How to read comfortably on a tablet

[Cinisajoy]

Oh Thursday night,
I found that my tablet is great for reading a pdf while traveling.
Though I did have to turn the light all the way down since 11 pm in the middle of nowhere is dark.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Atunah

I am glad that you like the Kobo and you found something to enjoy reading on again. Are you reading more again now?

I would say yes but only time will tell. Real life keeps getting in the way of reading this year I may have read ten books only this year.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Those usually degrade screen clarity which would give me more eye strain. My Nexus 7 isn't too bad but my Kindle Fires are so shiny! I prefer my Nexus 7 for reading over the Kindle Fires but my new Kobo HD Glo is best for my eyes.

The pixelation is only noticeable on white backgrounds and I use dark backgrounds so it doesn't affect me.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

My tablet is so shiny it's practically unusable near a window.

When buying laptops or computer monitors, I refuse to buy any that have shiny screens. They have to be matte, or it's a no-go. I would buy a matte tablet in an instant. Death to all shiny screens!

I only get the matte on laptops and monitors too, and would love tablets and phones that came that way. When we had the big crt monitors at work, some people had a so-called glare screen over top that was shiny glass! I never understood what good they were supposed to be.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Alohamora

I use an app called Low Light on my fire and another called Screen Dim on my android phone to lower the backlight lower than the device's native brightness range.

I also put a matte screen protector on the HD6 to cut down reflections.

My eyes aren't young any more, it seems like my eyes prefer more light over too little. Or maybe that's just a bias I picked up from hearing my father tell me turn on the light and not to read in a dark room over and over. But I think it's really my vision in the dark not being as good as it was when I was younger.

I fully understand people who say they find tablets too heavy or the screens too reflective. I don't understand those who say that reflected light is qualitatively better than direct light.

If I had a front-lit e-ink device, I might use e-ink more often, but the tablet and phone work well enough that I'm not motivated to change. As it is, I only take the e-ink with me when I expect to read outside, which is rare.

I haven't found an app that works to lower brightness on the T62+. I use ScreenDim too on my phone and tablets.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I only get the matte on laptops and monitors too, and would love tablets and phones that came that way. When we had the big crt monitors at work, some people had a so-called glare screen over top that was shiny glass! I never understood what good they were supposed to be.

Like 13 years ago, during one of my internships, one guy at work had something hanging in front of his monitor. He told me it had the effect of looking at the monitor through sunglasses and that he needed it to cut down the brightness of the screen, even when set at its lowest setting.

This was a CRT... and most people in the office were complaining that screens didn't get bright enough to overpower the ambient light.

I wonder how that guy was able to see anything. I couldn't....

It was one of these things:

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Like 13 years ago, durin gone of my internships, one guy at work had a something hanging in front of his monitor. He told me it had the effect of looking at the monitor through sunglasses and that he needed it to cut down the bright ness of the screen, even when set at its lowest setting.

This was a CRT... and most people in the office were complaining that screens didn't get bright enough to overpower the ambient light.

I wonder how that guy was able to see anything. I couldn't....

It was one of these things:

I had one of those too, but it wasn't made of glass. It was a mesh filter that had the appearance of a nylon screen.

[Katsunami]

(WTF. The spelling horror has struck...)

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

(WTF. The spelling horror has struck...)

I didn't even notice it until now.

[Bricorn]

How to read comfortably on a tablet


TABLET !!!
I must get new glasses, I read TOILET.

[ApK]

tl;dr (my new favorite abbreviation)
I don't like the white on black. I don't enjoy reading that way. Any other settings I've tried with dark text on a white/near white background are uncomfortable for me to use for any long period.

Eink reads very much like reading paper, and is both more comfortable and preferable for me.

So I'm with Cinisajoy's first page post.
Plus, Even if it were comfortable, I'd prefer not to jump through hoops re-configuring brightness and settings, using dimness apps, whatever. Better to open the ereader and have it be perfect from the get-go. Illumination, be it fro frontlight, book light, room light or sunlight, is as it always has been with paperbooks (well, 'cept the frontlight part.)

Re: DD's first page post, is it snobbery to suggest that if one is comfortable reading on paper, they will likely be comfortable reading on eink as well?
That's as far as I'll go, dogma-wise.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by ApK

Re: DD's first page post, is it snobbery to suggest that if one is comfortable reading on paper, they will likely be comfortable reading on eink as well?

Not snobbery; just unnecessary.
If one is "comfortable reading on paper" (i.e. no experience reading electronically), then they will likely be comfortable reading on eink OR/AND a tablet/phone (or neither). Probably best to let them choose for themselves without pointless noise and interference from others who mistake their own personal preferences for universal truths (or automatically believe "studies" which confirm their biases).

I'm not interested in pushing people toward reading on tablets. Far from it. I'm only interested in canceling the voice of those who actively seek to discourage people from doing so because of eink's "inherent" (and totally mythical) superiority.

Eink's only indisputable advantages are: battery-life and visibility in direct sunlight. I would definitely recommend eink to any questing novices who indicate a desire to own a device they can use in direct sunlight and/or not have to worry about charging every night. To anyone else, I would recommend trying as many devices as possible (dedicated eink and multi-purpose lcd), and picking the one that most strikes their fancy for reading their books on.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

because of eink's "inherent" (and totally mythical) superiority.

eink looks different than backlight LCD.
eink looks more like paper than backlit LCD.

IF one finds paper superior to LCD, they will almost certainly find eink superior to LCD as well.

There is nothing mythical about that.

I can certainly allow that some people have no problem with LCDs or might even prefer them, so then eink would not be superior.

But I reject the implied claim that there is no difference other than brightness, or that people who are uncomfortable reading on LCD are either delusional or would be happy if they just read glowing white letters and rode the brightness control all the time.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by ApK

eink looks different than backlight LCD.
eink looks more like paper than backlit LCD.

IF one finds paper superior to LCD, they will almost certainly find eink superior to LCD as well.

There is nothing mythical about that.

I can certainly allow that some people have no problem with LCDs or might even prefer them, so then eink would not be superior.

But I reject the implied claim that there is no difference other than brightness ...

And I reject your implications that:
1) eink looks (definitively) "more" like paper than lcd (because neither look anything like paper to me).
2) convincing oneself that "eink looks more like paper" somehow makes it more than a preference, and hence somehow definitive and very "unmythical."

Originally Posted by ApK

or that people who are uncomfortable reading on LCD are either delusional or would be happy if they just read glowing white letters and rode the brightness control all the time.

I reject that one simply because nobody actually made such a claim or implication. The only implication was that some are/would be.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

And I reject your implications that:
1) eink looks (definitively) "more" like paper than lcd (because neither look anything like paper to me).

Hmm. Well, this can't get anywhere useful, but I'd bet you a case of Dr. Pepper that if we polled a 1000 people at random and showed them examples, MOST people would say eink looks very much like ink on paper.

I reject that one simply because nobody actually made such a claim or implication. The only implication was that some are/would be.

Sure looks to me like some folks have implied that. But if you you don't think eink looks anything like paper, clearly we see things differently.

Wait, that was unsatisfying. Let me switch on Internet Arguing Mode:

[IAM]
What? Are you blind or just stupid?! I bet Hitler didn't think eink looked like paper either!
[/IAM]