Libra Colour Are there many color e-books?

[compurandom]

I sideload a lot of content and have had numerous technical papers with color diagrams and manuals converted from html to epub with color in them.

I've also seen a lot of pdfs with color backgrounds which have very poor contrast on a B&W kobo, but the background is hardly noticeable and looks fine on the color kobo.

Reading those on a B&W kobo was very frustrating, it's nice to have color for those at least.

[Falkor]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

The original version of Die unendliche Geschichte is in colour. One for the parts in the fantasy world, the other for the real world. I think one is pink and the other grey or something like kids. It’s been few years since I read it last.

Red and green. I use #066 and #A05 in my copy and they are quite close to the colors in the printed version.

[Quoth]

Red and Green isn't a good choice!
Though used for Port & Starboard, Traffic Lights, On/off, Danger/Safe.

[Pjama]

There are many Dorling Kindersley books, full of color. E.g. https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the...-revolution-83 (the kobo store is horrible to search, it’s actually easier searching on the kindle store to see what’s available first). There are also many Delphi Classics Masters of Art books e.g. https://www.delphiclassics.com/shop/albrecht-durer-2/. I enjoy looking at watercolors on the pastel colors of the Libra screen, although that is a personal preference seemingly shared by few.
There is also a very nice illustrated edition of the Hobbit and other JRR Tolkien books, with his original watercolors, this looks gorgeous on the Libra. I got these for $1.99 on Tolkein's birthday, as they (Amazon and Kobo) do a sale of all his works on that day each year.

ETA: There are many books incorporating color out there! And a lot of people saying there aren’t! For some reason.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Pjama

ETA: There are many books incorporating color out there! And a lot of people saying there aren’t! For some reason.

It's a tiny percentage of ebooks
Most are fixed layout and poor on 6" or 7"
They are all far better on a regular tablet than Kaleido, if mostly illustrated, and Nxtpaper is better still. The Nxtpaper is only poorer than mono eink with frontlight low or off.
Younger children are better getting the wonderful Dorling Kindersley books on paper.

A mono eink ereader can't be beaten for reading novels. But the Kaleido is miserable and overpriced.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Pjama

There are many Dorling Kindersley books, full of color. E.g. https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the...-revolution-83 (the kobo store is horrible to search, it’s actually easier searching on the kindle store to see what’s available first). There are also many Delphi Classics Masters of Art books e.g. https://www.delphiclassics.com/shop/albrecht-durer-2/. I enjoy looking at watercolors on the pastel colors of the Libra screen, although that is a personal preference seemingly shared by few.
There is also a very nice illustrated edition of the Hobbit and other JRR Tolkien books, with his original watercolors, this looks gorgeous on the Libra. I got these for $1.99 on Tolkein's birthday, as they (Amazon and Kobo) do a sale of all his works on that day each year.

ETA: There are many books incorporating color out there! And a lot of people saying there aren’t! For some reason.

Sure there are lots of book with color images. But are these books you want to read. A lot of children's books. And if you read say romance, mystery, general fiction, there's not that much choice. Even with Science Fiction/Fantasy, the choices are slim. While there are books with images, not all of them are color. Also, you have to want to read these books which you may or may not.

I'm not talking just the odd bit of color here or there such as the cover, links, e title page, and social media icons. Most books are not in color. The choices are slim and slimmer if you only read certain genres or have read some of these books before and don't want to read them again.

[cellaris]

And why wait for "others" to add colour to books when you can do it yourself? We edit books to change fonts, indents, white space, etc. Why not edit them to add colour? That's the great advantage of e-books and e-readers: they allow you to change things. I can understand that some people only want to view their books in black and white and continue to use the usual elements to distinguish the main body of the text from what is not: bold, italics, other fonts and other font sizes. But if you want to see colour, why not apply it to everything that is not the main body of text? Apart from images and underlining, I use it for headers and footers, the progress bar, quotes, notes, chapter titles and subtitles... That alone changes the look considerably. There is not a single page in my books that does not contain colour. If you want colour, just add it, according to your own preferences (both in terms of the colour you choose and the elements to which you apply it).

(An example without modifying the content of the book. Only changing the colour of the text and background of the status bar, from more to less discreet. The combinations are endless. I use the one shown in the centre image, adding colour to several secondary elements of the text as well. Aesthetically, I find it more pleasing than the default black and white. I don't expect anyone to agree with my aesthetic tastes, I'm simply pointing out that colour can be present in your books as much as you want).

[Quoth]

Well, you can add coloured images and photos too.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sure there are lots of book with color images. But are these books you want to read. A lot of children's books. And if you read say romance, mystery, general fiction, there's not that much choice. Even with Science Fiction/Fantasy, the choices are slim. While there are books with images, not all of them are color. Also, you have to want to read these books which you may or may not.

I'm not talking just the odd bit of color here or there such as the cover, links, e title page, and social media icons. Most books are not in color. The choices are slim and slimmer if you only read certain genres or have read some of these books before and don't want to read them again.

Plenty of non-fiction ebooks have color photos, cookbooks, science books, history books, etc.

Adult novels don't tend to, but even then occasionally they have them. Light novels which have started to become more and more popular outside Japan these passed few years usually have a few color illustrations too.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by cellaris

And why wait for "others" to add colour to books when you can do it yourself? We edit books to change fonts, indents, white space, etc. Why not edit them to add colour? That's the great advantage of e-books and e-readers: they allow you to change things. I can understand that some people only want to view their books in black and white and continue to use the usual elements to distinguish the main body of the text from what is not: bold, italics, other fonts and other font sizes. But if you want to see colour, why not apply it to everything that is not the main body of text? Apart from images and underlining, I use it for headers and footers, the progress bar, quotes, notes, chapter titles and subtitles... That alone changes the look considerably. There is not a single page in my books that does not contain colour. If you want colour, just add it, according to your own preferences (both in terms of the colour you choose and the elements to which you apply it).

(An example without modifying the content of the book. Only changing the colour of the text and background of the status bar, from more to less discreet. The combinations are endless. I use the one shown in the centre image, adding colour to several secondary elements of the text as well. Aesthetically, I find it more pleasing than the default black and white. I don't expect anyone to agree with my aesthetic tastes, I'm simply pointing out that colour can be present in your books as much as you want).

The color is very ugly (IMHO).

[nana77]

Originally Posted by cellaris

And why wait for "others" to add colour to books when you can do it yourself? We edit books to change fonts, indents, white space, etc. Why not edit them to add colour? That's the great advantage of e-books and e-readers: they allow you to change things. I can understand that some people only want to view their books in black and white and continue to use the usual elements to distinguish the main body of the text from what is not: bold, italics, other fonts and other font sizes. But if you want to see colour, why not apply it to everything that is not the main body of text? Apart from images and underlining, I use it for headers and footers, the progress bar, quotes, notes, chapter titles and subtitles... That alone changes the look considerably. There is not a single page in my books that does not contain colour. If you want colour, just add it, according to your own preferences (both in terms of the colour you choose and the elements to which you apply it).

(An example without modifying the content of the book. Only changing the colour of the text and background of the status bar, from more to less discreet. The combinations are endless. I use the one shown in the centre image, adding colour to several secondary elements of the text as well. Aesthetically, I find it more pleasing than the default black and white. I don't expect anyone to agree with my aesthetic tastes, I'm simply pointing out that colour can be present in your books as much as you want).

That's looks very nice (imho).
Can I ask if, by changing background's color, the text will drop from 300 dpi to 150? Meaning, would it be noticeable?
It would be nice to add a custom color that would change the ambient light set by default, but I guess it will drop the crispness.. (?)

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sure there are lots of book with color images. But are these books you want to read. A lot of children's books. And if you read say romance, mystery, general fiction, there's not that much choice. Even with Science Fiction/Fantasy, the choices are slim. While there are books with images, not all of them are color. Also, you have to want to read these books which you may or may not.

I'm not talking just the odd bit of color here or there such as the cover, links, e title page, and social media icons. Most books are not in color. The choices are slim and slimmer if you only read certain genres or have read some of these books before and don't want to read them again.

If you think encyclopedias, books about art, history etc., are exclusively for children, then I don’t have a sensible response for you.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Pjama

If you think encyclopedias, books about art, history etc., are exclusively for children, then I don’t have a sensible response for you.

If nonfiction is your thing, there certainly are plenty of ebooks with color images/diagrams/charts and so on. But if you like to read mostly fiction, then no. 99% of my ebooks don't have any color images. I tend to read nonfiction not as books, but as web articles on my tablet/phone/computer. On my eink devices I read novels, almost exclusively.

Personally I couldn't care less if my fiction has any color or not. Nonfiction is another matter, but I don't like to read it on eink, and not just for the lack of color - I like to enlarge images, hop between different hyperlinks etc when reading nonfiction, and this is much faster and more convenient on a tablet or a computer.

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

If nonfiction is your thing, there certainly are plenty of ebooks with color images/diagrams/charts and so on. But if you like to read mostly fiction, then no. 99% of my ebooks don't have any color images. I tend to read nonfiction not as books, but as web articles on my tablet/phone/computer. On my eink devices I read novels, almost exclusively.

Personally I couldn't care less if my fiction has any color or not. Nonfiction is another matter, but I don't like to read it on eink, and not just for the lack of color - I like to enlarge images, hop between different hyperlinks etc when reading nonfiction, and this is much faster and more convenient on a tablet or a computer.

I hear you. I read most books on my kindle matcha. I use my iPad for magazines and web browsing, but I do prefer to look at my color books on my Kobo. I have some very close-up reading glasses for it which work great to read the small text on some of the factual books. I like very much the watercolor effect on the images, which is obviously a personal preference. I use my Scribe for textbooks and doing puzzles.

So I am not a 'one device to rule them all' kind of person.

There often seems to be an assumption (not addressing you specifically now Sirtel) that we use one device all the time and that that one device should be perfect at everything, and if we want to read color books, this must mean we do not ever read standard ebooks (meaning fiction and factual, all books basically). There also seems to be an assumption that if we have a color ereader, we do not have an iPad, which is very peculiar to me, but I appreciate I am a privileged person, lucky enough to have a wide variety of devices to read on. I like all my devices and do not like the tendency of humans to split into factions - such as here, where there are bitter statements about color eink. I mean, what a thing to get wound up about - other people liking color eink?

Disclaimer: I have always, always used dashes in my writing, and their presence does not indicate ChatGPT.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Pjama

I like all my devices and do not like the tendency of humans to split into factions - such as here, where there are bitter statements about color eink. I mean, what a thing to get wound up about - other people liking color eink?

I think much of the bitterness comes from the fact that Kobo discontinued the Libra 2 without a black and white replacement, and hasn't updated the Sage either (it's 4 years old now). So there is no new black and white Kobo with a 7-8" screen to be had, and maybe never will be.

If Kobo (like Amazon and Pocketbook) had both color and b/w models (yes, they do have the Clara, but nothing larger), people would probably be more indifferent to the topic of color ereaders.