The open-source eReader community has developed an alternative to the default Kindle interface. It's called KOReader, and it turns the standard Amazon interface into something magical.
Why bother replacing the default Kindle reader?
Short answer: Amazon
I dislike the default Amazon interface as much as I love my Kindle. It's bloated with ads , and the main page is just an Amazon shopping screen. The ads I can tolerate, but a Kindle owner has no control over their own library.
The books you buy on a Kindle are stored in the Amazon cloud, and Amazon can remotely delete books from your Kindle if they want to (and they actually have done so in the past). Even if you can somehow get the files off the Kindle and move them to another device, you will not be able to read them because they're locked with DRM .
Alexandra Ramos
I think if someone can decide to erase books from my library or prevent me from reading them on another device, they're the ones who actually own the library, not me. If Amazon disables my account, I'll lose my entire library. Amazon can even break my entire Kindle just by pushing an update.
What makes KOReader special
It serves you, the reader, not Amazon
Mostly, I just wanted my Kindle to become a local-first device and cut out the Amazon cloud entirely. That way, I would have total control over my library and all the ebooks inside. As a happy byproduct, an offline Kindle wouldn't show ads either. I started using Calibre to copy books directly to the Kindle , so I could read them offline. It didn't stop the lock screen ads that my Kindle had already loaded, but other than that, Calibre was helping me bypass the Amazon ecosystem entirely.
Learning to use Calibre and interacting with the community led me down the rabbit hole that is Kindle jailbreaking. Turns out, you can "jailbreak" a Kindle (just like you can a smartphone) and completely de-Amazon it. My warranty was already up, so I decided to jailbreak it, and I could not be happier with that choice. I followed a simple guide on kindlemodding.org , and it took about 30–40 minutes to complete the jailbreak.
The first thing I did after jailbreaking the Kindle was to install KOReader on it. It's an open-source reader that replaces the default Kindle reader. And it blew me away.
You can set a jailbroken Kindle to boot directly into KOReader, so you never have to see the Amazon interface again unless you quit KOReader. It also works completely offline.
All the file formats you could ever ask for, and then some
KOReader can load all the file formats that Kindle can't
Firstly, KOReader supports way more formats than the default Kindle reader. It can read EPUBs natively (no conversion required). It even loads digital comic book formats like CBZ and CBR natively, which Kindle doesn't. Office formats like DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT, and HTML also work. PDF files work on both, but on KOReader you can enable "text reflow" to make the PDF intelligently fit the screen or even crop margins. On Kindle, extra PDF margins have always bothered me.
Set the book cover as the lock screen
My Kindle lock screen is no longer an eyesore
This is probably my favorite feature so far. With KOReader, you can set the lock screen to display the cover of your current book. Before KOReader, it would just display random ads and offers from Kindle Unlimited, which made it an eyesore. Now, whenever I look at the Kindle or pick it up, it reminds me to continue reading.
You can even use it to display custom wallpapers on the lock screen. I downloaded a few wallpapers optimized for e-ink screens. Then I set KOReader to cycle between them.
Faisal Rasool / How-To Geek
Customize absolutely everything
I really do mean everything
I'd like to start by clarifying that I've always liked the Kindle reader app. It gets the job done, and I'm particularly fond of the dictionary feature. So I never gave customization much thought until I used KOReader. If you're someone who loves tinkering and customizing things just to your liking, you'll love KOReader. It showed me just how flexible and customizable an eReader can be.
Let's start with the layout and viewer customization. You can change the orientation of the text in four ways. You can even toggle a dual-column view, which looks great on bigger Kindles.
You can switch to continuous mode instead of flipping through pages. You can change the contrast and font weight of text (which I've tried and failed to do on the regular Kindle reader). It makes the text more visible, especially in lower light. All these settings can be saved as a style profile. You can choose a default profile to apply to all books, or use different profiles for different books.
You can set custom gestures for tapping and swiping on corners and edges. For example, I've set the left corner to instantly toggle the front light on and off. And long-pressing the same corner turns the night mode on or off. Swiping up from the left and right edges increases the front light intensity and font size, respectively.
You can load custom fonts. You can even customize the status bar and decide exactly what items go in it. You can choose to display a reading progress bar. Every little thing, like the width and height of the progress bar, can be tweaked and customized.
There are even more customization features which I haven't covered and (I'm sure) haven't discovered yet.
Some other neat features
More quality-of-life features that Kindle is missing
It has all the features that a regular Kindle has: dictionary support (you can add more dictionaries), Wikipedia lookup, vocabulary builder, highlights, notes, and even a text editor.
KOReader integrates directly with Calibre, so you can send books from your PC or server to Calibre using a wired or wireless connection.
It has a built-in RSS feed , which lets you build news feeds and automatically sync them. You can open the news folder to read your daily news.
You can also see detailed reading stats for your current book and all your reading activity in one place. This is one feature I always wish Kindle had by default, but I'm very happy to have found it in KOReader.
My only regret is not installing KOReader sooner
This barely scratches the surface of what KOReader can do, but it should give you some idea of how powerful it is. I've been using e-readers and e-reader apps for more than 10 years and I can confidently say I've never seen a more flexible or customizable e-reader app. The only feature I actually miss is the Kindle internet browser. KOReader doesn't have anything like that.
