nicoverbruggen/kobalt v1.0-beta.5

Kobalt v1.0-beta.5

on GitHub

What's new

Key features

• Reading-progress sync with KOsync-compatible servers. Sync your position across compatible readers, including KOReader. Automatic sync, a manual Sync now action and position-conflict choices are available, with Kobo's Wi-Fi connection controls integrated into the workflow. Sync transfers reading positions, not books or annotations.

• Paragraph spacing and first-line indentation in Settings > Styling. Adjust each independently, or leave it on Publisher to keep the book's formatting. These settings apply across books, and the preview shows their effect before you close Settings.

• Vertical page spacing. Center nearly full pages or expand their line spacing to reduce unused space. You can apply the adjustment to all eligible gaps or only those introduced by widow/orphan protection.

• Export annotations as Markdown or HTML. Open the More menu in Annotations or Bookmarks and choose an export format. Exports are ZIP files; unpack them to read the document. HTML exports include search, sorting and an option to show or hide annotation styling.

• More control over dictionary lookups and links. Drag selection handles to look up a phrase, and choose a separate dictionary font and text size. Footnotes can open with a single tap; Settings lets you enable this for other links too, or require a long press.

• Experimental Book normalization. Settings > Styling offers independent rules for opening letters, paragraph gaps and first-line indents. All rules start off. They apply globally without modifying the original book files or text; unfamiliar or special formatting may remain unchanged.

Other additions

• Added startup recovery. After two consecutive unfinished Kobalt startups, recovery disables Kobalt while preserving books, settings and reading data. It leaves a plain-text explanation, and reinstalling allows a retry. A single crash, or a stock-reader crash after Kobalt starts, does not trigger removal.

• Styling settings have been reorganized, with descriptions and faster sample previews.

• Smart Styling is now called Reduce publisher spacing, with a clearer explanation of what it changes.

• Publisher Fonts can be selected as the default for new books.

• Header and footer text sizes can be adjusted independently of their presets. A battery percentage-only field has also been added.

• Text sizes now go down to 6 pt.

• Swipe through paginated lists and panels. Supported devices can also use their hardware page buttons.

• Kobalt follows Kobo's Large Print Mode. Large interface text remains a work in progress; some dialogs can still clip text or extend beyond the screen.

• New sleep-screen styles include a footer band and a bookmark ribbon. Kobalt can also show its sleep screen from Kobo's home screen when the last book was read in Kobalt.

• New session after sleep lets you choose when waking the device starts a new reading session, without closing and reopening the book.

• Kobo reading history now receives detailed session start and end events. Tolino firmware 5 and 6 gain progress saving and protected-book handoff; broader device compatibility remains under testing.

What's fixed

• Reduced occasional page-turn stalls by moving progress saves to a background writer and reducing unnecessary storage work. Interface text rendering, font setup, previews and book closing have also been improved.

• Improved progress saving during book opening, exit, sleep, shutdown and USB connection. Blocked saves are retried, and plain EPUB positions use Nickel's native point format where possible. These changes help Kobo's library and sleep screen recognize the current book.

• Fixed undercounted Kobo reading time during standby.

• Fixed tapping outside the dictionary popup so it closes the popup and clears the selection without turning the page.

• Fixed long presses accidentally turning a page instead of starting selection.

• Fixed returning to your previous page after a bookmark jump across menu styles, and temporary search highlights remaining after typography or layout changes.

• Fixed Stats overlapping Light, restored the default menu when Light closes, and kept chapter and navigation views available in annotation mode.

• Fixed stale PIN-screen images during sleep and wake, and improved handoffs with Nickel Screensaver.

• Added a refresh after dismissing footnotes to clear leftover highlight traces. Picture, colour and annotation page turns on MediaTek devices now follow Nickel's refresh behavior more closely.

• Corrected chapter page counts when chapters share a screen, kept counts visible beside long titles, and made reading-progress percentages consistent throughout the interface.

• Added Russian hyphenation patterns and corrected English hyphenation exception conversion. Books with obfuscated fonts using unusual MIME labels can now open, and constrained images retain their proportions.

• Fixed dark-mode contrast, black-on-black buttons and disappearing font-selection checkmarks.

Android

• Improved BOOX responsiveness, display refresh handling and Library controls. Android remains experimental.

Installation on Kobo

For Kobo, the easiest method is Install or remove on Kobo in Chrome. For manual installation, download the package for your firmware:

• Kobalt-qt5.zip for firmware 4.38.21908 and later 4.x, tested up to 4.46.
• Kobalt-qt6.zip for firmware 5.18 and later 5.x, and 6.x.

Manual installation instructions

1. Connect your Kobo over USB and extract the ZIP on your computer. Show hidden files to see .adds and .kobo.
2. Copy .adds to the root of the Kobo drive. Merge folders and replace matching package files. Keep other apps, settings and reading data.
3. Then copy .kobo to the same drive root, merging folders again.
4. Eject the Kobo safely, disconnect USB and let the update install.

Copy both folders in that order. Leave the .tgz file inside .kobo compressed.

Upgrading from beta 4

Upgrade over the existing installation and keep .adds/kobalt; a clean install is not required. Close Kobalt and back up that folder before updating. Your reading positions, book settings, bookmarks and annotations are retained. The easiest way to upgrade is via the website.

If you are still on beta 3, existing reading positions, book settings and bookmarks are imported automatically into kobalt.sqlite. Migrated files are retained under migration-backup/. Global preferences remain in reader-settings.json. Use your pre-upgrade backup if you need to return to an older release.

Installation on Android

Download Kobalt-android-arm64.apk and install it manually. Allow installation from the app you use to open the APK if Android asks. This release supports Android 9 or later on ARM64 devices and remains experimental.

Build details

Checksums · Build information: Qt5, Qt6, Android

Source code and dependencies

Full Changelog: v1.0-beta.4...v1.0-beta.5