Easiest on my eyes?

[MrDoug]

I have Nook Color, iPad, and Nook/Kindle e-readers .. is the e-ink for reading books best/easiest for your eyes or does it matter? I have heard this and that.. what's your folks take.. thanks in advance.. oh, I wear glasses.. so if you had to read a book on iPad or Nook Tablet or Color vs e-reader like Nook or Kindle which is best.. or best for your eyes.. ????
Doug

[MrDoug]

in other words.. e-readar or iPad, Nook Color or Kindle Fire type..

[Apache]

I have a Sony eink and a Nook Color. I can read either without any problems or eye strain.
Apache

[Matriarch]

It depends entirely on the person - we all have different eyes and different tolerances for certain kinds of light and certain lighting conditions.

[rdjack21]

I use both (Nook, Nexus 7) no issues.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by MrDoug

in other words.. e-readar or iPad, Nook Color or Kindle Fire type..

The descriptors you are looking for are e-ink or tablet.

They are your eyes, use whatever is easiest for you.

[Yapyap]

I far prefer reading on my Pearl eInk Kindle to reading on my iPad, phone or desktop computer - it's easier on my eyes after a full work day spent staring at a backlit LCD screen. I'd go as far as to say that while I much prefer ebooks to paper books these days, I'd read a paper book (provided it's one I can physically hold open and that has a decent sized font / line spacing) over reading the same book on the iPad.

Other people have different preferences. I preferred my pre-Pearl eInk Sony 505 to reading on the 1st generation iPad, too (although I find the Pearl screen Kindle head and shoulders above the Sony's screen); a friend of mine switched from her Sony 505 to 1st generation iPad and LOVES it and doesn't want to go back to eInk at all.

The easiest way for you to determine which works best for you is to read a book on each on your devices and see whether it makes a difference!

[MrDoug]

Thanks for the input.. anxious to receive my PW.. I have BAD eyes.. Strong prescription tri-focals.. I need a seeing eye dog to help me read..

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by MrDoug

I have Nook Color, iPad, and Nook/Kindle e-readers .. is the e-ink for reading books best/easiest for your eyes or does it matter? I have heard this and that.. what's your folks take.. thanks in advance.. oh, I wear glasses.. so if you had to read a book on iPad or Nook Tablet or Color vs e-reader like Nook or Kindle which is best.. or best for your eyes.. ????
Doug

There have been scientific studies that do show that devices with backlighting, or some other lighting system, do fatigue the eyes more, since you're more or less staring directly at a light. eInk does tend to be better since it uses ambient lighting, traditionally. However, any benefit you get from eInk goes out the window if you use the glow function of the Nook Glowlight, or similar readers, since once again you're staring directly at a light source.

[Matriarch]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

There have been scientific studies that do show that devices with backlighting, or some other lighting system, do fatigue the eyes more, since you're more or less staring directly at a light. eInk does tend to be better since it uses ambient lighting, traditionally. However, any benefit you get from eInk goes out the window if you use the glow function of the Nook Glowlight, or similar readers, since once again you're staring directly at a light source.

Not quite. With a backlit screen, the light is being cast directly up into your eyes, so it's the angle of the light that fatigues some eyes more than the fact that there is light. With a frontlit screen, such as the Paperwhite that the OP is getting, you're looking at a light source still, but the angle of the light is entirely different - it shines away from your eyes. This provides a fundamental difference and vastly reduces eyestrain. It's really a remarkable technology.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by Matriarch

Not quite. With a backlit screen, the light is being cast directly up into your eyes, so it's the angle of the light that fatigues some eyes more than the fact that there is light. With a frontlit screen, such as the Paperwhite that the OP is getting, you're looking at a light source still, but the angle of the light is entirely different - it shines away from your eyes. This provides a fundamental difference and vastly reduces eyestrain. It's really a remarkable technology.

If it really shined away from your eyes you wouldn't see it at all. The only real difference between edgelit and backlit is the light is less intense for edgelit because of the size of the light source and the need to travel through fewer layers. Angle has nothing to do with it. The light still gets bent and reflected to an angle that is direct to the eye.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by MrDoug

Thanks for the input.. anxious to receive my PW.. I have BAD eyes.. Strong prescription tri-focals.. I need a seeing eye dog to help me read..

perhaps audiobooks are what you are after

[elemenoP]

But if you have all of those devices... you could try each one for a week and see what you think at the end of the week, right?

eP

[Blossom]

I prefer eInk with good contrast in light settings and the Kindle Fire at night.

Truthfully reading on the EInk for longs periods of times makes me drowsy. I don't know why.
I don't have that problem with the Kindle Fire. They say the HD version is even better for reading. I plan to upgrade mine. Now I use an app on my Kindle Fire that allows me to dim the brightness to a very comfortable setting otherwise I couldn't use it much.

I had plan to get a Paperwhite but after all the issues with it I am now going to upgrade my Kindle Fire instead.

[Matriarch]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

If it really shined away from your eyes you wouldn't see it at all. The only real difference between edgelit and backlit is the light is less intense for edgelit because of the size of the light source and the need to travel through fewer layers. Angle has nothing to do with it. The light still gets bent and reflected to an angle that is direct to the eye.

Angle has everything to do with it, and that simply isn't how light works; by your logic, you wouldn't be able to see things illuminated by a torch that's facing away from you. Light is a beam of energy. That beam hits whatever it's facing, and then is refracted away from that thing at a different angle. That much weaker refraction is what enables us to see where it's pointing. This is how light works - you can learn more about this here. So the screen of an e-ink reader catches the brunt of the light,and we only see the very weak refraction produced by the screen not absorbing all of the light - thus, eye fatigue is greatly reduced because we're seeing a "secondary" light ray and we're seeing it at a "lesser" angle.