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Is there actually an increasing prevalence and popularity of e-ink displays? I know there technically exists some "high refresh rate" e-ink screens these days (

by mort96 3y ago

Is there actually an increasing prevalence and popularity of e-ink displays? I know there technically exists some "high refresh rate" e-ink screens these days (meaning you can get 10 FPS if you're comfortable with a whole lot of ghosting), but aren't e-ink screens still pretty much only used in dedicated e-book readers? Personally, I think it's just that monochrome icons are fashionable. I can't imagine that the GIMP developers for example chose to make GIMP's icons monochrome because that works better on e-ink screens.

dredmorbius 3y ago
There's a wide range of e-ink tablets and displays available. Many of the tablets run Android and are largely the same as any other Android device. The displays can be used with any OS, obviously. There are also e-ink phones (smart and otherwise), watches, and other devices. For text and graphics, you'd generally want to use a higher-quality, lower-refresh-rate mode. Which is to say that there's quite a bit of established UI/UX knowledge that wants a refresh. I've distilled a set of basic principles: persistence is free, pixels are cheap, paints are slow, colour is (mostly) nonexistent, and the more ambient light the better. Paginated-navigation (whole screen changes in one go), line-art, and dithered or halftoned images work relatively well, raster images not quite so much, though can be acceptable. <https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/638a8d10e041013afba8448a5b29e257 https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/638a8d10e041013afba844...> For a demonstration of a wide range of displays (the best ones are featured last) as of 2021, see: <https://yewtu.be/watch?v=KdrMjnYAap4 https://yewtu.be/watch?v=KdrMjnYAap4>
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
dredmorbius 3y ago
And specifically addressing prevelance and popularity ... I'm mostly commenting based on my own perception. Looking for more solid data ... ... I'm having difficulty finding e-ink / electronic paper market research, though one hit suggests an 8.5% CAGR: <https://dataintelo.com/report/global-e-ink-sales-market/ https://dataintelo.com/report/global-e-ink-sales-market/>. Using HN as a rough proxy, I see fairly substantial growth. Note that HN submissions overall have been fairly constant since 2012, per dang. "e-ink" 2007: 1 2008: 7 2009: 14 2010: 18 2011: 24 2012: 28 2013: 24 2014: 24 2015: 16 2016: 25 2017: 22 2018: 39 2019: 35 2020: 60 2021: 88 2022: 84 "Electronic Paper" has minimal hits, though by years above: 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1, 6, 1, 1, 0, 0, 8, 1. "Digital paper" has an even smaller smattering of hits.

by mort96 3y ago

dredmorbius 3y ago

There's a wide range of e-ink tablets and displays available. Many of the tablets run Android and are largely the same as any other Android device. The displays can be used with any OS, obviously. There are also e-ink phones (smart and otherwise), watches, and other devices. For text and graphics, you'd generally want to use a higher-quality, lower-refresh-rate mode. Which is to say that there's quite a bit of established UI/UX knowledge that wants a refresh. I've distilled a set of basic principles: persistence is free, pixels are cheap, paints are slow, colour is (mostly) nonexistent, and the more ambient light the better. Paginated-navigation (whole screen changes in one go), line-art, and dithered or halftoned images work relatively well, raster images not quite so much, though can be acceptable. <https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/638a8d10e041013afba8448a5b29e257 https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/638a8d10e041013afba844...> For a demonstration of a wide range of displays (the best ones are featured last) as of 2021, see: <https://yewtu.be/watch?v=KdrMjnYAap4 https://yewtu.be/watch?v=KdrMjnYAap4>

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

dredmorbius 3y ago

And specifically addressing prevelance and popularity ... I'm mostly commenting based on my own perception. Looking for more solid data ... ... I'm having difficulty finding e-ink / electronic paper market research, though one hit suggests an 8.5% CAGR: <https://dataintelo.com/report/global-e-ink-sales-market/ https://dataintelo.com/report/global-e-ink-sales-market/>. Using HN as a rough proxy, I see fairly substantial growth. Note that HN submissions overall have been fairly constant since 2012, per dang. "e-ink" 2007: 1 2008: 7 2009: 14 2010: 18 2011: 24 2012: 28 2013: 24 2014: 24 2015: 16 2016: 25 2017: 22 2018: 39 2019: 35 2020: 60 2021: 88 2022: 84 "Electronic Paper" has minimal hits, though by years above: 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1, 6, 1, 1, 0, 0, 8, 1. "Digital paper" has an even smaller smattering of hits.