MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - E-Readers and Visual Fatigue, compared with iPad

AnotherCat · 02-25-2019, 06:09 PM

I have never had a problem reading for long periods off LCD/OLED displays and have done so for decades. I do not have perfect eyesight.

When better E Ink devices came along some years back I used them for a few years (and still give newer ones a try in the stores as they have come along since) but found them much inferior to LCD - poor contrast, poor greyscale, no color (important for non-fiction), little user control of display characteristics. Their lack of contrast makes text less distinct, especially in low light levels, so generally read it with larger font, and "dense" fonts become more important.

For some years I have used tablets for all reading - I setup the RGB values to give me a background that just knocks the white away (so like natural paper or a little greyer or sandier) and have screen brightness set up as a screen gesture for easy control (I don't recommend using the devices own native brightness control). Brightness can be set at way lower levels when reading text than one would normally use for browsing, video, etc. and needs to be adjusted according to the environment. The likes of Pocketbook and Moon+ Reader make all of that easy. When people complain of "glare" or "shining in eyes" one knows they have not set the display up correctly because that just does not happen with a correctly setup display.

For me E Ink devices have an advantage of working straight out of the box insofar as screen setup for reading is concerned, but reflective displays (like reflective LCD) have little versatility, however manage for many for displaying plain text and low quality greyscale images. Which I regard as fine if that is all one expects.

Regarding blue light - putting aside possible effects on sleep rhythms if reading at night - any negative effect on eye health of blue light from screens is not an issue if compared to natural exposures. We are bathed in natural blue light all the time if outside during the day - for example, Zeiss (the lens maker) claim that 1 hour of exposure to the light from an overcast sky (so color temperature of around 6,500K) is equivalent to around 30 hours exposure to reading from a screen. Clear blue skies are up around 8,000K, so much higher energy blues from them. Furthermore, natural sunlight extends beyond the very high energy blues into UV which is proven to be dangerous. So if you worry about blue light danger to your eyes from reading on screens then one has to assume that you will never want to go outside where blue level exposure is many times greater.

I have often wondered how many people who worry about blue light exposure from screens then go on to praise E Ink devices because they can read them in bright sunlight

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02-25-2019, 06:09 PM	#18
AnotherCat .... Posts: 1,547 Karma: 18068960 Join Date: May 2012 Device: ....	I have never had a problem reading for long periods off LCD/OLED displays and have done so for decades. I do not have perfect eyesight. When better E Ink devices came along some years back I used them for a few years (and still give newer ones a try in the stores as they have come along since) but found them much inferior to LCD - poor contrast, poor greyscale, no color (important for non-fiction), little user control of display characteristics. Their lack of contrast makes text less distinct, especially in low light levels, so generally read it with larger font, and "dense" fonts become more important. For some years I have used tablets for all reading - I setup the RGB values to give me a background that just knocks the white away (so like natural paper or a little greyer or sandier) and have screen brightness set up as a screen gesture for easy control (I don't recommend using the devices own native brightness control). Brightness can be set at way lower levels when reading text than one would normally use for browsing, video, etc. and needs to be adjusted according to the environment. The likes of Pocketbook and Moon+ Reader make all of that easy. When people complain of "glare" or "shining in eyes" one knows they have not set the display up correctly because that just does not happen with a correctly setup display. For me E Ink devices have an advantage of working straight out of the box insofar as screen setup for reading is concerned, but reflective displays (like reflective LCD) have little versatility, however manage for many for displaying plain text and low quality greyscale images. Which I regard as fine if that is all one expects. Regarding blue light - putting aside possible effects on sleep rhythms if reading at night - any negative effect on eye health of blue light from screens is not an issue if compared to natural exposures. We are bathed in natural blue light all the time if outside during the day - for example, Zeiss (the lens maker) claim that 1 hour of exposure to the light from an overcast sky (so color temperature of around 6,500K) is equivalent to around 30 hours exposure to reading from a screen. Clear blue skies are up around 8,000K, so much higher energy blues from them. Furthermore, natural sunlight extends beyond the very high energy blues into UV which is proven to be dangerous. So if you worry about blue light danger to your eyes from reading on screens then one has to assume that you will never want to go outside where blue level exposure is many times greater. I have often wondered how many people who worry about blue light exposure from screens then go on to praise E Ink devices because they can read them in bright sunlight . Last edited by AnotherCat; 02-25-2019 at 06:14 PM.