Important
Due to hardware restrictions, this mod is officially only supported on the Kobo Libra Colour, Clara Colour, and Clara BW. Older devices are not officially supported. The mod is reversible and shouldn't brick your device (see Is it safe?), but there are no guarantees. Always make a backup first.
This mod gives your Kobo a Kindle-style page-turn animation: instead of the whole page changing at once, the new page sweeps in from the side as a smooth band-wipe.
See it in action on a Kobo Clara BW: short demo video.
If you've seen a recent Kindle turn a page, you know the effect: the new page glides across the screen instead of appearing in one flat blink. Kobo devices use the same E Ink screen technology, so NickelDissolve recreates that animation on your Kobo.
Out of the box:
- Every way of turning a page animates: swipes, taps, and the physical page-turn buttons. Forward and backward turns sweep opposite ways, matching the direction the page is actually turning (whichever tap zones or buttons you use).
- Each gesture can be turned off individually if you prefer, say, instant taps with animated swipes.
- Everything else (menus, the home screen, images) is completely untouched.
It's a stepped sweep rather than a perfectly fluid one (that's a limit of how E Ink screens accept updates), but with the default settings it looks pretty good!
| Device | Works? |
|---|---|
| Kobo Libra Colour | ✅ Officially supported, tested (including colour-page handling) |
| Kobo Clara Colour | ✅ Officially supported (same hardware family as the Libra Colour) |
| Kobo Clara BW | ✅ Officially supported, tested (black-and-white) |
| Kobo Libra 2 | |
| Kobo Clara 2E | |
| Anything else | Nothing happens: the mod stays inactive, no animation and no risk |
On colour devices (Kaleido screens), pages with colour content are detected automatically and refresh normally instead of animating, so colours are never distorted. Regular black-and-white pages animate as usual.
- Download
KoboRoot.tgzand copy it into the hidden.kobofolder on your Kobo. - Safely eject; the device reboots and installs the mod.
- That's it. Swipe to turn a page and it wipes in. No setup needed.
- Turn off or on from Settings (easiest): on your Kobo, open Settings, go to Reading, and under Page Appearance you'll find a Page turn animations: switch, right alongside the built-in options like Dark Mode. Uncheck it to turn the animation off, check it to turn it back on. The change takes effect on the very next page turn and is remembered after a reboot, so there's no file to edit. (On the rare device where this switch can't be added, use the config-file method below instead.)
- Remove completely: delete the file
KOBOeReader/.adds/nickel-dissolve/uninstalland reboot. The mod removes itself. Page turns will be back to normal. - Turn off but keep installed (config file): create a text file named
configinKOBOeReader/.adds/nickel-dissolve/containing the linends_mode:off, then reboot.
If something doesn't look right, the mod keeps a small log file that makes it much easier to help you. Connect your Kobo to a computer over USB and look for:
KOBOeReader/.adds/nickel-dissolve/nickel-dissolve.log
Attach that file when you report an issue. It records which version of the mod you're running and your Kobo's firmware, and it normally stays short. If you're asked for more detail, open the config file in the same folder, add the line nds_log:1, reboot, and try again. That captures a full page-turn trace in the log.
- Only the page-turn refresh is ever touched; everything else on screen works exactly as before.
- The mod can't get stuck holding your screen: if anything about the animation fails, the normal page refresh is shown instead.
- If a page ever looks garbled, the next refresh fixes it. Nothing is permanent.
- On unknown devices or after a firmware change it doesn't recognise, the mod simply goes inactive rather than guessing.
- It removes itself cleanly (see above), leaving your Kobo exactly as it was.
Curious how it works, what every configuration value (including the nds_debug_* settings) does, or why each device gets different defaults? See ABOUT.md, the technical companion to this README. To build it yourself or contribute, see CONTRIBUTING.md.
Built on NickelHook by Patrick Gaskin. This mod was created by the author with the help of some large language models, including Anthropic's Opus and Fable. Tested on the author's own devices and some Kobos by members of the community. Thank you!