LCD vs. e-ink

[ColdSun]

Originally Posted by astra

They cannot decide what they want to discuss, ebook readers or tablets but they publish their thoughts...

I agree, this seems more like a converged device article that one aimed at strictly reading. Still, that might be just what happens to ALL readers, even eink. Maybe someday we will have eink that can do more than reading.

[astra]

Originally Posted by ColdSun

I agree, this seems more like a converged device article that one aimed at strictly reading. Still, that might be just what happens to ALL readers, even eink. Maybe someday we will have eink that can do more than reading.

Maybe even flexible colour paper like screens?
Who knows? It would be funny to read this topic in...let's say 5-7 years time and compare

[ColdSun]

Well until then we will all just have to accept the idea that all these different things are still in a state of flux and haven't settled to a common technology. As good as eink is for reading, especially outdoors, we are likely 5 years away (as you say) from having the ultimate reading technology. Until then maybe we can agree to have our iPads, Kindles, Nooks, and Tablets and be happy about it.

P.S. Currently reading Brandon Sanderson's "Way of Kings" on my netbook while watching football and reading this forum. Great book so far - I highly recommend it!

[astra]

Originally Posted by ColdSun

P.S. Currently reading Brandon Sanderson's "Way of Kings" on my netbook while watching football and reading this forum. Great book so far - I highly recommend it!

The same author, Hero of Ages. Although not when I type

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by Rebo

The discussion all started off with a CNET article with the author calling up his own personal ophthalmologist as an expert witness who declares that today’s LCDs will not cause more eye strain. However, I’ll take his statement with a grain of salt.

Oh, you don't need the salt; you just need to take their statements literally. "Strain" is something that in the medical world is usually correlated with muscles. In this case eye strain refers to the effect on the muscles that are pulling on the crystalline to focus the image. I'm sure that if they get to the point where they can make an E-ink desktop screen (insanity can go that far if supported by technology), people will complain about eye strain because the problem remains that the screen is just too far for reading.

As for the rest, dry eyes for example come from the lack of blinking, and have nothing to do with the screen. If you are saying that people who have an LCD will probably watch movies, and not blink for two hours, or scroll when they are reading a book, while people who have an E-ink blink every time they turn the page, then yes, people who were looking at the LCD will get dry eyes, but strictly speaking, it will not be the fault of the screen.

[ColdSun]

Originally Posted by astra

The same author, Hero of Ages. Although not when I type

Mistborn is a great series. If you have a chance read the stand-alone novel "Warbreaker" (and haven't already read it of course). My experience so far has Brandon Sanderson as an excellent world builder and magic-idea maker.

[astra]

Originally Posted by ColdSun

Mistborn is a great series. If you have a chance read the stand-alone novel "Warbreaker" (and haven't already read it of course). My experience so far has Brandon Sanderson as an excellent world builder and magic-idea maker.

Done. Liked it.
I agree his magic ideas are fantastic and unusual. So far, based on Warbreaker and Mistborn, I am glad he writes the ending for WoT and not somebody else.

[Magnesus]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

I'm sure that if they get to the point where they can make an E-ink desktop screen (insanity can go that far if supported by technology), people will complain about eye strain because the problem remains that the screen is just too far for reading.

I read from LCD from the same distance as E-Ink. E-Ink is not straining my eys, LCD is. I'm nearsighted so I prefer reading from close distance (and as a nearsited person I don't require reading glasses, I'm to young for them too).

[ColdSun]

Originally Posted by astra

Done. Liked it.
I agree his magic ideas are fantastic and unusual. So far, based on Warbreaker and Mistborn, I am glad he writes the ending for WoT and not somebody else.

Me too, although I'm going to hold off on that one as I want to re-read Wheel of Time from the start and I have many books ahead of that right now. I just bought the 3rd and 4th book of the paper versions of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series, which in many ways is as unique as Sanderson's books for world building and magic. I'm also in a horror funk due to October and just finished reading a couple Richard Laymon books (think 80s horror flicks in a quick little book to be read in a day or two). Last but not least I'm also recently finished the Scifi series by Timothy Zahn called "The Conquerors," which was highly entertaining space opera. Man I love reading.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by ColdSun

As good as eink is for reading, especially outdoors, we are likely 5 years away (as you say) from having the ultimate reading technology. Until then maybe we can agree to have our iPads, Kindles, Nooks, and Tablets and be happy about it.

I have given it some thought as to why most people think that E-Ink is better (medical issues aside). At the beginning of september I was in a store and I saw ereaders (all were E-ink, but that meant nothing to me at the time) and I was impressed by the battery life. None of the store clerks were around, and as the "impulse buy" feeling faded (yes, I get that even for expensive things) I decided to go home and make an educated decision based on research. I don't remember exactly how many websites I visited that day, but I am sure that all the ereaders that I looked at had E-ink and I must have seen at least a dozen statements of "E-INK LOOKS JUST LIKE REAL PAPER!" (the ereaders in the store didn't look that way to me, but anyway).

Now the point that I was trying to make with this story is that most of the people that bought ereaders (at least in the past year) did that because they feel that it is just like reading a real book. LCD can't give them that.

[ColdSun]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Now the point that I was trying to make with this story is that most of the people that bought ereaders (at least in the past year) did that because they feel that it is just like reading a real book. LCD can't give them that.

A very good point and totally true. If you think about it in that literal way, a lot of people who like reading paper books would look at the eink and be totally amazed that it looks just like paper and prefer that because simulates it perfectly. These people may never have adopted to an electronic reading technology unless it simulated a real book. People like me who have been reading on screens our whole lives adopt to LCD and other technology because we are used to it and we aren't attached to paper at all. Interesting. That really changes my thoughts on it.

[Salgueiros]

I do think epaper offers, among all the screen technologies presently available, the experience that most resembles reading a real paper book. And i think it is a great advantage.
You don't get eye strain reading a book as you do when you stare at a computer screen. I am sure whoever developed e-ink technology was very sure that this IS a issue with readers even before risking millions developing this technology, and that reading on a eink screen is much more comfortable.
Sales seem to confirm their assumption.

[Sil_liS]

Glad to help.

[Donnageddon]

Actually, reading causes eyestrain. We should stop doing it.

[ColdSun]

Originally Posted by Salgueiros

I do think epaper offers, among all the screen technologies presently available, the experience that most resembles reading a real paper book. And i think it is a great advantage. You don-t get eye strain reading a book as you do when you stare at a computer screen. I am sure whoever developed eink technology was very sure that this IS a issue with readers even before risking millions developing this technology and that reading on a eink screen is much more comfortable. Sales seem to confirm their assumption.

Many people are saying eink is dead, especially when the iPad came out. It was even a joke on David Letterman one night as the Kindle was used as a coaster for an iPad.

It is clearly a false statement though. Obviously a great deal of readers are looking for that paper-like feel that you are talking about. I don't think eink is going anywhere. At the same time, I believe you will also see a proliferation of LCD readers and tablets which offer a different experience.

If anything, all of this is good for people like us who want to read on devices as we have choices based on our requirements and can choose from several technologies from which the list keeps on growing. I've known all along about how eink looked like paper and I never really thought about why someone would want that because I like to read in the dark so much. Why would someone care if it looks like paper as long as it is easily readable? I think I understand now why some of you are so defensive of eink. It doesn't change my mind about things or most of my points made in this thread, but I totally understand a difference of evolution when using devices and computers. Some people grew up with books, even some people younger than me. I've grown up on computers and using screens and it is just second nature to me. Adapting to reading on an electronic device was a given for me, but for others it was not even feasible until a device that had a screen that looks just like paper was made. Hrmmm.