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 an entire new system for taking notes in 2022. And extra just lately, with the Kindle Colorsoft in 2024, the corporate’s long-awaited embrace of colour E Ink shows. Amazon’s strategy has led to subtle units, nevertheless it’s exhausting 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 colour 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 type elements.

On the whole, Kobo takes a extra lenient strategy than Amazon, too, letting its e-readers learn extra kinds of recordsdata and providing direct entry to library books. Even with all of these positives, there are nonetheless some tweaks, modifications and hacks you can also make to Kobo’s e-readers that’ll make it work higher for you. With that in thoughts, listed here 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. In the event you have been a Pocket consumer, you might save an article to learn later in your cellphone or internet browser, and it could be obtainable to learn, offline, in your Kobo system. Not less than till Mozilla determined to shut down Pocket, breaking the combination.

The just lately 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’ll even delete, archive, or like articles immediately out of your e-reader, too. The service’s strategy to changing articles is decidedly totally different from Pocket, however should you’re on the lookout for a easy approach 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

Shortly change between books and notes

The Kobo interface is not difficult, nevertheless it does drive 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 truth of life, however there’s truly a built-in shortcut system for rapidly switching that might dramatically enhance this complete course of.

Inside a ebook or pocket book, should you swipe down from the highest of the display, you may entry a menu of latest books and notes that you’ve got opened. Tapping on certainly one of 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 properly should you’re utilizing a ebook as a reference whereas taking notes or if you want to have a look at an annotation.

3

Alter brightness with a swipe

Having a backlit display is without doubt one of the most necessary methods fashionable e-readers differentiate themselves from conventional books. You’ll be able to learn them in the dead of night. Usually, you’d have to hop via menus to regulate your e-reader’s display brightness, however with the proper setting toggled, you are able to do it simply by swiping on the left aspect of the display. To ensure it is enabled in your Kobo:

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

4

Change the font dimension with a pinch

Save your self some faucets to make the textual content greater

Customizable fonts are one other huge 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 dimension on a whim. Like display brightness, the font dimension is normally one or two menus deep. That is positive, however there’s a approach to change it even quicker. With the proper setting enabled, you may truly pinch in or out to regulate the font dimension of your present ebook. The setting may be enabled by default, however to examine:

1. Faucet on Extra.
2. Faucet on Settings.
3. Faucet on Studying settings.
4. Make certain Pinch to regulate font dimension 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 must be obtainable in OpenType (.otf) or TrueType (.ttf), however supplied it’s, you may 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. In the event 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 offer your eyes a relaxation

On a smartphone and pill, you may normally swap to dark mode to scale back eye pressure from taking a look at a vibrant display at evening. An analogous function exists on Kobo e-readers. Darkish Mode on Kobo units will invert the colours on the display, placing white textual content on a black background, to offer your eyes a relaxation whilst you’re studying at evening. To modify to Darkish Mode whilst you’re studying:

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

Darkish Mode solely works inside books, so this may not influence the house display of the Kobo. However should you’re on the lookout for a fast approach to get aid out of your display, it actually does the trick.