Unicode Fonts Hack

UFHack is a hack for Amazon Kindle 2 (including the international version) and Amazon Kindle DX (including the international version) that allows replacing default Kindle fonts with different ones, including fonts that support broader range of characters like Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, etc. Hack comes in a form of manually installable patch and is fully reversible. Source code is included so you can customize the hack. If you do, please let me know and I’ll host or link to the modified version as I’m sure that one size doesn’t fit all.

This hack doesn’t work on Kindle 1 – check the link at the end of the page for alternate solutions.

Important!:

  • Use this hack and instructions at your own risk after reading ALL OF THEM carefully! Although I tested it to the best of my ability on my own devices I can’t guarantee that it will work on yours and will not be responsible for any damage (including completely and irreversibly bricking your device) it may have caused!
  • This hack works on Kindle 2 (incuding the international version) and DX. For Kindle 1 you’ll need a different one. If you are not sure which version you have it’s best not to mess with it all.
  • Having this hack installed will cause installation of official Amazon.com updates to fail. This is normal. You’ll need to reverse the hack (see instuctions below), install the Amazon.com update manually and then reapply the hack.

In theory this hack should work with any version of Kindle software. However, I’ve only tested it with 2.5.2 and 2.5.3. I strongly advice you to update your Kindle to the latest software version before installing this hack. This is something you should be doing anyway.

Before installing this hack you will need to “jailbreak” your Kindle – see instructions below!

There are several versions of this hack. Functionally they are identical but they are prepacked with different sets of fonts:

kindle-ufhack-v03-gnu-free-font-serif

kindle-ufhack-v03-gnu-free-font-sans

  • Droid Fallback Fonts (recommened for Asian glyphs) – this hack uses open-source Droid fallback font that is part of Google Android platform. Unfortunately styles and typefaces are missing completely. You’ll only get regular Sans Serif. The upside is the broadest character support. It supports Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese and a bunch of other languages. This font also looks very good on the Kindle screen (in my opinion way better than native Kindle fonts). This is the patch I currently have installed on my Kindle 2. Here are download links:

kindle-ufhack-v01-droid

kindle-ufhack-v03-droid-serif

kindle-ufhack-v03-droid-sans
Installing the hack:

  1. Download appropriate jailbreak package for your Kindle:
  2. Connect your Kindle via USB cable and copy the jailbreak package into the root directory of Kindle drive
  3. Use menus to initiate manual update installation: Press “Home” to fo to the home screen, press “Menu” and select “Settings”, press “Menu” again and select “Update Your Kindle”, press the 5-way controller once more to confirm the update. If “Update Your Kindle” is disabled make sure that update version corresponds to your version of Kindle.
  4. The installer will run and report a failure. This is expected and normal. After your Kindle reboots it will be jailbroken and you would be able to install custom hacks (including UFH)
  5. If you have another version of Unicode Font Hack installed – uninstall it first (instructions can be found below). If you do not the fonts may not change.
  6. Download appropriate update file from one of the links above.
  7. Connect your Kindle 2/DX to your PC via USB cable.
  8. Copy *install*.bin  file that corresponds the the desired font family and your device version into the root of your Kindle USB drive.
  9. Use menus to initiate manual update installation: Press “Home” to fo to the home screen, press “Menu” and select “Settings”, press “Menu” again and select “Update Your Kindle”, press the 5-way controller once more to confirm the update. If “Update Your Kindle” is disabled make sure that update version corresponds to your version of Kindle. For Kindle DX you should use _dx.bin files.
  10. Your Kindle Kindle 2/DX will switch through several update screens and then reboot.
  11. Once it reboots, you can test that the hack installed properly and works:
    1. First of all you should see apparent change in all of the fonts if you didn’t install browser-only update.
    2. press “Menu”, select “Settings”. In the bottom portion of the settings page you should see Kindle software version and “+ UFHack 0.3”.
    3. Start web browser and open http://www.wikipedia.org/ – you should see Russian text in the bottom left rather than boxes with question marks. If you used droid patch – Japanese characters in the upper-left will also display.
    4. And of course you can now copy books in different languages and start reading them.
  12. Connect your Kindle Kindle 2/DX to your PC via USB cable and copy *.orig files from the root directory to a safe location. Normally you’ll not need these to reverse the hack but it’s good to keep a copy of these just in case.

kindle-ufhack-v03-version

Uninstalling the hack:

  1. Connect your Kindle 2/DX to your PC via USB cable.
  2. Download file that corresponds to your device and copy it to the root directory of your Kindle drive. It doesn’t matter if you have droid or liberation hack installed. The uninstaller would remove either one.
  3. If you have UFH 0.3 for Kindle 2.3 installed use these (old) uninstallers:
  4. If you have UFH 0.1 or 0.2 installed you should use the oldest uninstaller from one of the following links:
  5. Optionally but highly recommended: use “Safely Remove Hardware” to “eject” Kindle 2/DX. In order for this to work you need to close all Windows Explorer and other file manager windows that display contents of Kindle drive.
  6. Use menus to initiate manual update installation: Press “Home” to fo to the home screen, press “Menu” and select “Settings”, press “Menu” again and select “Update Your Kindle”, press the 5-way controller once more to confirm the update.
  7. Your Kindle 2/DX will switch through several update screens and then reboot.
  8. Once it reboots, you can test that the hack installed properly and works: there should be no “+ UFHack 0.1” in the version string at the bottom of settings screen, fonts should be back to normal with boxed question marks displayed instead of unicode symbols.
  9. Unicode font files are not deleted from Kindle but should cause no problems. If you would like to delete them – contact me and I’ll provide a separate patch for that.
  10. You may also want to uninstall “jailbreak” package so that you can install official Kindle updates. Please use appropriate uninstaller from the following list:

Known issues:

  1. There is not perfect one-size fit all font that would preserve styles and display all characters and look nice at the same time. Finding one that is free proved to be more difficult than creating the patch. If you find such a font or even a paid one for which redistribution rights will not cost a small fortune – let me know and I’ll try to arrange a patch with that font.
  2. Unicode titles of .mobi and .prc books will display like garbage. This is not an issue with the hack or the fonts. Amazon eBook reader appliation assumes these fields to be ASCII rather than Unicode so they’ll not display correctly no matter what fonts until Amazon fixes this.

Using your own fonts:

  1. Once again I’ll stress that this is done at your own risk. Using corrupted font files in the reader app will likely brick your Kindle entirely. If you don’t know what are you doing – don’t do it!
  2. In order to roll your own Kindle updates you’ll need to have Python installed. One from ActiveState will do nicely.
  3. In the source code of the hack (you can download it here) you’ll find font files, update scripts and other related stuff. Feel free to look into any of it.
  4. To use your own fonts you need to replace the ones in /custom folder (preserving the file names!) and then run build-updates.cmd. This will generate installer .bin files for all versions of Amazon Kindle.
  5. If you use your own fonts it would be a good idea to test the browser-only update first. Keep in mind that browser-only update uses only Serif*.ttf fonts. So you will want to replace them with the ones that you are testing regardless of the actual typography. Replace all of the files even if you are using same font file.
  6. To uninstall use one of the standard uninstallers provided here.

Good luck and enjoy!

Please spread the word about this hack as it will increase chances of someone finding better fonts that can be used with it.

If you are interested in changing fonts on Kindle 1 – read this thread.

366 thoughts on “Unicode Fonts Hack”

  1. Edge says:

    Well, all is good. Received the new Kindle International – jailbroke, installed Anti-Brick (although I still don’t know how that could have saved me), Screen Saver, and a customer made Unicode Hack using the Georgia font (replaced all 12 fonts in the liberation). Everything turned out fine, but I was holding my breath on the font installation (I just really hate the font Kindle included, and have no idea why they chose that font).

    Anyway, it sure would be nice if someone could create an update file that works in Recovery Mode when you Kindle is bricked. That would save me (and many others) a huge headache. So far, the question has been asked by many, but no solution ever posted. Anyone like a challenge????

  2. propaganda says:

    The Droid font is much better than the original kindle font, however I am not so keen on the loss of the bold and italic fonts. Is it possible to use the commercial Droid font which has these additions? If so how do you go about installing it? Also what files can safely be deleted from the root directory after an install?

  4. juljan says:

    please i have the international version and i have a contrast problem. can you provide bold fonts for increasing the contrast
    thank you

  5. Roman says:

    I am considering to return my device to Amazon. Could you please send me the patch to delete unicode font files from Kindle DX (from Liberation pack)? Instructions on how to use it would be helpful too.
    And thank you very much for providing the hack. It has been working well!

  10. DX owner says:

    After installing latest Kindle DX update, delivered automatically from Amazon, ws the Version is now 2.3. I could not find any thing new in comparison with Version 2.1. But now UFH patch does not work any more. Please help. Thank you.

  11. Fritzoid says:

    This is a postscript to my Oct. 31 note about problems using the Droid font for Japanese. I’m now preparing Japanese texts a different way, and have not had any further difficulties whatsoever. I use NotePad to save texts as UTF-8 (not Unicode), and then send them to Amazon for conversion to .azw format (perhaps not a necessary step). Works like a charm. Thanks again for the hack!

  12. Edge says:

    I’ve had some forum members ask me to create different UHF files. I’ve created the following:

    -Droid (using Serif, Sans Serif and Mono)
    -Georgia
    -Droid (just using Sans Serif, but included Regular, Bold, Italic and Bold-Italic, unlike the Droid above which just uses Regular)
    -Arial Unicode (which displays all Chinese characters)

    All files are created for the Kindle 2, Kindle International, and Kindle DX (although not sure about the new firmware).

    Files can be found at http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=666912#post666912, and as always, use at your own risk, and please post feedback and screenshots. Thanks.

  14. Alex says:

    The UFH 0.1 does not work on K2 after installation update 2.3. I had it installed before, but before installation of new update 2.3, I uninstall UFH successfully, install 2.3 successfully, but for UFH 0.1 installation K2 show installation unsuccessful. I have a lot of Russian books on my K2 and need UFH back. Please, help

  19. David says:

    I tried to install the UHF Georgia 2.3 update by Edge on my Kindle International (Firmware 2.3 399380047). Installation was successful as confirmed by the version (Kindle 2.3+UHF 0.2) but Chinese characters were displayed as square box. The previous hack at Blogkindle could display the same Chinese file without problem. The uninstall pack by Edge did successfully restore to a plain 2.3 firmware.

  20. admin says:

    You’ve probably installed the liberation font pack. it doesn’t have asian character support. You should install droid font package.
    I’m currently in the process of creating the next version of the hack.

  21. UJX says:

    I have copy the update_ufh_droid_install-k2i.bin to my kindle after update to 2.3. Kindle update the UFH automatically (don’t know how it can do this) and the update is successful. I can read Chinese properly.

  24. Eddy says:

    Not seen anybody mentioned this. Tried to install the Droid UFC hack (before the v2.3) Chinese characters look okay tho, as i keep reading they turn out unreadable symbols upon certain length of contents. These files in UTF-16, size around 30-50kbs.

  26. Carol says:

    I have a Kindle 2. I installed the font hack some time ago, and have had not issues. Today, I downloaded the uninstaller, and tried to use it – it fails during the second step, and shows a U004 in the lower left of the screen.

    What could prevent the uninstall from working? I show version 2.0.3 of the Kindle software with UFHack 0.1 on the settings page.

    Thanks

  27. admin says:

    If you have older version of the hack installed – you need to use the older uninstaller. Since all my devices have software 2.3 I can’t test and figure out why so I’ve just put links to older uninstallers here.

  28. Alex says:

    I have your hack installed (Kindle 2) and now the 2.3 update would not install. I would like to remove the hack but have no idea whether it is the new or the old version, and there are different hacks for doing it. What should I do?

  29. admin says:

    go to the settings screen and look at the version. UFH 0.1 and OFH 0.2 == old, UFH 0.3 – new. Since you are not at 2.3 yet – you have the old version.
    Trying the wrong uninstaller will do no harm.

  30. Richard says:

    With my K2 (v 2.0.3) I have been using the “update_helvetica2_install.bin” hack successfully and I love it.

    Now that I have removed it and updated to v 2.3, which update do I use to replicate the helvetica 2 font?

    Note, I’m just interested in reading in English.

  31. Jan H says:

    Thank you for getting this up so quickly after the 2.3 update. I was wondering if you would be redoing the extra-large fonts which I was using previously?

  33. David says:

    PLEASE HELP!
    I have K2i (2.2.1+UHF-0.2) and KDX (2.1.1 + UFH-0.1). Now I’m trying to update them to the newest 2.3 version.
    I’ve copied “update_ufh_uninstall-k2i.bin (old)” and “update_ufh_uninstall-kdx.bin (old)” to the root directories of K2i and KDX respectively. and in both cases got message – update is not successful! and after reboot they still show old hack versions and russian font is still readable.

    What I’m doing wrong? Any ideas?

  35. David says:

    i downloded them from links above – unintsallers for UFH 0.1 or 0.2.
    But they are very small in size – just 2-4 KB. is this OK?

  36. David says:

    Dear admin,
    What do you mean under “old”? is there any other uninstallers for UFH0.1-0.2 hacks? if yes where can i find them?

  38. yjs says:

    I noticed that the book name for the Chinese book screenshot (Droid font) is messed up, is this for all Asian languages? Cheers thanks.

  39. ujx says:

    My kindle (ver: 2.3(399380047)+UFH 0.2) can show Chinese title properly at HOME and during reading. I use Droid font also.

    How can I make a screenshot?

  40. Yin Xiaoshan says:

    I have a Kindle of International Wireless version that does not support Simplified Chinese. I put Fallback Fonts file into the root directory of my Kindle and it updated successfully. But unfortunately, simplified Chinese in a .text (Unicode) file is still unreadable. What’s wrong with it? Can anyone here tell me about?

  41. Anna K says:

    I just bought a new kindle 2 international and tried to install the patch. It would not allow me to select update line (it is grey out) and non selectable. Please help.

  45. TomF says:

    You can view Russian without applying the Unicode hack by viewing Russian in a PDF. In OpenOffice I set up a page of 9x12cm with .6cm margins. I inserted text at 10pt Arial and then exported to PDF. The Russian turned out pretty good. Of course you can tweak it to your liking.
    I thought about using the Unicode hack, but thought of bricking my new kindle was a little scary. Especially since it would take a little while to receive a new one. This was a satisfactory solution for me for the time being. And might be a good article to cover for other people to try as a way around this limitation.
    Hope this is of help.

  49. Gene says:

    hi guys,have a problem- hope that someone can help with. Trying to download hack on my kindle but its not working… can somebody gide me step-by-step… I get to computer, what’s my next move? Please…

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