Add your own font to Lectern

What you need

• A font file ending in .ttf (TrueType) or .otf (OpenType), saved on your phone.
• Ideally the whole family: Regular, Bold, Italic and Bold Italic as separate files.
• Files up to 25 MB each, far more than any reading font needs.

Web fonts and collections won't work. Files ending in .woff or .woff2 are made for websites, and .ttc files bundle several fonts in one. Lectern refuses them with a clear message. Most font sites offer a TTF or OTF download next to the web version.

Step 1: get the font onto your phone

The easiest route is to download it on the phone itself, from one of the sites below. Fonts usually arrive as a .zip file. Open it in your Files app (on most phones, Files by Google: tap the zip, then Extract) so the separate font files sit in a normal folder, such as Downloads.

Downloaded on a computer instead? Copy the files over USB, or put them in a cloud folder you can open on the phone.

Many downloads, Google Fonts among them, contain a variable font plus a folder called static. Use the files in static: one file per style gives the cleanest bold and italic.

Step 2: import it in Lectern

1. Open any book and open the reading settings.
2. Go to the Advanced tab and find Your fonts.
3. Tap Import font. The Android file picker opens.
4. Select every file of the family at once: long-press the first file, then tap the others. Choose Regular, Bold, Italic and Bold Italic, and skip the rest.
5. Tap Select. Lectern reads each file's name, weight and style, groups them into one family and confirms with Added and the font's name.

Lectern keeps its own copy of the files, so you can delete the download or the zip afterwards. Importing the same file twice does nothing.

Step 3: read in your font

Go back to the Type tab. The font row has a fifth chip, More fonts. Tap it: your imported fonts appear at the bottom of the menu, each shown in its own face. Pick yours and the book redraws in it, with your place glowing briefly so you find it again.

The font becomes your reading font for every book, just like the built-in ones. The Standard and Dyslexia presets set a font of their own (Serif and OpenDyslexic). After tapping one, pick your font again, or tap Save to keep it in that preset.

Where to find good free fonts

Stick to sites that state the licence of every font. All of these offer TTF or OTF downloads that are free to use:

Avoid sites that offer famous commercial fonts for free: those copies are usually unlicensed and sometimes broken. If you bought a font, its licence normally covers using it on your own devices.

Not sure what suits you? Our article on the best fonts for reading on screen explains what makes a face comfortable over a whole novel.

Remove a font

Go to Advanced → Your fonts and tap the bin next to the font. Every file of that family is deleted. Books set in it switch back to Serif.

Troubleshooting

• "That isn't a font Lectern can use." The file is a web font (WOFF), a collection (TTC), a zip you haven't extracted yet, or damaged. Extract the zip and pick the TTF or OTF files inside.
• "Some files were skipped." You picked a mix, for example a licence text or a WOFF next to the fonts. The real font files were added; the rest was ignored.
• Bold or italic text looks fake or plain. Only the regular file was imported. Import the Bold and Italic files of the same family as well; they join the family you already have.
• The menu shows two entries for one font. Older fonts sometimes name each style as its own family. Use the files from the static folder or a newer release of the font.
• "isn't on this device. Showing Serif." Your font choice came along through sync, but the file didn't. Import the font on this device too.

Custom font questions