v1.5.0-rc

[uxjulia]

Warning

Xlarge has been removed from this release

See the following discussion for more info. You can download Crossink fonts in all sizes from https://inky.crossink.dev/#downloads. Place them on your SD card inside a .fonts or fonts folder.

Release Notes

This release might be one of the largest ones so far, hence why it's taken so long since the last release. I've also been working on a companion web app for Crossink called Inky for a few months now. It's got various tools that I thought would be helpful. As someone who doesn't particularly like having to connect via the File Transfer method to send files, I made a standalone EPUB optimizer that can send EPUBs to your device via USB (only possible if you're unlocked, if not you can still download the file to transfer to your SD manually). I also made a dictionary prep tool to speed up dictionary lookups (not necessary but is recommended), a downloads page for fonts and pre-prepped dictionaries, and a dedicated Crossink flash tool. I hope you guys find it useful!

New

• Full touch support for Seeed Sticky (Shoutout to the Seeed team for sending me an early development unit). If you're interested in one, get one through Crosspoint's shop to support the devs and get a discount while you're at it.
• Dictionary lookup has been added, including suggestions and lookup history. "Look Up Word" can also be assigned as a short or long-press action. Dictionary lookup works with any compatible StarDict dictionary.
  • To get you started with some dictionaries, I've included 4 monolingual English dictionaries already optimized that you can download from Inky.
  • If your dictionary includes IPA transcriptions, you can also download Crossink fonts that include the IPA glyphs under Dictionary Fonts from the above link.
• This release re-introduces upstream Crosspoint's incremental indexing, however this time you can choose between Incremental or Full Sectionindexing globally or per book. Incremental indexing prepares a few pages ahead while Full Section indexing (the old default behavior and will remain the default) prepares the entire section/chapter from the beginning.
  • There are pros and cons to each method. Learn more here.
  • Incremental indexing is still considered experimental. Use Full Section indexing if you generally don't have issues with EPUBs rendering.
• Nearby File Transfer can send EPUB, TXT, XTC, XTCH, PNG, and BMP files directly between two CrossInk devices without a Wi-Fi network. Long-press from the File Browser or Recent Books to see the new option for Send to Nearby Device. On the receiving device, navigate to File Transfer > Receive File
• Word Spacing setting has been added to Settings > Reader > Font Options > Word Spacing. This allows you to set the spacing between words up to 5 levels.
• RTC-enabled devices can choose the date format shown in the settings menu and numeric separator in Settings > System > Device.
• The web EPUB optimizer now splits oversized chapters into more device-friendly sections before sending them to the device. This is on by default. Note: Split sections may cause unexpected paragraph breaks where the optimizer has split the section. This is normal. Split sections will also show a "~" when estimating the chapter pages.
• Small-caps rendering using a modified capitalized version of the font. This eliminates the need for the font to include small-caps.

Changed

• The setting for Download Font Size Range now displays the font point-size ranges: 8–12pt, 10–16pt, 14–20pt, and 8–20pt, replacing the old build names it corresponded to.
• The Download All option has been removed to avoid excessive screen ghosting after very long Wi-Fi usage (downloading all fonts takes a very long time and is not recommended); fonts can still be downloaded individually or updated together. Downloading the fonts to your computer and transferring via SD card is the recommended method.
• File Transfer, KOReader Sync, OTA updates, and OPDS browsing now start with more memory available for network operations by doing a silent restart and loading only the necessary data before starting the activity.
• The web file manager can delete non-empty folders and, when hidden files are shown, remove hidden or system-managed SD card items after confirmation.
• Underlines and strikethroughs now display connected instead of just word by word.
• Max number of clippings has increased from 64 to 256. The limit exists to bound RAM usage.

Fixed

• Background silent indexing on the 2nd to last page of a chapter should work again for Full Section indexing (fixes Books re-index in every chapter (1.4-tiny) #383)
• EPUB footnote and cross-reference previews now show the complete note when the link targets the middle of a paragraph. (fixes Footnote preview starts in the middle of a note when the link points inside a paragraph #406)
• EPUB clipping now keeps the correct text, font, Bionic Reading layout, and descenders when highlighting/clipping when memory is low (fixes Clipping Overlaps Words Per Line #405 and Create Clipping shows weird characters #385)
• Reader popups, sleep messages, and KOReader Sync labels now keep the correct orientation. Long menus show a scrollbar. (fixes Button label not flipping when inverted #409)
• Manage Fonts is more reliable with large font catalogs and returns to Font Options when leaving without changes. (fixes Going back from Manage Fonts goes to home screen #401)
• KOReader Sync, web transfers, and authentication now recover more reliably from fragmented memory, stalled connections, and inactive saved Wi-Fi connections. (fixes KoReader sync crash #391 and KOReader Authenticate can skip WiFi connection and fail immediately #404)
• When doing a manual screen refresh, anti-aliasing should be preserved for EPUB and TXT(fixes No text anti-aliasing after manual screen refresh #398)
• XTC and XTCH readers show the configured time-left estimate. (fixes "Time Left" status bar field not displaying for XTC files (Chapter or Book mode) #399)
• Split Cyrillic texts should render more reliably now (fixes Split words in Cyrillic (Russian) texts #400)
• Estimated time left should display for XTC files now (fixes "Time Left" status bar field not displaying for XTC files (Chapter or Book mode) #399)
• Web UI should work more reliably when navigating to Settings and Fonts tab (fixes Web UI unresponsive selecting settings or fonts #351)
• Reading stats button labels now correspond to the user's mapped buttons (fixes Inconsistent button functions in Reading Stats #411)
• Clippings/highlights should preserve the highlighted text better after font changes (fixes Wrong highlighted text after font change #426)

Tip

If you experience any problems, please clear your caches before opening an issue. Start with the least invasive and work your way down to the most invasive if problems persist after each step.

1. Delete book cache (In-reader menu > Delete book cache)
2. From your SD card: Delete the individual .crosspoint/epub_<hash> folder for the book giving you issues
3. Delete all reading cache (Settings > System > Files & Cache > Clear Reading Cache)
4. From your SD card: Delete ALL .crosspoint/epub_<hash> folders and recent.json and state.json
5. Back up your global_stats.bin and then delete the entire .crosspoint/ folder

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This discussion was created from the release v1.5.0-rc.

[PiperKev]

SMALL CAPS!!! ❤️

[uxjulia]

Haha, had you in mind with that update ^_^

[forteller]

Amazing release! Thank you!

Do you have any idea if whatever seems to be causing this issue in CrossPoint 1.5.0 RC has been introduced in CrossInk 1.5.0 RC also? crosspoint-reader#2704

[uxjulia]

Not sure exactly the cause for this yet, sooooooo... it's possible. The ghosting issue has been ongoing though so hard to say

[quangnd159]

Hi Julia, congrats on the release. Question: The way I understand it, I'd put the dictionary fonts inside the .fonts directory, right? Does the Dictionary take the font of the current book? I'm a little confused here.

[quangnd159]

Never mind, I figured it out. So if I want to properly display IPA in a dictionary, I would use those "Dictionary Fonts" instead of the regular Fonts and just place them normally in .fonts directory, replacing the "regular" version. I'd thought reading fonts and dictionary fonts are two different things. All good now.

[uxjulia]

Hey yeah for now the dictionary font is using your reader font, this was the quickest way to be able to support non-Latin dictionaries like Hebrew, Chinese, etc. There are plans down the road to allow separation of the two though!

[YBPN]

> IF YOU JUST RECEIVED AN X3 AND HAVE NEVER FLASHED A CUSTOM FIRMWARE, STAY ON STOCK UNTIL WE GET MORE INFO FROM XTEINK ABOUT THEIR NEW DISPLAYS SO THAT WE CAN ENSURE COMPATIBILITY. JUSTIN OF CROSSPOINT IS ACTIVELY WORKING ON THIS.

Hello, thank you.
I just received an X4. Just wanting to confirm that this is not a concern for X4?

The warning kind of implies that X4 devices are confirmed okay, but I thought maybe the "X3" in the warning was just a stand-in for both devices.

Edit: My X4 came with firmware 5.6.33

[uxjulia]

We're not seeing the same issues with X4s so far, and Xteink said they didn't change the X4 displays (they haven't clarified much about the x3 other than there are new displays). However there IS a separate X4 issue where it needs to be connected to power to boot without a patch. That patch will get into my next revision. So slightly different issues going on.

[Erix-MLR]

Hi! First of all, thank you so much for all the amazing work you've put into CrossInk.

This release is incredible, and I'm really impressed by how many useful features you've added. I'm having a lot of fun testing it! 😊

I noticed one small issue with screenshots. I assigned the short press of the power button to take a screenshot. It works perfectly in general, but it doesn't work while the dictionary popup is open after selecting a word in a book.

I often take screenshots of highlighted words together with their dictionary definitions so I can review and write them down later. At the moment, this isn't possible because the screenshot action doesn't seem to work while the dictionary is displayed.

Also, I really love that we can now adjust the UI size. That makes the device much more comfortable to use!

I have one small feature request: would it be possible to have a separate font and font size for the dictionary, independent of the book font? Sometimes I'd like to keep my book in Bookerly, but use a different font (or simply an other size) for dictionary entries. I think that could be especially useful for people who frequently use the built-in dictionary.

Thanks again for all your hard work and for continuously improving CrossInk!

[uxjulia]

Hi! Yes separation of reader font and dictionary font is on my TODO list. Having the dictionary use the reader font was just the quickest way to allow non-Latin dictionaries to render in this first release.