5 of my favourite Kobo hacks that modified how I exploit 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 coloration E Ink shows. Amazon’s method has led to subtle gadgets, but it surely’s onerous 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 growing new type elements.

Basically, Kobo takes a extra lenient method than Amazon, too, letting its e-readers learn extra forms 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 here are 5 of my favourite hacks you must attempt 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. In case you had been a Pocket consumer, you could possibly save an article to learn later in your cellphone or net browser, and it could be accessible to learn, offline, in your Kobo system. No 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 may even delete, archive, or like articles immediately out of your e-reader, too. The service’s method to changing articles is decidedly completely different from Pocket, however for those who’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 gotten).

2

Rapidly change between books and notes

The Kobo interface is not difficult, but it surely does drive you to navigate by 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 truth of life, however there’s really a built-in shortcut system for shortly switching that might dramatically enhance this entire course of.

Inside a e book or pocket book, for those who swipe down from the highest of the display screen, you may entry a menu of current books and notes that you have opened. Tapping on certainly one of them shortly switches you to it, and to return to no matter you had been studying earlier than, all you need to do is entry the menu once more and faucet on it. This works notably effectively for those who’re utilizing a e book as a reference whereas taking notes or if it’s essential to take a look at an annotation.

3

Modify brightness with a swipe

Having a backlit display screen is without doubt 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 have to hop by menus to regulate your e-reader’s display screen brightness, however with the correct setting toggled, you are able to do it simply by swiping on the left facet of the display screen. To verify it is enabled in your Kobo:

1. Faucet on Extra.
2. Faucet on Settings.
3. Faucet on Studying settings.
4. Be certain that 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 large a part of what makes e-readers distinctive. Not solely are you able to select the font you learn in, however you may as well change its dimension on a whim. Like display screen brightness, the font dimension is normally one or two menus deep. That is high quality, however there’s a approach to change it even quicker. With the correct setting enabled, you may really pinch in or out to regulate the font dimension of your present e book. The setting may be enabled by default, however to examine:

1. Faucet on Extra.
2. Faucet on Settings.
3. Faucet on Studying settings.
4. Be certain that 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 power so as to add your individual. The font needs to be accessible 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 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. In case 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 provide your eyes a relaxation

On a smartphone and pill, you may normally swap to dark mode to cut back eye pressure from taking a look at a brilliant display screen at evening. An analogous function 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 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. Beneath 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 for those who’re on the lookout for a fast approach to get aid out of your display screen, it actually does the trick.