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, moving lighting controls to invisible gestures, 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 and check Enable hyphenation. Because we are forcing "Justify most text," hyphenation ensures you don't get awkward, gaping spaces between words.

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: On
• Embedded Fonts: Off. This is a crucial step to ensure the publisher's embedded fonts do not override your Atkinson Hyperlegible Next font.
• 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: Set this to 108% (long-press to set as default). This pairs incredibly well with the Atkinson font to give the text proper breathing room.

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, Battery & System Tweaks

• Screen DPI: Set to Auto DPI.
• Wi-Fi Battery Optimization: Go to Network and set both Action when Wi-Fi is off and Action when done with Wi-Fi to Prompt. This ensures your device doesn't continuously hunt for Wi-Fi in the background, saving massive amounts of battery.
• Sleep Optimization (Auto-Suspend): Go to Device > Auto suspend. Enable it and set the timeout to 15 minutes. Optional: Go to Auto power off and set it to 3 days to prevent battery drain if you forget about your device for a few days.
• Volume Key Page Turning: Go to Navigation and check Volume key page turning. If your device has physical buttons, this allows you to turn pages without moving your fingers to the screen at all.
• Screen Clarity (Anti-Ghosting): E-ink screens retain faint traces of previous pages. To keep the Atkinson font looking razor-sharp, go to Screen > E-ink settings > Full screen refresh and set it to Every 6 pages (or at chapter boundaries).
• Color Rendering: If you have a color e-ink display (like Kaleido 3), go to Screen > E-ink settings and uncheck Color rendering. This forces pure black-and-white mode for reading text, significantly improving contrast and sharpness.
• Screensaver Image: Go to Screen > Cover Image. Check Set image path and point it to a folder (e.g., /storage/emulated/0/Pictures) to display custom screensavers when the device is asleep.

Taps and Gestures

A quick note on Taps and Gestures: These are entirely personal preference. The settings below just reflect how I use my device, prioritizing invisible gestures to prevent the menu from interrupting the reading experience.

• Ergonomic Lighting Controls: Go to Taps and gestures > Gesture manager > One-finger swipe. Set Left edge swipe to Adjust frontlight brightness and Right edge swipe to Adjust frontlight warmth. Sliding your thumb along the bezel will now adjust lighting instantly.
• Distraction-Free Dark Mode: Go to Gesture manager > Two-finger swipe. Select Two-finger swipe down and map it to Toggle night mode (under Screen and lights). A quick two-finger drag will now invert the screen.
• Custom Corner Gestures (for Syncing): Under Gesture Manager > Tap corner, I map the Bottom Left corner to push my reading progress to the cloud via the Readest plugin. Under Long-press on corner, I set the same corner to pull 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.

Advanced Reading Tools

• Dictionary Setup: KOReader does not come with dictionaries pre-installed, but it supports any dictionary in the StarDict format.
  • Built-in Downloads: Connect to Wi-Fi, go to the top menu, tap the Search (Magnifying Glass) > Dictionary lookup. Tap the gear icon in the top right, select Download dictionaries. I highly recommend downloading English WordNet (a lightweight lexical database great for finding synonyms and understanding word relationships) and GCIDE (based on Webster's 1913 dictionary, making it incredible for reading classic literature).
  • Custom Dictionaries: For modern slang (like Wiktionary) or plain-English definitions (like an Advanced Learner's Dictionary), you can find community-converted StarDict files online. Plug your device into a computer and drop the extracted dictionary files directly into your koreader/data/dict folder.
  • The Power User Tip: You can install as many dictionaries as you want simultaneously. When you long-press a word to pull up the definition, simply swipe left or right on the pop-up window to cycle through your different dictionary sources.
• Highlight & Note Syncing: If you take notes, go to the Cog Wheel > Export highlights. Choose your preferred service (Evernote, Joplin, JSON, HTML, or Readwise) so your highlights automatically push to your personal knowledge base when you finish a book.

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.
• Set the Container bottom margin to 5. This lifts the text slightly away from the physical bezel, giving it perfect visual breathing room.

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

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

Finally, go back to Configure Items > Arrange items, and drag them into this order (from broadest information to most specific):

1. Pages left in book
2. Pages left in chapter
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