Kindle Font Hacks

Kindle Font Hacks allow you to add your own fonts to the Kindle.

Notice

Use these font hacks at your own risk! They are not approved by Amazon. Neither Amazon, the font hack creators nor I (Daffy4u) will be able to support you if your Kindle is damaged due to the use of these hacks! Also, use one font hack only, they may not be combined.

Thank you to BlogKindle (from whom I also stole in the install and uninstall instructions) and ted-san for these hacks. See Also:

• Kindle 2 US, Int'l and Kindle DX Font Hack
• Kindle Font Hack for all 2.x and 3.x Kindles
• Kindle 3 Font Hack Lite also applicable to Kinde 4.

Installing the Kindle 2 Font Hack from BlogKindle

The MobileRead forum discussion of this hack can be found at: "Kindle 2 Unicode Font Hack".

Font Hack Files Needed: Unicode Fonts Hack Please read through BlogKindle's site for 
more details and information.

1. Download either of the hacks. For this demo, I'm using kindle_font_hack_v01_droid.zip and installing via my Vista computer.

2. Connect your Kindle 2 to your PC via USB cable.

3. Copy either update_unicode_fonts_droid_install.bin or update_unicode_fonts_liberation_install.bin to the root directory of your Kindle. Never copy more than ONE font hack file to the root!

4. Optionally but highly recommended: use “Safely Remove Hardware” to “eject” Kindle 2. In order for this to work you need to close all Windows Explorer and other file manager windows that display contents of Kindle drive

5. From “Home” on your Kindle 2, press “Menu” and select “Settings”, press “Menu” again and select “Update Your Kindle”, press the 5-way controller once more to confirm the update.

6. Your Kindle 2 will switch through several update screens and then reboot.

Here are the before and after results using the first page from "Dracula" as the sample.

Before:

After:

Uninstalling the BlogKindle Hack

BlogKindle has supplied the uninstall bin files for all versions of his hacks.

Kindle 2 (serial number starts with B002) – update_ufh_uninstall-k2.bin (old)
Kindle 2 International (serial number starts with B003) – update_ufh_uninstall-k2i.bin (old)
Kindle DX (serial number starts with B004) – update_ufh_uninstall-kdx.bin (old)

1. Connect your Kindle 2 to your PC via USB cable.

2. Copy update_unicode_fonts_uninstall.bin to the root directory of your Kindle. Make sure that there are no other Update_*.bin files there.

3. Optionally but highly recommended: use “Safely Remove Hardware” to “eject” Kindle 2. In order for this to work you need to close all Windows Explorer and other file manager windows that display contents of Kindle drive.

4. From the “Home” on your Kindle 2, press “Menu” and select “Settings”, press “Menu” again and select “Update Your Kindle”, press the 5-way controller once more to confirm the update.

5. Your Kindle 2 will switch through several update screens and then reboot.

6. Once it reboots, you can test that the hack installed properly and works: there should be no “+ UFHack 0.1″ in the version string at the bottom of settings screen, fonts should be back to normal with boxed question marks displayed instead of unicode symbols.

7. Unicode font files are not deleted from Kindle but should cause no problems. If you would like to delete them - contact the hack creator for a separate patch. (Note: I (Daffy4u) have just deleted the left over font files from the root with no ill effects).

Installing the Kindle 2 Font Hack from ted-san

The MobileRead forum discussion on this hack can be found at: Alternate Font Hack

Font Hack Files Needed:Font Hack Files from K Design Works 
New font files are added irregularly, so keep checking the creator's site for 
updates. Please also read his site for more information and details.

1. Download one of the hacks. For this demo, I'm using update_georgia2_install.bin and installing via my Vista computer.

2. Connect your Kindle 2 to your PC via USB cable.

3. Copy update_georgia2_install.bin to the root directory of your Kindle 2. Never copy more than ONE font hack file to the root!

4. Optionally but highly recommended: use “Safely Remove Hardware” to “eject” Kindle 2. In order for this to work you need to close all Windows Explorer and other file manager windows that display contents of Kindle drive

5. From “Home” on your Kindle 2, press “Menu” and select “Settings”, press “Menu” again and select “Update Your Kindle”, press the 5-way controller once more to confirm the update.

6. Your Kindle 2 will switch through several update screens and then reboot.

Here are the before and after results using the first page from "Dracula" as the sample.

Before:

After:

Uninstalling the ted-san Hack

1. Connect your Kindle 2 to your PC via USB cable.

2. Copy update_uninstall.bin to the root directory of your Kindle. Make sure that there are no other Update_*.bin files there.

3. Optionally but highly recommended: use “Safely Remove Hardware” to “eject” Kindle 2. In order for this to work you need to close all Windows Explorer and other file manager windows that display contents of Kindle drive.

4. From “Home” on your Kindle 2, press “Menu” and select “Settings”, press “Menu” again and select “Update Your Kindle”, press the 5-way controller once more to confirm the update.

5. Your Kindle 2 will switch through several update screens and then reboot.

6. There will be some left over files in the root directory but I (Daffy4u) have been able to delete them with no ill effects.