Quote:
Originally Posted by LDBoblo
It's a continuation of my earlier assertion that too many people presume "reading" to be nothing more than text-viewing.
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Well, one might make the argument that there is a significant difference between 'looking at a stream of text' and 'looking at the pictures'. And that most people would probably accept the first under the generic term 'reading', I doubt that most would include the second.
If those pictures should chance to be high resolution line art, e.g. circuit diagrams, exploded diagrams, construction blue-prints and so on, then the requirements - apart from screen *size* are largely those of monochrome text: good contrast ratio and high resolution (even grey-scale capability is optional if the resolution is high enough). Though, to be honest, when you get to a diagram that needs to be A0 or larger to make sense, frankly, you need A0 or larger paper to hold it. Scrolling around will never suffice.
If you need high contrast high resolution images with good colour fidelity, then whether you are dealing with paper or electronic display devices, it's going to cost - in the case of electronics, it's going to cost a lot in both hardware and power costs, with current or near term displays.
As it happens, I have a hobby involving photography - and in particular, archaic techniques - and a number of books from the 1850s onwards. They contain detailed images - both line, litho, and actual photo images ranging from cyanotypes through bromo and cibachrome. But I wouldn't consider them as suitable candidates for transfer to *any* of the current ebooks, nor any current computer except possibly some of the high-end typesetting systems. There are some things which are simply better - by *my* terms - in book form.
That said, ninety percent or more of the books I own either have no pictures, or (in the case of my science fiction magazine collection) pictures I don't want in the text stream - just the covers. And a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests there's around a third of billion words to enjoy in that collection. I shan't worry about the inability of current readers to display pretty pictures.
It seems to me there are two questions to ask: (1) Does the text display of the reader suffice to your requirements? and (2) Do I want to full aesthetic experience of a paper book?
If the answer to (1) is yes, then get pretty much any of the current displays and start reading. If the answer to (2) is yes, then pick up a book. There's no reason to suggest or require the 'death of eink' simply because it can't manage a niche display requirement.
Neil