5 ms·

For the quoted 1500$ for the display I could buy a printer and print the page for quite some time...

throwanem 7y ago
A large-format printer, yet. A Pixma Pro 1000 that can do excellent 17x22-inch prints - and color! - only runs about a grand, so you'd even have a bit left over for some good Hahnemuhle photo paper.
- mrmanner 7y ago
  While the format is an important point, I don’t understand why one would print a newspaper front page on good paper?
  - throwanem 7y ago
    Beats me, but that's not really my point anyway. Displaying photographs was cited as a good use case for an e-ink display, and as a photographer who puts considerable effort into producing high-quality display prints of their work, I felt it worth explaining why that's a terrible use case for e-ink. (Anyway, why do people frame newspaper front pages? Given the total lack of archival quality in newsprint, I could see scanning and printing to frame in a way that'd hold up better over time.)
    - tjoff 7y ago
      I don't think those use-cases are in collision with one another. I'd be happy to take an e-ink display for photographs. But also buy high-quality prints as well. Even though both will end up on the wall they are totally different use-cases.
      - throwanem 7y ago
        Are they? I don't see how. Where's the use in displaying a photograph, at whatever size, as a muddy, contrastless mess?
        tjoff 7y ago
        Family vacation? The LCD picture frames are popular and can be described just like that. Even the kindle grayscale images could be decent as decoration. (I'm guessing e-ink would look best in grayscale, but I haven't seen one in color) Maybe not the living-room centerpiece, but still.
        throwanem 7y ago
        Even there, much better options exist. For the same money you can get a 55" Samsung Frame with color, excellent contrast, and that also doubles as a quite good TV - it can be the living-room centerpiece.
        tjoff 7y ago
        Much better for what? I'd never use that - absolutely hideous for the use-cases I'd use an e-ink for. I'd use the one in the article in a heartbeat, much more elegant and no backlight. No it won't display a photograph as good as the Samsung but it will not be cheesy or look out of place (or consume tons of energy) - which the Samsung will if it is positioned anywhere else but in front of and in eye-level of a sofa. The only thing it is good for is as a TV, which I guess is great if you want a TV.
        throwanem 7y ago
        I'd rather take a chance on the Frame's automatic backlight adjustment to match the ambient light level maybe working, than on e-ink which guarantees poor reproduction. It's just super odd to me to think about wanting to go to all the trouble of displaying an image at that size and scale, and also being willing to accept it looking as lousy as e-ink's awful contrast will necessarily make it. Sure, it's a lot easier to change the displayed image than it is with a paper print, but what's the benefit of that when they're all going to look equally bad? Granted I'm a photographer and I want my own work to look good, but it's not as if I had to develop that interest to want whatever I did put on my walls to look good...
        7y ago
  - jayd16 7y ago
    You could print glossy magazine covers.
atomwaffel 7y ago
Perhaps you could even pay a company to print the entire paper for you and have it delivered to your door every morning.

A large-format printer, yet. A Pixma Pro 1000 that can do excellent 17x22-inch prints - and color! - only runs about a grand, so you'd even have a bit left over for some good Hahnemuhle photo paper.

mrmanner 7y ago
While the format is an important point, I don’t understand why one would print a newspaper front page on good paper?
- throwanem 7y ago
  Beats me, but that's not really my point anyway. Displaying photographs was cited as a good use case for an e-ink display, and as a photographer who puts considerable effort into producing high-quality display prints of their work, I felt it worth explaining why that's a terrible use case for e-ink. (Anyway, why do people frame newspaper front pages? Given the total lack of archival quality in newsprint, I could see scanning and printing to frame in a way that'd hold up better over time.)
  - tjoff 7y ago
    I don't think those use-cases are in collision with one another. I'd be happy to take an e-ink display for photographs. But also buy high-quality prints as well. Even though both will end up on the wall they are totally different use-cases.
    - throwanem 7y ago
      Are they? I don't see how. Where's the use in displaying a photograph, at whatever size, as a muddy, contrastless mess?
      - tjoff 7y ago
        Family vacation? The LCD picture frames are popular and can be described just like that. Even the kindle grayscale images could be decent as decoration. (I'm guessing e-ink would look best in grayscale, but I haven't seen one in color) Maybe not the living-room centerpiece, but still.
        throwanem 7y ago
        Even there, much better options exist. For the same money you can get a 55" Samsung Frame with color, excellent contrast, and that also doubles as a quite good TV - it can be the living-room centerpiece.
        tjoff 7y ago
        Much better for what? I'd never use that - absolutely hideous for the use-cases I'd use an e-ink for. I'd use the one in the article in a heartbeat, much more elegant and no backlight. No it won't display a photograph as good as the Samsung but it will not be cheesy or look out of place (or consume tons of energy) - which the Samsung will if it is positioned anywhere else but in front of and in eye-level of a sofa. The only thing it is good for is as a TV, which I guess is great if you want a TV.
        throwanem 7y ago
        I'd rather take a chance on the Frame's automatic backlight adjustment to match the ambient light level maybe working, than on e-ink which guarantees poor reproduction. It's just super odd to me to think about wanting to go to all the trouble of displaying an image at that size and scale, and also being willing to accept it looking as lousy as e-ink's awful contrast will necessarily make it. Sure, it's a lot easier to change the displayed image than it is with a paper print, but what's the benefit of that when they're all going to look equally bad? Granted I'm a photographer and I want my own work to look good, but it's not as if I had to develop that interest to want whatever I did put on my walls to look good...
      - 7y ago
- jayd16 7y ago
  You could print glossy magazine covers.

atomwaffel 7y ago

Perhaps you could even pay a company to print the entire paper for you and have it delivered to your door every morning.