This Kindle update makes your eBook reading even more comfortable

What you need to know

• Amazon is reportedly rolling out a new Kindle update for its 11th and 12th-gen devices.
• The update focuses on the reading aspect of its Kindles, giving users tools to edit the font size of its UI and the overall spacing of eBooks for better readability.
• Amazon was also spotted rolling out its Kindle Assistive Reader to all users.

Amazon is reportedly rolling out an update for its 11th and 12th-generation Kindle tablets that brings several QoL updates to its e-book reading experience.

The update was spotted hitting these Kindle devices by GoodEReader, which states the patch bears v5.18.5. The majority of this patch seems focused on refining ebook reading, as well as the overall UI elements users interact with on Kindle. To begin, the patch reportedly adds the option for Kindle users to alter the font size of their device's UI.

The publication spotted this new capability in the Screen and Brightness settings.

When it comes to reading, the newest patch is rolling out a text spacing settings option. Sometimes the spacing of sentences on the page helps with readability, which is what Amazon's update aims to help users with. The post states that, within the "Aa" settings menu of an ebook, users can edit the line, paragraph, word, and character spacing. Users can even lock their Kindle in portrait or landscape mode, so your reading material doesn't morph on you when you're getting comfortable in that blanket.

While those feature additions are the core of this new update this month, the publication highlights an expansion of Amazon's Kindle Assistive Reader. This TTS feature (text-to-speech) is now reportedly rolling out to "all users" after the company previously withheld it, limiting it to a small group, likely for testing. Amazon states users can activate the Kindle Assistive Reader by tapping the "Aa" menu > More > Assistive Reader toggle.

The Kindle's Assistive features

The Assistive Reader can read your book to you via text-to-speech capabilities, and you can "read along" with real-time highlights on your Kindle. Amazon puts more control in your hands, as you can alter the reading speed of the Assistive Reader or rewind 30 seconds in case you want to hear that certain part again.

Users can start the Assistive Reader from any spot or word on the page.

There are a few other "assistive features" present on Amazon's 11th and 12th-gen Kindle devices, like the word and passage lookup. With the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (11th Gen), readers can get definitions for words they're unfamiliar with and more. There's also the Kindle Scribe, which is essentially a digital notebook, capable of editing PDFs and inscribing notes while you're reading to really make up the experience.