Amazon Restores Some Heft To Helvetica For Kindle E-Ink Readers (teleread.com)

David Rothman writes: Props to Amazon. The Helvetica font will be restored to a more readable weight than the anorexic one in the latest update for E Ink Kindles. Let's hope that an all-bold switch—or, better, a font weight adjuster of the kind that Kobo now offers—will also happen. I've queried Amazon about that possibility. Meanwhile thanks to Slashdot community members who spoke up against the anorexic Helvetica!

Comments

Re:all life matters initiative reunveiled

[Rei]

Word salad dances singingly dogs into the breeze?

It's a wider issue

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

A wider issue is the general trend for devices with behaviour that is remotely changed after you buy them thanks to software updates. What is the situation if you bought an e-reader you were happy with and could use comfortably, but then after this kind of update it no longer works for you because, for example, your eyesight isn't good enough to read the new font? It's obvious why hardware and software vendors might want this kind of capability, but how do we protect the buyers who are using the products to make sure they're still getting what they paid for when they decided to buy?

Re:It's a wider issue

[c0d3g33k]

By not upgrading unless it adds something you need?

That can often times be difficult, since the description of upgrades are often dumbed down to the point of uselessness in the name of user friendliness or deliberately obfuscated to hide what they contain (looking at you, Microsoft). Figuring out if it contains something you need isn't as simple as your flippant comment suggests. Not to mention the fact that updates on devices like the kindle are delivered in a single monolithic update file, so there is no opportunity to selectively reject changes such as the one OP describes while accepting needed security updates.

Re:You are not the Owner

[PhineusJWhoopee]

Wait a minute..you set the font, size, and weight to your needs for your physical books??? ed

Re:Great - now they need to enable a night mode!

[locofungus]

Two problems with this.

1. You don't seem to be able to change the colour of the paper all the way to the border - not sure if this is a limitation of the paper, limitation of the kindle or limitation of my efforts to get inverted text.

2. (and why I gave up on 1) when the page refreshes, it goes to all white before it changes back to black. If you could *COMPLETELY* turn off the back light and use reflected light then this would probably be OK but it causes a very unpleasant flash when reading with a dark adapted eye.

One day I'll get around to attacking my voyage with a soldering iron and rooting it so I can turn off the backlight but I don't know when.