Sony Reader PRS-T1 - Fonts and Font Customisation

The Sony PRS-T1 offers a good spread of font customisation options - especially important if your up-close vision isn't so hot. There are eight font sizes and seven fonts, ranging from the paperback-apeing "original" to the thoroughly un-book-like Verdana.


You can access these options at any time when reading with a press on the menu button and a few touchscreen taps. These settings are saved per book, so if you're sharing the ereader or like your novel fonts looking different from your work doc fonts, that's no problem. However, we found that some EPUB files refused to change font at all.



The Sony PRS-T1 also allows altering of the page layout and look. You can split your source page's width into two or three ereader pages, which comes in very handy if the original text is split into columns, or you can switch to landscape mode. There's no built-in autorotate function, but having this option nestled within the menu system is useful.



Less useful, but still welcome, is the ability to alter the contrast and brightness of the E-ink screen. In an LCD device, having control over brightness is immensely important. But here it's not because there is no backlight in an E-ink display.

Altering brightness and contrast simply changes how grey the background is, and how severe the edges of text are. The darkest parts of characters at the default setting are as dark as the screen will allow anyway, and we found the standard setting the most comfortable in day-to-day use. 





Being able to alter font, font size and screen settings are now staples of big-name ereaders, and the Sony PRS-T1 offers fewer options than some in this regard. The Kobo Touch offers a whopping 25 font sizes, for example. However, in all honesty, there are more than enough options on hand here to satisfy anyone. Still not sated by the line-up? Drop us a comment below.