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Do You Like the New Themes Option on Your Kindle?

January 22, 2019 by Nathan 22 Comments

Kindle Update Themes

Back in October after Amazon announced the Kindle Paperwhite 4, they released a software update that added a new themes feature to Kindles that lets you create and save multiple custom reading settings.

Themes are available on the Kindle Paperwhite 2 and newer, so that includes all Kindles released in the past 6 years.

To use themes your Kindle needs to be running software version 5.10.1.1 or newer.

You can access the list of themes by tapping the top of the screen while reading and selecting Page Display.

There are a few preset themes available. If you don’t want to use them you can choose to hide them by going to Font & Page Settings > Themes > Hide. You can save new themes there on the Themes tab as well.

With themes you can set the font type, the boldness level, page margins, line spacing and screen orientation settings.

For example, if you sometimes want to read in landscape mode using a different font size and boldness setting you can save a theme and quickly switch to it without having to redo all of the layout parameters each time.

It would be nice if you could also set custom frontlight brightness for a theme, and set the inverted mode to toggle on/off for white text on a black background. But currently neither of those settings apply to themes.

What about you? Do you like using the new theme settings?

Filed Under: Amazon Kindle

Disclosure: This website is monetized through Skimlinks and Amazon's affiliate program.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. drew says

    January 22, 2019 at 4:59 pm

    I have no use for themes. I have my font/margins/etc set the way I like and I never change them.

    Reply
  2. Sportbike Mike says

    January 22, 2019 at 5:13 pm

    It’s mostly an annoyance, but I have a “table” theme that uses a tiny font and a horizontal orientation for reading tables in word files. I recognize most people wouldn’t need to be able to do that, but it’s how I receive the class syllabus from my online school program.

    I say it’s mostly annoying because now it’s multiple steps to make small changes like just changing the font style. Code generally looks better in a San-serrif type, so now I’ve been forced to also have a “code” theme.

    A theme was also needed just to have the clock ever present.

    Reply
  3. Mariah says

    January 22, 2019 at 8:52 pm

    I think that the themes option. Is the best thing for me personally. The difference in my eyesight between wearing contacts and not wearing them us so great that I find the themes vital because glasses can’t correct my vision at all. If want to know the difference with contacts I can read on the preset theme of compact and without them I read on low vision.

    Reply
  4. Kat says

    January 22, 2019 at 9:35 pm

    I don’t like the update. I have no need for Themes – I keep my settings the same much of the time and now it is more inconvenient to access the settings I do use.

    Reply
  5. Culip says

    January 22, 2019 at 10:20 pm

    Yes, I like the (custom) theme feature! I don’t know why it didn’t become available much earlier.

    I usually use Helvetica, the 2nd smallest font size, the finest font, moderate line height, the widest lines and portrait.

    Really wish Kindle offers 2-columns that has been only available in Kindle 3 DX…

    Reply
  6. Adam says

    January 23, 2019 at 12:20 am

    I wish I could create folders or at least a way to organize my library. The library I would like to have to be. Especially when some of us have large large libraries off 200+ books.

    Adam

    Reply
    • Sportbike Mike says

      January 23, 2019 at 7:11 pm

      You can organize your books into collections. That sounds like it will do what you need.

      Reply
  7. Jackie says

    January 23, 2019 at 7:26 am

    I have no need for Themes..but appreciate that others might find it useful. My ‘issue’ with my Kindle is not being able to organize my books into catagories. I used to be able to do that on my last Kindle…..Please introduce a cataloguing system. Thanks

    Reply
  8. ToddBall says

    January 23, 2019 at 8:20 am

    I like the themes, but I agree that the light and the inverted mode need to be part of the theme. Or Inverted theme toggle button needs to be in the same spot as the brightness fader. It’s currently 7 taps to change it while you’re reading a book.

    Reply
  9. DaveMich says

    January 23, 2019 at 8:33 am

    I don’t use them and I find that themes adds an extra step to changing font size (which I do fairly often) from the menu. It’s less of an issue now that I’ve discovered that the Kindle supports two-fingered “pinch” and “expand” gestures for font size.

    Reply
    • Sportbike Mike says

      January 23, 2019 at 7:13 pm

      Thanks for mentioning that, because I didn’t know you could adjust font size that way.

      Reply
  10. Jeanne says

    January 23, 2019 at 10:17 am

    I have not done the update so I’m not familiar with the themes. While I can see how it would be handy for some I really really wish they would add a feature so that you can organize your library. I mean with books in series it would be nice to be able to put them in chronological orde.

    Reply
  11. Bob says

    January 23, 2019 at 11:18 am

    I kind of like the “Themes”. They allow me to customize my reading experience. Especially for night time or day time. I would like to see a few more fonts, like hand writing, Cocao (I think that is). If the fonts could follow Microsoft’s Word, that would be great.

    Reply
  12. Fred Anameier says

    January 23, 2019 at 2:29 pm

    I prefer the prior one- step to get to a font change.

    Why not add an additional icon to go directly to font changes?

    Themes can be useful, but don’t have to be first order selection.

    Reply
  13. Nicol says

    January 23, 2019 at 5:12 pm

    I just wish I had the option of using the book cover as a screen saver.

    Reply
  14. Jasper says

    January 24, 2019 at 5:36 am

    I use it a lot (sauna theme for clock on, home theme for clock off) 🙂 just wish it had a setting to control the back light in the theme

    Reply
  15. Nix says

    January 24, 2019 at 10:36 am

    Well, since my Kindle is ten years old now…

    My Boox is pretty new, but Amazon has kinda creeped me out to the point where I don’t want to touch their hardware, so my Kindle is an ancient (for consumer electronics) device that I use solely to purchase exclusive content to *ahem* liberate and transfer as a ePub to the reader I actually use.

    Don’t know why they haven’t offered that option, to use another eReader with content you buy from them, you can’t even get ePub downloads on DRM-Free eBooks via Amazon.

    It’s not like the hardware is where they’re making money, if anything it seems like a potential loss for them, but I guess they’re obsessed with trying to lock users in to their platform rather than providing a worthwhile service people would *choose* to use.

    Reply
  16. Jackie says

    January 24, 2019 at 11:51 am

    Thanks so much for this post. I never knew I could set my Kindle Oasis 2 in landscape mode! Wow! It’s great! Keep doing what you do, I’m a fan.

    Reply
  17. Erin says

    January 30, 2019 at 9:19 am

    I liked it because it was a change in general, but then I keep forgetting it exists.

    Reply
  18. Steven says

    February 4, 2019 at 7:10 pm

    Absolutely love themes. I thought I would have liked side loaded fonts more but it turns out my favourite font is Futura.

    All my themes are Futura, size 1, bold 1 (I like content density!)

    But I have themes by margins and line spacing for the basic types of reading material I read.

    If there would be one additional feature I’d like, it would be for books to remember the last theme set for them (I tend to have a lot of books on the go). As it is, though, I like the ability to easily select the presentation I like.

    Best feature yet.

    Reply
  19. Linda Cooke says

    April 30, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    I want my favorite theme to be the default all the time because I only like mine. And yet every time I close the cover it defaults to the standard. I just want the page number to show! If I don’t close the cover the Kindle freezes and I have to turn it off/on again

    I have numerous Kindle Fires – this is my first reader and while I like it for reading I find it very frustrating.

    Reply
  20. Cliff Sloane says

    July 20, 2020 at 6:10 pm

    My previous 4th Generation had a config file that you could edit to make the default margins even narrower (the default was 40px, and I reset it to 5px per side). I cannot see that this is possible any more.

    The idea of “themes” is just a gimmicky way to change margins and line spacing at once. I cannot see the improvement. Like the others, i take one setting and use it for everything.

    Reply

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