LCD vs. e-ink

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

CRTs emit a tiny bit of X-ray radiation, but nothing anywhere near any sort of harmful dose (I saw someone else say "the x-rays damage your eyes"). Totally unscientific and ridiculous. Every electronic device has *some* electromagnetic emissions.

Radiation has a cumulative effect, in other words it adds up. It also adds up to the electromagnetic emissions of the other electronic devices. Also, the further you are from a source of radiation, the less radiation you get. If you tried to get to the normal reading distance from a CRT (closer), your eyes will get more radiation.

And the problem refers to the eye and not the whole face because skin regeneration is faster. The legal dose for the lens of the eye is less than a third of the dose for the skin.

And you are right; the modern CRTs were made to prevent X-ray emission. However, when LCDs came out, one of the marketing points was that CRTs are bad for your eyes, and LCDs are safe.
Now we have reflective screens and suddenly LCDs and CRTs are exactly the same. It might not be long before somebody draws the conclusion that anything backlit is bad for you, and children should be kept away from such devices.

[Phogg]

I like both.

This is like comparing sports cars with pickup trucks, which ones are better?
It kind of depends on the task at hand, and using one does not preclude using another.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by lack

oh wow, I just got back from reading other sections' thought on the new color nook.
looks like I can understand coldsun getting pissed on e-ink users. I'm getting the vibe that some e-ink users dismisses the idea that lcd(or any backlighted display tech) can be a proper reading device completely.

I've seen some people dismiss those who use multipurpose devices, saying or implying that they're not serious readers and such. To me, that's just an advertisement for narrow-minded thinking.

It's obvious that a multipurpose device will attract a wider market -- readers as well as nonreaders. I doubt readers form the majority of buyers, of course. Many people don't read, as we all know. But we're all on this forum and similar ones because we're readers. So there goes the illogical idea that those who own multipurpose devices can't be serious readers.

I've spent about 20 years earning my living with words. Reading shaped my life, starting as a kid learning English as a second language. I'm as much a reader as anyone. I prefer multipurpose, backlit devices.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Salgueiros

Hummm.... for some reason i think it will take some time until parents start giving away 200 dollar devices with very fragile screens to kids, instead of a good old paper book...

Depends on the age of the kid. There's a reason why books for toddlers/pre-schoolers tend to be printed on cardboard, as they suffer abuse and may be chewed more than read.

But for older kids the equation differs. And the best way to get a kid to love to read is set an example. My mom read to me when I was a kid, and I picked up the idea quickly. There are threads elsewhere on MR on kids and eReaders. My suggestion is read to your kid from a reader (possible with kid on lap watching screen. It's a short hop from there to shwong the kid how to open a book and turn pages. When the kid starts asking about getting their own device, you can start to consider it. Meanwhile, usage of a device is under supervision.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

On what device were you reading? A monitor or a dedicated device, 7" or smaller? I couldn't read from a monitor for any time longer than 5 minutes (book reading that is). I even find longer posts on forums a pain to read (and will often skip them). But I read without any problems on my 7" LCD JE-100.

Hmmmm. I wonder if "measure" (The number of words on a line) is an issue here?

One of the problems of typography is getting measure and leading (space between lines) right, as the eye can lose track of where it is if they aren't and reading becomes progressively harder.

Measure and leading are more likely to be correct on a 7" screen, especially after you've adjusted font size to your preference.

I'm reading the thread at the moment on a 26" monitor. MR isn't a problem, as the site is coded to display a maximum width, but if I tried to read text that reflowed the fit the screen and maximized the browser, things might get bad fast.
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Dennis

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

I've seen some people dismiss those who use multipurpose devices, saying or implying that they're not serious readers and such. To me, that's just an advertisement for narrow-minded thinking.

It would be interesting to know what they think about multipurpose E-ink devices. Many of them can play mp3s, and the one that I'm getting also has games.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

It would be interesting to know what they think about multipurpose E-ink devices. Many of them can play mp3s, and the one that I'm getting also has games.

I'm guessing they'd say that no one would buy an e-ink device primarily to play games, play MP3s and such. And that they'd say that people buy multipurpose devices primarily to do things other than read. (I'm sure many people do, but that doesn't rule out some readers preferring multipurpose devices for reading.)

[radleyp]

Several people on this thread have spoken of LCD screens which are quite readable in daylight. Really? Which screens? I have never seen LCD screens which are not completely washed out in sunlight, whether on a phone or a computer. If I want to read my iphone (transflective) screen outdoors, I have to duck into a doorway or turn it to bizarre, even extreme, angles. Please identify this readable-in-sunlight LCD screen.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by radleyp

Several people on this thread have spoken of LCD screens which are quite readable in daylight. Really? Which screens? I have never seen LCD screens which are not completely washed out in sunlight, whether on a phone or a computer. If I want to read my iphone (transflective) screen outdoors, I have to duck into a doorway or turn it to bizarre, even extreme, angles. Please identify this readable-in-sunlight LCD screen.

I don't care to read outdoors, but I've looked up stuff on iPad and iPhone 4 outdoors (with maps and such) without problem. I just turn up the brightness setting. From time to time, I'll also read on Touch while waiting for a bus (in broad daylight). No problem. Again, I just turn up the brightness. I'm a tech dolt, but I can manage to do that, lol.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

I've seen some people dismiss those who use multipurpose devices, saying or implying that they're not serious readers and such. To me, that's just an advertisement for narrow-minded thinking.

It's obvious that a multipurpose device will attract a wider market -- readers as well as nonreaders. I doubt readers form the majority of buyers, of course. Many people don't read, as we all know. But we're all on this forum and similar ones because we're readers. So there goes the illogical idea that those who own multipurpose devices can't be serious readers.

I've spent about 20 years earning my living with words. Reading shaped my life, starting as a kid learning English as a second language. I'm as much a reader as anyone. I prefer multipurpose, backlit devices.

The usual critique of multi-purpose devices is that they can't do everything well. This seems to get equated to "they do everything badly", which isn't the case.

Any multi-function device will have things it's intended for, which it is likely to do well, and other things it can do, but won't do as well as another device intended for that. If your primary use case for a multi-function device is ebooks, you qualify choices based on that. The next question becomes "What is required to view the books I want to read?" That resolves to "Is the ebook viewer software I need available for the device?" If it is, the device may be a decent choice.

My usual reader is a multi-function device - a PDA. One advantage is that I can read just about everything on it. It lacks an ePub viewer, but no matter: I can convert ePub to something it can read. I have volumes in Plucker, MobiPocket, eReader, PDF, Word, RTF, and plain text on it, and it handles them all. (It does not handle DRMed material, but I don't get DRMed material, and don't care.)

But while half its purpose in life is to be an ebook viewer, it's also a PDA with standard PIM functions, can view/edit Word docs and Excel spreadsheets, can be used as a writing engine with a folding keyboard, displays digital pictures, views MPEG and AVI video, plays MP3 and Ogg audio files, lets me play with code in a variety of languages, can get online via wifi, and oh, yes: it plays games.

Something like an Android based tablet may be my next device for similar reasons, as reading ebooks isn't the only thing I'll do with it.
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Dennis

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by radleyp

If I want to read my iphone (transflective) screen outdoors, I have to duck into a doorway or turn it to bizarre, even extreme, angles.

I think that it is supposed to have a sensor to detect ambient light. Maybe it is broken or covered by something. My phone is a Nokia 6303.

[radleyp]

Maggie, you are doing exactly what I do and thus proving my point. You are managing to look up things, but I am quite sure you would not be sitting in a chair outdoors (as I often am, especially in the summer) reading a book. Turning up the brightness, BTW, seems to me a very strange thing to do, since the backlight is canceled out by the sunlight.

[radleyp]

I have not read anywhere that the iphone has an ambient light sensor, but even if it does, I am describing my experience, and I have nothing covered up.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by radleyp

Maggie, you are doing exactly what I do and thus proving my point. You are "managing" to look up things, but I am quite sure you would not be sitting in a chair outdoors (as I often am, especially in the summer) reading a book. Turning up the brightness, BTW, seems to me a very strange thing to do, since the backlight is canceled out by the sunlight.

I didn't say "managing." You did. By your logic, I would have to manage reading e-ink by turning on a light in the dark, lol.

If you don't wanna read on LCD, shrug. But please don't try to distort what I said.

Going by what you have said, you haven't seen these devices in daylight, so maybe you're prejudging and/or assuming.

[radleyp]

Maggie, I apologize for my misquoting you, but don't make assumptions about how I read. If you look to the left, you will see that I have an ipad, an iphone and a Kindle, and I read on all of them. I was merely saying that I find reading outdoors on an LCD screen difficult, and in any case I do most of my reading indoors.