Color Comes to E Ink Screens

[Hellmark]

really, my only interest in this would be for comics and magazines. For regular books, just would be wasted.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Unless they do better than 12 bit (4096 colors), I don't see a lot of interest.

If you mean, for you, then fine... I expect you know what you are interested in. If you mean in a market demand sense, then well, I've seen people pay a lot of money for some stupid stuff these days.

I think the biggest determiner of demand is going to be the price. If these devices are introduced at iPad level prices then I agree, demand will be low at first. But, if they come in at 50% or so, I think there will be interest.

BOb

[zinj]

Originally Posted by boswd

But eink has been moving at a snails pace and if it keeps going at this rate, it'll be an afterthought.
LCD ereaders will dominate and the eink will be be a much smaller niche market.

I prefer eink but let's face it the masses want color and eink advancement is like watching paint dry.

I hope I'm wrong, color eink or Mirasol could be a game changer but it's got speed up.

I agree, someone needs to get products out the door quickly using color eink, Mirasol, or PixelQi. I realize the first attempts are woefully inadequate, but they need to get into consumer's hands. Still waiting for a Mirasol reader/tablet.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by boswd

I hear what you are saying and agree. But I do think in the long run eink could get there, with accurate, vibrant color's.

Given the underlying technology, I'm not sure they can. It would require a different approach to the display, and it wouldn't be eInk.

But eink has been moving at a snails pace and if it keeps going at this rate, it'll be an afterthought.
LCD ereaders will dominate and the eink will be be a much smaller niche market.

I prefer eink but let's face it the masses want color and eink advancement is like watching paint dry.

Well, eInk has an incentive to advance. eInk was originally an intellectual property vendor. They didn't make the displays - they licensed the technology to others who actually made them. The first licensee was PVI, who made the eInk screens used by the first generation readers, and there was concern back when the Sony Reader was introduced about supply chain constraints - PVI was the only manufacturer, and reader production was limited by the number of displays PVI could make.

Other outfits licensed eInk and could make displays, so that concern abated. In the intervening period, PVI bought eInk, and more recently renamed themselves to eInk Holdings, Inc. They've hung their fortunes on making eInk displays, so they have a strong incentive to develop capabilities.

I hope I'm wrong, color eink or Mirasol could be a game changer but it's got speed up.

We'll see which horse wins this race. There is more than one entrant.

eInk has two compelling virtues: ease of reading and low battery consumption. There are competing technologies in the low battery consumption color display arena. I'm curious as to whether they'll also retain the ease of reading for those who have issues with LCD displays.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

If you mean, for you, then fine... I expect you know what you are interested in. If you mean in a market demand sense, then well, I've seen people pay a lot of money for some stupid stuff these days.

I don't claim to be representative. I do know what I want to view with a device, and that the content requires better than 12 bit color to render acceptably.

The question is what sort of content the broader market will want to view, and whether this will be acceptable for them.

I think the biggest determiner of demand is going to be the price. If these devices are introduced at iPad level prices then I agree, demand will be low at first. But, if they come in at 50% or so, I think there will be interest.

If it doesn't do what you want it to do, it will be a bad deal regardless of how cheap it is. We'll see whether what this does is what enough people want to do. I suspect it will suit a niche market at best.
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Dennis

[rebarnmom]

This debate sort of reminds me of the Sony 505 versus the 700 clarity debate.

If you've never had an ereader with color, you'd probably be thrilled with whatever color they can manage. But if you are used to the brilliance of LCD, you will probably be disappointed.

For me personally the "brilliance of LCD" is too hard on my eyes.

[DaleDe]

I have added E Ink Trident‎‎ to the wiki for reference specifications etc.

[DMcCunney]

eInk has a product brochure on their website, here:
http://www.eink.com/sell_sheets/eink_brochure.pdf

The brochure contains a photo of the screen displaying color content.


I'm afraid I'm not impressed. This would not be adequate for my purposes.
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Dennis

[wallcraft]

E Ink was silent on screen resolution, but from First look at Hanvon’s new color e-reader:

But luckily for us, NN took a few minutes to get a good look at the new screen. They weren’t impressed with the colors (they looked washed out). And they also were disappointed by the screen resolution. This last is a good point; 800×600 is low on a 10″ screen.

Compare this to the standard E Ink 9.7" screen (e.g. in the Kindle DX) resolution of 1200 x 875 or 150 ppi. 9.7" at 800x600 is 100 ppi, but now each pixel has 4 subpixels (3 color one clear). If 100 ppi (which E Ink calls 200 dpi) is the highest resolution available it isn't surprising that the first device has a 9.7" screen. A comparable 6" screen would be 480x360, which isn't many pixels.

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

E Ink was silent on screen resolution, but from ny pixels.

the spec sheet says

Resolution Capabilities exceed 200 DPI

but doesnt break it down by display size

http://www.eink.com/sell_sheets/trit...ll%20sheet.pdf

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

the spec sheet says

Resolution Capabilities exceed 200 DPI

Exactly the same statement is in the Pearl spec sheet. All the known screen sizes (5", 6", 7", 8.1", and 9.7") for Pearl are 200 ppi or less, with only the 5" actually at 200 ppi. Also, the spec sheet says DPI (dots per inch) not PPI (pixels per inch), and 200 DPI is 100 PPI for Triton.

A 200 ppi 9.7" greyscale screen would be 1600 x 1200, which sounds like a significant improvement in resolution. LG demonstrated a mixed grey/color screen with 1200x1200 on top of 200 x 600 color (Nook-like, but with one combined screen), see Color Comes to E Ink, LG Electronic-paper Displays. This sounds like a variant of E Ink Triton, but I guess LG could be doing the color overlay themselves.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

I have added E Ink Trident‎‎ to the wiki for reference specifications etc.

the actual name seems to be Triton. I correct the wiki thanks to Dulin's Books for the correction.

[hal2814]

Originally Posted by boswd

I hear what you are saying and agree. But I do think in the long run eink could get there, with accurate, vibrant color's. But eink has been moving at a snails pace and if it keeps going at this rate, it'll be an afterthought.

I think "snails pace" is a matter of perspective. We already have a color display less than 15 years in. It took 50 years to get a color CRT (20-30 years from the time CRTs became a commercial product). I don't know how long it took to get color LCD, but I'll wager it was more than 15 years. LCD is a mature technology. eInk is going to be playing catch-up for a while yet.

[whopper]

800x600 in that size for an ereader its simply a joke

[zinj]

Originally Posted by hal2814

I don't know how long it took to get color LCD, but I'll wager it was more than 15 years. LCD is a mature technology. eInk is going to be playing catch-up for a while yet.

The first LC displays in digital watches appeared in 1973. The first color one came out in 1983.