How to Get the Most Out of KOReader

KOReader is one of the most powerful e-reader apps available — but its depth can be overwhelming when you first install it. The menus are extensive, the options seemingly endless, and it's easy to spend more time configuring than reading.

This guide cuts through the noise. These are the features that actually make a difference to your daily reading, plus how to get your highlights out of KOReader and into Luminaria where you can browse them beautifully.

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 custom 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.

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. The most useful assignments for most readers are:

• Bottom-left corner tap — previous chapter
• Bottom-right corner tap — next chapter
• Top-right corner tap — bookmark current page
• Swipe down from top-right — decrease brightness
• Swipe down from top-left — increase brightness

Once you've set up gestures you'll barely need to open the menu system at all during normal reading.

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, time, and chapter-remaining pages the most useful.

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. There's a faster method most people don't know about.

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 — you then 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 you find the default lighten style causes flashing on your e-ink screen, switch to Underline which renders more smoothly.

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.

To enable it, go to Top menu → Gear → Night mode and warmth → AutoWarmth plugin. You'll need to set your location coordinates for the sunrise/sunset calculation to work correctly.

Night mode inverts the screen to white text on a black background. Some readers find this easier on the eyes in complete darkness. You can assign it to a gesture for quick toggling.

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.

Exporting and syncing your highlights

This is where many KOReader users leave 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.

To export all your highlights at once, tap the top of the screen to open the menu, tap the Search icon, then tap Export all highlights. KOReader generates a .md file containing 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 at luminaria.uk. Your highlights appear instantly, organised by book with full-text search and the ability to share any passage as an image.

Option 2: Sync automatically with the Luminaria plugin

The Luminaria KOReader plugin lets you sync your highlights with one tap, directly from your device over WiFi. No cable needed.

Your highlights appear in Luminaria instantly, ready to browse, search and share.