12 ms·

E-Ink Typewriter

167 points by olup 5y ago

ct0 5y ago
Absolutely love tech like this.
- jseliger 5y ago
  You might like https://getfreewrite.com/ https://getfreewrite.com/ as well.
  - caconym_ 5y ago
    It's really too bad that (last I checked) the Freewrite is permanently shackled to their weird proprietary cloud service. I guess there is a way to pull documents off it with USB, but you (apparently) can't add, remove, or generally organize files that way. I got a Pomera DM30 instead, which just appears as a USB drive mirroring the device's filesystem. It's a Japanese keyboard layout, but the English support is fine, and overall I love it.
    - pwrplus1 5y ago
      Another adoring Pomera DM30 owner here. I use git worktree to sync writing projects with my laptop. I could not bare needing to go through Freewrite's cloud.
    - wellthisisgreat 5y ago
      Wow Pomera looks very interesting. Is it the only one of its kind? And is it actually that small that you can put it in your pocket? Which document formats does it save to?
      - caconym_ 5y ago
        > Is it the only one of its kind? I'm not aware of any directly comparable non-DIY devices. There are a few other "electronic typewriter" devices that usually come up in these discussions, like the Alphasmart range and the Freewrite, but the DM30 checks more of my boxes. > And is it actually that small that you can put it in your pocket? I (a man who wears men's clothes with generally usable pockets) can fit it in a pocket, but not very comfortably. It has a footprint similar to a basic e-reader, but it's thicker, I'd guess an inch and change. > Which document formats does it save to? It just saves to plain text, which is perfect for me since I write in Markdown. The editor uses a (sort of ugly) monospace font and has some simple but useful navigation commands.
        wellthisisgreat 5y ago
        Thank you, I actually went ahead and bought a DM30 last night. Seems like it could be the perfect thing to take for an outside writing. session. Yes the screen could have been somewhat bigger, but then it would absolutely require an iPad-sized bag. I just hope the screen is not tooo small :)
        wellthisisgreat 5y ago
        Hi, sorry to bother you, but I got the Pomera DM30 and can't seem to figure how to disable the Japanese substitution for the text. Every time I enter English text and add a punctuation mark everything changes to Japanese. I have switched the interface to English, that was pretty straightforward.
  - HelixEndeavor 5y ago
    ... Look, I get it, this device was funded over Kickstarter, it's incredibly niche with small production runs and a lot of custom designed pieces, and it simply can't benefit from the economies of scale that devices from bigger companies get... But there is just no way on this earth I could ever justify paying $600 USD for what amounts to an e-ink display strapped to a Cherry MX keyboard.
jesselawson 5y ago
I write science fiction and also work in technology. My days are spent glued to a screen so much that it's hard to want to write on my computer when I have time to write. So I do everything longhand, then wait for long weekends to translate things from my notebook into a word processor. I wish I could do my drafts on my computer; I used to be able to work all day and night in front of a screen, but lately I've been realizing that I'm a lot less anxious overall when I (try to) stop interacting with computers after a certain time. One thing I've been thinking about is having a computer hooked up to a rudimentary word processor app on my kindle. The kindle's display doesn't bother me after I'm done working on screens. It feels different enough that it doesn't interrupt my reading, so I've posited that I would be okay writing on one. I'm excited to see technology like this come out, and I'm excited to see how this little industry grows.
- kiwidrew 5y ago
  You could also try to track down an old CRT serial terminal; they have very sharp monochrome displays and I find that the dark background with amber/green/white phosphor is very easy on the eyes. It's also more difficult to get distracted while using a real terminal, because of its inherent limitations as a textual output device.
- pjgalbraith 5y ago
  Great to hear that I'm not the only one. After working all day in front of a screen I just can't get motivated to spend my night in front of a computer so I end up doing a lot of planning and note-taking but not enough drafting. I have recently bought a Onyx BOOX Nova which I plan to use via a bluetooth keyboard when it arrives. I had the exact same thought regarding e-ink displays since I read a lot using a kindle after work.
- mdp2021 5y ago
  > a computer hooked up to a rudimentary word processor app on my You just need an Android tablet with EPD display and a decent word processor. If you do not want full formatting - so, you are contented with typewriter like rendering -, there must be abundance of software application. If you want proper typographical paragraph formatting, with e.g. full text justification and spacing etc., there are a few usable applications. (As written in anther post, in the end, to have an application with all the features I wanted, I wrote it directly.)
agloeregrets 5y ago
Y'all want an Alphasmart. The basic models like the classic iMac Themed 3000 were the best models for this but the Neo gets you a better screen and keyboard.
- Multicomp 5y ago
  I keep trying to find a dream writer 200 so that I can save my files to a floppy disk but they have not appeared on eBay yet. So I continue to try to mount a tiny screen to a Raspberry Pi zero and the amount that inside a model m keyboard
- HelixEndeavor 5y ago
  AlphaSmarts are certainly intriguing devices - but flawed in many ways. Most notably, all models' internal storage was non-persistent. If your batteries died, poof, everything gone. The LCDs simply do not lend themselves to the same amazing outdoor visibility as modern e-ink displays. The only way to get your words off is to connect the device over USB to a receiving computer and "send" the text one letter at a time. To be fair it's fairly cool to see the AlphaSmart emulate itself as a keyboard device to Windows and shoot text over faster than any human could ever type, but it's still incredibly slow, can take minutes at a time to transfer single documents. I own an AlphaSmart Dana - one of the last devices they ever made - and it suffers from many of these issues far worse. It ran a slightly customized version of PalmOS, so it slurped up batteries like nothing, still had non-persistent internal storage, did include an SD card slot but its own writing software saved files in a proprietary format you couldn't open on any computer, so you still had to use the USB keyboard method... The AlphaSmart devices were made to teach little kids how to type, and not much more. And that is very clear.
  - II2II 5y ago
    I have an AlphaSmart 3000 and it's not all that bad if you think of it as a keyboard that you can use away from your computer. Yes, the transfer speeds are slow. On the other hand you can pull up any program that accepts keyboard input on your computer, plug it in, and hit send. You are not messing around with files are proprietary software to transfer those files. It also takes a lot more than the batteries to die to lose your data. Like many older devices, it has a backup battery to maintain the contents of memory. Both the main batteries and the backup batteries have to be dead to lose data, which is tricky to do since the device will only run from the main batteries. That said, the editor is very primitive and it is awkward to navigate by word and line alone while editing documents.
arkenflame 5y ago
This is awesome! I made a similar app that works with a kindle and your mobile device: https://msolomon.github.io/solarwriter-website https://msolomon.github.io/solarwriter-website
- Tepix 5y ago
  Cool! Some observations: The link to the developer homepage in the iOS app store points to msol.io (which appears to be broken/recently registered). The app is lacking a privacy policy.
- olup 5y ago
  Oh yes, I also had a couple of such design - used an app or a server, ssh connection or simple websockets. But for this one I really wanted it to work standalone !
cjlm 5y ago
Nice project. I recently achieved my e-ink typewriter dream with an Onyx Boox paired with a Jelly Comb keyboard. More expensive than using an old Kobo but pretty flexible.
- HelixEndeavor 5y ago
  What drew you to the Jelly Comb keyboard in particular over others? And what model of Onyx Boox do you use it with?
dredmorbius 5y ago
The Android-based Onyx BOOX ebook reader supports an bluetooth keyboard. The company will sell you a reasonably decent one (it lacks function and escape keys, though Fn-` maps to esc within Termux ... sometimes) for $35. The Termux Linux terminal and environment (https://termux.com/ https://termux.com/) is installable via F-Droid. Among the terminal schemes is an e-ink mode of dark-on-light. Font size is scalable. Through Termux you have your choice of terminal-mode editors, including vim, emacs, nano, pico, and numerous others. The handwriten notes feature is also quite good. Text-recognition is a bit iffy but does work. My main reservation with this setup is that Android's memory management is fatally flawed and processes can be terminated at any time without warning. Terminal sessions really ought to be exemptable from that, but AFAIK they are not. (Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.) Still, it's a quite good environment with nearly 1,500 packages available using the APT package tool. Smaller current BOOX devices start at about US$250, used could likely be less than this. Any Android or LineageOS -capable device should be able to function likewise. There are a few Linux-based devices also on the market (and yes, Kobo is one), including the reMarkable tablet (my major gripe: 16 GB storage is simply stupidly small, this supports a cabled keyboard but not AFAIU Bluetooth), and devices from Pine (in process) and possibly Purism. A longer review of the Onyx BOOX here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27521248 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27521248
- nzmsv 5y ago
  It looks like a decent device, but Onyx's attitude towards open source makes it a non-starter. http://bbs.onyx-international.com/t/please-provide-source-code-for-kernel-and-bootloader/237/35 http://bbs.onyx-international.com/t/please-provide-source-co... https://www.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/hsyigm/onyx_using_recent_antichina_movement_as_excuse_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/hsyigm/on...
  - wellthisisgreat 5y ago
    What is a good alternative for Boox that would allow to read epub, mobi, PDF, take notes and use a keyboard (for typewriter experience)? I was considering iPad but would be happy not to get another LED a screen
the__alchemist 5y ago
I'm curious what the latency and full-refresh requirements are; ie a video of it in action.
- olup 5y ago
  It's pretty reactive, as the screen only refreshes the chars that have changed on the matrix at each key stroke. Even a page up/down that changes all the screen is very fast. I only do full refresh with flashing when using the menu so some ghosting may appear, but I haven't experienced it.
  - the__alchemist 5y ago
    Does not using full refresh periodically cause burn-in?
erickhill 5y ago
Folks still trying to recreate a more perfect Apple Newton with the external keyboard option. (I'm all for it!) See: https://www.flickr.com/photos/animbear/6939415056/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/animbear/6939415056/
- beckman466 5y ago
  Yes because Apple invented the modular technology of a separate keyboard and portable computer... /s > trying to recreate a more perfect Apple Newton with the external keyboard option I wasn't alive when that was produced, does that mean I am trying to recreate something I don't know about? I think I get it though, it sounds like it was a product you liked. Excuse the above sarcasm, i just get frustrated that this whole 'repurposing black box tech' is a even thing and I wish we lived in the modular open source and anticapitalist/socialist world of tomorrow, today.
- minxomat 5y ago
  So, a Psion 3 (or 5MX)?
- neonnoodle 5y ago
  Years ago I had an old Apple eMate 300 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMate_300 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMate_300. It was surprisingly good! I wrote a lot on it, and it was even able to print wirelessly via IR. They put a ton of features into it, surprising for an education-centric device. It was the OLPC before OLPC was a gleam in anyone’s eye.
fnord77 5y ago
anyone remember the old-timey hardware word processors?
- itronitron 5y ago
  yes, those were common in college in the early '90's, I wouldn't be surprised if they could be found and refurbished. I think Brother was one of the more popular brands.
  - fnord77 5y ago
    I was just searching around and Brother units are the only ones I can find. I seem to recall other ones.
- HelixEndeavor 5y ago
  We need to bring them back honestly. I want more useful offline tech.
  - mdp2021 5y ago
    > I want more useful offline tech I am not sure in which sense you meant that, but my "E-Ink typewriter" (Onyx + BT Keyboard) has never been online.
- sacado2 5y ago
  Yeah, they sucked, you couldn't fix your mistakes, let alone insert a sentence just before another, or, god forbid, move a whole section of your text. Plus, you only had one copy of your text, you had to retype all of it if you wanted to make a copy. And entirely retype it another time into another hardware device if you wanted to do any formatting at all. I'm glad we have better options nowadays. Good fitness machines though, because you better have strong fingers to type all day long with these devices.
  - tomjen3 5y ago
    Those are typewritters (and manual ones at that, if there is any issue with your fingers), op was talking about word processors, which have almost exactly none of the issues you mentioned. You can see the 8bit guy demo one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNs-QIMHCJA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNs-QIMHCJA
etaioinshrdlu 5y ago
This looks super fun! Lately I've been dreaming of building a credit-card sized computer (thickness included) using a e-ink display and ultrathin battery. I haven't found a good purpose for it though. Speaking of E-Ink, if you remember the "Thinkpad X230 with “e-Ink” display at 30fps": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26860609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26860609, I'm selling two of them: https://www.ebay.com/itm/255123140172 https://www.ebay.com/itm/255123140172
- DoingIsLearning 5y ago
  Any more details on why you are parting with the X320? Is the transflective display performance not all that you expected?
  - etaioinshrdlu 5y ago
    The main thing is I'm a mac user and I didn't like the touchpad, and the screen size is 1024x600 which is not very interesting for me.
- olup 5y ago
  If the screen should also fit in a credit card, I see that the Lilygo t5 4.7 esp32 card with an eink screen could maybe work out for you (https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005002006058892.html https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005002006058892.html)
mdp2021 5y ago
Nice, but for actual use, there are more straightforward setups: I spend hours per day in front of an Onyx Max2 (13.3'' E-Ink + Android) landscape on a full sized BT keyboard with a long slot to accommodate big tablets, and I use a full fledged word processor. The catch is, I was dissatisfied with all word processors available for Android, so I wrote mine (and I get rich text in full book-like formatting with optimized use of the screen).
- miles 5y ago
  > full sized BT keyboard with a long slot to accommodate big tablets Can you please share the name or link?
  - mdp2021 5y ago
    Sorry for the half reply (I cannot check it physically right now): if you search for "BT keyboard with slot" in the images section of a search engine (DDG), a few similar to mine will come out: I have the one with the mousepad in the bottom-right corner. I believe that the manufacturers distribute the product for different brands (so, for example, I see "Hot-sale-keyboard-bluetooth-touchpad" on Alibaba, or a "Texet Bluetooth Keyboard Touchpad BTK SLOT"). BTW: battery life is never a problem. The rare events in which I find myself with the red light blinking, I just hook up a portable power bank.
  - jonaustin 5y ago
    Not the poster, but this is the one I got, works well, though it definitely can't compare to a mechanical keyboard: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MUTWLW4 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MUTWLW4 Logitech K480 bluetooth. Unfortunately I can't recommend boox anymore, a tiny crack appeared on my note air pretty much where my thumb goes when holding it and spread across the entire display; warranty was useless of course.
    - miles 5y ago
      Thank you. I am familiar with the K480, but it can only accommodate tablets up to 10" wide; was hoping to find out what model mdp2021 found to accommodate up to a 13.3" tablet.
prvc 5y ago
I wish the README had a description of the mounting bracket, and of the editor (i.e. is it based on an existing editor). Relatedly, are there console based editors that focus on writing prose? What about setups for the more popular editors built for code?
- pwrplus1 5y ago
  I use Emacs for prose, mostly screenwriting.
- stavros 5y ago
  The mounting bracket seems to be a 5-minute design that was then 3D-printed. If you don't have a printer, I imagine someone at your local Makerspace would be more than happy to help in exchange for pizza.
- olup 5y ago
  The mounting is indeed a PLA 3d printed stand built in 5 minute in thinkerCAD. The editor is the object of the program it's homemade and pretty basic (and I wanted it basic). I should add a video at some point.
qwerty456127 5y ago
eInk typewriter is cute but I want an eInk Obsidian[1] machine :-) [1] https://obsidian.md/ https://obsidian.md/
- techdragon 5y ago
  This is exactly what I’m buying a PineNote (https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/ https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/) for!
  - qwerty456127 5y ago
    Cool! I'm eager to see your review of in this context! Would you kindly add a follow-up to this comment and share either your experience in brief or a link to an actual review you would probably write please?
- mickael 5y ago
  I am using Obsidian as well and I am considering using an Android eInk tablet (Like a Boox), with a keyboard to be able to use Obsidian. I may give it a try it some day.
  - qwerty456127 5y ago
    Please share your experience!
japanuspus 5y ago
On the reMarkable tablet you can access the linux firmware directly, which should make this kind of use possible without dropping other functionality. See for instance this post by Nick Temple: https://nicktemple.com/blog/remarkable-keyboard/ https://nicktemple.com/blog/remarkable-keyboard/
- olup 5y ago
  It's a bit the same here - the kobo is still a normal functioning Kobo. Only the kernel has to change to allow USB OTG mode, and you can switch between custom and stock one. By the way, the libs I used here works on remarkable too, so it's just a matter of compiling the software and finding a matching kernel.
  - japanuspus 5y ago
    Sorry - missed the fact that it could coexist with the reader. Thank you for pointing this out.
black_puppydog 5y ago
I recently received my freewrite traveler and I love this device, I've been wanting something like this for years now and I could finally afford it. If you're taken aback by the steep price tag: from my understanding that's a combination of small volume and the patent situation with e-ink which has been holding the technology back. Seriously, I'm very frustrated with that; essentially these things haven't gotten all that much better (in general, not talking about volume customers like amazon) than the first time I read about them in what, 2005?
- dm319 5y ago
  I think anything small volume ends up costing a lot. BTW the traveler reminds me of the original Psion 3.
chj 5y ago
I bought an eink display once, thinking to use it for text editing, but returned it the second day. There is nothing paper like when it comes to typing.

E-Ink Typewriter

167 points by olup 5y ago

ct0 5y ago

Absolutely love tech like this.

jseliger 5y ago
You might like https://getfreewrite.com/ https://getfreewrite.com/ as well.
- caconym_ 5y ago
  It's really too bad that (last I checked) the Freewrite is permanently shackled to their weird proprietary cloud service. I guess there is a way to pull documents off it with USB, but you (apparently) can't add, remove, or generally organize files that way. I got a Pomera DM30 instead, which just appears as a USB drive mirroring the device's filesystem. It's a Japanese keyboard layout, but the English support is fine, and overall I love it.
  - pwrplus1 5y ago
    Another adoring Pomera DM30 owner here. I use git worktree to sync writing projects with my laptop. I could not bare needing to go through Freewrite's cloud.
  - wellthisisgreat 5y ago
    Wow Pomera looks very interesting. Is it the only one of its kind? And is it actually that small that you can put it in your pocket? Which document formats does it save to?
    - caconym_ 5y ago
      > Is it the only one of its kind? I'm not aware of any directly comparable non-DIY devices. There are a few other "electronic typewriter" devices that usually come up in these discussions, like the Alphasmart range and the Freewrite, but the DM30 checks more of my boxes. > And is it actually that small that you can put it in your pocket? I (a man who wears men's clothes with generally usable pockets) can fit it in a pocket, but not very comfortably. It has a footprint similar to a basic e-reader, but it's thicker, I'd guess an inch and change. > Which document formats does it save to? It just saves to plain text, which is perfect for me since I write in Markdown. The editor uses a (sort of ugly) monospace font and has some simple but useful navigation commands.
      - wellthisisgreat 5y ago
        Thank you, I actually went ahead and bought a DM30 last night. Seems like it could be the perfect thing to take for an outside writing. session. Yes the screen could have been somewhat bigger, but then it would absolutely require an iPad-sized bag. I just hope the screen is not tooo small :)
      - wellthisisgreat 5y ago
        Hi, sorry to bother you, but I got the Pomera DM30 and can't seem to figure how to disable the Japanese substitution for the text. Every time I enter English text and add a punctuation mark everything changes to Japanese. I have switched the interface to English, that was pretty straightforward.
- HelixEndeavor 5y ago
  ... Look, I get it, this device was funded over Kickstarter, it's incredibly niche with small production runs and a lot of custom designed pieces, and it simply can't benefit from the economies of scale that devices from bigger companies get... But there is just no way on this earth I could ever justify paying $600 USD for what amounts to an e-ink display strapped to a Cherry MX keyboard.

jesselawson 5y ago

I write science fiction and also work in technology. My days are spent glued to a screen so much that it's hard to want to write on my computer when I have time to write. So I do everything longhand, then wait for long weekends to translate things from my notebook into a word processor. I wish I could do my drafts on my computer; I used to be able to work all day and night in front of a screen, but lately I've been realizing that I'm a lot less anxious overall when I (try to) stop interacting with computers after a certain time. One thing I've been thinking about is having a computer hooked up to a rudimentary word processor app on my kindle. The kindle's display doesn't bother me after I'm done working on screens. It feels different enough that it doesn't interrupt my reading, so I've posited that I would be okay writing on one. I'm excited to see technology like this come out, and I'm excited to see how this little industry grows.

kiwidrew 5y ago
You could also try to track down an old CRT serial terminal; they have very sharp monochrome displays and I find that the dark background with amber/green/white phosphor is very easy on the eyes. It's also more difficult to get distracted while using a real terminal, because of its inherent limitations as a textual output device.
pjgalbraith 5y ago
Great to hear that I'm not the only one. After working all day in front of a screen I just can't get motivated to spend my night in front of a computer so I end up doing a lot of planning and note-taking but not enough drafting. I have recently bought a Onyx BOOX Nova which I plan to use via a bluetooth keyboard when it arrives. I had the exact same thought regarding e-ink displays since I read a lot using a kindle after work.
mdp2021 5y ago
> a computer hooked up to a rudimentary word processor app on my You just need an Android tablet with EPD display and a decent word processor. If you do not want full formatting - so, you are contented with typewriter like rendering -, there must be abundance of software application. If you want proper typographical paragraph formatting, with e.g. full text justification and spacing etc., there are a few usable applications. (As written in anther post, in the end, to have an application with all the features I wanted, I wrote it directly.)

agloeregrets 5y ago

Y'all want an Alphasmart. The basic models like the classic iMac Themed 3000 were the best models for this but the Neo gets you a better screen and keyboard.

Multicomp 5y ago
I keep trying to find a dream writer 200 so that I can save my files to a floppy disk but they have not appeared on eBay yet. So I continue to try to mount a tiny screen to a Raspberry Pi zero and the amount that inside a model m keyboard
HelixEndeavor 5y ago
AlphaSmarts are certainly intriguing devices - but flawed in many ways. Most notably, all models' internal storage was non-persistent. If your batteries died, poof, everything gone. The LCDs simply do not lend themselves to the same amazing outdoor visibility as modern e-ink displays. The only way to get your words off is to connect the device over USB to a receiving computer and "send" the text one letter at a time. To be fair it's fairly cool to see the AlphaSmart emulate itself as a keyboard device to Windows and shoot text over faster than any human could ever type, but it's still incredibly slow, can take minutes at a time to transfer single documents. I own an AlphaSmart Dana - one of the last devices they ever made - and it suffers from many of these issues far worse. It ran a slightly customized version of PalmOS, so it slurped up batteries like nothing, still had non-persistent internal storage, did include an SD card slot but its own writing software saved files in a proprietary format you couldn't open on any computer, so you still had to use the USB keyboard method... The AlphaSmart devices were made to teach little kids how to type, and not much more. And that is very clear.
- II2II 5y ago
  I have an AlphaSmart 3000 and it's not all that bad if you think of it as a keyboard that you can use away from your computer. Yes, the transfer speeds are slow. On the other hand you can pull up any program that accepts keyboard input on your computer, plug it in, and hit send. You are not messing around with files are proprietary software to transfer those files. It also takes a lot more than the batteries to die to lose your data. Like many older devices, it has a backup battery to maintain the contents of memory. Both the main batteries and the backup batteries have to be dead to lose data, which is tricky to do since the device will only run from the main batteries. That said, the editor is very primitive and it is awkward to navigate by word and line alone while editing documents.

arkenflame 5y ago

This is awesome! I made a similar app that works with a kindle and your mobile device: https://msolomon.github.io/solarwriter-website https://msolomon.github.io/solarwriter-website

Tepix 5y ago
Cool! Some observations: The link to the developer homepage in the iOS app store points to msol.io (which appears to be broken/recently registered). The app is lacking a privacy policy.
olup 5y ago
Oh yes, I also had a couple of such design - used an app or a server, ssh connection or simple websockets. But for this one I really wanted it to work standalone !

cjlm 5y ago

Nice project. I recently achieved my e-ink typewriter dream with an Onyx Boox paired with a Jelly Comb keyboard. More expensive than using an old Kobo but pretty flexible.

HelixEndeavor 5y ago
What drew you to the Jelly Comb keyboard in particular over others? And what model of Onyx Boox do you use it with?

dredmorbius 5y ago

The Android-based Onyx BOOX ebook reader supports an bluetooth keyboard. The company will sell you a reasonably decent one (it lacks function and escape keys, though Fn-` maps to esc within Termux ... sometimes) for $35. The Termux Linux terminal and environment (https://termux.com/ https://termux.com/) is installable via F-Droid. Among the terminal schemes is an e-ink mode of dark-on-light. Font size is scalable. Through Termux you have your choice of terminal-mode editors, including vim, emacs, nano, pico, and numerous others. The handwriten notes feature is also quite good. Text-recognition is a bit iffy but does work. My main reservation with this setup is that Android's memory management is fatally flawed and processes can be terminated at any time without warning. Terminal sessions really ought to be exemptable from that, but AFAIK they are not. (Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.) Still, it's a quite good environment with nearly 1,500 packages available using the APT package tool. Smaller current BOOX devices start at about US$250, used could likely be less than this. Any Android or LineageOS -capable device should be able to function likewise. There are a few Linux-based devices also on the market (and yes, Kobo is one), including the reMarkable tablet (my major gripe: 16 GB storage is simply stupidly small, this supports a cabled keyboard but not AFAIU Bluetooth), and devices from Pine (in process) and possibly Purism. A longer review of the Onyx BOOX here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27521248 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27521248

nzmsv 5y ago
It looks like a decent device, but Onyx's attitude towards open source makes it a non-starter. http://bbs.onyx-international.com/t/please-provide-source-code-for-kernel-and-bootloader/237/35 http://bbs.onyx-international.com/t/please-provide-source-co... https://www.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/hsyigm/onyx_using_recent_antichina_movement_as_excuse_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/hsyigm/on...
- wellthisisgreat 5y ago
  What is a good alternative for Boox that would allow to read epub, mobi, PDF, take notes and use a keyboard (for typewriter experience)? I was considering iPad but would be happy not to get another LED a screen

the__alchemist 5y ago

I'm curious what the latency and full-refresh requirements are; ie a video of it in action.

olup 5y ago
It's pretty reactive, as the screen only refreshes the chars that have changed on the matrix at each key stroke. Even a page up/down that changes all the screen is very fast. I only do full refresh with flashing when using the menu so some ghosting may appear, but I haven't experienced it.
- the__alchemist 5y ago
  Does not using full refresh periodically cause burn-in?

erickhill 5y ago

Folks still trying to recreate a more perfect Apple Newton with the external keyboard option. (I'm all for it!) See: https://www.flickr.com/photos/animbear/6939415056/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/animbear/6939415056/

beckman466 5y ago
Yes because Apple invented the modular technology of a separate keyboard and portable computer... /s > trying to recreate a more perfect Apple Newton with the external keyboard option I wasn't alive when that was produced, does that mean I am trying to recreate something I don't know about? I think I get it though, it sounds like it was a product you liked. Excuse the above sarcasm, i just get frustrated that this whole 'repurposing black box tech' is a even thing and I wish we lived in the modular open source and anticapitalist/socialist world of tomorrow, today.
minxomat 5y ago
So, a Psion 3 (or 5MX)?
neonnoodle 5y ago
Years ago I had an old Apple eMate 300 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMate_300 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMate_300. It was surprisingly good! I wrote a lot on it, and it was even able to print wirelessly via IR. They put a ton of features into it, surprising for an education-centric device. It was the OLPC before OLPC was a gleam in anyone’s eye.

fnord77 5y ago

anyone remember the old-timey hardware word processors?

itronitron 5y ago
yes, those were common in college in the early '90's, I wouldn't be surprised if they could be found and refurbished. I think Brother was one of the more popular brands.
- fnord77 5y ago
  I was just searching around and Brother units are the only ones I can find. I seem to recall other ones.
HelixEndeavor 5y ago
We need to bring them back honestly. I want more useful offline tech.
- mdp2021 5y ago
  > I want more useful offline tech I am not sure in which sense you meant that, but my "E-Ink typewriter" (Onyx + BT Keyboard) has never been online.
sacado2 5y ago
Yeah, they sucked, you couldn't fix your mistakes, let alone insert a sentence just before another, or, god forbid, move a whole section of your text. Plus, you only had one copy of your text, you had to retype all of it if you wanted to make a copy. And entirely retype it another time into another hardware device if you wanted to do any formatting at all. I'm glad we have better options nowadays. Good fitness machines though, because you better have strong fingers to type all day long with these devices.
- tomjen3 5y ago
  Those are typewritters (and manual ones at that, if there is any issue with your fingers), op was talking about word processors, which have almost exactly none of the issues you mentioned. You can see the 8bit guy demo one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNs-QIMHCJA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNs-QIMHCJA

etaioinshrdlu 5y ago

This looks super fun! Lately I've been dreaming of building a credit-card sized computer (thickness included) using a e-ink display and ultrathin battery. I haven't found a good purpose for it though. Speaking of E-Ink, if you remember the "Thinkpad X230 with “e-Ink” display at 30fps": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26860609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26860609, I'm selling two of them: https://www.ebay.com/itm/255123140172 https://www.ebay.com/itm/255123140172

DoingIsLearning 5y ago
Any more details on why you are parting with the X320? Is the transflective display performance not all that you expected?
- etaioinshrdlu 5y ago
  The main thing is I'm a mac user and I didn't like the touchpad, and the screen size is 1024x600 which is not very interesting for me.
olup 5y ago
If the screen should also fit in a credit card, I see that the Lilygo t5 4.7 esp32 card with an eink screen could maybe work out for you (https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005002006058892.html https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005002006058892.html)

mdp2021 5y ago

Nice, but for actual use, there are more straightforward setups: I spend hours per day in front of an Onyx Max2 (13.3'' E-Ink + Android) landscape on a full sized BT keyboard with a long slot to accommodate big tablets, and I use a full fledged word processor. The catch is, I was dissatisfied with all word processors available for Android, so I wrote mine (and I get rich text in full book-like formatting with optimized use of the screen).

miles 5y ago
> full sized BT keyboard with a long slot to accommodate big tablets Can you please share the name or link?
- mdp2021 5y ago
  Sorry for the half reply (I cannot check it physically right now): if you search for "BT keyboard with slot" in the images section of a search engine (DDG), a few similar to mine will come out: I have the one with the mousepad in the bottom-right corner. I believe that the manufacturers distribute the product for different brands (so, for example, I see "Hot-sale-keyboard-bluetooth-touchpad" on Alibaba, or a "Texet Bluetooth Keyboard Touchpad BTK SLOT"). BTW: battery life is never a problem. The rare events in which I find myself with the red light blinking, I just hook up a portable power bank.
- jonaustin 5y ago
  Not the poster, but this is the one I got, works well, though it definitely can't compare to a mechanical keyboard: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MUTWLW4 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MUTWLW4 Logitech K480 bluetooth. Unfortunately I can't recommend boox anymore, a tiny crack appeared on my note air pretty much where my thumb goes when holding it and spread across the entire display; warranty was useless of course.
  - miles 5y ago
    Thank you. I am familiar with the K480, but it can only accommodate tablets up to 10" wide; was hoping to find out what model mdp2021 found to accommodate up to a 13.3" tablet.

prvc 5y ago

I wish the README had a description of the mounting bracket, and of the editor (i.e. is it based on an existing editor). Relatedly, are there console based editors that focus on writing prose? What about setups for the more popular editors built for code?

pwrplus1 5y ago
I use Emacs for prose, mostly screenwriting.
stavros 5y ago
The mounting bracket seems to be a 5-minute design that was then 3D-printed. If you don't have a printer, I imagine someone at your local Makerspace would be more than happy to help in exchange for pizza.
olup 5y ago
The mounting is indeed a PLA 3d printed stand built in 5 minute in thinkerCAD. The editor is the object of the program it's homemade and pretty basic (and I wanted it basic). I should add a video at some point.

qwerty456127 5y ago

eInk typewriter is cute but I want an eInk Obsidian[1] machine :-) [1] https://obsidian.md/ https://obsidian.md/

techdragon 5y ago
This is exactly what I’m buying a PineNote (https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/ https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/) for!
- qwerty456127 5y ago
  Cool! I'm eager to see your review of in this context! Would you kindly add a follow-up to this comment and share either your experience in brief or a link to an actual review you would probably write please?
mickael 5y ago
I am using Obsidian as well and I am considering using an Android eInk tablet (Like a Boox), with a keyboard to be able to use Obsidian. I may give it a try it some day.
- qwerty456127 5y ago
  Please share your experience!

japanuspus 5y ago

On the reMarkable tablet you can access the linux firmware directly, which should make this kind of use possible without dropping other functionality. See for instance this post by Nick Temple: https://nicktemple.com/blog/remarkable-keyboard/ https://nicktemple.com/blog/remarkable-keyboard/

olup 5y ago
It's a bit the same here - the kobo is still a normal functioning Kobo. Only the kernel has to change to allow USB OTG mode, and you can switch between custom and stock one. By the way, the libs I used here works on remarkable too, so it's just a matter of compiling the software and finding a matching kernel.
- japanuspus 5y ago
  Sorry - missed the fact that it could coexist with the reader. Thank you for pointing this out.

black_puppydog 5y ago

I recently received my freewrite traveler and I love this device, I've been wanting something like this for years now and I could finally afford it. If you're taken aback by the steep price tag: from my understanding that's a combination of small volume and the patent situation with e-ink which has been holding the technology back. Seriously, I'm very frustrated with that; essentially these things haven't gotten all that much better (in general, not talking about volume customers like amazon) than the first time I read about them in what, 2005?

dm319 5y ago
I think anything small volume ends up costing a lot. BTW the traveler reminds me of the original Psion 3.

chj 5y ago

I bought an eink display once, thinking to use it for text editing, but returned it the second day. There is nothing paper like when it comes to typing.