Modified Fonts

This is a page that showcases various fonts that have been altered in some minor way for better compatibility with e-readers, in particular Kobo devices.

For some fonts, font family names have been altered, sometimes glyphs have been altered, sometimes metrics have been altered, all to improve the readability on E Ink displays.

For the best font rendering with proper kerning and support for ligatures, I always recommend installing KOReader. You can easily run it on Kobo, Boox and PocketBook devices, and on jailbroken Kindles.

The main use of these fonts is for usage on an e-reader. I’ve only selected and altered fonts that I have the rights to alter because of their license (e.g. free/libre license or equivalent).

I have also prepared an interactive showcase as a mini website that you can use to check out the fonts. You can customize the font size, line height, and emulate a device with different color bezels and display mode. You can select from all the fonts available in this collection.

If you found these useful, please consider starring the repository on GitHub. This lets me know that the fonts are being used.

You can find download links to the core fonts below, as well as install instructions and download links.

Download Core Fonts (for Kobo devices)

Download Core Fonts (for other devices)

You can learn more about how and why I originally made these tweaked fonts on my blog: Patching Fonts for my Kobo. I explain there why and how. If the GitHub repository is unavailable, a mirror of the original repository is available here.

How to install

To install these fonts on your Kobo, unzip the files and drag the font files into the fonts directory at the root of your Kobo device after connecting your Kobo to your PC via USB cable. You may need to create the fonts directory.

I recommend rebooting your Kobo after installing the fonts to make sure they work correctly. A reboot is REQUIRED if you already had other versions of these fonts installed on your device, or the new versions won’t be used.

To reboot, long-press the power button until your Kobo says it has been shut down. Then, press the power button again and wait for your device to restart. This may take a moment, but don’t worry.