Firmware Update Kindle 5.19.4 software is available

[axu2]

Version 5.19.4 – April 2026

Here's what's new:

Shapes: Added Shapes to the writing toolbar for quick shape insertion. Also added Smart Shapes — draw a shape in one stroke and hold the pen down at the end to neaten it automatically.

Handwrite notes on images: You can now use your Pen to handwrite on images in eBooks with enhanced typesetting and Word documents sent to Kindle.

System-wide Dark Mode: Added system-wide Dark Mode for a more comfortable low-light viewing experience. Turn it on from Quick Actions (swipe down from the top of the screen) > Dark Mode, or Settings > Screen and Brightness > Appearance > Dark Mode

Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.

But my observations:



TLDR (mostly sideloaded manga fixes):

fixes manga landscape order bug
add page turn animation option back
virtual panel / 4 corner zoom is still missing
manga % read tracker working again
manga page turn speed greatly improved
embedded fonts fixed

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by axu2

But my observations:



TLDR (mostly sideloaded manga fixes):

fixes manga landscape order bug
add page turn animation option back
virtual panel / 4 corner zoom is still missing
manga % read tracker working again
manga page turn speed greatly improved
embedded fonts fixed

What about things that more people care about such as side loading KF8 or KFX eBooks? Does that work properly now?

Manga is a very limited subset of Kindle users.

[Knightreader]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What about things that more people care about such as side loading KF8 or KFX eBooks? Does that work properly now?

Converted an epub to kfx via Calibre and sideloaded it to my PW12. Works fine.

[axu2]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What about things that more people care about such as side loading KF8 or KFX eBooks? Does that work properly now?

What problems are left? I thought most normal sideloaded book problems were fixed in 5.19.3.

Also embedded fonts were fixed

[tomsem]

The download site still shows 5.19.3.0.1 for the 2024 and 2025 Scribes and Kindle (11th Generation) 2024 release.

But Scribes already had Shapes, and the Colorsofts already had system Dark Mode prior to 5.19.4.

Also 'draw on images', but it does not work as expected: it only creates active canvas note that relocates before or after the image.

[cellaris]

I find the new feature that displays notes in a box very visually appealing. And the option to pin them so you can view them quickly—which was already available in previous versions—is also a great idea.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by axu2

What problems are left? I thought most normal sideloaded book problems were fixed in 5.19.3.

Also embedded fonts were fixed

Maybe some didn't install 5.19.3 in case it made things worse. It's a good idea to document the fixes from 5.12.x. Then that could get more people downloading 5.19.4 where they can. It's a real shame the the PW5 is being excluded and left hanging with a really bad firmware.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by cellaris

I find the new feature that displays notes in a box very visually appealing. And the option to pin them so you can view them quickly—which was already available in previous versions—is also a great idea.

Pin feature has been there since 5.19.3

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Maybe some didn't install 5.19.3 in case it made things worse. It's a good idea to document the fixes from 5.12.x. Then that could get more people downloading 5.19.4 where they can. It's a real shame the the PW5 is being excluded and left hanging with a really bad firmware.

It is strange, since I think cutoff for security updates is 5 years, and it released in October 2021. And Kindle 2022 edition is in the same boat, came out one month before Scribe 2022, which is getting updates.

[axu2]

Originally Posted by tomsem

It is strange, since I think cutoff for security updates is 5 years, and it released in October 2021. And Kindle 2022 edition is in the same boat, came out one month before Scribe 2022, which is getting updates.

I think they just cut off non MTP Kindles early. Kindle Basic 2022 is USB mass storage, while Scribe 2022 is MTP now.

[Julius Caesar]

>Handwrite notes on images: You can now use your Pen to handwrite on images in eBooks with enhanced typesetting and Word documents sent to Kindle.

Does it mean we can write on comic books purchased at Comixology?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by axu2

I think they just cut off non MTP Kindles early. Kindle Basic 2022 is USB mass storage, while Scribe 2022 is MTP now.

That seems very plausible.

[axu2]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Maybe some didn't install 5.19.3 in case it made things worse. It's a good idea to document the fixes from 5.12.x. Then that could get more people downloading 5.19.4 where they can. It's a real shame the the PW5 is being excluded and left hanging with a really bad firmware.

Some details may be wrong, but my summary research (a lot is copy pasted from earlier):

11/05/2025: 5.18.6+:

Removed the ability to open a full dictionary in a book, now you can only see a small preview. The "Open Dictionary" button was replaced with a "Share on Goodreads" button. Why would I want to share a single word to Goodreads?

Removed the dedicated bookmarks bar, now I have to scroll through huge space inefficient notebook.

5.19.0-5.19.1:
kindle scribe 2025 stock firmware
battery drain infinite log upload

2/17/2026 5.19.2+:

broke embedded fonts, where certain parts of text have an explicit font specified, often used for titles and headings. Now these are rendered with a generic font.

added huge margins to side loaded manga/comics

all side loaded azw3 missing page numbers, % read tracker broken, slow page turns

04/07/2026 5.19.3.0.1:

Fixed the margin issue, but a bunch of other manga related bugs appeared like incorrect order in 2 page landscape mode, where pages are on the wrong side. Also, 11th gen kindles were excluded from this update so they still had all prior problems.

missing page numbers, % read tracker broken, slow page turns fixed for normal books

04/24/2026:

the manga problem on 11th gen kindles was fixed without a firmware update, I guess amazon remotely pushed code without an explicit firmware update.

05/07/2026 5.19.4:

all manga problems fixed except for virtual panel
missing page numbers, % read tracker broken, slow page turns fixed for manga
embedded fonts fixed
battery drain infinite log upload problem fixed(?) will wait for 1 week to confirm.
only released for Paperwhite 12th gen, Scribe 2022, Colosoft so far

[tomsem]

The Dictionary/Wikipedia/Translate/Search preview area is now larger (goes full screen width instead of a box with margins around it), and so displays more text without scrolling. It no longer requires swiping to get other the other (mostly hidden) things you can preview, you just tap on a label. Also there's a direct link to Vocabulary Builder in the dictionary preview where before there was none when selecting a word ( VB link is also in the reading options menu). Goodreads sharing was not expicit before; it was just Share option. So that is just a new location for it in the 3dot menu, it is not 'replacing' Open in dictionary in that menu.

It's arguably a better design, as well as being consistent with what the Kindle apps do.

Yes, Open in dictionary is gone, and has been for awhile (5.18.1 and later at least). I've only used that a handful of times in my many years using Kindles, and won't miss it at all.

I assume those that used that feature did so mostly because they prefer larger text, or perhaps are dictionary nerds who like to take a break from reading to jump around in the dictionary. Amazon should let you make preview text larger as part of the Accessibility/Display feature that enlarges System text.

Of course the side loaded manga/comics issues only applied to AZW3 manga/comic format (and probably the fraction of Kindle store manga/comic content that remains in AZW3). Nice that they're mostly fixed. KFX manga/comic had/has no issues with side loading.

[Julius Caesar]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Yes, Open in dictionary is gone, and has been for awhile (5.18.1 and later at least). I've only used that a handful of times in my many years using Kindles, and won't miss it at all.

A lot of times, I need to use Open In Dictionary because when I tap a word, the dictionary opens the wrong entry. This happens a lot when the word ended with -s or -es.