Uri Tauber 4d22256745 feat: footnote anchor navigation (#1245)
## Summary: Enable footnote anchor navigation in EPUB reader

This PR extracts the core anchor-to-page mapping mechanism from PR #1143
(TOC fragment navigation) to provide immediate footnote navigation
support. By merging this focused subset first, users get a complete
footnote experience now while simplifying the eventual review and merge
of the full #1143 PR.

  ---

## What this extracts from PR #1143

PR #1143 implements comprehensive TOC fragment navigation for EPUBs with
multi-chapter spine files. This PR takes only the anchor resolution
infrastructure:

- Anchor-to-page mapping in section cache: During page layout,
ChapterHtmlSlimParser records which page each HTML id attribute lands
on, serializing the map into the .bin cache file.
- Anchor resolution in `EpubReaderActivity`: When navigating to a
footnote link with a fragment (e.g., `chapter2.xhtml#note1`), the reader
resolves the anchor to a page number and jumps directly to it.
- Section file format change: Bumped to version 15, adds anchor map
offset in header.

  ---

## Simplified scope vs. PR #1143

To minimize conflicts and complexity, this PR differs from #1143 in key
ways:

* **Anchors tracked**
  * **Origin:** Only TOC anchors (passed via `std::set`)
  * **This branch:** All `id` attributes

* **Page breaks**
  * **Origin**: Forces new page at TOC chapter boundaries
  * **This branch:** None — natural flow

* **TOC integration**
  * **Origin**: `tocBoundaries`, `getTocIndexForPage()`, chapter skip
  * **This branch:** None — just footnote links

* **Bug fix**
  * **This branch:** Fixed anchor page off-by-1/2 bug


The anchor recording bug (recording page number before `makePages()`
flushes previous block) was identified and fixed during this extraction.
The fix uses a deferred `pendingAnchorId` pattern that records the
anchor after page completion.

  ---

## Positioning for future merge

Changes are structured to minimize conflicts when #1143 eventually
merges:

- `ChapterHtmlSlimParser.cpp` `startElement()`: Both branches rewrite
the same if `(!idAttr.empty())` block. The merged version will combine
both approaches (TOC anchors get page breaks + immediate recording;
footnote anchors get deferred recording).
- `EpubReaderActivity.cpp` `render()`: The `pendingAnchor` resolution
block is positioned at the exact same insertion point where #1143 places
its `pendingTocIndex` block (line 596, right after `nextPageNumber`
assignment). During merge, both blocks will sit side-by-side.
   
  ---

## Why merge separately?

1. Immediate user value: Footnote navigation works now without waiting
for the full TOC overhaul
   2. Easier review: ~100 lines vs. 500+ lines in #1143 
3. Bug fix included: The page recording bug is fixed here and will carry
into #1143
4. Minimal conflicts: Structured for clean merge — both PRs touch the
same files but in complementary ways
---

### AI Usage

Did you use AI tools to help write this code? _**< YES >**_ Done by
Claude Opus 4.6
2026-03-06 21:10:45 +03:00
2025-12-03 22:06:45 +11:00
2025-12-03 22:06:45 +11:00
2025-12-03 22:06:45 +11:00
2025-12-03 22:06:45 +11:00
2025-12-03 22:06:45 +11:00

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
  • KOReader Sync integration for cross-device reading progress
  • 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, including the KOReader Sync quick setup.

For more details about the scope of the project, see the SCOPE.md document.

Installing

Web (latest firmware)

  1. Connect your Xteink X4 to your computer via USB-C and wake/unlock the device
  2. 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)

  1. Connect your Xteink X4 to your computer via USB-C
  2. Download the firmware.bin file from the release of your choice via the releases page
  3. 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, its 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:

  1. Fork the repo
  2. Create a branch (feature/dithering-improvement)
  3. Make changes
  4. 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.

Description
A personalized, opinionated, fork of the Xteink X4 community firmware CrossPoint
Readme MIT 160 MiB
Languages
C 88.2%
C++ 10.3%
Python 1.1%
HTML 0.3%