Looking for a ebook reader with the sharpest contrast

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by angelyne

Thanks for the advice. Is there a big enough difference between between the first generation 500 and 505 to justify upgrading? At least that one I can pick up in Canada, as *I think* they are finally carried by Sony Canada.

Yes, the difference is considerable. The contrast is significantly better on the 2nd generation "Vizplex" screen that the 505 uses. I found that, with my PRS-500, in the evenings I pretty much always had to use a reading light. With my CyBook (which has the same screen as the PRS-505) I can comfortably read using the normal room light.

[slm]

Originally Posted by jwalleser

Jetbook

I have the Jetbook, a Kindle 2, an EZ Reader and my mom has a Kindle 1. The Jetbook is very nice in some lighting conditions and terrible in a lot of others. Basically, I find it hard to use the Jetbook unless I make sure the light is directly on the screen and the screen is angled directly at me.

I love the weight and form factor of the Jetbook. I don't much like its rendering software, but it isn't seriously bad.

The others--all e-ink--all work better for me more of the time, because I don't normally read in an optimal environment.

[Kris777]

Originally Posted by slm

I have the Jetbook, a Kindle 2, an EZ Reader and my mom has a Kindle 1. The Jetbook is very nice in some lighting conditions and terrible in a lot of others. Basically, I find it hard to use the Jetbook unless I make sure the light is directly on the screen and the screen is angled directly at me.

I love the weight and form factor of the Jetbook. I don't much like its rendering software, but it isn't seriously bad.

The others--all e-ink--all work better for me more of the time, because I don't normally read in an optimal environment.

I read mostly at home (good environment) and in airports or airplanes (not so good environment) and I like jetBook screen in both cases. I also compared jetBook with Sony 505 and jetBook screen has much better contrast for me.

[hal_9000]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The Sony PRS-505, Kindle 1 & 2, CyBook, BeBook, etc, etc, all use the same screen, and have identical contrast.

is this true??? can someone confirm??
how do you explain 9:42 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWl60GNcQIw

just got my K2, have read on it for about 2-3 hours, and have a massive headache. lighting conditions were moderate at first, then i went into bright lighting.

question: is this just me "breaking into" the K2? or is this a permanent issue?
question2: would the 505 not have noticeably higher contrast, and cause me less strain? (as i've read)

i tried increasing font size, but making it the largest or second-to largest means i'm flipping the page every 10 secs. seems dumb to me.

[Madam Broshkina]

Originally Posted by hal_9000

is this true??? can someone confirm??
how do you explain 9:42 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWl60GNcQIw

just got my K2, have read on it for about 2-3 hours, and have a massive headache. lighting conditions were moderate at first, then i went into bright lighting.

question: is this just me "breaking into" the K2? or is this a permanent issue?
question2: would the 505 not have noticeably higher contrast, and cause me less strain? (as i've read)

i tried increasing font size, but making it the largest or second-to largest means i'm flipping the page every 10 secs. seems dumb to me.

Check out this thread about the Alternate Kindle 2 Font hack.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4566

For me the hack made a big difference.

[hal_9000]

Originally Posted by Madam Broshkina

Check out this thread about the Alternate Kindle 2 Font hack.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4566

For me the hack made a big difference.

first off, i think the thread you gave was the wrong one, but THANKS SO MUCH, i found the alternate font thread and did it! much improved!
here is the thread:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45660


having said that, i did go through hell to do it: my kindle crashed when i rebooted it the first time. i think the reason is that i didn't properly disconnect the kindle from the USB port of my macbook (didn't hit the "eject" icon first), hence i think the font file may have been corrupt. i then had to read the other thread, and put my kindle into recovery mode luckily, it snapped out of it, i put a font file on it properly, and it worked. my fault for not disconnecting the kindle properly from the USB

font looks great though, the helvitica...not perfect, but much improved, to the point that i dont think i'll call CS or return it now (just got it today). thanks!

[gravescp]

I know you already hot the K2, if it is still bothering you and you send it back then I would take a look at the sone pocket edition. I saw it in the store a couple weeks ago, and it has amazing contrast. I would personally say better then the 505. The downside though only 5" display, and only 3 font sizes. If contrast is the most important it is worth a look.

[Jack Tingle]

Originally Posted by Kris777

people compared it before, see jetBook vs Kindle screen:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...9&postcount=98

The third picture confirms the technical specs for the two displays. The jetBook is just a hair higher contrast. I suspect it's because the blacks are a bit blacker, rather than a difference in the background colors.

On the LCD, black is (theoretically) dead black. Even if you had a near perfect white surface behind the display element of the jetBook LCD, you'd still have the dimming effect of two passes through the display element and polarizer. The best you can do is about a 50% reflectance. The eInk display suffers on both ends. Some of the media in the dark areas still shows up as white, and vice versa in the light areas. Perfect eInk, could approach absolute black on white, but it isn't there yet, and you get dark gray on light gray.

For the OP: A jetBook is a good choice. To meet your requirements, you might also want to consider adding a large-screen, general-purpose device like a PDA or UMPC to your stable. You wouldn't be able to use it in strong light. Since you have a Sony 500, you can just use that in strong light.

What I am looking for is the device that is the most readable.

I also want to be able to import my own books to it from a html format, either natively or through an community-made tool. That's a key-feature.

It obviously must support a few fonts, and have the ability to enlarge the text size

Apart from that, I'd like a integrated light, but won't reject an otherwise suitable model because of it's lack.

I'm only interested in reading plain-text novels, so it doesn't have to support anything else.

4-5" Backlit LCD displays are very readable, except in bright ambient light. PDAs and UMPCs can usually import many different formats and use a wide variety of fonts. The have an integrated light by definition.

Good luck,
Jack Tingle

[jwalleser]

I have a jetbook-really wanted a kindle, but too much money. Recently amazon offered a kindle 1 for $149, so I bought one, in addition to the jetbook. I find the jumpiness of moving to a new page annoying. The jetbook is easier to read-it is just like turning pages. I will probably keep the kindle-I like the ability to download books while not on a computer. Hopefully, someone will "invent" the perfect ereader someday!

[LDBoblo]

There are no really good readers on the contrast front. E-ink is pretty rubbish, and hasn't yet been thoroughly outdone in the ebook reader maket.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

There are no really good readers on the contrast front. E-ink is pretty rubbish, and hasn't yet been thoroughly outdone in the ebook reader maket.

I don't think it's unreasonable to say that this is a viewpoint that many will strongly disagree with . To my mind, the current generation of eInk screens are just as readable as a typical newspaper or paperback book, although not up to the standard of high-quality hardbacks.

Of course, this is very much a matter of individual perspective, and undoubtedly different people will feel differently about it.

[DrMoze]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

There are no really good readers on the contrast front. E-ink is pretty rubbish, and hasn't yet been thoroughly outdone in the ebook reader maket.

I too disagree with this. I have been reading huge quantities of p-books for decades. The e-ink display provides a great, 'natural-feeling' reading experience. OTOH, I have yet to see an active (lcd, led) display that does this. For leisure or extended reading, the e-ink is the best current display IMO.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't think it's unreasonable to say that this is a viewpoint that many will strongly disagree with . To my mind, the current generation of eInk screens are just as readable as a typical newspaper or paperback book, although not up to the standard of high-quality hardbacks.

Of course, this is very much a matter of individual perspective, and undoubtedly different people will feel differently about it.

If you read with usable fonts at usable sizes with usable languages, it's passable. It gets close to newsprint in global contrast but with its rubbish resolution and hinting, it can't resolve clean lines and has terrible local contrast. This is especially irritating with complex characters in Chinese. A Chinese newspaper resolves fine on cheap newsprint, but the same size text is pretty much unreadable on an e-reader device. When it is readable, it's extremely ugly. Perhaps if I could disable hinting, it'd be more usable.

Latin languages aren't so bad, but still aren't very pleasant, and most nice looking typefaces with attractive serifs look wretched on e-ink, particularly at small sizes. Gotta use pudgy or squared ones.

For the most part, I can only use my reader with English, and it's tolerable at times, but far from good if what a person wants is high contrast. Like I said though...unfortunately, nobody's smacked e-ink down yet in the ebook market.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by HarryT

To my mind, the current generation of eInk screens are just as readable as a typical newspaper or paperback book, although not up to the standard of high-quality hardbacks.

Of course, this is very much a matter of individual perspective, and undoubtedly different people will feel differently about it.

Feelings aside, eInk screens are objectively lower quality both in terms of resolution and contrast than newspapers or paperback books. This is not a matter of perspective but of visual acuity.

Having said that, for me, not being limited by the per-page weight and bulk of paper books is advantage enough that I can overlook the quality limitations. But that is only because I can restore eBooks to a quality reminiscent of paper books. If I had only unaltered LRFs and ePubs to read (whether those for sale from commercial websites or free from Mobileread or Feedbooks), I would have returned my Sony Reader on day two.

- Ahi

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

...unfortunately, nobody's smacked e-ink down yet in the ebook market.

In order to smack e-ink down, they're going to have to build a better mousetrap - and no one's managed that yet. Not to say they won't manage it, but as of yet they haven't. I'll actually go so far as to say they won't manage it until someone devises a better bistable display.

I'm not inseparably wedded to e-ink, but it meets my needs so much better than the current alternatives I'm going to stick with it at least in the near to medium term.