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Originally Posted by Vortex
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You found the toggle for day/night mode. Not a gradual temperature setting that doesnt exist on the ereader, but is feasible according to a user whos written system level apps for the mars. Sorry that I dont immediatly think of "rtfm" stuff, When someone tries to farm answers from the public. In my world, people on the internet still look for the obvious, surface level answers on their own. In reality of course they dont.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vortex
Also found a setting in Moon +Reader Pro to always run the App in A2 mode.
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No you didnt. This is "important", because when I talk about app level settings, and you conflate launcher level settings with that, more confusion ensues. The context menu that pops up, when you longpress an app in the likebook launcher - isnt a setting "in the app", its a setting in the launcher (/the OS) - for that app.
And congratulation, by permanently enabling A2 mode in a ebook reading app, you've done about the dumbest thing you can do. You've now artificially limited contrast levels to "most washed out possible", for an app that doesnt benefit from it in any way.
Here is the summery for people that will talke about branded modes all day, without grasping what they actually do.
You can think of A2 mode as "moving half the available black pigment". So eink works by moving black particles to the top or the bottom of the screen, where you see them - or you dont. This takes time. And to switch from 1 to 0 (black to white) it takes a "flash" (invert the state fully). If you now want to optimize for "switching time" you only move half the pigment. Resulting in an image with far less contrast, than it could have. (60% grey instead of "black"). Also - by doing that, you can theoretically get away with less "screen flashes" (state resets), because you moved less of the pigment to the visible area. You cant get rid of it though - because eventually pigment will accumulate - so once in a while you need a screen flash (more time to move pigment > visible flash) to "reset".
With all apps that arent its own reading app, the likebook already uses more a "middle of the road" mode, where it "fully" refreshes only once every minute (in normal use) or so. This means that you cant have "optimal" contrast to begin with, then you activate A2 mode to wash out the image even more.
Now - with some apps, I'm guessing, that Boyue optimizes the contrast/refresh profile - if they identified the app as "very likely to be used by their users". I could be entirely mistaken here, but some of the "ereader level app contrast settings" sticking in some apps, and being entirely disregarded in others points that way.
Also, I dont know how "intelligent" their "full refresh needed" algorithm is (could be time based, cycle based, "amount of pigment moved" based, ...), but I do know, that the only time you have to deal with massive after images, is in A2 mode, where they shorten the time that pigment can get moved for.
So dont use A2 mode for book reading, is what I am indicating. You arent getting the optimal font contrast anyhow - if you are using a third party app (depending on how good the "full refresh needed" algo is), there is no need to wash the image out even more, if you dont need a quicker refresh rate (one pageturn every 40 seconds? Thats 0.025 frames per second. You dont need high performance mode for that.
But then its also a way to lessen font contrast (which isnt always a bad thing - it depends f.e. on the frontlight setting, and the reflected room light, and if moon+ (the App everyone repeats using, because apparently a few users "recommended it" although I have yet to find out why - I dont think its a very good reader - but what a coincidence, its the one with the most catchy name - huh, so branding works, you tells me?) doesnt have another font contrast setting, I guess you could also try to modify it by using A2 mode. Its just not the first logical thing that springs to mind. In fact its the opposite.
But "A2 mode, A2 mode, A2 mode" quit using terms you dont understand, and call the thing by its real name "that thing which cuts needed screen refresh time in half - and needs to half contrast to do so, not to suffer from major after images, which it is prone to anyways".
Now - on font contrast. Here is the fun part.
Too little front light - and you need "more font contrast" for text to be readable. This is the mistake Amazon made with the Kindle 3 and the Kerning of Bookerly. Basically - eInk couldnt give them more native eInk contrast, then they started to make "the font blacker", by modifying kerning, and "optimizing fonts". What they really did, was to worsen readability though - because although their fonts were "max contrasty" they also were a black inky mess on a grey backgroud. Even K2i fonts where more "readable". Of course no tester ever mentioned it - so... "Very happy with my purchase..:" We all know that spiel.
Enter frontlight. (The most idiotic,... but hey - it works).
Frontlight needs a diffusion layer, which lowers native eInk contrast. (And I laughed for days). But It also introduces artificial light, which hightens percieved contrast ("paperwhite). Because you added more light.
Result: You need frontlight always to be at least "a little active" - or you have worse contrast than without the diffusion layer. While you have "very happy with my purchase" people on the internet complain, that they cant turn theirs off to "save battery". (And I laughed for days.)
Now back to contrast. Now that you have frontlight in the mix, you can actually decrease font contrast, and get a more readable image (see "too much contrast" problem with "specialized" fonts), sometimes a font thats a little bit faded, isnt a bad thing, if the overall contrast is "high enough" (frontlight).
Here is the next oxymoron. The higher you pump the frontlight though - the higher the contrast ("blackyness") of your font needs to be as well. Somewhere in there is a reverse inflection point. If you use low eInk contrast and "max frontlight" the inter font spacing ("paper") will glow so bright, that it washes your font out (eyes adapt (iris, shutter, ...) ) relatively speaking.
Which is a problem only capable to be created by the BESTEST of engineers, because you started with a screen technology, that didnt need any added light - and ended up with a screen technology, where you'd enhance eInk contrast, so it can stand up to all the light you are pumping onto it. (Causing your irises to... (You end this sentence for me..
) And I laughed for days...)
Long story short. With backlight at lower levels, lessening eink font contrast can actually be an ok thing to do (depending on the font). Just dont use A2 mode, if you can achieve it any other way, and dont need the "responsiveness" at 0.025 frames per second pageturns.
Anyone still got a "didnt read the manual" question for me? Because otherwise, I apparently start to think about the real stuff thats going on in the eReader world - and that wont sell more eReaders either..