Reading on a tablet is a compromise. Eye strain hits after a while spent turning the virtual pages, and why wouldn’t it? You’re staring at a big board of light a few inches from your eyes, after all. That iPad screen is made to look good for videos and pictures, and that usually means a lot of brightness.
E-ink is the alternative, a specialized type of display for e-readers. It’s meant to be easier on the eyes so that you can spend long stretches reading with less eye strain. It’s also designed to mimic the appearance of real ink on real paper. Or at least it gets closer than a typical tablet screen.
why e-ink is better for reading
You’ll see e-ink referenced so much on e-readers, from Kindles to Nooks to Onyxes, that you may not even know that it’s a trademarked brand like Kleenex and not just a general term.
“Although futuristic-sounding, electronic ink is actually a straightforward fusion of chemistry, physics, and electronics,” says E Ink, the brand behind e-ink. “It’s so much like paper; it utilizes the same ink used in the printing industry today.”
If ever I felt like using the thinking emoji in a story, it’s right now. I knew, broadly, what e-ink was good for ever since it began showing up en masse in the late 2000s, particularly when it debuted on the very first Kindle that went on sale in 2007.
But I never really went down the rabbit hole until recently. The E Ink Corporation, which owns the E Ink brand, will let you go all the way down the rabbit hole until you can no longer see daylight, if you really want to.
“Electronic ink is made up of millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair,” writes E Ink. “Each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid.
“When a positive or negative electric field is applied, corresponding particles move to the top of the microcapsule, where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white or black at that spot.”
When you’re shopping for a tablet, though, all you need to know is the distinction that while e-ink displays are fairly lousy when it comes to playing video games, streaming movies, or working with graphical design, they’re superior for reading type.
A Kindle (with e-ink) won’t replace your iPad for general use, but for reading, it may be the next best thing to real, dead-tree paper books.
The post What Exactly Is E-Ink—and How Does It Do Its Thing? appeared first on VICE.
