LCD and your eyes

[4691mls]

Besides the issue of light generated by the device, there's the fact that my eink reader screen is a lot less reflective than my phone screen. With the phone I feel like I'm looking at the text through a reflection of the lights in the room and a reflection of my own face or anything else nearby. I don't know if that actually affects the eyes or if it's more psychological, but looking at my eink reader just feels easier and more comfortable.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Salgueiros

Nobody here ever heard of Computer Vision Syndrome?

One thing i know for real is that many people, myself included get dry eyes waaay more easily when reading on a computer screen, and that is because on average we blink 12 times per minute, but when we are on the computer, we only blink five times per minute? That can add up to dry eyes. And it is unconscious, you don't realize you are blinking less.

Who's talking about reading at a computer? Sorry. I'd need to see some pretty hard research on blink rates before I buy that I blink less looking at a tablet screen dimmed to approximately the same intensity as a Paperwhite than I do looking at a Paperwhite. That dog won't hunt.

[Salgueiros]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Who's talking about reading at a computer?

I am.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Besides the issue of light generated by the device, there's the fact that my eink reader screen is a lot less reflective than my phone screen. With the phone I feel like I'm looking at the text through a reflection of the lights in the room and a reflection of my own face or anything else nearby. I don't know if that actually affects the eyes or if it's more psychological, but looking at my eink reader just feels easier and more comfortable.

What helps me is putting the device at a slight angle and not looking at it square on. That cuts down on reflections. Just remember angle away from the driver if you are in a vehicle.

[toddhicks209]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why is it we get people saying that reading from an LCD screen hurts his/her eyes and yet some of the same people spend lots of time watching an LCD TV and sitting in front of a computer/laptop/tablet/phone all with an LCD screen for a good amount of time? If these LCD screens are not a problem, then why is reading a problem? And if these screen are a problem, then go see your local optometrist as you have something wrong with your eyes.

You're really supposed to look at objects 20 feet away from your computer screen every 20 seconds.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by toddhicks209

You're really supposed to look at objects 20 feet away from your computer screen every 20 seconds.

Who makes this supposition?

[John F]

Originally Posted by toddhicks209

You're really supposed to look at objects 20 feet away from your computer screen every 20 seconds.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Who makes this supposition?

20 seconds is probably a typo/mistake.

http://www.allaboutvision.com/cvs/irritated.htm

[grumbles]

Well, I'm far-sighted. Actually I need correction at all distances. 2.75 diopters for distance and 5.25/4.75 for reading. I have no problem reading on either eink or LCD. The issue is one of brightness (intensity) and contrast. Eink is an inherently low contrast display. an LCD display can (and probably is set for) a much higher contrast. An LCD set for the same intensity and contrast as an eink display would be useless for anything else. You would not want to look at pictures on an LCD screen that had been set for comfortable reading.

LCD (and OLED) screens do not have a refresh rate, they have a frame rate. Refresh rates went out with CRT displays If an LCD screen appears to have flicker, the back light is defective.

The one area where eink is superior to LCD is power consumption. LCD displays are inefficient in that they start with full intensity and then dim all the colours that aren't wanted. If you want red, you start with white and filter out all the blue and green. I would imagine that OLED displays would have better battery life than LCD display and better contrast then any eink display.

When my Sony T3 readers die, my next reading device will be an OLED tablet.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by grumbles

The one area where eink is superior to LCD is power consumption.

The one area? Have you ever tried using an LCD screen in direct sunlight?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by grumbles

The one area where eink is superior to LCD is power consumption.

The next time I'm sitting on the seawall enjoying my lunch and the sunlight, I'll try to remember that the screen on my Aura One is no easier to read than the screen on my iPad/Nexus/laptop/phone (three LCD, one AMOLED) under those conditions.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I suspect one of the main reasons is that people have the screen brightness set too high. If the screen is visibly "shining", it's too bright.

LOL. Shining? Most screens I see look as if they're trying to light up the galaxy.

The correct setting for an LCD-screen is a tiny touch brighter than you environment. To make sure I don't have to change my screen brightness all the time, the blinds of my computer room are always closed.

I'm so used to that (while studying, when using my own computer, editing pictures in the past) that I *still* don't like to use computers in an office environment. It's just too bright. Most screens can't handle that brightness. And, if they can, you'll have to be in the right place: not across from a window as it blinds you, but also not with one directly at your back, because you'll have reflections, even with a matte screen.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by John F

Does ppi really make a difference? Older eink was much lower ppi, and people didn't seem to have problems.

No, it doesn't... not for me.

The old Kindle Touch with its 167 ppi (800x600 at 6 inch) was at least as good or better than most of the paperbacks I had back then. The Kindle Paperwhite with 213 ppi (1024x768 at 6 inch) was as good as a hardcover book printed on good quality normal paper. The KA1 with 300 ppi is about as good as a hardcover book printed on semigloss paper. (I dislike semi-gloss paper. My paper copy of Musashi is printed as such, as was my Dutch version of LotR).

In short, if you happily read paperbacks, especially older ones, a 167 ppi screen is enough. Everything above that makes it just better, but it's not required.

People telling me that they "can't read" anymore on anything less than 300 ppi, or "can't use a phone" with anything below FullHD on 5 inch (452 ppi) should be saying "I don't want to any longer because something better exists."

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The one area? Have you ever tried using an LCD screen in direct sunlight?

And lack of reflections, as long as you keep a direct spotlight (such as the sun) off your e-ink screen.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I don't get is when some say that they cannot read from an LCD screen because it bothers their eyes and yet on an eInk screen with a front light, they keep the light way too bright. So how is that overly bright front light not bothering their eyes? I think it could be psychosomatic because they think LCD is not good so they say it's not good yet eInk with too bright a light is not good.

That is one thing I wonder about as well. If I set the front-light on the KA1 too bright, it starts to look like a tablet. The KPW1 just starts to look weird; as if lit up milk is trapped between two panes of glass with letters floating in it.

[arjaybe]

According to The Conversation, by way of Scientific American, LED flicker can cause headaches.

Link.