Newbie question!

Drash11 · 07-28-2015, 10:11 PM

Hello,
I bought a kobo aura h2o yesterday and I'm very new to the e ink experience. The flashing refresh after every 6 pages of reading came as a surprise but I'm getting used to it. Much better reading experience than my iPad. Much less eye strain!

My question is: before the screen refreshes (every 6th page), with each page turn the fonts appear to be slightly degraded - kind of like its disintegrating. By the fifth page the fonts don't look very dark or clean cut. But after the refresh everything is super crisp again. Is this normal??

Sorry for the newb question, just dropped some serious money on this and wanted to know if this is expected.

Thanks!

jackie_w · 07-28-2015, 10:34 PM

Yes it is normal with eink devices. If you want to maximise the super-crispiness for every page you can go to Settings - Reading settings and change the 'Refresh the screen every' setting from 6-pages to 1-page. Obviously you will see more frequent flashing, though. Or set it somewhere in the middle at 3-pages. I use 1-page myself. I learned to 'tune-out' the flashing years ago.

P.S Welcome to MobileRead and I hope you enjoy your new gadget

meeera · 07-31-2015, 11:51 PM

I found the flashing difficult to deal with for about the first 200-300 pages. This may sound counterintuitive, but setting it to refresh every page helped a lot for me. Instead of coming as a surprise, the flash was expected, and my brain learned to tune it out. I think maybe I blink while it's flashing, but either way I just don't really notice them anymore. Setting it to every page will also make sure you get no ghosting/font degradation.

teija · 08-06-2015, 03:10 PM

And before the question comes up, the reason they set it to once every 6 pages is just to save battery life. If I recall correctly I have mine set to refresh every 2 pages, and I don't notice a huge drop in battery life. E-Readers are just so darned battery-efficient compared to tablets & smartphones!

Ripplinger · 08-06-2015, 09:18 PM

I have mine set to refresh every 50 pages (you can manually set it in the Kobo eReader.conf file as numPartialUpdatePageTurns=50 under the Reading section), and have never noticed font degradation that some refer to. It might be because I use a bolder font because of my crappy eyes, maybe that degradation is more noticeable on thinner fonts. But I'm happy with the 50 page refresh.

frostschutz · 08-07-2015, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I [...] have never noticed font degradation that some refer to.

I don't usually notice any either, on my H2O [refresh 6 pages], however: in the current summer's heat (today 38°C

) reading outside on the balkony in the sun ... there was strong ghosting after the first-after-refresh page flip, fine white lines going through the new characters showing the outlines of the old characters of the previous page.

Back indoors it's back to normal.

So ghosting might also depend on your environment...

dordale · 08-07-2015, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frostschutz

I don't usually notice any either, on my H2O [refresh 6 pages], however: in the current summer's heat (today 38°C

) reading outside on the balkony in the sun ... there was strong ghosting after the first-after-refresh page flip, fine white lines going through the new characters showing the outlines of the old characters of the previous page.

Back indoors it's back to normal.

So ghosting might also depend on your environment...

I have the same experience--reading outside in the sun, I need to set my Kobo Aura HD to every page to avoid ghosting--but when I'm indoors I usually set it to 15 pages (have the 15 page option after patching my reader).

teija · 08-07-2015, 07:25 PM

Also have noticed the same. In the sun, you can definitely see more of the ghosting even after one page turn without refresh. I can manage about 2 pages but after that it's just annoying... and yet when reading with the same settings while inside I don't really see it at all!

Ripplinger · 08-07-2015, 11:48 PM

I usually don't see much ghosting when I read outdoors in the hot months, but I will start to see the vertical lines form that start at the bottom of the screen and go up. They really don't interfere with reading, they're not that dark, they just always start me thinking what causes them to form like they do... why not the entire screen starts to turn shades darker, why just a few random lines that always start at the bottom. If they get too high up on the page, I'll just force a refresh by tapping the screen twice to bring up the options and close them.

07-28-2015, 10:11 PM	#1
Drash11 Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2015 Device: Kobo Aura H2o	Newbie question! Hello, I bought a kobo aura h2o yesterday and I'm very new to the e ink experience. The flashing refresh after every 6 pages of reading came as a surprise but I'm getting used to it. Much better reading experience than my iPad. Much less eye strain! My question is: before the screen refreshes (every 6th page), with each page turn the fonts appear to be slightly degraded - kind of like its disintegrating. By the fifth page the fonts don't look very dark or clean cut. But after the refresh everything is super crisp again. Is this normal?? Sorry for the newb question, just dropped some serious money on this and wanted to know if this is expected. Thanks!

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07-28-2015, 10:34 PM	#2
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,251 Karma: 16539642 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E, LibraCol, PBTouchHD3	Yes it is normal with eink devices. If you want to maximise the super-crispiness for every page you can go to Settings - Reading settings and change the 'Refresh the screen every' setting from 6-pages to 1-page. Obviously you will see more frequent flashing, though. Or set it somewhere in the middle at 3-pages. I use 1-page myself. I learned to 'tune-out' the flashing years ago. P.S Welcome to MobileRead and I hope you enjoy your new gadget

07-31-2015, 11:51 PM	#3
meeera Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,808 Karma: 68407974 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2, iPadMini4, iPad4, MBP; support other Kobo/Kindles	I found the flashing difficult to deal with for about the first 200-300 pages. This may sound counterintuitive, but setting it to refresh every page helped a lot for me. Instead of coming as a surprise, the flash was expected, and my brain learned to tune it out. I think maybe I blink while it's flashing, but either way I just don't really notice them anymore. Setting it to every page will also make sure you get no ghosting/font degradation.

08-06-2015, 03:10 PM	#4
teija Gadget fiend Posts: 354 Karma: 2111100 Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Vancouver, Canada Device: Kobo Clara HD, Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite 2021, Sony PRS-350	And before the question comes up, the reason they set it to once every 6 pages is just to save battery life. If I recall correctly I have mine set to refresh every 2 pages, and I don't notice a huge drop in battery life. E-Readers are just so darned battery-efficient compared to tablets & smartphones!

08-06-2015, 09:18 PM	#5
Ripplinger 350 Hoarder Posts: 3,574 Karma: 8281267 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Midwest USA Device: Sony PRS-350, Kobo Glo & Glo HD, PW2	I have mine set to refresh every 50 pages (you can manually set it in the Kobo eReader.conf file as numPartialUpdatePageTurns=50 under the Reading section), and have never noticed font degradation that some refer to. It might be because I use a bolder font because of my crappy eyes, maybe that degradation is more noticeable on thinner fonts. But I'm happy with the 50 page refresh.

08-07-2015, 07:25 PM	#8
teija Gadget fiend Posts: 354 Karma: 2111100 Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Vancouver, Canada Device: Kobo Clara HD, Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite 2021, Sony PRS-350	Also have noticed the same. In the sun, you can definitely see more of the ghosting even after one page turn without refresh. I can manage about 2 pages but after that it's just annoying... and yet when reading with the same settings while inside I don't really see it at all!

08-07-2015, 11:48 PM	#9
Ripplinger 350 Hoarder Posts: 3,574 Karma: 8281267 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Midwest USA Device: Sony PRS-350, Kobo Glo & Glo HD, PW2	I usually don't see much ghosting when I read outdoors in the hot months, but I will start to see the vertical lines form that start at the bottom of the screen and go up. They really don't interfere with reading, they're not that dark, they just always start me thinking what causes them to form like they do... why not the entire screen starts to turn shades darker, why just a few random lines that always start at the bottom. If they get too high up on the page, I'll just force a refresh by tapping the screen twice to bring up the options and close them.

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