[Fastolfe]

I was showing my Sony Reader (Eink pearl display) to my coworkers yesterday, and several commented that the background was more gray than white. They even compared the screen to a printed A4 sheet (something we produce a lot of here) and indeed the difference is striking.

But then I compared the screen to a few books I keep at work to read at lunchtime, and I realized the background of these books is far from white too, more something between light gray and light yellow.

Of course, it makes sense to use a soft contrast on printed novels: these books are for peaceful entertainment, not like business printouts and textbooks that have a bright white background to promote the crisp, aggressive display of utilitarian information. This may also be why I never really liked reading printed-out ebooks as much as "proper" books. It makes sense to me now, but funnily enough, I never realized it before.

So I'd say Eink "pearl" displays are almost right for reading a novel. Perhaps they could be a tad whiter, but I wouldn't want them much brighter than what they are now. Would you?

Or even better, they could create E-paper with enough shades of gray that the background could be adjusted from screaming white (to read technical documents, newspapers and textbooks) to soft, creamy, I'm-about-to-fall-asleep-on-my-book kind of white to read novels by the fireplace.