v1.5.0-rc-3

[uxjulia]

Warning

This RC version should have the fix for all known X3 and X4 display variants.

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 as it brings a LOT of changes. I've also been working on a companion web app for Crossink called Inky. 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, a downloads page for fonts and pre-prepped dictionaries, and a dedicated Crossink flash tool. I hope you guys find it useful!

Changes in RC-3

• Set a custom dictionary font and dictionary font size. You can set this globally or per book when you have at least one dictionary added. Get to it from Settings > Reader > Font Options or from inside a book with Book Options > Font Options
• EPUB rendering will now more aggressively try a silent restart. If that doesn't help then it will try falling back to a lighter rendering mode. Silent restarts allow the reader to reclaim fragmented memory to be able to properly render the book, but you may also sometimes see the screen start to slowly gray, before recovering to its normal state. If a silent restart happens during reading, you'll typically see "Loading", followed by "Indexing". This is all normal and a tradeoff that prevents the device from crashing or showing the "Chapter takes too much memory" error.
• Fixes web server crashing due to watchdog timeouts (fixes v1.5.0-rc Reboots during Wi-Fi File Transfer #432)
• Fixes intermittent overlapping characters when bionic reading is on (fixes Some text intermittently overlapping #442)
• X3 short-press wake should be more reliable now (fixes X3 sometimes not waking up with a short press on the power button #445)
• Fixes highlighting/clipping not advancing past a certain point in text (fixes Text Selection cannot advance past a specific line when creating a clipping #449)
• Added abbreviated translations for Dashboard theme in Russian (fixes [Bug] Cyrillic support in Dictionary & Statistics Ul layout overflow #450).
• Opening XTC/XTCH should work more reliably now (fixes Memory error after changing settings XTCH files #457)
• Highlighting in dark mode should show the text as black on a gray background now
• Editing start/end dates in reading stats for RTC enabled devices should work again
• Images should no longer flash twice when loading
• Table rendering should be more reliable now while reducing the minimum required free memory needed

New

• Full touch support for Seeed Sticky (Shoutout to the Seeed team for sending me an early development unit)
• 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 here: 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: https://www.crossink.dev/epub-indexing.html.
  • 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 >
• 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.
• 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.
• The full screen refresh during wake and sleep which caused visible flashing has been removed.

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)
• Highlighting/clipping in dark mode now shows the proper inverted selection (fixes Invisible text-selection marker in dark mode for clippings  #431)
• Added support for latest X4 battery latch on newer models (without this patch, newer X4's could seem unresponsive unless connected to USB power)

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-3.

[jajabro1]

When scrolling the fonts download menu, it becomes hard to navigate. If a font is installed and updated (so just shows status installed) as you scroll there is no indicator that you are on an already installed option. You kind of have to keep scrolling til your land on a font that isn't installed or has an update available to see it "light up" grey. Not a big bug but visually can be hard if you have more than a couple of fonts installed.

[forteller]

Thank you again!

I have an issue with this RC, where if I open a book, switch a few pages, closes it and then open it again, it opens on the page before the one I closed it on. Not every time, but often.

[uxjulia]

Hmmm. I think I know the cause. Will look into it.

[forteller]

Also the battery percentage is doing weird stuff. When I started testing RC3 it was at 61%, then I saw it tick down to 60. Now it's been on 58% for a while (which seems way too fast to go from 61 to 58), but any time I go into anything that uses Wifi* it just jumps down to various other percentages. This can be 55%, 51%, etc. When I go back to the home screen it goes back to 58%. Or 57 now, actually, it just went down.

*like a specific OPDS, Join a Network, Create Hotspot, etc

[uxjulia]

Wifi always makes it do weird things. And if you're actively testing and not just reading normally it's probably why you're seeing some weird jumpiness. If it's an X3, the firmware just reads the battery chip and doesn't do any modifications to the readout. If it's an X4, the firmware is doing an educated guess of the charge based on voltage and some minor algorithmic guessing so it's not very accurate.