MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Display Technology and Eye-strain

LDBoblo · 01-28-2010, 11:32 PM

I prefer to do most of both my casual and professional "reading" by window light (probably 50%), and that's where the advantage of reflective displays comes in for me. During other times (perhaps 30%), I'm in strong enough ambient indoor lighting that I can manage with a reflective surface, but would be equally happy with an emissive display. The other 20% would be in relatively dim or poor lighting, where emissive displays have an enormous advantage.

I have no problems whatsoever with eye strain related to viewing quality backlit surfaces for hours, and my only hesitation with reading on a monitor in front of me is that it is a fixed vertical surface.

However, my percentages above are merely preferences, rather than absolutes. If I'm stuck with an EPD/E-Ink device or paper, I'll force myself to use more time in daylight or bright indoor light, and if I'm stuck with an emissive LCD, I'll force myself to spend more time indoors.

I still use paper as my dominant medium, as it has better daylight readability than both EPD and LCD, and has better low-light readability than EPD (but LCD still has the advantage, obviously, in low light), as well as speed and responsiveness that I can't get from reflective screens yet.

I use LCDs often too though, but primarily because they're often attached to keyboards, and my work requires a lot of creation as well as consumption. Nothing really horrible about backlighting, but a reflective option would put me in my preferred lighting conditions more often. Also with research and long documents, keyword query is handy, and multi-page display with quick scrolling at high resolution is practically the equal of flipping through pages to visually locate content in a book.

EPDs like E-Ink don't have the quality or speed to usurp the practical roles of either my backlit screens or my paper. What they do allow is for me to take some of my frivolous reading (novels) into my preferred lighting conditions while helping me preserve space at home and in my bag. For me, the tradeoff of quality for portability and convenience is acceptable for relatively unimportant reading.

That said...I think it's pretty obvious why I'm rather eager to see some Pixel Qi devices come to market, along with better/faster e-papers. Such things are much more in tune with my preferred usage scenarios.

01-28-2010, 11:32 PM	#16
LDBoblo Wizard Posts: 1,385 Karma: 16056 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Asia Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Sony PRS-505	I prefer to do most of both my casual and professional "reading" by window light (probably 50%), and that's where the advantage of reflective displays comes in for me. During other times (perhaps 30%), I'm in strong enough ambient indoor lighting that I can manage with a reflective surface, but would be equally happy with an emissive display. The other 20% would be in relatively dim or poor lighting, where emissive displays have an enormous advantage. I have no problems whatsoever with eye strain related to viewing quality backlit surfaces for hours, and my only hesitation with reading on a monitor in front of me is that it is a fixed vertical surface. However, my percentages above are merely preferences, rather than absolutes. If I'm stuck with an EPD/E-Ink device or paper, I'll force myself to use more time in daylight or bright indoor light, and if I'm stuck with an emissive LCD, I'll force myself to spend more time indoors. I still use paper as my dominant medium, as it has better daylight readability than both EPD and LCD, and has better low-light readability than EPD (but LCD still has the advantage, obviously, in low light), as well as speed and responsiveness that I can't get from reflective screens yet. I use LCDs often too though, but primarily because they're often attached to keyboards, and my work requires a lot of creation as well as consumption. Nothing really horrible about backlighting, but a reflective option would put me in my preferred lighting conditions more often. Also with research and long documents, keyword query is handy, and multi-page display with quick scrolling at high resolution is practically the equal of flipping through pages to visually locate content in a book. EPDs like E-Ink don't have the quality or speed to usurp the practical roles of either my backlit screens or my paper. What they do allow is for me to take some of my frivolous reading (novels) into my preferred lighting conditions while helping me preserve space at home and in my bag. For me, the tradeoff of quality for portability and convenience is acceptable for relatively unimportant reading. That said...I think it's pretty obvious why I'm rather eager to see some Pixel Qi devices come to market, along with better/faster e-papers. Such things are much more in tune with my preferred usage scenarios.