Misc. PW1 questions, including the USE_ALT_FONTS Hack.

[severus.snape]

[PW1 user since: 1 Year
Firmware Version: 5.3.9 (not gonna upgrade to 5.4.x)
Not Jailbroken, and Unregistered.
Usage: Intensive
I have a PW1. I am an intensive user, and hate the default amazon fonts. I have been using the USE_ALT_FONTS hack to get custom fonts, but due to it loading all the misc. language fonts in the 'Aa' tab, my PW1 is really slow.
I have installed 6 custom fonts. Is there any way to remove those default fonts by amazon? If jailibreak is required, I will install it. Plus, a few questions (They are all really yes/no questions, so I am not starting a new thread).
1. Does installing >100 books(.mobi) slow down my device?(not that I have >100 books. I have around 20.)
2. Does the calibre collections plugin work without registering and jailbreaking?

[Glorfindel]

1. It will probably be slow for a while until it finishes indexing
2. Yes without JBing, you need to register for collections IIRC.

[severus.snape]

Can I remove the default amazon fonts?

[NiLuJe]

You can filter the Aa menu, yes (with a few tweaks possible on a JailBroken device), but that's not what's slowing down the device. At worst, it'll slow down the Aa menu itself, but that's all.

As was said, indexing is most likely the culprit in terms of perceived slowness.

Apart from that, the only other thing having a perceivable impact on UI responsiveness is the size of the catalog: the more books you have, the slower the navigation on the Home/Collections screen.

Once you're in a book, you're home free though, nothing impacts that very much (unless you're using a very, very, very crappy font that Amazon's renderer doesn't like, but it usually just crashes in fun & interesting ways instead of slowing down).

[GoSharks]

Originally Posted by severus.snape

Can I remove the default amazon fonts?

As far as removing, I don't know (I have not noticed that just having the additional fonts slows things down). If you simply wish to have the alternate fonts that become available when using USE_ALT_FONTS to not appear in the Aa menu (while allowing your added fonts to appear), this is easily done via an extension for KUAL. It does not remove the fonts, it simply makes it so they don't show on the menu.

**I see my typing hasn't gotten any faster!! (hey NiLuJe )

[NiLuJe]

@GoSharks: Mwahahahahah! \o/

But hey, you mentioned the KUAL extension, I had forgotten about it .

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

2. Yes without JBing, you need to register for collections IIRC.

You need both. Newer firmware hides the collections info outside the userstore. The Kindles Touch and PW1/2 need the Collections Manager kindlet (and prerequisite hacks) to import the plugin's info and merge it with the device records. For the Keyboard, the plugin just needs to edit [userstore]/system/collections.json; I am not sure which camp your Kindle 4 (basic) would fall into.

[booklover6]

With only 20 books, do you really need collections?

You have the opportunity to add the backdoor lock and the jailbreak now, and then you can safely register it to get the collections function from Amazon, if you want it.

[NiLuJe]

FYI, the K4 falls in the 'legacy' camp on that front: json db in the userstore .

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

FYI, the K4 falls in the 'legacy' camp on that front: json db in the userstore .

Figured as much -- it explained why Glorfindel associated the plugin with not needing the jailbreak, since his device falls into the half that doesn't.

[Glorfindel]

Yeah, sorry, I have yet to convince my Grandma to let me dig around in her PW