Kobo's future of color ereaders

[filmo]

Back about when Kobo Touch was new model. Russia was saying they would deploy color screen ereaders to schools for text books making it easier to keep wide spread schools across vast country using same current books. Also read Amazon was developing a new color screen for ereaders. None of this has happened yet. Maybe next year?

[jackastor]

the only use I would have for a color screen is if it was a picture book. other then that black and white text is best read while it is printed black on white or white on black.

When I used to buy or borrow printed books, I seem to recall that the text was printed in black on either crisp white pages(hard cover) or newsprint type(paperback) paper. The end result was that regardless the book was readable. The only color in most of the books I purchased (paperback) was the cover. And the black and white images I get for the cover are fine and sharp on the Kobo H20 or any of the other readers I have. At any rate having a color E-Reader would be rather ineffective. Besides we already have color readers, We call them Tablets, I-Pads and Slate computers. Why would we need to add anything more to that line up. Besides 99 percent of us only use the E-Reader to read and color is a distraction to the printed word.

regards

Jack

[Ruskie_it]

Originally Posted by jackastor

the only use I would have for a color screen is if it was a picture book. other then that black and white text is best read while it is printed black on white or white on black.

Apart from the fact that a color ereader would be (obviously) capable to display black and white text in... well, black and white...

There are:

- picture books
- comics and mangas
- some books where color was a precise stylistic choice

I'm thinking for example to Ende's Neverending Story, whose my copy was entirely printed in red and cyan depending on who the author was writing about, but I'm sure one can come with many more

- some books where the illustration art was impressive and not just decoration

Can't name any right now, but you know there are a few

- manuals

Do-it-yourself, for example, or to name a few I have several texas hold'em books, both in print and in ebook, where color definitely improves the readability and... well I don't think I need to name more manuals that benefits from colors, do I?

- Academic books

It is a long time dream for governments to give ereaders to the students for them to substitute the heavy books they have to carry on shoulders (well maybe not in the States, but here for sure), and they need colors

- Books about photography

Unless it's b&w photography

- Some scientific book

I recently read "Our mathematical Universe" from Max Tegmark and it was a PIA looking at all that pictures in the book in grayscale. No, seriously.

Those are the first categories that come to my mind, but I'm sure there are more.
As you can see, they are not so few, and the fact you (generally speaking, I don't mean the original poster specifically) are not interested in them doesn't mean they do not exist and they wouldn't benefit from a color e-reader.

So yes: there would be (plenty) of use for color e-readers. It's just that it doesn't make to a critical mass for it to be economically convenient to develop an ereader for such uses... or the other way around, an ereader with the needed features (i.e. color) would be too expensive right now to be used to read that books.
For now, at least.

Besides we already have color readers, We call them Tablets, I-Pads and Slate computers. Why would we need to add anything more to that line up.

Because those are not readers; or we would use them also for black&white texts. Why would we add e-ink readers to the lineup. Because they are less fatiguing for the eyes, less energy-hungry, etc. etc. the whole lot. So would be a color e-reader compared to the lineup you quoted. If it existed. Unfortunately, every prototype made so far had a quality such inferior that any other possible advantage was irrelevant. But that does not change the principle.

Sure, there are a lot of books that can (and do) use colour. On the other hand, you need only look at the ebook stores of the major ereader vendors to discover that they aren't targeting those markets. If the ereader vendors aren't targeting those markets, why would they invest in developing that technology?

[robko]

Originally Posted by filmo

Back about when Kobo Touch was new model. Russia was saying they would deploy color screen ereaders to schools for text books making it easier to keep wide spread schools across vast country using same current books. Also read Amazon was developing a new color screen for ereaders. None of this has happened yet. Maybe next year?

Tablet tech has jumped massively in that time and prices dropped dramatically on them. On the technical side that's probably what happened. $ is likely the reason nothing has.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by Ruskie_it

Apart from the fact that a color ereader would be (obviously) capable to display black and white text in... well, black and white...

I'm still amazed that you can get white with red/green/blue pixels in CRT and LCD screens, and even more amazed that you can get something resembling white on a Triton e-ink screen. It doesn't feel obvious to me that it should work.

[Ruskie_it]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Sure, there are a lot of books that can (and do) use colour. On the other hand, you need only look at the ebook stores of the major ereader vendors to discover that they aren't targeting those markets. If the ereader vendors aren't targeting those markets, why would they invest in developing that technology?

Come on, that's because they don't have a device that can conveniently display them. We're not talking about what the house are DOING, we all know they aren't pushing on color ereader. What's in dispute is whether a color ereader would have a use, where some people says "I wouldn't need that, it only works for cover" or "I would use a tablet for that". Sure it would have a use, if existed. And e-publishers would Have those titles on catalogue if they knew they could sell them. Btw I bought Tegmark's book on Amazon, and I am pretty sure Ende's book is also there

[Ruskie_it]

Originally Posted by rkomar

I'm still amazed that you can get white with red/green/blue pixels in CRT and LCD screens, and even more amazed that you can get something resembling white on a Triton e-ink screen. It doesn't feel obvious to me that it should work.

Nevertheless, it does

[MGlitch]

I don't think the question is really 'If a color ereader existed would it be used?', obviously if a quality color ereader was available at least some part of the general public would use one.
The question is "Is it worth the time and effort for a company to research and develop a color eink screen?'.

Which remains in doubt since tablets are fairly cheap and are already capable of displaying in high quality color. A color ereader would have to be able to display black and white as crisply as the current generation does if not better as well as displaying colors in something approaching what tablets are. Or at the very least not the washed out colors most of the prototypes.

This at a time when the battle is over getting a lighter, thinner device, and reducing the bezel size.

I don't mean to say the two goals are mutually exclusive, but I don't see them being conducive to one another.

[Ruskie_it]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Which remains in doubt since tablets are fairly cheap and are already capable of displaying in high quality color. A color ereader would have to be able to display black and white as crisply as the current generation does if not better as well as displaying colors in something approaching what tablets are.

That is the same situation that existed before quality b&w e-ink screen were created, for b&w text/novels.
If they reasoned the same way, e-ink would never have been invented.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by Ruskie_it

That is the same situation that existed before quality b&w e-ink screen were created, for b&w text/novels.
If they reasoned the same way, e-ink would never have been invented.

Perhaps if you look at only that one snippet of what I said, however if you examine the entirety of my post the various companies are likely weighing the cost of creating the device, knowing they'll need to match the quality out there now, and the reward from doing so given the current market.

Ereaders offered a boon of features that were not available in print books. Notably that you can carry around many more books, make notes and highlights without damaging the book, not to mention less storage space, to name just a few.

Color eink would have some benefits for a smaller demographic within the ereader audience but those benefits can be achieved with tablets, which are much cheaper now than they were when eink devices were first hitting the market.

[jocampo]

I've seen this same thread and posts come and go past 4 or 5 years. Short answer, we don't have "cheap" and good enough technology yet to make this happen at commercial level.

Having said that, Eink color would be a perfect replacement for 10 inches tablets. I don't read novels, I mainly read SQL and IT books. The kindle is too small for that (code does not display properly in landscape) so my only choice is the iPad.

I had the Kindle DXG but Amazon dropped any support so I moved on.

So we will see ... maybe in 5 years? Or ... maybe LCD displays will evolve so they can be useful outdoors at direct sun light. In fact, I think that's easier to do and accomplish than develop a fast rendering and color eink screen.

[Ruskie_it]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Perhaps if you look at only that one snippet of what I said, however if you examine the entirety of my post the various companies are likely weighing the cost of creating the device, knowing they'll need to match the quality out there now, and the reward from doing so given the current market.

Ereaders offered a boon of features that were not available in print books. Notably that you can carry around many more books, make notes and highlights without damaging the book, not to mention less storage space, to name just a few.

Color eink would have some benefits for a smaller demographic within the ereader audience but those benefits can be achieved with tablets, which are much cheaper now than they were when eink devices were first hitting the market.

Well, no: we totally agree, if you say companies are weighing costs and benefits and currently the market is not eager enough - that's what I said too. All in all, we are just saying a colour ereader would be good and would have a use, but to produce it now costs too much. That's a deal.

Where I don't agree is on the argument (can't remember if it's yours) "I can't see the use for color ereaders, I would use tablet/real paper/whatever for xxx". Because the reason "you" use a tablet is exactly because a convenient ereader isn't there.
Regarding your latter part: the same benefits: carry more books, notes, less storage etc also applies to color ereaders, you should not cut them out of this.
And no, tablets aren't good for them, you can't just consider the price.
Either the tablets are "good" for reading, or they aren't, and this applies the same way to b&w text and color text, you can't just rule one in and the other out.
If, according to you, tablets are a valid replacement as a reading device for a color ebook, they are also for a b&w one. And if you are going to say that yes, but they weren't so cheap when b&w e-ink was developed, I answer ok, but now that they are, nobody should buy an ereader anymore, since now a tablet is so much more convenient. No.
Truth is that, as a matter of fact, ereaders were developed because tablets and the lot were technically less suitable for long reading. Less battery power, backlight illumination, reflective screen unreadable under sunlight... these were the problems. And despite the fact tablets are so much cheaper now, those are still the problems, and that's why avid readers keep on buying e-ink ereaders. And this applies the same way to color ereader. It's not that a color ebook is going to be read only in a closed space where direct sunlight is not an issue and for so less time that eyes fatigue does not happen... they're book, the same way b&w novels are.

So in the end, there is so much need for color ereaders, there are no valid substitutes for them the same way there isn't for b&w ones, as I showed above. But, the technology still need research (and money), and companies are not willing to invest that much because "color books" readers aren't a big enough market to justify their costs.
I guess the researches will develop little by little, only investing a tiny part of companies' incomes, making small progresses (and lowering the final cost of a quality color device bit by bit) until at a certain point the cost become small enough to crystallize the interests of publishers to create color ebooks and for readers to read them on eink devices... in a virtuous cycle, so to say

[filmo]

Amazon bought color technology for ereaders around 2013 but no product yet. Probably Amazon most likely to sell color ereaders but distracted by drones.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/05/t...color-e-paper/

I thought flexible ereader sceens would be used for Kobo or Amazon ereaders by now. Would be fantastic not to worry about screen breaking.