Kindle Hacks And Tools

There is a number of hacks and tools for Kindle that extend it’s functionality beyond what Amazon initially provided. This page attempts to summarize as many of these as possible.

Name Description Kindle 1 Kindle 2 Kindle DX
Unicode Font Hack Adds support for non-Latin languages (Cyrillic, Japanese, etc). You can read books in these languages once this hack is installed. Supports Kindle 2 (K2) and Kindle DX. For original Kindle (K1) different hack is required Separate Yes Yes
Screensaver Hack Allows replacing default screensaver images (authors) with images of your own choosing that can be dynamically added or removed from user-accessible portion of Kindle flash memory (USB drive) Yes Yes Yes
Savory Adds native support for DRM-free ePub and PDF files by installing Calibre converter on Kindle device itself. Also unlocks downloading of these file types from built-in Kindle browser. No Yes No
PDF Download Unlocks downloading of PDFs in built-in Kindle browser. N/A N/A Yes
EBook Text Formatter Fixes formatting and encoding of text files downloaded from the Internet by restoring proper paragraph breaks and getting rid of HTML markup and excessive space characters. Mainly designed with lib.ru in mind but may work for other text files and languages. Can also be used for Sony PRS-500 and PRS-505. This is a command-line Windows tool and it doesn’t modify Kindle in any way. You will need to install unicode font hack to enable display of non-Latin characters. Yes Yes Yes

Let me know if you find a hack that is not listed here or if some information becomes outdated.

19 thoughts on “Kindle Hacks And Tools”

  1. ben tuval says:

    Kindle does not support multi-level directory to the best of my knowledge.
    It is a pity, what’s use of 1500 books listed in one column ?
    Does anyone knows a way to “teach” Kindle recognise directory tree ?

  2. Diane H says:

    Nope but I wish they would come up with something. I have a mix of novels and professional books on my kindle and it is a real pain trying to get to one I haven’t accessed in awhile. I would love it if they would come up with “folders” or something so you could organize your materials.

  3. Travis S says:

    Is there a DX “last page” screensaver hack for V2.3? This was a great hack available pre V2.3 but I can’t seem to find one that will work since my update.

  4. Maverick says:

    Nope but I wish they would come up with something. I have a mix of novels and professional books on my kindle and it is a real pain trying to get to one I haven’t accessed in awhile. I would love it if they would come up with “folders” or something so you could organize your materials.
    +1

  5. David says:

    I use the “collections” feature in place of folders. I have one for samples, one for books I have finished, one for reference books, etc.

  6. AKD says:

    I wanted to use “collection” feature on Kindle-3 loaded with PDF files, but it was not active. I called Kindle tech-support to find out that this feature works only with their native format. Does anyone know any way round?

  8. Jenda says:

    OK. Kindle 1, Kindle 2, Kindle DX … what about Kindle 3? Any chance the Savory works on Kindle 3 as well? And what about the PDF download?

  9. Mark says:

    The best application for Kindle I have come across is Calibre which is surprisingly not mentioned on this site – does conversions for you but more importantly, download a newspaper/magazine website into a nice readable format. Saved me a fortune on weekend newspapers.

  10. Mike G says:

    On my Kindle 3 Collections were disabled until I registered.
    By the way it isn’t necessary to give credit card details or any other payment method to register. After you have entered your email and password and are presented with the payment screen, just press back or home or whatever to end the procedure and when you look in setup you’ll find that you are registered. Also you can then mildly personalise Home and add some personal data.

  11. tom says:

    I can place PDFs into collections. No problems. It’s kind of a chore to do it on the Kindle, but they can be managed.

  13. Az says:

    I would simply just love to be able to annotate/highlight in pdf’s on my Kindle DX. Heard that Kindle 3 is able – will there be a firmware update or a hack for Kindle DX? Cant see the problem, its just a matter of a few lines of code, as the feature on the kindle-format is there…
    I dont need it to rewrite the pdf. The clippings folder is fine with me:-)

  14. Zack says:

    They need a computer application we can send our books to, that would sync to the Kindle every time it plugged in.

    Via this application, we should be able to create folder trees and place our books within, and the format would be identical on the Kindle itself.

    By folder tree:

    Unread > Fiction > Fantasy > George R.R. Martin > A Storm of Swords
    or
    Read > Non-fiction > Autobiography > Lucy Grealy > Autobiography of a Face

    I mean, I guess to access these books in such a fashion you’re going to have to click through a few menus, so your most-recently read book would be a few extra clicks away. But for other books you may have forgotten about, instead of having to click back to page 32, it’ll be like 4-5 pages down, and you’ll know where they are. This doesn’t seem like rocket science, and yet we’re on the third generation device and navigating huge collections is still a ridiculous hassle.

  15. crazyhockeydad says:

    I have an e-book from college that is a large PDF file. It has a secure log in on the front page to unlock the PDF. I cannot get to the log in when I downloaded it to my Kindle. Is there any way to open the PDF and then download it to the Kindle so that it is saved open on the Kindle?

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