On any reader other than CrossPoint, a blended book works exactly like any other EPUB you already own: open it in Kobo, PocketBook, a phone reading app, or send it to a Kindle, and it reads normally from the first page. The only thing that changes is which of the three editions makes sense, because two of them need no special firmware at all, and one of them needs a reader that can load a dictionary file — which on current hardware effectively means CrossPoint, with KOReader the likely exception.
Most people reading this don't own a CrossPoint reader, and that's fine — a blended book is a book first. What a blended book is, and what the CrossPoint half adds on top, is in Blended Books on Your E-Reader. This is the honest version of what each edition gives you on the reader you already have, how to get the file onto it, and what you do instead of tap-to-look-up when the device can't do that part.
The file is a standard EPUB, in one of three editions#
A blended book is EPUB 3, nothing more exotic — the same container format every modern e-reader already opens. Each one ships as three separate files, because the three editions aren't settings inside one book, they're three different books built from the same text:
| Edition | What it needs to work | What a generic reader gets |
|---|---|---|
| Underlined | A companion StarDict dictionary the reader can load | The blended words are underlined, and that's all — tapping one does nothing without the dictionary |
| Glosses above (ruby) | Nothing. The original word is printed in small type above each blended word, right in the file | Works as soon as the file opens, on any reader that renders EPUB 3 ruby markup |
| Linked | Nothing. Each blended word is a plain hyperlink to a glossary at the end of the chapter | Works wherever the reader renders internal links, which is nearly everywhere |
CrossPoint is the reader where underlined is verified to work, because it is the one whose dictionary lookup we have tested the companion dictionary against end to end. Download the book from the free library and you get all three editions — the underlined one is the default download, the other two under "Other editions". A book you blend yourself with Pro arrives as the underlined edition plus its dictionary, so if you are reading it on a generic reader, the free library is where the no-dictionary editions are. KOReader is the likely exception to all of this; see below.
Loading the file onto the reader you have#
Getting an EPUB onto a device follows whatever path that device already uses for every other book — there's no LingoBlend-specific step beyond picking the right edition first.
| Reader | How the file gets on | Edition to pick |
|---|---|---|
| Kobo | Connect by USB, accept the connection prompt on the device, then copy the .epub onto the drive that appears — it shows up in your library after the device finishes scanning | Glosses above, or linked |
| PocketBook | Connect by USB and copy it to the device's storage; its reading app picks it up | Glosses above, or linked |
| Boox and other Android e-ink tablets | Copy it to the device's storage over USB, or open it straight from a downloads or cloud folder; its reading app picks it up | Glosses above, or linked |
| Phone EPUB apps (Apple Books, Google Play Books, and similar) | Open the downloaded file directly, or import it from your downloads | Glosses above, or linked |
| Kindle | Send to Kindle, by web upload, email, or the app — Amazon converts the file to its own format before it reaches your library | Linked. We have not verified ruby rendering on Kindle devices or apps — see how to read Kindle books in a foreign language for what Kindle itself can and can't do |
| KOReader (installed on Kobo, PocketBook, a jailbroken Kindle, or Android) | Copy the .epub, and separately the dictionary files, the same way you'd load any KOReader book and dictionary | Underlined — likely works with the companion dictionary, though we have not tested it ourselves |
Nothing here is a LingoBlend trick: it's the normal way each of those devices takes any book. The only decision that's actually ours is which edition to send, and that comes down to whether the reader can show ruby text and whether it can read a StarDict dictionary. On CrossPoint both are verified; on KOReader the dictionary is likely but untested; everywhere else, pick glosses above or linked.
Will the ruby text actually show up?#
Ruby annotation — the small original-word label printed above a blended word — is part of the EPUB 3 standard, not something CrossPoint-specific, and most modern EPUB renderers draw it. Support still varies by reader, by app, and by firmware version, and we have not verified it device by device, so we're not going to tell you a specific model works when we haven't tested it.
The practical answer: open the glosses-above edition and look. If the small labels are there, you're reading exactly what the underlined-plus-dictionary combination gives a CrossPoint reader, just rendered up front instead of on tap. If the labels are missing, squashed, or garbled, close it and open the linked edition instead — a hyperlink is the most broadly supported thing in the format, and the edition least likely to need a fallback.
What you lose without CrossPoint, and what to do instead#
Here's the honest limitation: look-up on the page and Clip-and-sync are CrossPoint features, not EPUB features. The companion dictionary needs firmware that knows how to load a dictionary file from the SD card, and clipping a word to sync it back into the app needs firmware that knows how to write one and talk to our servers over WiFi. Kobo, PocketBook, Boox, phone apps and Kindle don't have either piece, and installing CrossPoint on them isn't possible — it runs only on the short list of small e-ink devices it was built for, mostly Xteink's.
That doesn't mean the words you meet while reading are lost, just that saving one takes an extra small step instead of one tap on the page:
- Type it into the app. Open the Dictionary tab and add the word directly — slower than tapping on the page, but it takes the meaning the book actually used if you note which sentence it came from.
- Use the Chrome extension if you're also reading the glossary or looking the word up on your computer — one click saves it the same way as every other word you save from the web.
- Share it from your phone. If your reading app lets you select text and share it, our iOS and Android share extensions catch that selection and file it straight into your dictionary — the same place words saved by the extension or typed in by hand land, and the same place they start coming up in the five practice games afterward.
None of this is as smooth as looking a word up on the page of a CrossPoint reader — Reader Menu then Look Up on current firmware, press and hold on 1.7 or a Nightly build. If look-up on the page, and clipped words that reach your practice without retyping, matter more to you than keeping the device you already own, that trade is exactly what CrossPoint offers over the alternatives. If you'd rather keep your current reader, this is the complete, working path — a blended book you read and tap less, and save a little more deliberately.
The takeaway#
The book was never the locked part. A blended EPUB opens on whatever you already read on, today, with no account and no setup beyond choosing glosses above or linked instead of underlined. What CrossPoint adds on top — look-up on the page and Clip with Sync clippings — is real, but it's an addition to a book that already works everywhere, not a requirement for reading one.