Kindle 2 Font Testers - Please read

Ted,

I'm new here but a consummate and relentless tweaker! Thanks so much for your efforts. I noticed right off that the K2 was not as contrasty as I'd like (been an owner for a whole week!).

I'm pretty set on using Size 1 for now (not a fan of page turns). I may move to Size 2 later.

So far I've tried:

cmodNarrow: Very nice, I think I prefer serifs, but not sure yet

Arial Round Narrow : Also VERY nice and legible. Not sure I want to read for extended periods sans serifs, but we'll see.

Droid: OK, I've tried this one now and think it's my favorite so far. I'd prefer a serif font but I think it just looks clearer than the cmodNarrow at this point. EDIT: I've found some of the letters a bit muddy. Particularly bothersome are the exclamation marks on Size 1, they look identical to an L.

Georgia2: I've now moved bnacked to a serif font. I fond serif fonts better for extended reading. Just put this one in but it looks very nice so far. It is a tad big even on Size 1.

Thanks again.

tedsan - I am using your Droid fonts and I read at type size 3.  I sometimes read at size 4 if I am tired, but I prefer for most reading.  I found the fonts on my Kindle 2 to be too light and was delighted to find out the fonts could be changed.  I was a previous owner of Kindle 1 and the difference in the font darkness between the Kindle 1 and 2 was very noticeable.  I originally made my own fonts, but had a problem with the quality of the fonts when I went to the Amazon store (they were fuzzy for some reason).  I next tried your fonts, found that the font issue with the Amazon store went away (much clearer), and really like the darkness of the fonts you provide.  I also tried the Narrow Ariel fonts on size 3, but they seemed to be a little too small for my liking, so I went back to the Droid fonts.  I also like the style of the Droid fonts. I wish Amazon allowed you to pick from a variety of fonts, but the font hack will have to do I guess.

I only have one problem with your Droid fonts.  I find the fonts on the main screen (the listing of my books) to be too dark or bold.  If these were lightened slightly, the Droid font hack would rate a 10 out of 10.  Since I spend most of my time reading and not looking at the main screen, this issue is not so bad that I will unstall the hack.  I was close to returning my Kindle until I found out I could modify the fonts darkness.  At that point, I decided to keep the Kindle and I am happy I did.  My big worry is Amazon modifies their firmware to disable the font hacks.  As long as the firmware continues to work, I will be happy.  

Thanks again for all of your hard work and I hope this helps.

The Droid font is a "unicode" font - that has many more characters than a normal English character set, hence the large size.

As for the references to bold etc - I believe that's a holdover from my naming conventions. As I modified off the shelf fonts, I add notations to indicate what I did to them. You are correct that there's single sets of fonts that are loaded. Each set contains a regular, a bold, an italic and a bold-italic font.

So, for example, the Droid Bold font is one that I ran through a font editor and had all the characters made a bit thicker, hence making them bolder.

As for the question about MOBI conversions, I haven't experienced that, so I'm afraid I can't comment on that issue.

Regarding the home screen display - they appear to display it in a large, bold format. Unfortunately, there's no control over that rendering. It's a compromise of making the entire font set bold enough but not too bold. That's what I've been experimenting with in the 'tall' font.

Clearly though, there's a variety of preferences that vary reader-to-reader, so it's already becoming clear that Amazon really should provide a handful of fonts so that readers can select whichever one suits their needs best.
Ideally, there's be customization, just like supported by most computers, so you could set the font and size for the home screen and other areas. But that's really icing.

As for compensation - my compensation is your happiness. But if Amazon wanted me to be a beta-tester or consultant on the design of the K3, I wouldn't complain!

I had my Kindle about a week before I tried the hack, spent a couple days trying the various fonts out, settled on Arial for a week and spent last week unhacked for the update. Using the default font, I mostly read on size 3. This was frustrating because I could almost outread the page turns, but size 2 was too small.

Of your fonts:

• Bold Native & Bold Narrow Native were both distinct improvements, allowing me to read comfortably at size 2. I would give a slight edge for Bold Narrow as better looking.
• I tried Droid Bold and could read at size 1, but I also disliked the appearance of the home screen.
• Arial Round Narrow is my Goldilocks font so far -- sharp enough for me to mostly read on size 1 (may bump to size 2 if I've been reading for a prolonged period) and the home screen doesn't look heavy.

Overall, I prefer the cleaner look of the two sans-serif fonts, but I find all of them much better than the stock font.

I have not tried Large or Tall since I do prefer reading on the smallest size possible. If I get a chance to demo them for my cousin with retinitis pigmentosa (tunnel vision), I will report back. Finally, I want to thank you for making these available as my Kindle is definitely more enjoyable with the hack.

I LOVE the ArialNarRound because it feels like a "smooth" read. Hard to explain, but it's like speed reading, the words flow without stop or stutter. It's great for blogs and newspapers with it's urgent, sans-serriff-informational vible! Haven't tried the TALL or DARK yet, but I also like the bold native - definitely an improvement upon the native serriff font.

Honestly, I don't think darkening/lightening is as much of an issue with font sizes 5, 6 (maybe size 4). Anything that improves the 1, 2, 3 - standard-size print in publications (novels, newspapers, blogs) - would be HUGE. So although I'm in love with my new ArialNarRound, my eyes still rove and yearn for that "perfect font."

Anyway, Mr. Ted-san, your work confirms what many of us knew all along: The Kindle 2 is lighter than the K1 on font sizes 1, 2, 3:

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

- Arthur Schopenhauer: Three stages of Truth