5 of my favourite Kobo hacks that modified how I take advantage of my e-reader

Amazon’s made main enhancements to its Kindle lineup in the previous few years. First, with the addition of the Kindle Scribe and a complete new system for taking notes in 2022. And extra not too long ago, with the Kindle Colorsoft in 2024, the corporate’s long-awaited embrace of coloration E Ink shows. Amazon’s strategy has led to sophisticated gadgets, nevertheless it’s arduous to disclaim that it was Kobo that paved the best way. The corporate beat Amazon to the punch with the Kobo Elipsa in 2021, its personal tackle a note-taking pill. And it began experimenting with coloration E Ink shows earlier too, with the Kobo Libra Colour and Clara Colour, in 2024. The corporate is really main when it comes to creating new kind components.

On the whole, Kobo takes a extra lenient strategy than Amazon, too, letting its e-readers learn extra forms of recordsdata and providing direct entry to library books. Even with all of these positives, there are nonetheless some tweaks, adjustments and hacks you may make to Kobo’s e-readers that’ll make it work higher for you. With that in thoughts, listed below are 5 of my favourite hacks it’s best to attempt in your Kobo e-reader.

1

Learn articles from Instapaper

Pocket has been changed

Kobo e-readers clearly help ebooks and audiobooks, however they’ve additionally lengthy provided integration with the read-it-later service Pocket. When you have been a Pocket person, you possibly can save an article to learn later in your cellphone or net browser, and it might be out there to learn, offline, in your Kobo machine. A minimum of till Mozilla determined to shut down Pocket, breaking the mixing.

The not too long ago introduced different is Instapaper, an much more streamlined read-it-later service that is existed for simply as lengthy. Instapaper can equally sync your articles to your Kobo, and you may even delete, archive, or like articles straight out of your e-reader, too. The service’s strategy to changing articles is decidedly totally different from Pocket, however in case you’re in search of a easy method to save issues to learn later, linking your account can drastically enhance the usefulness of your Kobo (and the quantity of free studying materials you will have).

2

Rapidly change between books and notes

The Kobo interface is not sophisticated, nevertheless it does power you to navigate via a number of layers of menus to modify between books, or between no matter you are studying and a pocket book, on e-readers with stylus help. As a Kobo proprietor, I’ve accepted this as only a reality of life, however there’s truly a built-in shortcut system for rapidly switching that might dramatically enhance this complete course of.

Inside a e-book or pocket book, in case you swipe down from the highest of the display screen, you’ll be able to entry a menu of current books and notes that you have opened. Tapping on one in all them rapidly switches you to it, and to return to no matter you have been studying earlier than, all you must do is entry the menu once more and faucet on it. This works notably nicely in case you’re utilizing a e-book as a reference whereas taking notes or if it’s essential to take a look at an annotation.

3

Regulate brightness with a swipe

Having a backlit display screen is likely one of the most essential methods trendy e-readers differentiate themselves from conventional books. You may learn them at the hours of darkness. Usually, you’d must hop via menus to regulate your e-reader’s display screen brightness, however with the suitable setting toggled, you are able to do it simply by swiping on the left aspect of the display screen. To ensure it is enabled in your Kobo:

1. Faucet on Extra.
2. Faucet on Settings.
3. Faucet on Studying settings.
4. Ensure that Swipe left edge to regulate brightness is toggled to On.

4

Change the font measurement with a pinch

Save your self some faucets to make the textual content greater

Customizable fonts are one other large a part of what makes e-readers distinctive. Not solely are you able to select the font you learn in, however you can too change its measurement on a whim. Like display screen brightness, the font measurement is normally one or two menus deep. That is high quality, however there’s a method to change it even quicker. With the suitable setting enabled, you’ll be able to truly pinch in or out to regulate the font measurement of your present e-book. The setting could be enabled by default, however to test:

1. Faucet on Extra.
2. Faucet on Settings.
3. Faucet on Studying settings.
4. Ensure that Pinch to regulate font measurement is toggled to On.

If you wish to use extra fonts than come pre-installed in your Kobo e-reader, you even have the flexibility so as to add your individual. The font needs to be out there in OpenType (.otf) or TrueType (.ttf), however supplied it’s, you’ll be able to fairly simply load it onto your e-reader. So as to add your individual font:

1. Join your Kobo e-reader to your laptop over a USB-C cable.
2. Faucet Join in your Kobo.
3. In your laptop, click on on the folder known as KoboeReader.
4. Drag the font recordsdata into the fonts folder. When you do not see the folder, create one and add the font recordsdata to it.
5. Eject your Kobo out of your laptop.

5

Learn in Darkish Mode

Invert colours to provide your eyes a relaxation

On a smartphone and pill, you’ll be able to normally swap to dark mode to cut back eye pressure from a shiny display screen at night time. An identical characteristic exists on Kobo e-readers. Darkish Mode on Kobo gadgets will invert the colours on the display screen, placing white textual content on a black background, to provide your eyes a relaxation when you’re studying at night time. To change to Darkish Mode when you’re studying:

1. Faucet on the prime half of the display screen.
2. Faucet on Studying settings (the gear icon).
3. Underneath Web page Look, toggle Darkish Mode to On.

Darkish Mode solely works within books, so this may not affect the house display screen of the Kobo. However in case you’re in search of a fast method to get reduction out of your display screen, it actually does the trick.