Get new Fonts on Kindle: No Hacking Required

Chris over at Book Sprung was playing around with a Calibre plugin that allows Collections to be added to the Kindle from the comfort of ones computer when he discovered that the plug in could do a lot more!  It can change the font on the Kindle too!!  It turns out that the developer of the plugin also has detailed instructions on the MobileRead forums.  After the break I've Cut and Paste the instructions.  Happy Reading!

From Book Sprung:

First, you have to find a compatible font set. Here are the requirements:

1. must be Truetype or OpenType format
2. must have four files, one for each of these variants:
   • regular
   • bold
   • italic
   • bold italic
3. must be renamed using this naming convention, where [name] is the font name and “ttf” is the extension even if it’s an Optentype font:
   • [name]-Regular.ttf
   • [name]-Bold.ttf
   • [name]-Italic.ttf
   • [name]-BoldItalic.ttf

The plugin’s dev says Droid Serif is a good example of a compatible font set, if you’re not sure where to start. You can also check out the main Google Web Fonts page, and look for fonts that have a gold “4 variants” label.

Next, do all these things, preferably in the order given:

1. Press the Home button on your Kindle, then connect it to your PC.
2. Using your computer’s file browser, navigate to the Kindle volume and create a folder on the top level (next to “Documents” for example). Name it “fonts”.
3. Copy your four renamed font files into this folder.
4. Start Calibre and wait for your Kindle to show up, then select the “Kindle Collections” menu option.
5. In the submenu, select “Modify Kindle Settings…”
   
6. In the “Modify Settings” pane, check the “Allow using user font” checkbox and use the drop-down selector to the left of it to choose the font you just added.
   
7. Hit the “Save” button, then eject your Kindle from Calibre. On my computer, I then have to quit Calibre before I can unmount it from OS X, but that may just be a quirk on my end.
8. After a few seconds, your Kindle will reboot.
9. Open a book, then press the “aA” button to go into font settings. Select the new “alt” option to activate your new font.

Two things to be aware of:

If you can’t open the book, the font you’re trying to use isn’t compatible. Repeat the process above but either select a different new font or select one of the default fonts, then eject and let the Kindle reboot.

If you tire of your new font and go back to your original system font on the Kindle, your new “alt” font will get sad and go away. To get it back you’ll have to repeat the procedure above.


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