## Summary **What is the goal of this PR?** Implement support for footnotes in epub files. It is based on #553, but simplified — removed the parts which complicated the code and burden the CPU/RAM. This version supports basic footnotes and lets the user jump from location to location inside the epub. **What changes are included?** - `FootnoteEntry` struct — A small POD struct (number[24], href[64]) shared between parser, page storage, and UI. - Parser: `<a href>` detection (`ChapterHtmlSlimParser`) — During a single parsing pass, internal epub links are detected and collected as footnotes. The link text is underlined to hint navigability. Bracket/whitespace normalization is applied to the display label (e.g. [1] → 1). - Footnote-to-page assignment (`ChapterHtmlSlimParser`, `Page`) — Footnotes are attached to the exact page where their anchor word appears, tracked via a cumulative word counter during layout, surviving paragraph splits and the 750-word mid-paragraph safety flush. - Page serialization (`Page`, `Section`) — Footnotes are serialized/deserialized per page (max 16 per page). Section cache version bumped to 14 to force a clean rebuild. - Href → spine resolution (`Epub`) — `resolveHrefToSpineIndex()` maps an href (e.g. `chapter2.xhtml#note1`) to its spine index by filename matching. - Footnotes menu + activity (`EpubReaderMenuActivity`, `EpubReaderFootnotesActivity`) — A new "Footnotes" entry in the reader menu lists all footnote links found on the current page. The user scrolls and selects to navigate. - Navigate & restore (`EpubReaderActivity`) — `navigateToHref()` saves the current spine index and page number, then jumps to the target. The Back button restores the saved position when the user is done reading the footnote. **Additional Context** **What was removed vs #553:** virtual spine items (`addVirtualSpineItem`, `isVirtualSpineItem`), two-pass parsing, `<aside>` content extraction to temp HTML files, `<p class="note">` paragraph note extraction, `replaceHtmlEntities` (master already has `lookupHtmlEntity`), `footnotePages` / `buildFilteredChapterList`, `noterefCallback` / `Noteref` struct, and the stack size increase from 8 KB to 24 KB (not needed without two-pass parsing and virtual file I/O on the render task). **Performance:** Single-pass parsing. No new heap allocations in the hot path — footnote text is collected into fixed stack buffers (char[24], char[64]). Active runtime memory is ~2.8 KB worst-case (one page × 16 footnotes × 88 bytes, mirrored in `currentPageFootnotes`). Flash usage is unchanged at 97.4%; RAM stays at 31%. **Known limitations:** When clicking a footnote, it jumps to the start of the HTML file instead of the specific anchor. This could be problematic for books that don't have separate files for each footnote. (no element-id-to-page mapping yet - will be another PR soon). --- ### AI Usage Did you use AI tools to help write this code? _**< PARTIALLY>**_ Claude Opus 4.6 was used to do most of the migration, I checked manually its work, and fixed some stuff, but I haven't review all the changes yet, so feedback is welcomed. --------- Co-authored-by: Arthur Tazhitdinov <lisnake@gmail.com>
CrossPoint Reader
Firmware for the Xteink X4 e-paper display reader (unaffiliated with Xteink). Built using PlatformIO and targeting the ESP32-C3 microcontroller.
CrossPoint Reader is a purpose-built firmware designed to be a drop-in, fully open-source replacement for the official Xteink firmware. It aims to match or improve upon the standard EPUB reading experience.
Motivation
E-paper devices are fantastic for reading, but most commercially available readers are closed systems with limited customisation. The Xteink X4 is an affordable, e-paper device, however the official firmware remains closed. CrossPoint exists partly as a fun side-project and partly to open up the ecosystem and truely unlock the device's potential.
CrossPoint Reader aims to:
- Provide a fully open-source alternative to the official firmware.
- Offer a document reader capable of handling EPUB content on constrained hardware.
- Support customisable font, layout, and display options.
- Run purely on the Xteink X4 hardware.
This project is not affiliated with Xteink; it's built as a community project.
Features & Usage
- EPUB parsing and rendering (EPUB 2 and EPUB 3)
- Image support within EPUB
- Saved reading position
- File explorer with file picker
- Basic EPUB picker from root directory
- Support nested folders
- EPUB picker with cover art
- Custom sleep screen
- Cover sleep screen
- Wifi book upload
- Wifi OTA updates
- Configurable font, layout, and display options
- User provided fonts
- Full UTF support
- Screen rotation
Multi-language support: Read EPUBs in various languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, and more.
See the user guide for instructions on operating CrossPoint.
For more details about the scope of the project, see the SCOPE.md document.
Installing
Web (latest firmware)
- Connect your Xteink X4 to your computer via USB-C and wake/unlock the device
- Go to https://xteink.dve.al/ and click "Flash CrossPoint firmware"
To revert back to the official firmware, you can flash the latest official firmware from https://xteink.dve.al/, or swap back to the other partition using the "Swap boot partition" button here https://xteink.dve.al/debug.
Web (specific firmware version)
- Connect your Xteink X4 to your computer via USB-C
- Download the
firmware.binfile from the release of your choice via the releases page - Go to https://xteink.dve.al/ and flash the firmware file using the "OTA fast flash controls" section
To revert back to the official firmware, you can flash the latest official firmware from https://xteink.dve.al/, or swap back to the other partition using the "Swap boot partition" button here https://xteink.dve.al/debug.
Manual
See Development below.
Development
Prerequisites
- PlatformIO Core (
pio) or VS Code + PlatformIO IDE - Python 3.8+
- USB-C cable for flashing the ESP32-C3
- Xteink X4
Checking out the code
CrossPoint uses PlatformIO for building and flashing the firmware. To get started, clone the repository:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/crosspoint-reader/crosspoint-reader
# Or, if you've already cloned without --recursive:
git submodule update --init --recursive
Flashing your device
Connect your Xteink X4 to your computer via USB-C and run the following command.
pio run --target upload
Debugging
After flashing the new features, it’s recommended to capture detailed logs from the serial port.
First, make sure all required Python packages are installed:
python3 -m pip install pyserial colorama matplotlib
after that run the script:
# For Linux
# This was tested on Debian and should work on most Linux systems.
python3 scripts/debugging_monitor.py
# For macOS
python3 scripts/debugging_monitor.py /dev/cu.usbmodem2101
Minor adjustments may be required for Windows.
Internals
CrossPoint Reader is pretty aggressive about caching data down to the SD card to minimise RAM usage. The ESP32-C3 only has ~380KB of usable RAM, so we have to be careful. A lot of the decisions made in the design of the firmware were based on this constraint.
Data caching
The first time chapters of a book are loaded, they are cached to the SD card. Subsequent loads are served from the
cache. This cache directory exists at .crosspoint on the SD card. The structure is as follows:
.crosspoint/
├── epub_12471232/ # Each EPUB is cached to a subdirectory named `epub_<hash>`
│ ├── progress.bin # Stores reading progress (chapter, page, etc.)
│ ├── cover.bmp # Book cover image (once generated)
│ ├── book.bin # Book metadata (title, author, spine, table of contents, etc.)
│ └── sections/ # All chapter data is stored in the sections subdirectory
│ ├── 0.bin # Chapter data (screen count, all text layout info, etc.)
│ ├── 1.bin # files are named by their index in the spine
│ └── ...
│
└── epub_189013891/
Deleting the .crosspoint directory will clear the entire cache.
Due the way it's currently implemented, the cache is not automatically cleared when a book is deleted and moving a book file will use a new cache directory, resetting the reading progress.
For more details on the internal file structures, see the file formats document.
Contributing
Contributions are very welcome!
If you are new to the codebase, start with the contributing docs.
If you're looking for a way to help out, take a look at the ideas discussion board. If there's something there you'd like to work on, leave a comment so that we can avoid duplicated effort.
Everyone here is a volunteer, so please be respectful and patient. For more details on our goverance and community principles, please see GOVERNANCE.md.
To submit a contribution:
- Fork the repo
- Create a branch (
feature/dithering-improvement) - Make changes
- Submit a PR
CrossPoint Reader is not affiliated with Xteink or any manufacturer of the X4 hardware.
Huge shoutout to diy-esp32-epub-reader by atomic14, which was a project I took a lot of inspiration from as I was making CrossPoint.
