Thread: What will e-readers be like 10 years from now?
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Old 01-13-2018, 08:42 PM   #137
barryem
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AnotherCat View Post
As just one example, when people claim that LCD shines light into their eyes they are displaying a limitation of knowledge. Light reflected from displays such as E Ink is diffused, all LCD tablet displays also have diffused displays so both emit diffused light, neither "shines" light. Such people also seem to be unaware of, or incapable of setting up a tablet's display for reading despite the better reading applications providing effectively infinite control of background and text color, often background textures as well, superior greyscale, brightness (usually by a simple swipe gesture) and provide contrast orders of magnitude superior to E Ink.
The LCD on a tablet doesn't emit light. The LED backlight behind it does and it has to emit enough light up through the LCD to make the colors bright enough to see. Yes that does diffuse the light somewhat but in a white background it's still sending a lot of light through the LCD.

I do read on my phone and I've experimented a lot with adjusting the brightness and the background color to give me the very least eyestrain. I've reached the point with my AMOLED phone that I can read 20 or 30 minutes without a problem. Then, after a 2 or 3 minute break I can read another 20 or 30 minutes. If I don't take that break my eyes start watering and I'm done reading for the day. By the way before I got my AMOLED phone I had an LCD phone and my reading time without a break was cut in half.

I can read on my Kindle or Nook with it's front light for a couple of hours. Granted I do take a couple of breaks during that time but even if I forget to I'm okay. After a couple of hours reading I'll stop for a while, get a drink or a cup of coffee and I'm back reading. E-ink is that much better for my eyes than AMOLED.

The difference, it seems to me, is that with e-ink the light is reflected and not really as bright and much more diffused. I'm not a physicist so I'm guessing at those reasons but the fact is there: I can read a lot longer on a lighted e-ink screen without a break than I can on my phone or a tablet.

Barry
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