eink screen and coloured overlays

[Curly]

I am looking to buy a device mainly for myself, but would also like to be able to download books for my son who has visual reading difficulties. He currently reads books with a larger font size and uses coloured overlays over the text. The matt screen on the ebook readers would be helpful, but it would be even better if he could put a coloured overlay on the screen. Does anyone have any experience with this? Would you be able to see the text through it?

He has also written two chapter books on Word and I would like to be able to upload them to a reader. Is there a device which handles this better? Or is there software I could use to format the documents?

Any help greatly appreciated!

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by Curly

I am looking to buy a device mainly for myself, but would also like to be able to download books for my son who has visual reading difficulties. He currently reads books with a larger font size and uses coloured overlays over the text. The matt screen on the ebook readers would be helpful, but it would be even better if he could put a coloured overlay on the screen. Does anyone have any experience with this? Would you be able to see the text through it?

He has also written two chapter books on Word and I would like to be able to upload them to a reader. Is there a device which handles this better? Or is there software I could use to format the documents?

Any help greatly appreciated!

I think Colored Overlays would impede the reader due to it not being backlighted.

Take a Colored Sheet of Paper (Grey, Tan, Light Blue, etc as that will get closer to the darkness of an eink screen), Print some Text on it, then put the overlay you have on it, that is similar to what it would look like on an ereader. (I honestly have never ever seen a color overlay for reading, but, eh, whatever floats yoru boat.


as for the second part, all readers can handle any text you have yourself, some would require conversion, almost none handle .doc format itself. but whenever you have your own text, its very simple to create an ebook from it.

[Elsi]

Curly, are you talking about the Irlen colored overlays used as an aid by dyslexic readers? My daughter used these when she was in elementary school. The Irlen colored overlays are designed to change the white background in regular print books to another color, thus changing the contrast between the black print and the page background. In fact, one alternative to using the colored overlays that her teachers employed was to print her worksheets onto colored paper instead of the normal white paper.

So, the first thing you need to understand about the current generation eBook readers that use the eInk screen technology (Sony, Kindle, Cybook, and others) is that they don't have a white background. Instead the background is grey.

There are a couple of ways that the eBook reader might be a good fit for your son. The first is that the grey/black contrast of an eInk screen might be enough by itself to help with his reading difficulties. His reading therapist might feel that no overlays would be needed when using the eBook reader.

Or, if the therapist feels that he still needs a color overlay, you need to be aware that any overlay you would use with it would effectively be the same as combining his normal colored overlay (yellow, pink, aqua) with a grey overlay. I see no reason why you couldn't trim the overlay plastic to fit the screen of the eBook reader. It might not interfere too much with the readability of the screen -- depending on which color your son is using and the density of that color -- though your son might require brighter lighting than when reading a traditional book printed on white paper.

I would recommend finding someone near you who would lend you an electronic reader and then take it to your son's reading therapist and allow the therapist to assess whether it's a good fit for your son.

Also be aware that there are still some eBook readers that have back-lit screens more like a computer monitor. These may or may not be a good fit for your son, but the use of a color overlay may be much easier with the reader providing the lighting.

See the MobileRead wiki to investigate which readers have which types of screen.

Oh yes -- you might also ask your son's reading therapist whether he would benefit from eyeglasses with colored lenses as an alternative to the overlays. I'll grant that it's a more expensive solution.



And, as for the chapter books -- as AndyBaby said, most readers support plain text files and some even support rtf files. After you buy a reader, I'm sure you could convince one of the volunteers here to create proper eBooks from your son's Word documents. Keep in mind that eInk screens are monochrome and graphics might suffer when converting from full-color to grey-scale.

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by Elsi

I would recommend finding someone near you who would lend you an electronic reader and then take it to your son's reading therapist and allow the therapist to assess whether it's a good fit for your son.

It just dawned on me -- invite the grandparents to come visit and insist that they bring their Kindles. Then take one of those with you to visit the reading therapist!

[Curly]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply Elsi. Yes, that's exactly what I meant. I won't be seeing my parents for sometime and have yet to find anyone here with a reader. I will go down to my local Waterstones, who have a Sony Reader on display, and at least try out the overlay to see if it is readable. But as you say, he really needs to try it out over a period of time to see if it works for him. I can see how the visual stress would be less with a grey background and I suspect his visual impairment teacher would need to re-assess his colour preference. Certainly the larger font size will be a great benefit. Right, off to explore my options...thanks.

[Curly]

Thanks Andybaby for info on making ebooks. Once I decide on a reader, I'm sure I will need more advice on how to go about it!

[Andybaby]

I would be glad to help with any questions of converting.

everyone in my family is Mildly dyslexic, but even the worst Case, My brother, was never so bad changes had to be made to books, and now like the rest of us, his dyslexia only comes out while Reading Aloud or While Writing. Dyslexia doesn't seem to affect Typing though, which has been my preferred medium ever since i had a keyboard.

also the Darkest Reader, the PRS-500 as it has the oldest Screen, is the cheapest Eink Device, can ussually pick them up for less than $150 on ebay. that is where i got mine, than it got sat on by my girlfriend, then i upgraded to the Kindle, then returned that cause i paid for the kindle while i knew my Christmas present was gonna be a prs700. as i told my entire family to pitch in and buy me one when my 500 broke. so if just a Dark Grey Background is called for, the 500 might fit, an not burst your wallet.

[Curly]

Yep, checked ebay UK site and there are a few listed. He can use mine for a while and if it works for him I will get a Sony 500 for him. (I don't want to spend a lot of money on it anyway).

He is actually a good reader, but continually loses his place and skips words. After 3 -4 pages it gets worse and he starts rubbing his eyes. The overlays make reading more comfortable. The glossy reflective surface of computer screens make it worse which is why I'm keen to try him on an ebook reader.

He uses a computer in school as well for writing and uses software called co:writer to help with spelling. Computers are great tools!!

We'll let you know how we get on. Thanks for your help everyone.

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by Curly

Yep, checked ebay UK site and there are a few listed. He can use mine for a while and if it works for him I will get a Sony 500 for him. (I don't want to spend a lot of money on it anyway).

He is actually a good reader, but continually loses his place and skips words. After 3 -4 pages it gets worse and he starts rubbing his eyes. The overlays make reading more comfortable. The glossy reflective surface of computer screens make it worse which is why I'm keen to try him on an ebook reader.

He uses a computer in school as well for writing and uses software called co:writer to help with spelling. Computers are great tools!!

We'll let you know how we get on. Thanks for your help everyone.

I Tend to loose my place alot while reading too. Eink Devices Help me because i can put Line Breaks inbetween Paragraphs, and my eyes have an Easier time moving from line to line.

another thing i believe which helps me prevent line skipping is the Uneven Justification of Paragraphs, Type Setters for Printing Presses try to get the most even spaces possible on a page, while ebook readers dont care, the Uneven spaces naturally let my eyes drift from one side to the other. and provides some kind of order subconciously

a Smaller Screen in the 5 in range also might be in order, as smaller Right to Left Eye Movements can help hold your place better. Right Now, the only device i can think of that uses a 5 inch screen doesnt use Eink, its the Jetbook, which can now be found some places for $199 (but even at CES that stated the price was $299.. so some places its still high)

[Curly]

I definitely prefer unjustified text and paragraph breaks as well which is how I format anything I write. I checked my ebooks that I have downloaded on my laptop. A number of them are justifed with no breaks (epub and sony formats) can I reformat them?

Ahh! Fabulous work! Just saw your guide to Book Designer -- I will have a proper read of it later -- a lot of my books are free non DRM so this will be great help.

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by Curly

I definitely prefer unjustified text and paragraph breaks as well which is how I format anything I write. I checked my ebooks that I have downloaded on my laptop. A number of them are justifed with no breaks (epub and sony formats) can I reformat them?

Ahh! Fabulous work! Just saw your guide to Book Designer -- I will have a proper read of it later -- a lot of my books are free non DRM so this will be great help.

Epubs dont have full Justification only left, its a bug/feature
LRFs for sony readers can only have Full Justification of Paragraphs i think
Mobi and PRC readers like the Kindle can set Left or Justify on the Reader i believe regardless of how you set it in the text.
Text and RTF files generally can only Be left, but I havent read a non PRC or LRF file in a while. this goes for all readers, but the readers where you can Set it, it should work.

[Curly]

Cool. I've pretty much decided on the Sony Reader 505 -- so much of what I get should be unjustified. Just need to get one ordered now!