Paperwhite Question, possible to change "paper" look?

[TactileObjects]

Hello, smart people. This is my first post here, so I hope my question is appropriate here.

I just got the Kindle Paperwhite and am investigating to see if any little adjustments can be made to make it a more enjoyable reading experience. (Still not quite there.)

I realized that one reason I don't think the Kindle experience is as good as a real book is the starkness of the Kindle look. A real book of course has a subtle texture to the pages. You don't consciously notice it, but I believe it adds to the experience. The Paperwhite on the otherhand has this blank, featureless void behind the text.

Is there any clever way of changing the background behind a book's pages to have a subtle "texture?" I note that there are times when the PW displays the ability to do this. For example: (1) In standby mode, when they feature a book ad, there is a cool "canvas" type of background behind the book. (Although the whole ad might just be a jpeg.) (2) On the home screen there is a narrow bar on the bottom advertising a book. (This is below the bigger bar that features the ads for several different books.) Intermittently this narrow bar has a "stippled" look to it, with lots of dots. Weirdly, this pattern only shows up sometimes. (3) Finally, when I first started up the PW, there was a screen that had kind of faux shading around the edges. You can see a screenshot here:



Thanks for indulging me. Is there any way to mimic any of these looks for book pages? I do think my eyes would find it easier to follow the words if there was some texture or "points of reference"/context to the background.

[susan_cassidy]

No, there isn't.

[krazy4katz]

Hi Tactile,

I remember when I purchased my very first kindle, it took me about a week to get used to it. Then I fell in love with it and can hardly read a "real book" anymore. So you might want to give it some time. I don't have a Paperwhite, so I may be wrong but it seems that the screen gets whiter as you turn up the light. You might want to turn the light down a bit so that some of the natural grayness of the screen is more obvious. I don't know if that will help or simply make it unreadable.

Good luck,

k4k

[TactileObjects]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

No, there isn't.

Darn. Well, I guess that answers that one.

krazy4katz, thanks for the suggestion as well.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by krazy4katz

Hi Tactile,

I remember when I purchased my very first kindle, it took me about a week to get used to it. Then I fell in love with it and can hardly read a "real book" anymore. So you might want to give it some time. I don't have a Paperwhite, so I may be wrong but it seems that the screen gets whiter as you turn up the light. You might want to turn the light down a bit so that some of the natural grayness of the screen is more obvious. I don't know if that will help or simply make it unreadable.

k4k

It does get whiter (and brighter) when you increase the light output. If you want it to look less like an LCD and more like paper, it is indeed a good idea to just lower the light output, and use more ambient light.

In my room over here, a Kindle Paperwhite with it's light turned all the way down, compares with an old and somewhat yellowed/grayed mass market paperback that's printed on recycled paper. When increasing the light, it doesn't really look like as if the Kindle is illuminated; it looks as if the "page" is becoming of higher quality, and moving from a paperback toward a high quality bound book with very white paper.

In this room, the turning point is at setting 13. Then it matches a hardback with extremely smooth and bright paper. (That hardback is even shiny: if you directly point a light at it, you will be unable to read it.) This setting 13 is the highest that I can use in this room before the Kindle will start becoming brighter than the hardback and will start to look like an LCD.