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 couple of 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 shade E Ink shows. Amazon’s strategy has led to sophisticated gadgets, but it surely’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 shade E Ink shows earlier too, with the Kobo Libra Colour and Clara Colour, in 2024. The corporate is really main by way of growing new kind elements.

Generally, Kobo takes a extra lenient strategy than Amazon, too, letting its e-readers learn extra varieties of information 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 you must strive in your Kobo e-reader.

1

Learn articles from Instapaper

Pocket has been changed

Kobo e-readers clearly assist ebooks and audiobooks, however they’ve additionally lengthy supplied integration with the read-it-later service Pocket. When you have been a Pocket person, you may save an article to learn later in your telephone or internet browser, and it might be obtainable to learn, offline, in your Kobo gadget. A minimum of till Mozilla determined to shut down Pocket, breaking the combination.

The not too long ago introduced various 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 completely different from Pocket, however when you’re in search of a easy solution 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’ve).

2

Rapidly swap between books and notes

The Kobo interface is not difficult, but it surely does drive you to navigate by means of a number of layers of menus to change between books, or between no matter you are studying and a pocket book, on e-readers with stylus assist. As a Kobo proprietor, I’ve accepted this as only a reality of life, however there’s truly a built-in shortcut system for shortly switching that would dramatically enhance this entire course of.

Inside a e-book or pocket book, when you swipe down from the highest of the display screen, you possibly can entry a menu of latest books and notes that you’ve got opened. Tapping on certainly one of them shortly switches you to it, and to return to no matter you have been studying earlier than, all it’s a must to do is entry the menu once more and faucet on it. This works notably nicely when you’re utilizing a e-book as a reference whereas taking notes or if it’s worthwhile to take a look at an annotation.

3

Modify brightness with a swipe

Having a backlit display screen is among the most necessary methods trendy e-readers differentiate themselves from conventional books. You possibly can learn them at the hours of darkness. Usually, you’d have to hop by means of menus to regulate your e-reader’s display screen brightness, however with the best setting toggled, you are able to do it simply by swiping on the left facet 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. Make sure 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 massive a part of what makes e-readers distinctive. Not solely are you able to select the font you learn in, however it’s also possible to change its measurement on a whim. Like display screen brightness, the font measurement is often one or two menus deep. That is positive, however there’s a solution to change it even sooner. With the best setting enabled, you possibly can truly pinch in or out to regulate the font measurement of your present e-book. The setting could be enabled by default, however to examine:

1. Faucet on Extra.
2. Faucet on Settings.
3. Faucet on Studying settings.
4. Make sure 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 power so as to add your personal. The font needs to be obtainable in OpenType (.otf) or TrueType (.ttf), however supplied it’s, you possibly can fairly simply load it onto your e-reader. So as to add your personal font:

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

5

Learn in Darkish Mode

Invert colours to present your eyes a relaxation

On a smartphone and pill, you possibly can often swap to dark mode to cut back eye pressure from a shiny display screen at evening. 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 present your eyes a relaxation whilst you’re studying at evening. To change to Darkish Mode whilst you’re studying:

1. Faucet on the high 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 inside books, so this would possibly not influence the house display screen of the Kobo. However when you’re in search of a fast solution to get aid out of your display screen, it actually does the trick.