KOReader Settings Guide

I've been using this exact setup for a while now and love it, so I wanted to share it for anyone who is just getting started with KOReader.

Disclaimer

E-Reader setups are notoriously preferential. You might think a lot of these tweaks are overly opinionated but these tweaks are built around typographic science, physical ergonomics and distraction-free immersion.

• The Atkinson Hyperlegible Next font was engineered by the Braille Institute specifically to eliminate character ambiguity (distinguishing clearly between 'I', 'l', and '1'). It is objectively proven to reduce reading strain.
• By forcing "Ignore publisher line heights," enforcing uniform justification, and stripping out first-line indents in favour of paragraph spacing, we eliminate the jarring layout shifts that happen from book to book. Your eyes learn a single, perfectly predictable rhythm, which dramatically increases reading speed and reduces fatigue.
• The "100% forward tap zone" might sound crazy until you try it. It allows you to hold your device in any hand, in any posture, without ever having to stretch your thumb to a specific zone to turn a page. A simple backward swipe is all you need for the rare times you need to go back. It completely eliminates repetitive grip strain.
• Curating the status bar down to the bare essentials and killing auto-pop-up menus removes the UI from the equation entirely. Nothing is able to compete with the text for your attention.

Before Getting Started

I highly recommend downloading Atkinson Hyperlegible Next.

It’s completely free and looks gorgeous on e-ink displays because it spaces letters out perfectly to reduce reading fatigue.
Just transfer the font file to your device's font folder and restart KOReader before you begin.

Document Settings

Open the top menu and head to Document Settings (the second icon). For most of the tweaks in this section, you'll want to long-press the setting after changing it and select "Use on all books". This saves you from having to repeat the process for every new epub you open.

• Font: Choose Atkinson Hyperlegible Next and long-press to set it as your default.
• Style Tweaks: Make sure Enable Style Tweaks is checked. Then find Ignore all horizontal margins, long-press it, and apply it to all books.
• Text Alignment: Under the Text menu, select Justify most text (long-press and select "Use on all books").
• Headings: Also under Text, find Center headings (long-press and select "Use on all books").
• Line Heights: Choose Ignore publisher line heights (long-press and select "Use on all books"). This stops publisher formatting from overriding your preferred line spacing.
• Paragraphs: Go to Paragraph first-line indentation and select No indentation on first paragraph line (long-press and select "Use on all books"). Under Spacing between paragraphs, turn that on as well (long-press and select "Use on all books").
• Typography Rules: Check Respect embedded lang tags.

Bottom Menu Settings

Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to bring up the bottom menu. We'll work our way from right to left through the tabs.

The Cog Wheel (Advanced Settings)

• Alt Status Bar: Off
• Embedded Style & Fonts: Leave both On.
• Image Scaling: Choose between Fast or Best. This depends on your specific device's processor, so just go with whatever feels snappier.

The Contrast Tab (Next to the Cog Wheel)

• Contrast: Set this to 15 (tap the three dots and hit "Set as default").
• Font Weight: This is highly subjective, but find what looks comfortable to your eyes and set it as your default.
• Font Hinting: Auto
• Font Kerning: Best

The Font Tab

• Font Size: Totally up to you, though I personally prefer a larger font (like 28).
• Word Spacing: Medium
• Word Expansion: None

The Document Tab

• View Mode: Page
• Render Mode: Book (long-press to set as default).
• Zoom (dpi): 96
• Line Spacing: This will depend on your screen size, so tweak it until it feels right.

The Margins Tab

• L/R Margins: Left 10, Right 10 (set as default).
• Top/Bottom Margins: Top 10, Bottom 10 (set as default). This gives the text just enough breathing room without wasting screen real estate.

General Settings

Swipe down from the top and tap the Cog Wheel (the third icon in the top menu).

• Screen DPI: Set to Auto DPI.

A quick note on Taps and Gestures: These are entirely personal preference. The settings below just reflect how I use my device, particularly because I use Readest to sync my reading progress across devices.

• Custom Corner Gestures: Under Taps and Gestures > Gesture Manager > Tap corner, I map the Bottom Left corner to push my Readest progress from the device. Under Long-press on corner, I set the same corner to pull my progress. This means if I read a few chapters on my phone, I can just long-press the bottom corner of my e-reader to instantly sync my progress.
• Page Turns: Head into the Page turns menu. I prefer setting my tap zones to Top and Bottom rather than the traditional left and right.
• Tap Zone Size: Under Backward and forward tap zone size, I set Backward to 0% and Forward to 100%. This is a great little hack: it lets you tap literally anywhere on the screen to turn to the next page. Whenever you need to go back, you just swipe backwards.
• Activate Menu: Turn off Auto-show bottom menu to keep the UI out of your way.

Status Bar

Finally, let's tidy up the status bar (also found in the top Cog Wheel menu).

• Progress Bar: Set the position to Alongside items.
• Clean it up: Turn off Show chapter markers but enable Show initial-position marker.
• Margins: Set this to Same as book margins.
• Thickness and Height: I like setting the height to 8, but adjust this to your liking.

Now, back out and go into Configure Items:

• Enable Show all selected items at once.
• Disable Hide battery item when higher than 100% (if you always want to see your battery).
• Under Item font, check Items in bold and bump the size to around 16.

Head into Status Bar Items and make sure you only have these four options checked:

• Pages left in book
• Current time
• Pages left in chapter
• Battery percentage

Finally, go back to Configure Items > Arrange items, and drag them into this order:

1. Pages left in chapter
2. Pages left in book
3. Battery percentage
4. Current time

Hit the checkmark to save, and you're good to go! Your KOReader should now look incredibly clean and be a joy to read on.

Source: KOReader Setup