Kindle Font Hack for all 2.x and 3.x Kindles
Many thanks to porkupan (jailbreak hack) clarknova (revised jailbreak hack) and NiLuJe (another revised jailbreak and font hack).
Note: Amazon does not support 3rd party hacks and may void your warranty should anything go wrong. Exercise caution and use at your own risk. Only the user will be responsible for the results (good or bad).
Please visit NiLuJe's Fonts & ScreenSavers hacks for Kindles thread on MobileRead. This is the jailbreak and font hack I will be describing.
WARNING: Use at your own risk! This is an UNOFFICIAL update to allow custom Kindle Fonts. This file is NOT from Amazon.com and any harm it causes your Kindle will be your own fault.
Software: Fonts & ScreenSavers hacks for Kindles Note: the software for this hack has been updated several times since the images in this guide were created. The process for installation is the same even with the updated files. The font of your choice: Droid_Sans Diavlo Fertigo Pro Fontin Delicious Museo Museo Slab Museo Slab BIG Museo Slab BIG 125% Museo Slab BIG 150%
Diavlo (K3) Fertigo Pro (K3) Fontin (K3) Museo Slab (K3) Museo (K3)
Forum user NogDog made a helpful webpage listing some of these fonts with a sample screenshot: check it out here!.
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[edit] Which Kindle Do You Have
And for other devices, check the Menu > Settings page.
Kindle DX Graphite: Serial no. prefix B009
Kindle 3 3G US: Serial no. prefix B006
Kindle 3 WiFi: Serial no. prefix B008
Kindle 3 3G UK: Serial no. prefix B00A
NOTE to non-US users: UK doesn't necessarily mean Europe, you may very well end up with a B006 model, depending on your country.
[edit] How to install the Jailbreak Hack
1) Download and unzip the kindle-jailbreak-0.10.N.zip file.
Note to Kindle >= 3.1 Users:
If you were using an older version of the JailBreak before, please update it, you won't be able to install hacks on FW 3.1 without a recent enough jailbreak.
Note to Kindle >= 3.2.1 Users:
Please use the file corresponding to your kindle model suffixed by -3.2.1, the other one won't work on these newer FW versions, while the -3.2.1 file won't work on older FW versions. Check your Settings page if you're unsure of what FW your Kindle is running.
"update_jailbreak_0.10.N_k2_install.bin" - Kindle 2 US "update_jailbreak_0.10.N_k2i_install.bin" - Kindle 2 International "update_jailbreak_0.10.N_dx_install.bin" - Kindle DX US "update_jailbreak_0.10.N_dxi_install.bin" - Kindle DX International "update_jailbreak_0.10.N_dxg_install.bin" - Kindle DX Graphite "update_jailbreak_0.10.N_k3g_install.bin" - Kindle 3 3G US "update_jailbreak_0.10.N_k3w_install.bin" - Kindle 3 WiFi "update_jailbreak_0.10.N_k3gb_install.bin" - Kindle 3 3G UK "update_jailbreak_0.10.N_k3g-3.2.1_install.bin" - Kindle 3 3G US (Only if running FW >= 3.2.1) "update_jailbreak_0.10.N_k3w-3.2.1_install.bin" - Kindle 3 WiFi (Only if running FW >= 3.2.1) "update_jailbreak_0.10.N_k3gb-3.2.1_install.bin" - Kindle 3 3G UK (Only if running FW >= 3.2.1)
2) Attach your Kindle to a computer using the USB cable. Copy the appropriate jailbreak bin file to the root of your Kindle. Below are images for Kindle 2 International and Kindle 3 3G + WiFi. (Note: If you've previously installed the jailbreak from the Screen Saver Hack, there is no need to install it again).
3) Safely eject your Kindle from your computer. To update your Kindle with jailbreak bin from the home page, click Menu > Settings > Menu > Update Your Kindle. If "Update Your Kindle" is grayed out, you either did not put the bin file in the root folder or used the wrong file for your Kindle.
On FW 2.x only, the jailbreak update process will FAIL (with a U006 error in the lower left corner of the screen) but that's okay, it's supposed to. :)
To remove the jailbreak (if you somehow want to get rid of it... There's no practical reason to do this though ;)) use the same process described substituting the appropriate "uninstall" bin file.
[edit] How to install the Font Hack
1) Download and unzip the kindle-fonts-4.9.N-k2.zip file (if you have a K2, K2I, DX, DXI or DXG) or the kindle-fonts-4.9.N-k3.zip file (if you have a K3 3G, K3 WiFi, K3 3G UK).
2) Attach your Kindle to a computer using the USB cable.
3) Copy the appropriate fonts bin file to the root of your Kindle along with the "linkfonts" folder found inside the "src" folder.
"update_fonts_4.9.N_k2_install.bin" - K2 US "update_fonts_4.9.N_k2i_install.bin" - K2 International "update_fonts_4.9.N_dx_install.bin" - Kindle DX US "update_fonts_4.9.N_dxi_install.bin" - Kindle DX International "update_fonts_4.9.N_dxg_install.bin" - Kindle DX Graphite "update_fonts_4.9.N_k3g_install.bin" - Kindle 3 3G US "update_fonts_4.9.N_k3w_install.bin" - Kindle 3 WiFi "update_fonts_4.9.N_k3gb_install.bin" - Kindle 3 3G UK
4) Place your preferred font set in the "linkfonts/fonts" folder. If you are asked if you want to overwrite files that are already in that folder, say "yes". The blue highlighted files (or those in the red box for K3) represent the font files that are replaced. NiLuJe has re-named your new fonts with the same name as the ones that need to be replaced and as long as you say "yes" to the file overwrite, you should have no problem.
5) Safely eject your Kindle from your computer. To apply the update, on the Home screen, click Menu > Settings > Menu > Update Your Kindle. If "Update Your Kindle" is grayed out, you either did not put the bin file in the root folder or used the wrong file for your Kindle model.
6) Your new font is installed. Below is a comparison of the original Kindle font and Fontin2 (the font I use on my Kindle).
Anytime you want to change your fonts, add the new fonts to the "linkfonts/fonts" folder and just drop a blank "reboot" file in the linkfonts folder (By copying and renaming the existing "autoreboot" blank file, for example) and you'll be good to go.
To remove the font hack, just copy the appropriate "uninstall" bin file to the root of your Kindle and update. Note that, since the v3.3.N, you shouldn't have to deactivate/uninstall it in order to be able to install official Amazon updates!
[edit] How to Update the Fonts Hack
First of all, no need to touch the jailbreak again. You already installed it the first time you installed hacks. Just forget about it now ;).
Next, no need to run the update_*_uninstall.bin update, ever. (except in some very specific cases, like if you're updating from another font hack [in which case you should use the original uninstaller for your hack, and not the one found here]).
Then, you can apply the latest update_*_install.bin update.
After that, to make sure everything's in order, do a full Restart of your Kindle, and you'll be good to go.
Basically, just do a full install of the hack like described here, and then restart your Kindle (Menu > Settings > Menu > Restart).
[edit] Customisation: Replacing Specific Fonts & Maximising Font Choices
A bit more documentation about how to replace specific fonts might be helpful here.
This forum post by the font hack author NiLuJe lists the following options:
Sans_Regular.ttf: Used in the Settings & Experimental page for the explanation texts. Also for the dictionnary/note popups. Sans_Bold.ttf: Used in the menus, in the top & bottom panel, and as the collection title when browsing a collection, and the inline text in the book & collection browsers (ie. the 'delete this item' stuff & co) Sans_Italic.ttf: May be used alongside Sans_Regular or Sans_Bold somewhere ^^ Sans_BoldItalic.ttf: Used in the book list, for the collection names Serif_*.ttf: Used in the reader, that's the font family your books will be rendered with. Serif_Bold.ttf: Used in the book & collection browser for the book title & author. (NOTE: For these purposes, Serif_Regular is used instead on FW 3.x) Mono_*.ttf: AFAICT, nowehere except in the browser, but I may be mistaken. (Might be used in the reader when you're feeding it a raw txt file or some raw html files, depending on styling). And since v3.8.N, on FW 3.x: CJK.ttf: Used for Chinese/Japanese/Korean scripts. I18N.ttf: Last fallback for non-latin & non-cjk scripts.
In terms of changing the main display font of a book, in other words, the Serif_*.tff files are listed as "regular" in the standard display options (Aa button) under Typeface, and the Sans_*.tff are listed as "sans serif". The font family listed as "condensed" is not as obvious to replace. The following files in linkfonts/fonts/ are used:
Caecilia_LT_67_Cond_Medium.ttf - regular face Caecilia_LT_68_Cond_Medium_Italic.ttf italic face Caecilia_LT_77_Cond_Bold.ttf - bold face Caecilia_LT_78_Cond_Bold_Italic.ttf - bold & italic face
However, there seems to be more to the story than this. For example, which files in the linkfonts/fonts/ folder should be replaced to change the "condensed" Typeface? Once the fon hack is installed, it seems to use the default Caecilia serif font (but not the condensed version of that font - weird. Does anyone know which of the Caecilia font files in the linkfonts/fonts/ folder is being used for this, if any? - It seems to be Caecilia_LT_67_Cond_Medium.ttf for the regular font.)
It also appears that you can switch between a maximum four different text fonts (and have greater control over line spacing) if you use the jailbreak font hack together with the simpler font hack that involves modifying the reader.pref file on the Kindle (see here; you can also use the Kindle Collections plugin for Calibre to do this more easily). With this non-jailbreak font hack activated on top of the jailbreak font hack, the "Typeface" options on the Kindle now show four fonts: std, sans, mono and alt.
std - uses the Serif_*.tff fonts in linkfonts/fonts/ sans - uses the Sans_*.tff fonts in linkfonts/fonts/ mono - uses the Mono_*.tff fonts in linkfonts/fonts/ (in contradiction to the forum post above) alt - uses the alt-*.ttf fonts in fonts/ that you added as part of the non-jailbreak font hack
Some good news about using these two fonts hacks together (other than being able to select between 4 fonts instead of 3) is that whereas previously (without the jailbreak) the extended font & line spacing options disappear once you reselect the standard font, with the jailbreak font hack installed you should find that the extended options persist and you can switch between the four fonts permanently (the extended line spacing options also remain). Nice! (Update: it turns out the extended options do not persist permanently - they still reset to the standard options for me if I switch between typefaces enough, but seemingly randomly. It would be nice to stop this from happening!)
Note: the results above are based on my Kindle Keyboard 3.3 firmware - can people try this on their own Kindles of different kinds, and confirm or report varying results?
