The underlying issue may not be reflective vs. emissive, but rather luminance/contrast ratios. Here's one paper on the subject: https://www.sciencedirect.com/sc

The underlying issue may not be reflective vs. emissive, but rather luminance/contrast ratios. Here's one paper on the subject: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169814199000402 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01698... Basically their finding is that a very modest amount of luminance contrast (8:1) is optimal for reading, after which readability actually decreases. Which actually isn’t that surprising when you think about it. If you had a display where the whites were as bright as the sun, and the blacks were perfectly, totally non-reflectively black, it would be hard to read. This is probably consistent with people’s experience with e-readers. E-ink doesn’t have a particularly good contrast ratio, but it is adequate and roughly in the sweet spot for reading. Whereas today’s 200:1 IPS displays score well on spec charts and are great for video and games but are arguably not that good for reading, at least for some people.