User Guide

Overview

EinkBro is a browser specifically designed for E-Ink devices. As E-Ink screens have gotten faster and more capable, more people are browsing the web on e-readers. But mainstream browsers are full of animations, dimming effects, and UI patterns that look terrible on E-Ink displays.

EinkBro follows two core design principles:

• Minimize repaint counts — fewer screen refreshes means a smoother experience
• Minimize repaint area — smaller updates reduce ghosting artifacts

The result is a browser with high-contrast icons, no animations, and features like page-turning by touch areas, volume keys, reader mode, vertical text layout, and AI-powered content interaction.

First Launch

When you first open EinkBro, you'll see a bottom toolbar with configurable action icons. The default layout includes:

• Phone: New Tab, Touch, Reader Mode, Refresh, Back, Bookmark, Tab Count, Input URL, Settings
• Tablet: Title, New Tab, Touch, Reader Mode, Refresh, Back, Bookmark, Tab Count, Settings

Tap the Settings icon (hamburger menu) to open the Action Menu, which gives access to all browser functions.

Tip: the Settings screen has a search bar at the top — type any setting name to jump straight to it. Search is language-aware: both localized and English terms work regardless of your app language.

Tip: changing App Language now applies immediately without restarting the app, and your open tabs are preserved.

Toolbar Actions

EinkBro has over 40 toolbar actions. You can add any of them to your toolbar and reorder them freely. Below is the complete reference.

Toolbar Customization

Open Action Menu → Toolbar icons (or add the Toolbar Setting button to your toolbar). Check any item to add it to the toolbar. Drag the handle on the right side to reorder items.

The toolbar position can be set to Bottom, Top, Left, or Right in Settings → Toolbar.

Action Menu

Tap the Settings (hamburger) icon on the toolbar to open the action menu. It contains all browser functions organized in scrollable rows.

Customize what shows: long-press the menu to enter edit mode — drag tiles between rows (cross-row drag is supported) and hide tiles you never use. The layout fills bottom-row-first so the most frequently used row stays under your thumb.

Tip: long-press the Share icon to replay the last share target you used (skips the system chooser).

Row 1: Quick Actions

Share & Save

Collapsible section with two rows of sharing and saving actions:

Content Adjustment

Collapsible section with content display and transformation tools:

Bottom Row

Reader Mode

Reader mode strips away headers, sidebars, footers, and ads, leaving only the main article content. It's ideal for long-form reading on E-Ink screens.

• Activate via Reader Mode toolbar button or Action Menu → Reader mode
• Long-press the Font Size toolbar button also enters reader mode
• Long-press the Reader Mode icon to open the reader layout settings dialog: page margin and line spacing apply live, plus two columns in landscape, Keep extra content (preserves math notation like MathJax/KaTeX and styling), and a shortcut to the reader font dialog
• Vertical (CJK) reading mode: page turns snap to line boundaries, tate-chu-yoko for short digits/acronyms, and the same margin/line-spacing settings apply
• Reader mode has its own toolbar configuration with: Rotate, Fullscreen, Bold Font, Font Size, Touch, TOC, Page Info, Settings, Close Tab

UI Color Themes

Give the browser chrome your own look. Open Settings → UI → Theme to pick an accent color, a border style, and a fill — every combination applies live to dialogs, panels, settings screens, and the toolbar, with no restart.

Color

• Seven presets: Classic (black), Light Blue, Dark Blue, Green, Sepia, Purple, Red
• Custom — pick any accent on a hue wheel; backgrounds and text tints are derived from it automatically
• Invert colors — flips the theme into a colored dark look

Border Style

How dialogs, panels, and buttons are framed: None, Classic, Round, Sharp, Paper (print-like double frame), Dashed, Postage Stamp (scalloped edge), Sketch (hand-drawn wobble), Certificate (thick frame with a hairline inner rule), or Sticker (rounded frame with an offset shadow). Dividers inside dialogs and the toolbar's page-facing edge follow the same style.

Fill

The background treatment of themed surfaces, independent of the border: plain, Tonal, Gradient, or a subtle repeating pattern — Stripes, Dots, Graph, Ruled, or Crosshatch. With Gradient selected, tap its swatch again to open a dial that adjusts the gradient's direction and strength with a live preview while you drag.

The theme reaches beyond dialogs: the Android 12+ system splash screen, the built-in start page, the toolbar's load-progress line, and the settings status bar all follow it.

Start Page

A built-in start page with a search box and a tile grid of your favorite sites — the page shown in the hero screenshot.

• Search box — uses the browser's own search suggestions and your configured search engine
• Tile grid — add sites from bookmarks or enter them manually; tiles show each site's favicon
• Tap the title to rename the heading or set a background image from your device; the image anchors to the bottom of the screen, and its brightness picks the light or dark text style
• Follows the app's dark mode and the selected UI theme — background, fill pattern, search bar, wordmark, and tiles
• Enable it via New Tab Behavior → Show start page in Settings → UI; it also serves as the default homepage

Split Screen

Split screen opens a second web panel alongside the current page. Useful for reading news lists while viewing articles, or for AI chat alongside content.

• Activate via Action Menu → Split screen or long-press any link
• The split panel has its own mini toolbar (top to bottom):
  • Orientation — Toggle vertical/horizontal split. Long-click flips the two screens.
  • Dual screen link — When enabled, clicking links in main panel opens in the second panel
  • Scroll sync — Synchronize scrolling between panels (useful for translation comparison)
  • Font size +/− — Adjust font in the split panel
  • Close — Close split screen

Per-Site Overrides

Many display and behavior options can be saved per site so they apply automatically on subsequent visits. Open the Site Settings dialog from the toolbar (or via gesture binding) to configure them.

Rule Scope

• Whole site or a URL path — a rule can cover the whole host or be scoped to a path such as example.com/docs; the most specific rule wins, field by field
• The editor shows where each inherited value comes from (a path rule, the host rule, or the global setting)
• Configured sites — Settings → Site Settings lists every saved rule so you can review, edit, or remove them in one place
• Rules are re-applied on same-document navigations (pushState, hash changes, redirects), so path-scoped rules keep up with single-page apps

Display & Viewport

• Desktop viewport width — force a site to render at desktop layout regardless of the global mobile/desktop toggle
• Display settings — remember Reader Mode, vertical text, bold/black font, white background, font size, etc. per site
• Translation mode — pick paragraph vs. in-place, and the provider, on a per-site basis (see Translation section below)

Content Overrides

• AdBlock, Cookies, JavaScript, Images, Desktop mode — each can be forced on or off for the current site, overriding the global setting; whitelist the site you are on without typing domains in Settings. The Images switch lets you turn image loading off for just one site to save data
• Whitelist entries in the Settings lists can be edited by tapping them
• On phones the Site Settings dialog opens full-screen so all options fit; tablets keep the centered dialog

Custom CSS & JavaScript

For sites that need style tweaks or scripted fixes, the Site Settings dialog accepts:

• Custom CSS — appended to the page on every load (e.g. hide a sticky header, widen the article column)
• Post-load JavaScript — runs after the DOM is ready, useful for click-to-expand fixes or removing pop-ups that bypass adblock

Each has its own on/off switch, so a patch can stay saved but temporarily disabled while you troubleshoot a page.

The AI agent (under Chat With Web) can author and save these patches for you — ask it to "hide the sticky banner on this site" and it will write CSS, scope it to the current domain, and persist it.

Userscripts

EinkBro includes a Tampermonkey-style userscript engine, so the same community scripts you run on the desktop (from sites like Greasy Fork) work on your e-reader. Scripts run automatically on the pages they match.

Installing a Script

• From a link — tap any .user.js link while browsing. EinkBro fetches it and opens an editor with the code pre-filled; tap OK to install.
• Manually — open Settings → Site Settings → Userscripts (labelled "Manage Tampermonkey-style userscripts"), then tap Add userscript. Paste code directly into the Userscript code field, or type a URL into Install from URL and tap Fetch.

Re-installing a script that shares an existing script's @name updates it in place instead of creating a duplicate.

Managing Scripts

The Userscripts screen lists every installed script. Each row has:

• Enable / disable toggle — turn a script off without deleting it
• Check for update — re-fetch the latest version (see below)
• Edit — view or modify the script's code
• Delete — remove the script permanently

Menu Commands

Scripts that register entries with GM_registerMenuCommand surface them through the Userscripts toolbar action (the puzzle extension icon — add it in Toolbar Customization). Tapping it lists the commands the current page's scripts registered; if none are registered, it opens the userscript manager. Menu commands are page-scoped and reset when you navigate away.

Updating Scripts

Updates are manual: tap Check for update on a script. EinkBro reads the script's @updateURL / @downloadURL, compares versions, and installs the newer one in place. You'll see a toast such as "Updated to v2.1", "Already up to date", or "No update URL for this script".

Supported APIs

The engine grants the common Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey APIs, each with a promise-based GM.* equivalent:

• Storage — GM_getValue, GM_setValue, GM_deleteValue, GM_listValues
• DOM — GM_addStyle, GM_addElement
• Network — GM_xmlhttpRequest (cross-origin, gated by @connect)
• Menu — GM_registerMenuCommand, GM_unregisterMenuCommand
• Misc — GM_openInTab, GM_setClipboard, GM_notification, GM_log, GM_info

Metadata directives parsed from the // ==UserScript== header include @name, @namespace, @version, @description, @match, @include, @exclude, @require, @connect, @run-at (document-start / document-idle), @noframes, @updateURL, and @downloadURL.

Translation

EinkBro offers multiple translation methods:

Paragraph-by-Paragraph Translation

Translates each paragraph inline, showing the translation alongside the original text. Activate via the Translate by Paragraph toolbar action or long-press the Translate button for mode selection. Providers: Google Translate, DeepL, OpenAI, Gemini.

Per-Site Translation Mode

The translation config dialog (long-press Translate) lets you save a different translation mode for each site — useful when one site reads better with DeepL paragraph mode while another needs Gemini in-place. The chosen mode is restored automatically on subsequent visits.

In-Place Translation

Translates content inline using OpenAI or Google Gemini, replacing the original text in place. Activate via long-press on the Translate button and selecting in-place mode.

Full Page Translation

Translates the entire page via Google Translate. Activate via Action Menu → Translate or the Translation toolbar button.

Image Translation

Translates text within images. Results are cached to disk for faster subsequent access. Long-click the translate icon to batch-translate all remaining images. Requires an API key configured in Settings → Misc → Translate Image API Key.

Dual Captions

Display subtitles in two languages on YouTube videos. Configure in Settings → Misc → Dual Captions for YouTube.

EPUB Export

Save web articles as EPUB ebook files, complete with images and table of contents.

• Activate via Action Menu → EPUB
• The dialog has tabs for opening existing EPUBs and saving new ones
• Save multiple web pages into the same EPUB — each becomes a chapter
• Drag and drop to reorder chapters in the TOC editor
• EPUB files include an EinkBro identifier for easy identification
• Content must be reader-mode compatible for best results

Supernote devices: EinkBro detects Supernote hardware and routes downloads (EPUB / PDF / other files) to Document/ so they appear directly in the device's file browser. Saved EPUBs and PDFs can be opened in the Supernote reader straight from the action menu.

Touch Page Turning

EinkBro's signature feature for E-Ink devices. Tap the left or right (or top/bottom) edges of the screen to page up/down, just like turning pages in an e-book.

• Enable via the Touch Turn Page toolbar button
• Ebook touch mode — tap to turn pages directly in WebView with native touch interception (no JS injection)
• Configure touch areas and actions in Settings → Gestures
• Choose between left/right or up/down touch area layout
• Long-press volume key temporarily disables page turning for 5 seconds
• Volume keys can also be used for page turning (enable in Quick Toggle)
• Adjust Page Reserved Height in Settings → UI to control overlap between pages

AI / ChatGPT Integration

Interact with web content using AI directly in the browser.

Chat With Web

Open a split-screen AI chat panel to ask questions about the current page. Activate via the Chat With Web toolbar button or Action Menu → Chat With Web.

Page AI

Run AI actions on the full page content (e.g., summarize, extract key points). Uses the prompt configured in Settings → GPT → Prompt for Full Webpage Content.

Task Runner

Chain multi-step AI workflows on the current page — the first item in the Page AI action menu. Define a sequence of prompts that operate on page content, selection, or the previous step's output. Useful for "extract → translate → summarize" pipelines you re-run frequently.

Free-form Agent

Built into Chat With Web, the agent handles open-ended follow-up conversations with persistent access to the page content and previous turns. Iterate on analysis without re-pasting context, and let it call back into page tools.

The agent can also organize your bookmarks: it has tools to add bookmarks and create folders, and large bookmark lists are filed page by page so it stays reliable. It can likewise author per-site CSS/JS patches — see Per-Site Overrides.

News-Anchor TTS

A read-aloud action template that delivers full articles in a news-anchor voice, using OpenAI's gpt-4o-mini-tts model with preconfigured voice instructions. Configure under Settings → GPT → Audio Output Instructions.

Custom GPT Actions

Define reusable AI actions with custom system prompts in Settings → GPT → ChatGPT Action Definition. These appear in the text selection context menu and can be triggered on selected text or full page content.

Supported Providers

• OpenAI — GPT-4.1 and other models via API key
• Google Gemini — Gemini 2.5 Flash and others
• Self-hosted / Ollama — Any OpenAI-compatible server via custom host URL