Quote:
Originally Posted by cellaris
Because on a colour e-reader you can also read black text, as well as view colour content, which is not the case the other way around. That is why some consider it a plus (something you get in addition to black and white). Others, however, consider it a step backwards because they focus exclusively on the quality of black text. Depending on where you stand, you will consider it an advantage or a disadvantage. But if the display quality were the same, black and white e-readers would quickly disappear from the market. I have no doubt about that. Monochromaticism is not an end in itself. It is more of a limitation. Starting from that limitation, it is easier to understand all the current positions, both those who prefer monochrome readers for their text display quality over colour e-readers, and those who do not mind sacrificing some of that quality in exchange for a colour that will never be present in a monochrome e-reader.
On the other hand, starting from an "apology for monochromaticism" to defend current monochromatic e-readers as products of a finalised design seems too weak to me. As has been rightly pointed out, colour is overwhelmingly present in human experience, and I find it difficult to understand and accept the idea of e-readers as a "monochromatic oasis" outside that reality, which clashes quite sharply with what has happened in other visual areas of technological evolution. Sooner or later, the monochrome e-reader will disappear (and it will be no great loss), and the main text will continue to be displayed in black.
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No one would mind colored eink if the quality of the screen were the same as that of current black and white devices. It's not, though, and understandably this annoys a lot of eink users.