Dreaming of resolution...

LDBoblo · 06-13-2010, 02:12 PM

I was really excited when I heard the iPhone 4 was equipped with a ~320ppi screen. Numerous smartphones already boast 200+ppi screens (and there are a few other products out there with 300+), but it's a fantastic achievement nonetheless as far as typography is concerned.

I just wish it had been done with a reflective screen. E-Ink has demonstrated a contrast increase with their signature product, but I really hope that as EPDs and other e-paper technologies evolve, they become capable of supporting very high resolutions. I can't wait until the day I can read super-crisp text on a low-power reflective screen, as if I were looking at a printed page. I don't know if that's 6 months or 6 years away, but it's something to look forward to.

Unfortunately I don't have a 200ppi 5-inch reader or a 300ppi LCD to add to this snapshot, but I thought it was interesting. Each picture represents an identical area a little over 5mm wide on a page. They're not perfect pictures, but they make a handy comparison nonetheless.

Xenophon · 06-14-2010, 02:03 PM

Substantially higher resolution == ME WANTS IT! I'm eagerly awaiting higher-res readers, especially in low-power reflective display tech.

Xenophon

Kali Yuga · 06-14-2010, 02:11 PM

Y'know, I could really care less. Current eInk works fine for text, so does my Droid screen. iPad res works fine for my uses (that is whenever I bother to use the damned thing).

Do yourselves a favor and hop off the hedonic treadmill for a few minutes.

Jellby · 06-15-2010, 04:29 AM

Do you have a printer? You could try adding it to the comparison, and a newspaper. And it would help if the pictures showed the same letters, with a similar typeface if possible.

LDBoblo · 06-15-2010, 04:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jellby

Do you have a printer? You could try adding it to the comparison, and a newspaper. And it would help if the pictures showed the same letters, with a similar typeface if possible.

I would need to set it up, but I do think some kind of comparison can be done. I wanted to keep the snaps to the same field of view of the media, rather than emphasizing any particular glyph. It's not exactly easy to pull a newspaper, a paperback, a hardcover, and an ebook all with the same typeface. Or it might if they all use Minion, but I'm afraid my current physical library doesn't have that degree of consistency.

LDBoblo · 06-15-2010, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jellby

Do you have a printer? You could try adding it to the comparison, and a newspaper. And it would help if the pictures showed the same letters, with a similar typeface if possible.

It's not scientific or anything, but I was bored enough to do a bit more comparing. I set the light a little more oblique and tried to equalize things a bit, so it doesn't look exactly the same as the previous comparison.

I obviously didn't get equal typefaces, or even completely equal sizes. However, this isn't meant to be a purely apples-apples comparison of glyph drawing. It's just a really close and personal view of what these media look like in general.

Sorry it's a rather big picture...but I wanted to keep each sample big enough to see clearly.

kjk · 06-15-2010, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

It's not scientific or anything, but I was bored enough to do a bit more comparing. I set the light a little more oblique and tried to equalize things a bit, so it doesn't look exactly the same as the previous comparison.

I obviously didn't get equal typefaces, or even completely equal sizes. However, this isn't meant to be a purely apples-apples comparison of glyph drawing. It's just a really close and personal view of what these media look like in general.

Sorry it's a rather big picture...but I wanted to keep each sample big enough to see clearly.

Robert Scoble took a high res pic of the iPhone 4 screen-not sure if it helps:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scoblei...67529/sizes/o/

Xenophon · 06-15-2010, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Y'know, I could really care less. Current eInk works fine for text, so does my Droid screen. iPad res works fine for my uses (that is whenever I bother to use the damned thing).

Do yourselves a favor and hop off the hedonic treadmill for a few minutes.

"Hedonic treadmill"??? Perhaps so. But I certainly notice the difference in print quality (and eyestrain!) when comparing (worst-to-best) my Sony reader, a paperback, a hardcover, and a high-end well-produced textbook. If I could have the best of those (at a reasonable price, of course) I'd love it! For now, I'd like to see eReader-ish screens improve to the level of a paperback.

It's not a "difference no one will notice," however. It's not a show-stopper. It's not a life-or-death proposition. But if eReader screens were improved to the level of typical paperback text, I would be able to read faster and longer with less eye-strain. And that would certainly be a nice thing.

Xenophon

Jellby · 06-15-2010, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

I obviously didn't get equal typefaces, or even completely equal sizes.

But the magnification is at least more or less equal, right? There's still a long way from EPD to magazine, but MMPB and newspaper don't look so far.

LDBoblo · 06-15-2010, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jellby

But the magnification is at least more or less equal, right? There's still a long way from EPD to magazine, but MMPB and newspaper don't look so far.

Yep the field of view is pretty much identical for all of them. That's why I put the 1mm line at the bottom to show scale. It really is a very small area. The speckles you see on the e-ink and other artifacts in most of the pictures aren't visible to the naked eye at most distances, so it really is an unflattering view.

What makes me curious is the capsule size of EPD and whether that imposes a practical resolution limit. Naturally, the capsules are individually much smaller than pixels on the pixel grid, but I wonder how far beyond 200ppi an EPD can go.

LDBoblo · 06-16-2010, 06:56 AM

And another quick shot, but this time with a Chinese character instead. Horizontal width is the same as the previous shots, but taller vertically. EPD and mid-quality Taiwanese paperback.

Normally this size font (12pt) is too large for me on a 6" screen, but I figured it was fairer to compare at similar sizes.

TallMomof2 · 06-16-2010, 12:22 PM

For those of us with bad eyes better contrast and higher ppi is welcome. I started reading hardcovers because paperbacks were too fuzzy once my eyes required bifocals. The only reason I can read well on the eInk screens is because I can enlarge the font. And I can hack the Kindle to add a better font or add a font to ePubs on my other devices.

tomsem · 06-17-2010, 07:18 PM

I haven't actually seen a >300dpi screen, but I think I'd like one. I would rather have a sharper screen that I can read, than to have to enlarge the font, assuming these parameters are inversely correlated. I'm getting a little too aware of eInk's lack of contrast and am looking forward to trying out the next iPod Touch with the hires screen as a reading device.

06-13-2010, 02:12 PM	#1
LDBoblo Wizard Posts: 1,385 Karma: 16056 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Asia Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Sony PRS-505	Dreaming of resolution... I was really excited when I heard the iPhone 4 was equipped with a ~320ppi screen. Numerous smartphones already boast 200+ppi screens (and there are a few other products out there with 300+), but it's a fantastic achievement nonetheless as far as typography is concerned. I just wish it had been done with a reflective screen. E-Ink has demonstrated a contrast increase with their signature product, but I really hope that as EPDs and other e-paper technologies evolve, they become capable of supporting very high resolutions. I can't wait until the day I can read super-crisp text on a low-power reflective screen, as if I were looking at a printed page. I don't know if that's 6 months or 6 years away, but it's something to look forward to. Unfortunately I don't have a 200ppi 5-inch reader or a 300ppi LCD to add to this snapshot, but I thought it was interesting. Each picture represents an identical area a little over 5mm wide on a page. They're not perfect pictures, but they make a handy comparison nonetheless. Attached Thumbnails

06-16-2010, 06:56 AM	#11
LDBoblo Wizard Posts: 1,385 Karma: 16056 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Asia Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Sony PRS-505	And another quick shot, but this time with a Chinese character instead. Horizontal width is the same as the previous shots, but taller vertically. EPD and mid-quality Taiwanese paperback. Normally this size font (12pt) is too large for me on a 6" screen, but I figured it was fairer to compare at similar sizes. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by LDBoblo; 06-16-2010 at 06:58 AM.

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06-14-2010, 02:03 PM	#2
Xenophon curmudgeon Posts: 1,487 Karma: 5748190 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Redwood City, CA USA Device: Kobo Aura HD, (ex)nook, (ex)PRS-700, (ex)PRS-500	Substantially higher resolution == ME WANTS IT! I'm eagerly awaiting higher-res readers, especially in low-power reflective display tech. Xenophon

06-14-2010, 02:11 PM	#3
Kali Yuga Professional Contrarian Posts: 2,045 Karma: 3289631 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindle 4 No Touchie	Y'know, I could really care less. Current eInk works fine for text, so does my Droid screen. iPad res works fine for my uses (that is whenever I bother to use the damned thing). Do yourselves a favor and hop off the hedonic treadmill for a few minutes.

06-15-2010, 04:29 AM	#4
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,543 Karma: 19001583 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	Do you have a printer? You could try adding it to the comparison, and a newspaper. And it would help if the pictures showed the same letters, with a similar typeface if possible.

06-16-2010, 12:22 PM	#12
TallMomof2 Kindlephilia Posts: 2,017 Karma: 1139255 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Snowpacolypse 2010 Device: Too many to count	For those of us with bad eyes better contrast and higher ppi is welcome. I started reading hardcovers because paperbacks were too fuzzy once my eyes required bifocals. The only reason I can read well on the eInk screens is because I can enlarge the font. And I can hack the Kindle to add a better font or add a font to ePubs on my other devices.

06-17-2010, 07:18 PM	#13
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,900 Karma: 27013865 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	I haven't actually seen a >300dpi screen, but I think I'd like one. I would rather have a sharper screen that I can read, than to have to enlarge the font, assuming these parameters are inversely correlated. I'm getting a little too aware of eInk's lack of contrast and am looking forward to trying out the next iPod Touch with the hires screen as a reading device.