Who prefers non-frontlit E-Readers over Frontlit ones and why?

[Hemmi]

I don't care if my ereader has a light or not. I rarely use it if it has one. I don't find it easy to read with the light on and I much prefer my Sony ereaders. The 700 has a built in light and it's horrible. I don't like the cases with a light either. There's almost always sufficient light for wherever I want to read.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Hemmi

I don't care if my ereader has a light or not. I rarely use it if it has one. I don't find it easy to read with the light on and I much prefer my Sony ereaders. The 700 has a built in light and it's horrible. I don't like the cases with a light either. There's almost always sufficient light for wherever I want to read.

The Sony 700 was, AFAIR, the first ereader with a builtin frontlight. From the one sample I saw, it was a great example of how not to implement a frontlight. I've attached an old image from Gizmodo as an example of just how bad it was.

[binaryhermit]

early attempts at new technology tend to have massive issues, though.

Modern frontlights are massively better

[Hemmi]

Oh yes, I have a 700 and a Paperwhite and a Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight. I don't like to read with the light on on any of them. Just is not easy on my eyes.

[kyrilson]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I didn't like eReaders with a built-in front light because I had trouble with the fonts not "standing out" enough (not enough contrast). They somehow looked like they were "floating" and I kept losing focus. I finally figured out the solution, get darker fonts. I use Deja Vu E-Ink Serif on my front-lit Kindle Paperwhite and Tolinos. But if I had to use the built-in fonts with the Paperwhite I don't think I would like it much. You can "bold" the built-in fonts, but they lose their shape (kind of like reading something produced on a typewriter where the keys haven't been cleaned out in a while — for those old enough to remember typewriters). Now that I've got a good, clear, dark font, I almost always use the Tolino Shine or Vision or the Kindle Paperwhite. It's probably an issue with my eyes, but the built-in fonts with front-lit readers just don't work for me. Too light.

I also exclusively use the Deja Vu E-Ink Serif font (actually, I think I got it from you) on all of my e-readers. The font just works the best for me!

When using original fonts on e-readers, I have noticed that the contrast tends to be better to my eyes on the non-frontlit e-readers. So I used to prefer non-frontlit, but now I pretty much always use frontlit readers (mainly the Kobo Glo HD and Kobo Clara HD) with the Deja Vu font.

[ZodWallop]

My first ereader was a Nook Simple Touch w/Glowlight. It was the lighted screen that pushed me into finally trying an ereader. I wouldn't want a reader without a light.

I tend to leave the light on somewhere between 15-25% (depending on the device) and just never mess with it. It's nice never having to worry about lighting conditions when I want to read. When battery life is measured in weeks, I'm not terribly fussed about what impact lighting a few LEDs might cause.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

...I use Deja Vu E-Ink Serif on my front-lit Kindle Paperwhite and Tolinos.

Originally Posted by kyrilson

I also exclusively use the Deja Vu E-Ink Serif font (actually, I think I got it from you) on all of my e-readers.

Where do you find it? I could only find Deja Vu Serif, but nothing that mentioned e-ink specifically.

I mess with new fonts from time to time, but always seem to fall back to Google's Literata Book or their Noto Serif.

[ElspethB]

Here you go, Zodwallop:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=224311

All due props to Katsunami, who added weight to DejaVu Serif to make it an excellent font for e-ink. Now that we can add fonts easily again, it has become my favorite. Very readable.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ElspethB

Here you go, Zodwallop:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=224311

All due props to Katsunami, who added weight to DejaVu Serif to make it an excellent font for e-ink. Now that we can add fonts easily again, it has become my favorite. Very readable.

DejaVu Serif Eink is my second favorite font. My absolute favorite is still CharisSIL Modified Larger. I've tried many fonts, but nothing beats these two.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ElspethB

Here you go, Zodwallop:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=224311

Thanks buddy. I'll give it a whirl at lunch.

[nellie27]

My first ereader was a Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight. I specifically wanted a frontlight. The lighting was, and is, disappointing. Kind of greenish, kind of blotchy. I hardly use the light at all when I use this ereader.

My second and current ereader is the Nook Glowlight 3. Again, I specifically wanted a frontlight, this time with adjustable coloration. It is wonderful! I use the light very frequently, even during the day (when I do all of my reading). Depending on conditions, I'll turn it 1/4 to>1/3 of brightness. "Night Mode" manual setting is generally ~1/2way between cool and warm. It's lovely, similar to incandescent light bulb coloring. And at this brightness level, the screen is evenly illuminated, has excellent contrast, and is easy to read.

[Frenzie]

Afaik the best ereaders tend to have frontlights, so naturally I prefer ereaders with frontlights even if I consider the frontlight itself mostly irrelevant.

That being said, the frontlight on my H2O can go fairly low, so the <5 settings (NB it goes to 100) are actually useful. Some frontlights, mainly older ones I think, won't go low enough. Those are useless but harmless.

Originally Posted by gamba66

Hello,
Cons Frontlit

1. Worse Battery Life (obvious one)
2. Worse contrast when completely turned off (speculation!)? due to additional layer (also sometimes claimed with capacitive touch layer)
3. QC Problems such as white spots or uneven lightning

Battery life must logically be worse when you enable the light, but unlike having wifi enabled (which cuts the battery life from weeks to days) the difference is fairly minimal.

Worse contrast? That doesn't really make any sense.

QC problems — not that I've seen on Kobo and Tolino.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Frenzie

QC problems — not that I've seen on Kobo and Tolino.

I love my Kobo, but the company has had QC issues with the Aura One, Clara HD and Forma.

There have also been complaints about the Kindle Voyage and various Paperwhites.

[Frenzie]

True, I've definitely heard that about the Forma, but one I saw in a store seemed fine to me. It may have been ever so slightly darker or lighter around one of the edges when playing around with the yellow mode but there wasn't any banding or spottiness.

If I'm not mistaken you mentioned all of the "natural light" models except for the H2Ov2?

Anyway, as someone who doesn't really care if there's a frontlight or not, if there were two equal devices one of which didn't have a light so it was a few grams lighter and a few Euros cheaper, I might pick that one. But it hardly seems like something you'd specifically look for.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Frenzie

Worse contrast? That doesn't really make any sense.
.

With the light completely off, the background screen color on my Kobo Clara is a little darker than that of my old Sony PRS-T3. However, the text on the Clara is clearer so it's still readable.

I have the lighted case for the PRS-T3 so either reader is OK if there is not sufficient light in the area where I am reading. Also, the light on both readers turns off when the reader goes to sleep which is useful if I want to read while falling asleep myself 🙂