KOReader is one of the most capable e-reader apps available — but most people use about 20% of what it can do. The menus are deep, the options are extensive, and it's easy to install it, change the font, and leave everything else at default.

These are the twelve settings that actually make a difference to daily reading — starting with the ones people search for most: brightness adjustment, gamma correction, and screen warmth.

In this guide
  1. Adjusting brightness in KOReader
  2. Gamma adjustment — the hidden display setting
  3. Auto warmth and night mode
  4. Getting your typography right
  5. Setting up gestures
  6. Customising the status bar
  7. Highlighting faster
  8. Offline dictionaries
  9. Reading progress and statistics
  10. Sleep screen and covers
  11. Using Calibre with KOReader
  12. Exporting and syncing your highlights

1. Adjusting brightness in KOReader

KOReader gives you more precise brightness control than Kobo's native firmware. The quickest way to adjust brightness is via the top menu — tap the sun icon in the top bar when reading to bring up a brightness slider directly.

For faster access without opening the menu, assign brightness adjustment to a swipe gesture. Go to Top menu → Gear icon → Taps and gestures → Swipe and assign:

Once set up, you can adjust brightness in under a second without interrupting your reading. This is the most-used gesture for most readers once it's configured.

💡 Tip KOReader's brightness range goes lower than Kobo's native firmware — useful for reading in complete darkness without the screen being blinding. If you read in bed, try setting brightness to 1–5% for maximum comfort.

2. Gamma adjustment — the hidden display setting

Gamma is one of KOReader's most powerful and least-known display settings. It controls the contrast curve of your e-ink display — specifically how dark the dark areas are relative to the light areas. Getting it right makes text crisper and significantly easier to read.

To access gamma adjustment in KOReader, go to Top menu → Gear → Screen → E-ink screen settings. You'll see a gamma slider. The default is usually 1.0.

The right gamma setting is personal — it depends on your device, your lighting conditions, and your eyes. Most readers land somewhere between 1.0 and 1.8. Try increasing it to 1.5 first and see if text feels crisper.

💡 Tip Gamma adjustment is per-document in KOReader — you can set a different value for a scanned PDF (where you might want higher contrast) than for a reflowable ebook. Open the book first, then adjust via the reader menu rather than the settings menu to set it document-specifically.

3. Auto warmth and night mode

If your device has a warm light (most modern Kobos do), KOReader can adjust it automatically based on the time of day — warmer in the evening, cooler during the day. This is much more comfortable for late-night reading than a fixed warm light setting you have to manually adjust.

To enable auto warmth, go to Top menu → Gear → Screen → Night mode and warmth → AutoWarmth plugin. Enable it and set your location coordinates — KOReader uses these to calculate local sunrise and sunset times and adjusts the warmth curve accordingly.

You can also adjust the warm light manually using the same swipe gesture approach as brightness:

Night mode inverts the screen to white text on a black background. It's worth trying if you read in complete darkness — some readers find it significantly easier on the eyes once they adjust to it. Assign it to a gesture (double-tap the top of the screen is a popular choice) for quick toggling.

💡 Tip Auto brightness and auto warmth work independently and can both be active at the same time. Combined, they create a reading environment that adjusts to your surroundings without any manual input — by far the most comfortable setup for readers who use their device throughout the day and evening.

4. Getting your typography right

The biggest single improvement to your reading experience in KOReader isn't a feature — it's your font. The default fonts are fine but KOReader lets you use any font installed on your device, and a well-chosen reading font makes hours of reading noticeably more comfortable.

Popular choices among KOReader users include Literata (designed specifically for e-readers), Bookerly (Amazon's reading font, which can be sideloaded), and Palatino for a more classical feel.

To change your font, open a book and tap the bottom of the screen to bring up the bottom menu. You'll find font controls there along with line spacing, margins and font weight — all of which affect reading comfort significantly.

💡 Tip Font weight makes a bigger difference on e-ink than you'd expect. If text looks thin or washed out, try increasing the font weight one step before increasing font size — it often produces a crisper result without making the text feel large.

5. Setting up gestures

KOReader's gesture system is one of its most powerful and underused features. By default the corners and edges of the screen do nothing useful, but you can assign almost any action to them — turning pages, adjusting brightness, opening the dictionary, bookmarking.

To configure gestures, go to Top menu → Gear icon → Taps and gestures. Beyond brightness and warmth (covered above), useful assignments include:

Once you've configured gestures, you'll barely need to open the menu during normal reading.

💡 Tip Double-tap gestures need to be enabled separately before they'll work. Go to Top menu → Gear → Taps and gestures → Double tap and enable them first.

6. Customising the status bar

The status bar at the bottom of the screen shows reading information while you read. By default it shows basic progress, but you can customise it to show the time, battery level, current chapter, pages remaining in the chapter, or reading time remaining.

To configure it, tap the status bar itself to cycle through display modes, or long-press for more options. Most readers find a combination of overall progress percentage, current time, and chapter-remaining pages the most useful combination.

7. Highlighting faster

KOReader's default highlighting requires a long-press to select text, then tapping Highlight in the popup menu. This works but it's slower than it needs to be.

Go to Top menu → Gear → Taps and gestures and disable the long-press popup menu. With this disabled, a long-press immediately enters selection mode — drag to select text and it's highlighted the moment you lift your finger. No popup, no extra tap.

KOReader also supports different highlight styles — Lighten (grey background), Invert (black background), and Underline. If the default lighten style causes flashing on your e-ink screen, switch to Underline which renders more cleanly.

💡 Tip You can add a note to any highlight by tapping it after you've made it. Notes are exported alongside your highlights and appear in Luminaria next to the passage they annotate.

8. Offline dictionaries

KOReader supports offline dictionary lookups — tap any word while reading and the definition appears without needing a WiFi connection. This requires installing a dictionary first.

The most popular choice is StarDict format dictionaries, which you can download for most languages. Place the dictionary files in /mnt/onboard/.adds/koreader/data/dict/ on your Kobo. KOReader will detect them automatically on next launch.

For English readers, the Collins or Oxford English Dictionary in StarDict format is worth installing. For reading in a second language, a bilingual dictionary (e.g. French-English) is invaluable.

9. Reading progress and statistics

KOReader tracks detailed reading statistics — time read per session, reading speed, pages per minute, and progress through each book. These are stored locally on the device and can be reviewed at any time.

To view your reading statistics, go to Top menu → Search icon → Reading statistics. You can see your stats by book or across your entire reading history.

KOReader also gives you a much more accurate page count than Kobo's native firmware, because it calculates pages based on your actual font and layout settings rather than a fixed page size.

10. Sleep screen and covers

By default, Kobo devices show a generic screensaver when sleeping. KOReader can replace this with the cover of the book you're currently reading — a small but pleasant improvement.

To enable it, go to Top menu → Gear → Screen → Sleep screen and select Book cover. KOReader will display the cover image when the device sleeps.

You can also set a custom image as the sleep screen if you prefer something other than the book cover.

11. Using Calibre with KOReader

Calibre is the standard tool for managing an ebook library on a computer, and KOReader integrates with it directly over WiFi — meaning you can send books to your device without connecting a cable.

Install the Calibre Content Server, then in KOReader go to Top menu → Search → OPDS catalogue and add your Calibre server address. From there you can browse your entire library and download books directly to the device.

This is particularly useful if you read a lot of sideloaded books — it removes the cable-connecting step entirely.

12. Exporting and syncing your highlights

This is where many KOReader users leave real value on the table. KOReader can export all your highlights from all your books into a single well-formatted markdown file — but most people never set it up, and the highlights sit on the device doing nothing.

To export, tap the top of the screen to open the menu, tap the Search icon, then tap Export all highlights. KOReader generates a .md file with every highlight organised by book and chapter.

Once you have that file there are two ways to get your highlights into Luminaria:

Option 1: Upload the file manually

Connect your Kobo to your computer, copy the export file, then drag it into Luminaria. Your highlights appear instantly, organised by book with full-text search and the ability to export to Obsidian, PDF or Notion.

Option 2: Sync automatically with the Luminaria plugin

The Luminaria KOReader plugin syncs your highlights with one tap, directly from your device over WiFi. With a Premium subscription, this happens automatically every time your device connects to WiFi — no tapping needed.

Get your free sync token at luminaria.uk/signup, install the plugin, link your device via Menu → Tools → Luminaria Sync → Link device, then tap Sync highlights now whenever you want to update.

Your highlights appear in Luminaria immediately — ready to browse, search, export to Obsidian, or sync to your Notion workspace.

Browse your KOReader highlights beautifully

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