Eenky IDE

eenky is the desktop companion application for writing, compiling, and deploying Ink interactive fiction stories to your eenk device. It is forked from inkle's Inky but uses a new code editor and is extended with the eenk compilation pipeline, a pixel-accurate device simulator, and a USB Device Manager.

Installation

Download the latest eenky release for your platform from the GitHub Releases page, or build from source by following the build instructions.

Note: pre-release builds are available for Windows, Mac and Linux (untested!). Currently those builds are unsigned so you might get blocked. On Mac, Gatekeeper will automatically quarantine the downloaded build and will fail to open, possibly reporting that it is broken. To bypass this security feature:

1. Move the eenky.app to your Applications folder.
2. Open your Terminal.
3. Run xattr -cr /Applications/eenky.app

Features

• CodeMirror 6 editor with Ink syntax highlighting
• Made for Ink - most of the niceties from Inky have been recreated, such as the live preview, universal search, knot browser, include management, live syntax parsing, snippets, bult-in ink documentation, web export, etc.
• One-click compile - runs the custom inklecate → inkcpp_cl → eenk pipeline to produce the .bin file the firmware expects, automatically converts .ttf files to the .epdfont format used by eenk, and dithers and packs images into a .media "sidecar" file
• Built-in simulator - test your story and preview what it will look like on a simulated, pixel-perfect 800×480 e-ink display
• Device Manager - easily transfer stories and save files over USB, without ever pulling the SD card out (also available on this website).
• Flash Firmware - wizard-style flasher for installing and updating the firmware (also available on this website).
• Dark Theme - turn off the lights in one click.

Writing for eenk

Welcome to the eenk authoring guide! This document covers the eenk-specific features that extend the standard Ink language when writing stories for the Xteink X4 hardware.

Story Header Metadata

You can define metadata for your story by adding a block comment at the very top of your main ink file using @ tags. eenky parses these tags during compilation and bakes them into your compiled story binary (.bin file) so the device can display them in the library.

/*
  @title My Amazing Story
  @author John Doe
  @font my-custom-font
  @cover cover.png
  @thumbnail thumb.png
*/

Once upon a time...

• @title: The title of your story (maximum 63 characters).
• @author: The author of the story (maximum 31 characters).
• @font: The stem name of the font you want to use for the story (maximum 15 characters). See Fonts in eenk below.
• @cover: The cover image will automatically be resized to fit the device screen (480x800) for the sleep screen. Using this tag will create a .media file alongside your compiled story, see Images in eenk below.
• @thumbnail: A separate image path to be used as a 156x156 thumbnail in the library list. If not provided, the cover image will be resized and used instead. Using this tag will also create the .media file.

Note: Metadata tags are all optional. The whole metadata header is, too: you don't have to provide it to compile an ink story for eenk.

Fonts in eenk

By default, eenk uses the user's preferred font setting from the device menu. However, you can force a specific font for your story by using the @font metadata tag.

The runtime will attempt to resolve your requested font stem in the following order:

1. Built-in Fonts

The device comes with several built-in fonts that you can request directly by their token name:

• sans (or sans-medium): The default readable sans-serif font (16pt).
• sans-small: A smaller variant of the sans-serif font (14pt).
• serif (or serif-medium): A classic serif font (Literata, if enabled in firmware).
• serif-large: A larger variant of the serif font.

2. Custom SD Card Fonts

If the token doesn't match a built-in font, the engine will look for custom .epdfont font files on your SD card. The engine searches two locations in order:

• Story Folder: Next to your story file. E.g., if your story is /eenk/mystory/mystory.bin, it looks in /eenk/mystory/my-custom-font.epdfont.
• Global Font Folder: A shared folder on the root of the SD card: /fonts/my-custom-font.epdfont.

3. Variants for Custom Fonts

Font variants may also be provided by adding a suffix to the font stem. If the story contains bold text, the engine will look for my-custom-font-bold.epdfont. Supported suffixes are -bold, -italic, -bolditalic.

If the engine cannot find those variants, synthetic variants are generated from the base font as a fallback (but these are lower quality).

4. Fallback

If the requested font stem cannot be found in any of the above locations, eenk will gracefully fall back to the user's device default setting, or the builtin font.

Text Formatting

eenk supports inline text styling in both narrative text and interactive choice options. You can use standard Markdown syntax or HTML tags (supported for backwards compatibility with Inky web exports).

Markdown Formatting

Style	Syntax	Example
Italic	*text* or _text_	*whispers quietly*
Bold	**text** or __text__	**DANGER AHEAD**
Bold & Italic	***text*** or **_text_**	***CRITICAL ALERT***

HTML Tags (Backwards Compatibility)

For backwards compatibility with classic Ink stories and Inky's HTML export, standard HTML formatting tags are also supported:

• <i>...</i> or <em>...</em> for italic text
• <b>...</b> or <strong>...</strong> for bold text
• Nested tags such as <b><i>...</i></b> for bold italic text
• <br>, <br/>, or <br /> to insert explicit line breaks within paragraphs

The guard stepped forward. <b>"Halt!"</b> he yelled.<br><i>He did not look pleased.</i>

+ [**Fight** the guard] -> fight
+ [<i>Reason</i> with him] -> reason

Font Variant Resolution for Formatted Text

When formatted text is rendered:

1. eenk will look for dedicated font files matching the style suffix: -bold, -italic, or -bolditalic (e.g. literata-bold.epdfont).
2. If dedicated variant files are not present on the SD card, eenk automatically generates a synthetic fallback (algorithmic emboldening and obliquing), ensuring your formatted text always displays correctly without crashing or missing text.

Images in eenk

You can embed images in your story using the standard Ink # IMAGE: tag. eenky will automatically process these images during compilation and bundle them into an optimized .media sidecar file.

# IMAGE: my-image.png
# IMAGE: https://example.com/online-image.jpg

• Local Images: You can reference local images by placing them in the same folder as your .ink file (or a subfolder relative to it).
• Online Images: You can also provide a direct URL to an online image. eenky will download it automatically during compilation.

The Media Sidecar

During the compilation process, eenky collects all the # IMAGE: tags it finds in your story, processes the images (scaling, dithering, and converting to 1-bit format for the e-ink display), and packs them into a single binary file named after your story with the .media extension (e.g., mystory.media).

When transferring your story to the device using the Device Manager in eenky, this .media file is automatically transferred alongside your main .bin story file and any custom .epdfont files.

Note: eenky inherits the classic Web export mode from Inky, which also supports the very same # IMAGE: tag format for rendering images in the browser! What are the odds!?

Building with eenky

eenky is the desktop companion application that compiles your .ink files into a .bin file optimized for the eenk hardware. It uses a customized compiler pipeline (inklecate -> inkcpp_cl).

1. Open your Ink project folder in eenky.
2. Click the Compile button in the toolbar (also available from the File menu or with Ctrl+B or Cmd+B keyboard shortcut).

eenky will automatically extract your metadata headers, compile the ink script, and generate a .bin file in the same directory. It will also convert the source .ttf fonts to .epdfont files and generate a .media file if there are any # IMAGE: tags in your story.

You can play it in eenky's simulator by clicking the device button in the toolbar (also available from the Device menu or with Ctrl+L or Cmd+L keyboard shortcut).

Transferring to the eenk device

To play your compiled story on the hardware device you can either take the SD card out and put it in your computer, or transfer directly from eenky to the device if it has USB Serial capability.

Using the Device Manager in eenky

1. Wake up your eenk device and put it into the menu screen.
2. Connect it to your computer via USB.
3. Open eenky's Device Manager from the home screen, Device menu or keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+D or Cmd+D).
4. Click Connect and select the correct COM port (e.g. USB jtag/serial debug unit).
5. Click Upload Story and select your story .bin file. Associated files like fonts and .media will be added automatically.
6. Click Disconnect and the device will reboot to reveal your new story in the library!

Manual write to the SD card

1. Remove the SD card from your device and plug it into your computer.
2. Ensure there is an eenk folder on the root of the SD card.
3. Copy the compiled .bin file into the /eenk/ directory, or in a subfolder in this directory (useful if there are additional files such as fonts).
4. If you have custom fonts or a .media file, place them next to our story file (fonts can also go in the /fonts/ folder).
5. Eject the SD card, put it back in the device, and turn it on. Your story will appear in the library!