What is E Ink or Electronic Paper?
E Ink (Electrophonic Ink), Electronic Paper or ePaper are a special type of display technology which mimics the appearance of ordinary ink on paper (e.g. like a newspaper or magazine).
The E Ink utilises an electronic film which is inserted into various mobile screen devices, and provides the appearance of ink on paper by providing microscopic pixels known as capsules which resemble the texture of ink particles on a paper.
The primary advantage of E Ink is that is reduces power consumption and provides much higher contrast and stable imaging in comparison to LCD screens. This makes E Ink or “Electronic Paper” much suitable for reading material in different ambient light conditions or sunlight.
E Ink is now used in a variety of mobile applications including most eReaders (e.g. Amazon Kindle DX), mobile phones and digital watches. E Ink is also being utilised by electronic magazines and newspapers.
The Invention of E Ink
E Ink is a specific type of electronic paper which was developed by the E Ink Company in 1998 as part of an MIT Media Lab experiment. E Ink is most widely used in the newest eReader devices such as the Kindle DX, Sony eReader Touch, iRex Iliad and the Barnes and Noble Nook.
In 2010, E Ink launched a second generation of E Ink display, E Ink Pearl) which provided a 50% higher contrast then the original E Ink displays. You can now find E Ink Pearl technology in the latest Kindle 3G and DX devices as well as the Kobo eReader Touch, Sony Reader Touch edition and the Nook Simple Touch.
A third generation of E Ink display, E Ink Triton, was announced in 2010 which displays both 16 shades of gray and over 4,000 shades of colour.
The Advantages of E Ink in eBook Reader Devices
The advantages for using E Ink technology in eReaders are that it provides a much better reading material for users. Higher contrast, stable images and 0% parallax (the observed displacement of lettering when changing angle) makes it ideal for readers.
Other advantages of E Ink technology are that it is much less power consuming (images can run indefinitely without any electricity) which means that eReaders such as the Kindle can run for weeks on end, less glare even in sunlight, sharper text display and uniform text contrast.
It’s actually argued that if it wasn’t for the discovery of E Ink technology than the eReader market would never have grown as it has done. Previous eReaders with LCD screens were available in 2001 however their poor user-experience (LCD screens caused eye strains) limited their appeal to consumers.
The Disadvantages of E Ink
The main disadvantages of E Ink or Eletronic Paper is that it has a much slower refresh rate than LCD or Plasma based screens. This makes the screens undesirable for high re-fresh rate activities such as gaming, zoom, scrolling and other interactive activities. Another disadvantage is ghost images, which are shadows of the previous screen after refreshing.
