Do you enjoy reading on a PC?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by neil_swann80

Like others have said, I read comics and short blogs on the PC, but for long reading stints I'd prefer to be holding a smaller device in my favourite armchair or leaning against a well cushioned headrest in bed.

Does anyone use a colour e-ink device for reading comics? Been wondering if I should take the plunge. Pros/cons?

I use a tablet. I wouldn't want to read a comic on a PC.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by neil_swann80

Like others have said, I read comics and short blogs on the PC, but for long reading stints I'd prefer to be holding a smaller device in my favourite armchair or leaning against a well cushioned headrest in bed.

Does anyone use a colour e-ink device for reading comics? Been wondering if I should take the plunge. Pros/cons?

The colors on color e-ink tablet look like you're reading a comic printed on 1970s newsprint. If you're eager to experience Amazing Fantasy #15 as it originally looked, then maybe that's a perk! But I've been spoiled by my Samsung tablet, where comics are vibrant and beautiful. I'm not switching to e-ink until the color spectrum catches up.

[Quoth]

An insult to the 1970s. Try 1930s to 1950s.

[Dsharma]

Originally Posted by neil_swann80

Like others have said, I read comics and short blogs on the PC, but for long reading stints I'd prefer to be holding a smaller device in my favourite armchair or leaning against a well cushioned headrest in bed.

Does anyone use a colour e-ink device for reading comics? Been wondering if I should take the plunge. Pros/cons?

Pros: They're comfy to hold, easy on the eyes, have great battery life, and you can customize settings.
Cons: Colors aren't as vibrant, refresh rate is slower, fewer options on the market, and they can be pricey.
If you value comfort and battery life, it's worth considering. But if color quality is a deal-breaker, stick to tablets or print.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Quoth

An insult to the 1970s. Try 1930s to 1950s.

I'm guessing you didn't read many American comics from the 1970s.

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

The colors on color e-ink tablet look like you're reading a comic printed on 1970s newsprint. If you're eager to experience Amazing Fantasy #15 as it originally looked, then maybe that's a perk! But I've been spoiled by my Samsung tablet, where comics are vibrant and beautiful. I'm not switching to e-ink until the color spectrum catches up.

I get that. But to be honest, lots of old comics look better in newsprint than digital. Because at the time they were made, they were colored with the understanding that the newsprint would soak up a lot of the ink.

When those comics are published with the same colors on a vibrant white background, they look garish. In particular I noticed it on the early Len Wein/Bernie Wrightson Swamp Things. Scans of the newsprint look better than the digital edition.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'm guessing you didn't read many American comics from the 1970s.

I did, when I could afford them and find them. We more commonly had British comics at home, but probably didn't bother with them after 1971 approx. Dandy, Beano, TV21, Eagle, Topper, Mandy etc. Much cheaper and every sweet shop / newsagent had them.
I think photos & video I've seen of Colour eink look worse than anything of 1970s. Even Mirasol (which simply seemed a bit brighter and much faster).

But to be honest, lots of old comics look better in newsprint than digital. Because at the time they were made, they were colored with the understanding that the newsprint would soak up a lot of the ink.

Umm, it's more complex than that. Also a lot of half tone screening was used which makes colours more muted. It's not exactly about "ink soaking up the paper".
Inherently on print the Red, Green, Blue are all darker (or much less saturated, i.e. pale / pastel if not dark) than Cyan, Yellow and Magenta (the actual ink colours).

RGB filtered mono eink is either dark or pastel and much worst for C Y M and limited by the 14 shades between black and white. The Gallery 3 and other C Y M cell (aecp) is very very slow though does more shades and colours. It might be comparable to cheap print and might be better than 1970s wood pulp printed paper (better paper has rag and is not pure wood pulp, hence origin of Pulp Fiction term in the USA was due to printing on cheapest pure wood pulp, only a bit bleached, in 1930s).

However no-one has yet released a Gallery 3 CYM eink and it will be very niche when or if it is released. It's shop display tech to replace power hungry HDTV style based shop adverts.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Umm, it's more complex than that. Also a lot of half tone screening was used which makes colours more muted. It's not exactly about "ink soaking up the paper".
Inherently on print the Red, Green, Blue are all darker (or much less saturated, i.e. pale / pastel if not dark) than Cyan, Yellow and Magenta (the actual ink colours).

Is there any subject you are not master of?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Is there any subject you are not master of?

When you said 'Comics'. I was thinking: 'Sunday Newspaper' funnies.

And, I was also going to comment that the needed Half toning, would mute colors on news print (which also yellows fairly quickly).

Maybe we both took 'Print Shop' in school?
I set cold and hot type. Ran a small Offset Press. And learned about what had to be done (in the 50-60's) to keep ink from blobbing in images.

[John F]

Originally Posted by theducks

When you said 'Comics'. I was thinking: 'Sunday Newspaper' funnies.

...

When he said Comics, I assumed he meant comic books (DC, Marvel, ...). I don't recall Swamp Thing being in the funny pages.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by John F

I don't recall Swamp Thing being in the funny pages.

Oh, he was hilarious!

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by theducks

When you said 'Comics'. I was thinking: 'Sunday Newspaper' funnies.

And, I was also going to comment that the needed Half toning, would mute colors on news print (which also yellows fairly quickly).

Maybe we both took 'Print Shop' in school?
I set cold and hot type. Ran a small Offset Press. And learned about what had to be done (in the 50-60's) to keep ink from blobbing in images.

I'm just going on what comics professionals have said. And in the end, does it matter? Comics colored for newsprint look garish when printed on better, whiter paper or digitally unless they are recolored, whatever the reason.

Even before digital, when older comics would be reprinted on whiter Baxter paper you could see the issues. Many of the older, classic comics were not recolored on their initial digital release and look the worse for it.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Is there any subject you are not master of?

Most things not a master of. Generally I know nothing about sport or celebrities or also most pop music this century. There are things I'd like to have learned to do and never did. I'm rubbish at playing any of of the instruments I did learn. Started learning various languages, but never progressed.
Also more jack-of-all-trades than Master or even journeyman level at things I can do.

In that I've worked in Broadcasting (technical), print media, my own multimedia company in 1990s, my own industrial services &computer service company 1979-1983 (inc screen printing control panels), Industrial & Telecoms electronics design, R&D for an ISP (inc design of a 4G tablet running Linux), programming, security systems and design of an electronic Notepad & electronic Pen product in late 1980s (1 patent). In the mid to late 1990s I gave a lot training and gave courses in NT Administration, Programming, databases, Linux (for DELL Plus staff), MS office and Wordperfect etc.

I'd obviously have some background on topics relating to this site.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'm just going on what comics professionals have said. And in the end, does it matter? Comics colored for newsprint look garish when printed on better, whiter paper or digitally unless they are recolored, whatever the reason.

Even before digital, when older comics would be reprinted on whiter Baxter paper you could see the issues. Many of the older, classic comics were not recolored on their initial digital release and look the worse for it.

Inept republishing. OTOH we have loads of hard back "Peanuts", and in cardback Tintin and Asterix on good white paper that are perfectly fine.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Inept republishing. OTOH we have loads of hard back "Peanuts", and in cardback Tintin and Asterix on good white paper that are perfectly fine.

Of course. That was my whole point. Not that reprinted items cannot look good. But that many of them don't.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Of course. That was my whole point. Not that reprinted items cannot look good. But that many of them don't.

Fortunately we (as a family) seem to have escaped the ineptly re-published stuff.

But on "reading on a PC":
For decades I had no choice, though sometimes printed content. The CRTs terrible but the April 2002 laptop with 1600 x 1200 LCD wasn't too bad, though tiring. It had first screen I could read A4 PDFs on and later so-called HD (1920x1080) was inferior. I'd have liked the Sony eReader I saw in a shop in Dublin in either 2006 or 2007, though very grey, but I couldn't afford it.
About 2013 I got a Kindle but a bit later gave it to my wife as the DXG was being remaindered at a bargain price by Amazon with free USA to Ireland shipping and no extra charges. I still have it and i regard it as the most useless thing I ever got. I wanted to read PDFs as well as ebooks and annotate them and was shocked how poor it was compared to the Kindle I'd given away (I forget model). Wife passed it on to grandson and got a PW3. A bit later I got an original Kobo Aura HD H2O, but disappointed that the chess had just been removed. However it was my first decent ereader. Shortly after in 2014 we got a Kindle (7th basic?) for my daughter that was mysteriously more than the 167 dpi. Seems like 300 dpi. She still reads on it. Better for PDFs than the DXG

I regard the Kindle DXG as one of the worst gadget purchases I ever made. I should have researched why DX(G) was a failure in the Education market and why Amazon flogging so cheap.

Edit: Amazon USA order history tells me Kindle DXG was ordered on October 18, 2013

I think we bought some Kindles and Kobos in the local Argos (now gone) as mysteriously cheaper than online and easier returns. The odd Kindle "Basic" 7th Gen (no frontlight) that's maybe 300 dpi was 19 Nov 2014. Seems to be same panel as PW3, but without lights. Till I think 2022, all Basic models were 167 dpi, but originally called Touch?

I'd looked at eink for a 4G tablet/notebook project before I ever bought an ereader and concluded it would only be OK for a dumb phone and text chat on Internet and that colour (other than maybe Mirasol, but it was still unavailable when the project was cancelled).

I've had a variety of phones and tablets and none are good for prolonged reading. A comic-strip style book is mostly a much shorter read than a novel so I find them OK on the 10" Lenovo Yoga Tab which has a stand built in.

I got the Kobo Elipsa to read & annotate PDFs maybe last April or May 2022 and was so impressed with the Advanced Notebooks I bought a Sage even though I had a Libra. I found the Elipsa too heavy for notes/writing and reading.

My LG Electronics UHD 4K Monitor 24UD58-B was bought last September 2022. It's the first screen (desktop or laptop) in about 40 years of reading text on screens that's not tiring. With low ambient light, no windows or lamps reflected on it and brightness at 11, contrast 36, it's almost like paper. It would be even better if 18" to 20" or higher resolution as it's 23" (about 60cm). Good for two PDF pages side by side to preview a book layout or single page "fit page" to read PDF docs. I use Okular which can read many document types.

I did get a new laptop in Nov 2016, and again this year, but both are only 1920 x 1080 screens (15" and 17"). I put a second-hand Optiplex 7050 with 4T HDD added to 512G SSD and a UPS (big advantage of laptops is that's builtin. Somehow we get a power cut just before an autosave or manual save when writing) and put the 4K screen plus a new Cherry Stream TKL keyboard.

The 4K screen has no flicker, even viewed at edge of vision. Any still camera setting and video camera works without banding. Less tiring than perfect matt paper large format books, but it's not portable, so all reading of novels is on the Sage. The tablet is most used for text chat with family & friends, which apart from the odd gif or video might work on eink, I might try Viber on the eink Android Mars (really only used for the local library ebooks).

So though I read all novels (inc some PDF scanned ones) on the Kobo Sage now and any comics on the tablet, I'd now read any PDF technical document on PC screen rather than print. We do have a Brother colour duplex laser printer/scanner that Wife uses for patterns. I've stopped as I use screens.

The Elipsa is now the least used screen, but used to mark format errors on PDF for our own POD.