Fast-Font files not detected on Kindle Paperwhite 7th Gen (FW 5.16.2.1.1)

[armaganguven]

Hi there,

Thanks for releasing Fast-Font!

● Device ─ Kindle Paperwhite 7th Generation (2015, PW3)
● Firmware ─ 5.16.2.1.1

What I did

1. Connected the Kindle via USB.
2. Created a fonts folder in the root (Kindle/fonts/).
3. Copied the TrueType files:
   • Fast_Sans.ttf
   • Fast_Sans_Dotted.ttf
   • Fast_Serif.ttf
   • Fast_Mono.ttf_incompatible (came with the repo)
4. Safely ejected and rebooted the Kindle.
5. Added an empty USE_ALT_FONTS file and rebooted again, just in case.

Problem

The Fast-Font variants never appear in Aa → Font.
As a sanity check I copied another custom font (OpenDyslexic); that one shows up fine, so the folder structure is recognised.

Screenshots

Screenshots: • Kindle /fonts directory • Font-selection menu (Fast-Font missing)

Any idea why these TTFs aren’t detected?
Do they need a different naming scheme or a specific internal family/weight flag?
Happy to test a patched build or provide more details if that helps.

Thanks a lot for your time!

[Born2Root]

Hi,

various users tried the Fast-Font on Kindle and there are some interesting findings how the Kindle works with Open-Type Fonts. On the new Kindles you just have to copy the fonts on the device, like you did. On older devices they need a special naming theme. As far as I understood the Kindle needs 4 font-variants of the same font, be placed in the folder.

The official info is:

Note: In order for the Kindle to recognize which style the font has, the fonts must comply with these conventions:
    Fontname-Regular.ttf (normal)
    Fontname-Italic.ttf (italic)
    Fontname-Bold.ttf (bold)
    Fontname-BoldItalic.ttf (bold and italic)

If the font is copied to the device and does not correspond to this naming scheme, the Kindle will not recognize it. This means you first of all have to name the font like "Fastfont-Regular.ttf". I also read somewhere that the kindle (dependend on the firmware version) needs exactly this 4 names. Since we have Regular and Bold combined in the FastFont you have to copy the Font four times and name it differently - Regular, -Italic, -Bold and -BoldItalic like mentioned above.

Afterwards the Kindle should at least show you the font in the selection menu. You have to try out if the speed-reading functionality works. That is dependend on, if the kindle supports the opentype features of the font, that are the intelligence to print certain letters bold for speed-reading.

It would be great if you could post a short comment, if it worked or not. That could help other users trying the same ;-)

Furthermoe the Kindle is kind of special where it allows Font changes. It seems own Fonts work out of the box with DRM-Books (bought from the store). Local books pushed to the Kindle via Calibre doesn't allow the font change.

Some users created a python script to auto convert eBooks to Fast-Font and load them via Calibre on the Kindle. Please refer to this thread, where also the scripts are linked: https://github.com/Born2Root/Fast-Font/issues/8

[jloutsch]

@armaganguven I have a kindle Oasis and in order to use these fonts, I needed to do the following:

From the kindle file system, completely remove the book file(s) that calibre has transferred. I tried deleting them in calibre but for some reason this just resulted in many copies of the book.

Use the calibre plugins kfx input and kfx output to create a KFX copy of my ebook.

You cannot use 'send to kindle' for KFX - instead, right-click the book, save to disk > save single file to disk and then select the kindle as your save location