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An e-reader screen as colorful as a tablet? Soon it will be possible!

04-05-2022 by MNP

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E Ink, the company specializing in electronic ink technology, has just introduced a new generation of electronic paper. Called Gallery 3, this innovative technology allows e-readers to become more fluid while offering better color resolution.


E Ink, the creator and leader of electronic ink, on Monday introduced the third generation of its ACeP (Advanced Color e-Paper) technology, dubbed Gallery 3. This process, 12 times more efficient than previous generations, works thanks to a particle ink system and allows a multitude of colors to be displayed. Gallery 3 promises better color definition and a faster refresh rate. This is an important step forward according to the company's CEO, Johnson Lee, which could well revive the e-reader market that has been in decline for a few years.

A more complete range of colors

Most e-readers use Kaleido technology, which places a color filter over a monochrome screen. Operations are much faster, but the color screen's definition leaves a lot to be desired (100 ppi), and colors are paler or even completely washed out. Thanks to Gallery 3, the E ink company intends to demonstrate that its technology is an asset capable of overcoming the problems encountered with Kaleido technology.

With Gallery 3 technology, screens are more colorful and higher resolution

Gallery technology is based on the ACeP platform, which combines four primary particles (cyan, magenta, yellow and black), like the sub-pixels of an LCD screen. Therefore, it is possible to display more than 50,000 colors (compared to 4,096 in Kaleido) with better resolution by going from 150 dpi to 300 dpi . Rendering, while more vivid, still doesn't quite match what you'd get on a traditional tablet, but it's still a good performance.

A faster refresh rate

As we know, electronic readers still tend to fail in the speed and fluency of reading, although comfort and formats are usually very pleasant in this type of device.

This is why Gallery 3, unlike the previous version, offers three color modes corresponding to different refresh rates. Fast mode can refresh the panel in 500 milliseconds, Standard mode is 750 to 1,000 ms, and High-End Color mode prioritizes quality over speed, as it takes 1,500 ms to refresh pages. Black and white refresh times have also been greatly improved, with Gallery 3 now capable of turning monochrome pages in just 350 milliseconds.

E Ink also announced support for styluses so you can write in black and white, and then gradually in other colors, with a latency time of 30ms. Added to this is the arrival of a new light technology, ComfortGlaze, an LED on the front to limit blue light emissions.

Could E Ink breathe new life into the e-reader market?

E-ink is especially targeted at e-reader makers, because other devices, like digital notepads, for example, rely on speed to compete with tablets capable of updating a page in just 16ms.

Indeed, this technology could be a game-changer for e-reader makers, who have seen the digital book market stall since the pandemic, except in the more colorful field of manga and comics, which alone accounted for €890 million. in business revenue in 2021.

E ink goes even further and would bet like Apple on a new market: that of folding and/or rolling screens.

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Tags

e-readers. screen, reading, digital book, colors, tablet, folding, e ink, electronic ink, technological advance, electronic paper, books, color resolution