simonh.uk - reading

Best Fonts for Ereading Part 1

2025-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

Today, I thought I’d see how different fonts are rendered on e-ink screens. I’ve used fifteen fonts that I have on a Kindle Paperwhite 1. Why did I use the Paperwhite 1, you may ask? As it’s an old device now, if a font looks good on that, then it’ll look even better on a newer device.

My criteria for selecting the fonts for testing was based on my own experience using them, their historical importance, or whether they’re pre-installed on devices. Some kept popping up in threads asking people what their favourite Kindle font is (yep, there are lots of them)! A couple are ones I’ve been using for many years and may not be particularly well known.

Rightly or wrongly, I only use serif fonts for reading, so there are no sans fonts here.

All photos were taken with the Kindle light turned off, in good daylight. I’m using KOReader and the book is The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. The fonts are arranged alphabetically and linked to full resolution files on Flickr.

Abril

Athelas

Bembo

Bookerly

Caslon Pro

Chapparal Pro

Garamond Pro

Georgia Pro

Jenson Pro

Karmina

Literata

Minion Pro

New York Small

Noto Serif

Palatino

Conclusion

I’m not going to rate or judge these typefaces, so there are no winners or losers. After all, what I like may not be what you like. Generally speaking though, fonts like Bembo, Caslon, Garamond, Jenson are well suited to reading literary classics, philosophy, histories etc. as many physical books use them. They evoke a particular mood thanks to their long history and influences.

Bookerly and Literata have been designed specifically for ereading and either can be safely used as your default font.

Noto Serif is the default serif in KOReader and it’s also very legible and comfortable to use.

Revisiting the Kobo Mini in 2025

2025-10-20T00:00:00+01:00

Released in 2012, the Kobo Mini had a 5” screen (no light) and 2GB of storage. I think I bought mine in 2013. Let me tell you, I read lots of books on this little guy, back then. I re-read all the Riftwar Saga books by Raymond Feist, and one of my favourite books The Dog Stars by Peter Heller, along with many others.

I also spent quite a bit of time trying to find fonts which looked good on the diminutive screen. My favourite font was Ibis text followed by Abril:

Kobo Mini with Ibis font

Kobo Mini with Abril font

I still think those fonts look nice, although I use Bookerly and Literata on my Kindles these days.

A Firmware Hack

After I found the Mini (whilst looking for something else), I discovered that it’s possible to install firmware intended for the Glo on the Mini. I followed the instructions in this Reddit post and everything is working fine.

Installing NickelMenu and KOReader

Initially I didn’t bother installing either of these, but was having some display issues with some books so decided to give NickelMenu a try. Once that was set up, I installed KOReader using the Kobo Installation instructions on the wiki. I’ve already got KOReader on a number of Kindles and the interface is just the same on the Kobo Mini (except smaller of course). Here’s a photo showing how reading looks:

KOReader on Kobo Mini

You can see that I have smaller left / right margins than on the stock Kobo firmware which is needed as the screen is pretty small!

How Does it Hold Up Today?

Well, the battery isn’t holding charge like it used to, but that’s to be expected. Having to charge it once a week is completely fine for me. The touchscreen is certainly slower than modern ereaders, but still entirely usable. As far as I’m aware, this is still the smallest e-ink ereading device (not counting e-ink phones). You can easily shove this thing in a jacket pocket and no one will know that you’re planning on reading at work instead of working at work!

The e-ink pearl screen is slightly greyer than the newer Carta screens. But again, perfectly usable. There’s a post on the-ebook-reader that compares the two screen types if you’re interested.

For me, this was bought as an upgrade from reading on my HTC Desire phone. I got my money’s worth out of it, for sure.

For a size comparison, here is the latest Kindle Paperwhite and my Kobo Mini, both aligned on the bottom edge:

Five Inch vs Seven Inch

Final Thoughts

The Mini was pitched as a small ereading device. I bought it just for that reason. I read quite a few books on it and it’s still capable of reading many more. Whilst I wouldn’t want it as my main device anymore, it still fills it niche as a pocketable little ereader.

Some people will mind that it doesn’t have a built in light. I don’t mind having an ereader that can only really be used in daylight (for the best experience). I treat the Kobo Mini similarly to a physical book, which also doesn’t have a light!

If you install NickelMenu and KOReader, this becomes a very nice, pocket sized ereader that you might find yourself spending a lot of time using. I am, anyway.

Physical Books vs EPUB's

2025-10-16T00:00:00+01:00

My “real” books back in 2002

I know what you’re thinking; surely you mean physical books vs ebooks! No, I do not. That would include Amazon’s AZW3 format which I’d advise any booklover to steer clear of. Using only EPUB, we now have a fair contest.

EPUB is a Documented Standard

EPUB’s are essentially just some HTML files, images and some metadata files, stored in a zip container. The following screenshots show the directory structure of The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde from gutenberg.org:

and If we have a peek in the OEBPS (Open eBook Publication Structure) folder, we’ll see all the chapters:

and here is the first chapter as rendered by muPDF:

EPUB Advantages

Project Gutenberg

Here’s the first advantage: Project Gutenberg. You can start building your library from a selection of 75,000 copyright free books. Seriously, this alone defeats physical books in my opinion. The best books ever written freely available to download and read.

Backups!

As EPUB’s are just files, you can back them up to multiple locations. Maybe not so important for Gutenberg downloads, but for ones you’ve paid for, probably something you should consider.

Customizable

Use your favourite font, change it’s size, alter the margins, the line spacing, the kerning, the contrast and so on. Try doing that with a physical book!

Space Efficient

EPUB’s take up no physical space. Once you’ve boxed up all your physical books a few times when moving home, you’ll see this as a big annoyance with a decent size physical book collection. Well, I certainly did.

Physical Book Advantages

Ownership

You own the book and no one can take it away from you. That’s often an argument put forward by those who prefer physical books. I would point out that all books with current copyright will have terms that you have to agree to. Such as you won’t copy it, lend it etc.

Simpler to Use

A physical book is certainly simpler to use, I grant that. No devices needed. No power required, just a light source.

Tactile Experience

I can see the logic with this one too. Back when I had lots of physical books, each one had it’s own feel, smell, “personality”, almost. You don’t get that with a file. Still, the emotional impact of reading an EPUB is exactly the same as reading a physical book. Ultimately, it’s not about the format, it’s about the information.

Conclusion

One reason I decided to make this post, is that my sixteen year old daughter has requested a few books for Christmas. I told her she didn’t have to wait as I’ve already got them as ebooks. She didn’t want them! She wanted the physical versions instead. This led to a discussion of the merits of physical vs ebooks. She’s still at the age where she knows best, so refused my challenge to try and read an ebook. Ah well…

I’ve had both. Physical books and ebooks. Back in the day, we didn’t really have a choice. Ebooks weren’t really a thing so if you wanted books, off to the bookshop, you had to go.

Now, we do have a choice. Whilst I’m very happy that physical books continue to outsell ebooks, I’m EPUB all the way. The ereaders we have nowadays are arguably better than paper, what with their built in lights and tinkering options, and have proven their reliability over the last eighteen odd years. Oh, and if you want to read EPUB’s on your Kindle see this post which should point you in the right direction.

Afterword

You may be wondering where all those physical books are now… Well, in a supreme act of selfless generosity, I donated nearly all of them (I still have one small box in my wardrobe) to my son’s school. The librarian was delighted when I phoned up offering them and even more so when I delivered them, which made me feel fuzzy inside.

Using a Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation in 2025

2025-10-11T00:00:00+01:00

Paperwhite 1 running KOReader

A couple of weeks ago I successfuly installed WinterBreak on my Kindle (10th generation). This got my wondering if we had any old Kindles lying around to also jailbreak. Why? Well, I was wanting a second ereader to take on jobs when I’m having to wait around. One which it wouldn’t matter too much if I lost / damaged it. My partner had upgraded her old Kindle to the latest 7” model a year or so back. so I asked her to find the old one. She did, and it turned out to be a 2012 Paperwhite 1. She’d had a few problems with it on the stock firmware which was one reason for upgrading it. Sometimes (very rarely) it would turn itself off, skip pages etc. So I did a factory reset, and followed the WinterBreak guide, again, and half an hour later, KOReader was up and running.

I’m not going to do a tutorial on jailbreaking your Kindle as the WinterBreak documentation is “idiot proof.” But what I will say is that once you’ve used KOReader on a Kindle, it’s very hard to go back. For instance, you can forget about those proprietary AZW3 files and just use the industry standard EPUB format. This for me, is the main reason to jailbreak your device.

Another huge benefit is organising your books in folders:

And then setting the parent folder to home. Far better!

KOReader is highly configurable. Here’s a photo of the options menu for font / layout opitons:

From here you can alter margins, line spacing, kerning, contrast and more. There’s another menu at the top to configure everything else. KOReader also has excellent documentation in the form of their User Guide and you’re advised to at least skim through it.

Light / Shadow Issue

I’d be remiss not to point out one issue that the Paperwhite 1 has. Due to the placement of the LED lights at the bottom of the Kindle, shadows are visible between the lights:

Four visible shadows at bottom of screen

Seven visible shadows at bottom of screen

This defect is very subtle and won’t spoil your reading experience. However, if you’re the sort of person who obsesses about such things, you might want to go for a newer Kindle. I understand the Paperwhite 2 corrected the issue. For me, it’s not a showstopper and I don’t see the need to worry about it at all. I also want to point out that it’s only really noticeable if you’re reading in a dark environment with the light above about half brightness.

Conclusion

The Paperwhite 1 is great with KOReader. I always launch in no framework mode and everything is responsive and quick. I was considering buying a Kobo Clara BW at £130, but while the PW1 is working, why waste the money? It’s got a built in light, 2GB of storage (~ 1.3GB useable). And, if something awful happens to it, I can treat myself to a Kobo. Or maybe, I’ll try and get another old, hackable Kindle…