Here’s a list ebook readers and the font styles each one offers. Now that ebooks have arrived to supplement paper books, it’s not enough to have just one font choice when sitting down to read.
Everyone has their own tastes when it comes to fonts, so having choices is definitely a good thing. Plus having more font options can be a real benefit for those with poor eyesight, in which case a nice bold font can work wonders.
Kobo Touch
The Kobo Touch starts off this list because it offers more font choices than any other ereader on the current market, and that includes both DRM-free ebooks and DRM’d ebooks.
- Georgia
- Avenir
- Amasis
- Delima
- Felbridge
- Gill Sans
- Rockwell
- Can add most TTF and OFT fonts (directions).
Nook Touch
A stock Nook Touch offers the following formats below. A rooted Nook Touch on the other hand is open to apps with more fonts and apps with the ability to load fonts.
- Caecilia
- Malabar
- Amasis
- Gill Sans
- Helvetica Neue
- Trebuchet
Nook Color
Out of the box, the Nook Color offers the font choices below. Like the Nook Touch, a rooted or Rom’d Nook Color offers access to a wider range of fonts via various Android apps.
- Century School Book
- Dutch
- Georgia
- Ascender Sans
- Trebuchet MS
- Gill Sans
Original Nook
The original Nook still sells from B&N so it made its way onto this list with the following font choices.
- Helvetica Neue
- Amasis
- Light Classic
Amazon Kindle
The Kindle 3 has three font choices; you can add other fonts but have to jailbreak the device first. The other Kindles have just one font type, Caecilia. The Kindle 3’s fonts are a little thicker and darker than most other fonts because they are “optimized with Amazon’s proprietary waveform and font technology”.
- Caecilia
- Caecilia condensed
- Sans serif
PocketBook
PocketBook ereaders have lots of fonts choices, but this only applies to DRM-free ebooks; DRM’d ebook have to use Adobe Reader and it is limited to the default serif font. I think the font choices vary slightly by model; here’s the fonts on my PocketBook 602.
- DejaVu Serif
- Droid Sans
- Droid Serif
- Georgia
- Liberation Mono
- Liberation Sans
- Liberation Serif
- Menuet Script
- Myriad Pro
- Verdana
Sony Reader PRS-T1
The new Sony Reader PSR-T1 is the first ereader from Sony to have more than one font choice. It’s not out just yet, but the videos show the following seven options:
- Original
- Amasis
- Frutiger Neue
- Verdana
- Univers Next
- Really No 2
- Palatino nova
Older Sony Readers
The older Sony Readers only come with one default serif font option, but there is a way to add other fonts for DRM-free ebooks with a little work.
iriver Story HD
At the bottom of the list is the iriver Story HD because it only has one font choice, the default Adobe Reader serif font.
I have always been partial to Tahoma.
About the Pocketbook line: most models can run an alternate, hacked version of the AdobeViewer app that allows a userstyle css to override the defaults, even for DRM’ed ebooks.
(There’s a thread on it at the Mobileread Forum for Pocketbooks.)
It’s not as convenient as the fbreader180 and Coolreader3 apps for Pocketbook but it gets the job done, and it does let you override quite a few other typographical settings.
Fontwise, on eink screens I favor Georgia but on LCD I’m running Garamond these days. No Sans Serif fonts for me.
I didn’t know about the hacked Adobe Viewer, thanks for mentioning that. PocketBooks keep getting more interesting all the time. Pity their marketing is absolutely dreadful. They really should partner with someone like Google to get better brand recognition. They are some of the best ebook readers, but no one knows about them because they are too obscure and under the radar.
At this point Pocketbook readers are getting most of their enhancements and value-add from the community as it seems the bulk of their coders are tied up fixing bugs and trying to live up to the overly optimistic promises of their managers and “marketers”. They really were not geared to support the launch of five models at once, much less four separate firmware code bases.
They’ve not had a good year.
The best that can be said for PB HQ in 2011 is they didn’t mess with the 360 form-factor in the refresh.
Although this isn’t a Pocketbook forum, I noticed several comments about that brand, so thought I’d add my 2 cents worth.
I have a Pocketbook 602 and am pleased with it so far.
The font choices are decent, but the main selling-point for me was the user-replaceable battery (a vanishing feature on e-readers).
The oddly designed on-screen keyboard is a challenge, and I agree with Nathan that they should partner with someone with better name recognition, as Bookland.net is poorly stocked.
Any suggestions on where I could buy contemporary books (i.e., Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy) in a format readable on the Pocketbook 602? I’m thinking Google Books and Kobo Books are good choices, but don’t want to spend the money until I’m sure. Font type doesn’t matter; I’ll just be happy for something written within the last decade.
Yeah, the on-screen keyboard has that weird layout and resets to the center every time, drives me nuts.
Indeed you can get ebooks from anywhere that sells Adobe DRM—Google, Kobo, eBooks.com—and DRM-free ebooks too of course. Kobo has the The Hunger Games Trilogy. I don’t think it is an agency ebook so you might be able to use the FirstRead code to get 35% off your first ebook purchase at Kobo.
@Nathan
I used the link you provided to go from your website to Kobo, just in case there’s a way you can collect a commission on the sale. Got the book, although I probably didn’t use the most efficient means. Here’s what I did on my laptop.
Purchased book; saved a 1KB ACSM file (whatever that is) to a microSD card; put card into my Pocketbook. Pocketbook went online to log into my Adobe Digital Editions account (had to use that awkward keyboard). Downloaded book from there.
I think I did well for a non-tech person. Also, the FirstRead promo code worked. Knocked $5 to $6 off the book price. Thanks.
Good to hear it worked. I didn’t even know you could authorize it over wifi. Not bad for a non-techy
Thanks for this information, Nathan. It’s basic information that I really needed.