For many years, I used Calibre to convert books I found on the web to books with zhuyin. I don’t know why it did not occur to me to check out that Fonts directory on my Kindle Paperwhite and just install my own fonts.
Welp, today, thanks to a offhand remark from a friend, I did, and it’s made me supremely happy.
Short Instructions
Add your zhuyin font to the Fonts directory on your Kindle Paperwhite. It must be in .ttf format.
I know, that’s it. It’s that simple.
Okay, maybe one more instruction. Switch the font of the book you want to read to that zhuyin font.
Long Instructions
But of course, you may have questions. Like, where to get that zhuyin font? So here are detailed instructions and notes.
First off, YOU MUST HAVE A KINDLE DEVICE, like a Kindle Paperwhite. This doesn’t work if you have a Kindle app. Well, maybe it does, but I havn’t looked into it too much and when I have looked into it in the past, it didn’t work.
Second, if you want to download and read free ePubs, you need Calibre to convert books to azw format. So if you’re lazy and just want things to work out of the box, what this method allows is for you to buy any traditional Chinese book off of Amazon Kindle store and add zhuyin.
You just need HanWangKaiMediumChuIn.ttf 王漢宗中楷體注音 font.
Alternatively, you can download all zhuyin fonts from here: Installing Chinese and Zhuyin Fonts for Mac. The fonts must be in .ttf format. And yes, you may have to figure out how to unpack a .ttc file.
Then, plug the Kindle Paperwhite into your computer.
Drag and drop the fonts onto the Fonts folder. If you rename them with Chinese names, I think it will display them in Chinese instead of English.
To switch the font for the Children-Can-Listen Chinese History books……
Tap the top left side of your screen. PAGE DISPLAY options will show up. Click on Font & Page Settings.
Choose the font you want. I installed 2 fonts because I recently discovered that the free HanWangMin font doesn’t display some of the Chinese characters properly when I converted the book from simplified to traditional Chinese online (how I don’t even remember).
And voila! You’ve now got your texts displayed with zhuyin!
The implications are big once you install the font. You can now download any book off of 好讀 http://www.hadoo.net in mobi format, and read it on the Kindle Paperwhite without any munging!
So what kind of books can you now download?
Well, all the 金庸 novels! http://www.haodoo.net/?M=hd&P=martial
Or 倪匡 http://www.haodoo.net/?M=hd&P=scifi-1
Or Harry Potter! http://www.haodoo.net/?M=book&P=1278
Thank you so very much for putting all this information out there. i managed to convert Harry Potter tonight for my daughter! There was a hiccup with my micro usb cable not being able to transfer data, so i don’t actually have the font on my Kindle yet, but I was able to convert with Calibre and save as a pdf and send the pdf to the Kindle. So if any one else tries this method with a Mac and kindle, and you don’t have the original kindle cable, you might not be able to add the font to the kindle (and of course, I am in Taipei and Amazon won’t deliver their official cable to Taiwan)….
I can’t read chinese to save my life, so I cant really figure out the haodoo site. Would you mind sharing the Percy Jackson link? i clicked through most of the site and didn’t find it. Thanks in advance!
PM me on facebooks Guavarama. I will save you the trouble of finding them.
You don’t need Amazons cable. Just use any micro USB. It’s always worked for us.
I just PM’ed you. Apparently there is a difference in micro usb for charging and ones for data transfer, I think the one I brought with us was one for charging only. At least this is what I gathered from the internet, I just bought another cable from books.com.tw. Fingers crossed!
Hello Guavarama,
I wish to try this procedure with the Mandarin Companion Traditional Graded Readers available on Amazon, which come in .azw format.
Do you know if this procedure will work for those Mandarin Companion books?
I would test it myself, but my Kindle Paperwhite is too old (1st generation PW), and I am reluctant to purchase a new one without investigating.
Please let me know, thank you.
– OC
Since I have never purchased it I wouldn’t know. But the basic concept is you embed a font, as in the book comes with that font. Or you tell amazon to use a font you want….which requires some hacking.
Hi! Thank you for sharing; this is so helpful. I followed your instructions and was able to add the new font onto my Kindle, however I’m not seeing it appear as a font option when I open my Chinese Harry Potter eBook. Strangely enough, it appears as a font option for my English eBooks. Any idea why?
The easiest way is to probably find me on FB and chat me there? I’m on as Guavarama