Kindle Touch Gestures

Here’s a quick guide to multitouch gestures on Kindle Touch, since Amazon doesn’t provide documentation and some commands are less than obvious. Gestures include taps, holds, swipes, and pinches. Let me know if there are any I’ve missed.

Tap

Kindle Touch uses a system of invisible tapzones called EasyReach.

Tap right zone: Next page
Tap left zone: Previous page
Tap top-right zone: Toggle bookmark
Tap top zone: Book options

Hold

Hold: Dictionary + text options

Hold and drag: Text options

Swipe

Swipe right: Next page
Swipe left: Previous page
Swipe up: Next chapter
Swipe down: Previous chapter

Pinch

Pinch together: Decrease font size
Pinch apart: Increase font size

17 comments Write a comment

  1. Thank you SO MUCH! Why doesn’t Amazon send this in with the box?! Seriously. 

    I kept accidentally changing font size and skipping to the next chapter, I was getting frustrated.

    I love you.

  2. Hey, thanks a lot for the tutorial. I used to own a Kindle 2 and thought that the UI would be the same. But, I definitely needed your help. I’ll bookmark this for sure. 

    Thanks.

  3. I have found Android, Kindle, Kindle app on Android, BlackBerry Playbook, Microsoft applying the same method for prev/next page i.e. swipe right-to-left for previous, left-to-right for next. iOS, Nook and Kobo adopt the opposite direction. In my app, I want to apply the typical convention for each platform – Android and iOS. Thanks for your information.

  4. Can you explain this: I’m reading a book (Moonlight by Keith Knapp.) In the middle of the page the font changes to something that looks like what an old time typewriter would produce. It’s readable but a strain. I discovered if I read to the next chapter break, swipe down to go to the previous chapter, swipe up to go forward to the chapter where I was, the font will change back to normal … until several pages later, when the ugly font reappears. I am just hoping it’s something with this particular book and not the Kindle. But I would not be surprised if it’s the latter, the software on this thing would embarrass most, but Amazon has not shame.

  5. Two fingers pull swipe up or down increases/decreases brightness on kindle android as long as system brightness is not automatic.

  6. On some books purchased from Amazon, the upward swipe on the kindle screen does not skip the Chapter forward. All other swipes work normally.Why? and how do I correct this? Thanking you.

  7. Thanks so much. I received a Kindle Touch as a free replacement for a broken Kindle Keyboard, and I kept accidentally skipping ahead and backward by chapters, and bringing up the dictionary. I didn’t know how I was doing it! Your page here summed it all up for me. Thanks again.

  8. I have troubles with my Kindle d01200. I am trying to increase the font size by the pinch move, however only thing that it does is zooming in and out. It does not offer me the different font sizes :(. Any idea what I am doing wrong? Thank you very much for respond. Tereza

  9. How do you change brightness on kindle touch, swiping with two three or four fingers does nothing, nothing in settings either

  10. Thanks for this info. As a few others have commented, it seems that you might have swipe left and right backwards. At least for me with the Kindle iOS app, swipe left is next page and swipe right is previous page.

  11. I just got a new iPhone and it won’t pinch to start reading but still works on my old iPhone. Is there something I didn’t turn on?

  12. My kindle fire often won’t accept my taps for choosing an item. I also agree with statements that this item should have come with instruction!

  13. the “page back” (tap left zone) on the kindle is infuriatingly very unreliable … I destroyed mine last night in frustration trying to get it to go back a page!

  14. Does anyone know if there is a “gesture” for pulling up the screen brightness? It came up once and I have no idea why or how. Thanks!

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