The best fonts for KOReader, and how to add your own
KOReader ships with a decent set, but the reason people install it is control. Here is how fonts work in KOReader, which free ones are worth trying, and the settings that matter more than the typeface.
Last updated September 2026
KOReader comes with a serviceable default set — the Noto family covers most languages, plus a few classics. But font choice is one of the main reasons people move off the stock reader, so it is worth doing properly.
How fonts work in KOReader
- Bundled fonts live inside the app and are always available.
- Your own fonts go in the
fontsfolder inside KOReader’s directory (koreader/fonts). Drop.ttfor.otffiles in — whole families, so regular, bold, italic and bold-italic are all present — and restart KOReader. They then appear in the font list while reading. - KOReader reads the family and style from inside each file, so file naming does not matter the way it does on a Kobo.
- The font menu is reached by tapping the top of the screen, then the “Aa” icon. Long-pressing a font name opens per-font weight and rendering options.
Free fonts worth trying
All of these are open-licensed, so you can download and copy them without any grey area:
- Literata — Google’s commissioned book face, designed for screens. A very safe default; comfortable at small sizes.
- Bitter — a slab serif with sturdy strokes that hold up on low-contrast e-ink.
- Source Serif 4 and Source Sans 3 — Adobe’s open families, clean and neutral.
- Noto Serif — already bundled; wide language coverage and predictable.
- Atkinson Hyperlegible — designed for low vision; unusually easy to distinguish letters, if you find most faces too tight.
- iA Writer Duospace or a good mono like JetBrains Mono — only if you read a lot of technical text or code in EPUBs.
A note on Bookerly and Ember: those are Amazon’s Kindle fonts. They are not distributed for free, so we do not link them; some people copy them off a Kindle they own, which is a licensing question we leave to you.
The settings that matter more than the typeface
Changing font rarely fixes a page that feels wrong. These usually do:
- Weight. KOReader can render any font a notch heavier. On e-ink, a slightly bolder body is often more readable than a different face. Font menu, then the weight control.
- Hinting and anti-aliasing. Under the font menu’s advanced options. If text looks fuzzy, try switching the hinting mode.
- Gamma. In the screen settings — it thickens or thins every glyph at once. A small increase makes light fonts land better on a grey panel.
- Line spacing and margins. More space between lines does more for comfort than any font swap. These are in the same reading menu.
The short version
Add Literata, set the weight one notch up, nudge the gamma, and give the lines a little more room. If it still is not right, then try a different face.