all appear within the Kindle's font library, and when I click on them *something* happens to the font (turns it into a sans serif font) but there's no bold at the beginning of each word and it's not working.

I have tried to restart the Kindle. I don't know what else to do.
The only hint that might be helpful to say is that when I try to transfer the fonts to the folder, I get an error message:

'Are you sure that you want to copy this file without its properties?
The file BionicReading has properties that can't be copied to the new location'

I'm getting this message for every type of custom font that I'm trying to install. Even happens on Lexand, which is a Google developed font and doesn't have any such boldness on certain words.

Any help massively appreciated.

[HFM1101]

I have just discovered the problem that someone posted on an amazon site:

https://www.amazonforum.com/s/questi...dle-paperwhite

Seems like installing fonts only works on books sent directly from Amazon. I have now trie this and confirm this is the case. However, my library is entirely side-loaded using Calibre.

Is there any way around this?

[Quoth]

Use Calibre to embed the desired font?

[Quoth]

Elephant in Room
Bionic Reading is an unproven gimmick that may make it harder to read.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by HFM1101

I have tried to restart the Kindle. I don't know what else to do.
The only hint that might be helpful to say is that when I try to transfer the fonts to the folder, I get an error message:

'Are you sure that you want to copy this file without its properties?
The file BionicReading has properties that can't be copied to the new location'

I'm getting this message for every type of custom font that I'm trying to install. Even happens on Lexand, which is a Google developed font and doesn't have any such boldness on certain words.

What OS and how are you copying?
What is giving that error message? Hint: A real file copy can't give any such error message.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by HFM1101

I have just discovered the problem that someone posted on an amazon site:

https://www.amazonforum.com/s/questi...dle-paperwhite

Seems like installing fonts only works on books sent directly from Amazon. I have now trie this and confirm this is the case. However, my library is entirely side-loaded using Calibre.

Is there any way around this?

No, that's not true. Custom fonts don't work with the mobi format, but they do work with AZW3 and KFX, sideloaded or not.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Quoth

What OS and how are you copying?
What is giving that error message? Hint: A real file copy can't give any such error message.

I also got the same message when I installed custom fonts on my Kindles. The fonts still worked as expected.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

No, that's not true. Custom fonts don't work with the mobi format, but they do work with AZW3 and KFX, sideloaded or not.

Yes.

AZW3 /KF8 and KFX can use embedded or added fonts.

Mobi / azw / KF7 can't use ANY embedded or extra fonts. Only the K1, K2, DX and DXG are limited to that. All later Kindles either already have azw3 support or can have it added
See instructions. The Kindle Keyboard (3rd Generation) 3.4.3 firmware
Kindle Keyboard (3rd Generation) works with azw3, not KFX
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...MQC26VQQMM8XSW

The later Kindles also have KFX. At least Kindle gen 6 FW 5.12.x Not sure about 5.6 etc, but azw3 is fine.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quoth

What OS and how are you copying?
What is giving that error message? Hint: A real file copy can't give any such error message.

If I am copying a file that has multiple file streams/extended attributes (from a file system such as NTFS/APFS//HFS+/ext4/etc.) to a file system such as FAT32 that does not, you can get that error if the OS does not support adding that information as alternate files such as the ._filename files that MacOS creates.

[JSWolf]

@HFM1101 Why are you using Mobi? You cannot use side loaded fonts with Mobi. You need to convert to either KF8 or KFX to be able to use a side loaded font.

That said, Bionic reading is a sham and does not actually work.

[BionicGecko]

To be honest I’m rather confused at this - how can a font alone provide this “bionic reading” functionality? My (admittedly very basic) understanding of fonts is that they are static maps which define what characters look like. For a given character various styles (bold, italic) can be created, and the editor of the book can specify which bits of text will be displayed using which style.

As far as I understand, the font itself can’t “decide” to make the first character of a word bold, this behavior either has to be hardcoded in the book for every word, or calculated at run time by the reader, and I doubt the Kindle has code to support this. What am I missing?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

As far as I understand, the font itself can’t “decide” to make the first character of a word bold, this behavior either has to be hardcoded in the book for every word, or calculated at run time by the reader, and I doubt the Kindle has code to support this. What am I missing?

That's true. You need the font AND a specially prepared source text. The font on its own is pointless. Though it's pointless anyway.

OTOH the supposed font for Dyslexic readers is just a font. It was an art (graphic design) project with no scientific basis. There is evidence that larger font, better kerning, choice of the most familiar Serif or Sans Serif, adjustment of line spacing and margins can really help Dyslexic readers. None for the Open Dyslexic font, in fact it may be worse than Times Roman.

[JSWolf]

Isn't the Bionic Reading font just a sans serif font?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Isn't the Bionic Reading font just a sans serif font?

Maybe, but the ebook needs specially formatted.

[WigglePig]

I'm having a related issue; my Scribe is USB connected and I can navigate around the folder structure but I cannot paste/drag/etc any font files into this folder...my (Win11) PC goes "bongggg" and just doesn't paste the ttf file in.