SerpApi.Org
FreeInk is an open-source ecosystem for e-ink readers, aiming to replace locked-down software and walled gardens with a stack that includes everything from firmware to fonts and free file formats. There's even reference hardware and a manifesto.
From the rendering engine to the charging circuit, every layer is documented and open. It all adds up to a shared foundation the whole community can build on, fix and extend. Books are plain files on an SD card, in open standards you can read, copy and keep on any device, forever. Software, firmware and hardware are public and permissively licensed. Fork it, audit it, build on it. Hand-solderable parts, a published BOM and a swappable battery. Fix it instead of landfilling it. Own it outright, with no subscriptions and no accounts. The device and its software stay yours. Developed in the open by readers and tinkerers, with nightly builds, shared themes and contributions welcome. Spare GPIO, custom fonts, themeable menus. Make it weird, make it fast, make it yours.
There's an "endlessly hackable" hardware-independent toolkit for writing e-reader firmware, but plenty of supported devices you can buy now such as the Xteink X4 (previously at Boing Boing), a $65-ish pocket reader with an 800×480 monochrome display; the Xteink X3, with a 792×528 panel; the M5Stack PaperColor, with a 400×600 Spectra 6-color display; and the Murphy M3. It's based on CrossPoint, open-source firmware for the Xteink gadgets.
All hail the ESP32, the hardware that enables all this in response to commercial e-readers and the license-rental bookstores they're locked to. Amazon, in particular, exercises remote control over customer libraries, most famously deleting copies of 1984 from devices in 2009. And if the devices themselves last too long, that's not a problem either. FreeInk doesn't run on Kindle, though; you'll have to make do with the latest jailbreaks.
See also KOReader, an open reader for Kobo, jailbroken Kindles and Android devices; the Open Book Project; and of course Calibre.
Free Ink [freeink.org]
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