Bionic Reading is one of the newest typography available for Kindle and Kobo books. They have an online tool that will let you download a book and it will automatically convert the basic font to bionic reading. What is Bionic Reading? He edits the texts so that the most concise parts of the words are highlighted. This guides the eye to the text and the brain remembers the words and it can be digested faster. The tool developer has just released a new app for iPhone and Android devices.
The apps allow you to download text, files, or even online articles from a website and then automatically convert the standard font to a bionic reading font. It will then allow users to download the book in EPUB or PDF format to their PC or MAC. The books can then be downloaded to your favorite eReader using Windows Explorer, Apple File Manager, or even party tools like Sigil or Caliber. The app also has the Send to Kindle feature, which allows you to wirelessly send the bionic reading book directly to your Kindle e-reader.
Sending the book to your eReader is just one of the things you can do with the Bionic Reading app, but you can also read the books in the app. It has page turning animations and the ability to change the font size. The developer has carefully selected the fonts and I trust him on this point, since he has been designing them for 25 years. It even has a dark mode feature for people who want to read at night.
The app for Android and iOS is a great first step, and it will be interesting to see how the development processes continue. Since the apps are so new, I would recommend continuing to use their free online converter. First, you need to download or use a DRM-free ebook in TXT, RTF, RTFD, EPUB or DOCX format. I would suggest using EPUB, as this is normally the most adopted format. It is very easy to find EPUB books on Google searches or on websites such as Project Gutenberg. Then take your book and upload it to the Bionic Reading converter. It will convert the book to use their new font. If you have a Kobo or Nook, you can simply copy the book via USB to the root folder and sync, and it will appear in your library. The Amazon Kindle needs an extra step. You can use the Send to Kindle app for Chrome, Email, PC, MAC or any of the Kindle apps for iOS and Android. Amazon will convert the EPUB file to AZW format. We have a video that shows you how to do this, which can be viewed below.
Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for twelve years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and The New York Times. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
