The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

E Ink, Epson to build 'retina' display for e-book readers

300 pixels in every inch

Agentless Backup is Not a Myth

E Ink and Epson are to jointly develop a electronic paper panel with a "retina display" pixel density... almost.

Apple calls the iPhone 4 screen a "retina display" because its 326 pixels per inch (ppi) density is "so high that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels".

Actually, look hard enough and you can see them, but if you're not trying, you won't.

E Ink Epson 300dpi screen

The E Ink / Epson screen will have a 300ppi, but even that will make the current Kindle's 167ppi look low res.

It'll be bigger, though: an iPad-like 9.7in to the Kindle's six. The new screen's resolution will be 2400 x 1650, and monochrome.

E Ink will develop the display itself, Epson the chip that controls the screen.

Neither firm said when the screen will appear in e-book readers you can buy. ®

Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything

Good enough

300dpi is fine. Laser printers historically only printed a dot or not. Even with only 4 levels of grey you can make 300dpi look as good as 720dpi

Also most people don't have the sharp enough vision at normal reading distance to see much more than 200dpi if the image is anti-aliased with a few grey levels.

My LCD is about 133dpi and almost no-one has ever noticed the pixels.

I look forward to getting an eReader with 9.7" screen and 300dpi. Great for A4 PDFs.

PDFs reformat badly, so a 9.7" 300dpi will be very nice for reading and documents

It allows a nice wide margin around "paperback" format text rather than text up to edge of screen.

3
0

Work or Play?

I have both a Kindle 6" reader and a Sony 5" reader. Love both to bits. I use them for leisure (Play). I've tried putting pdfs onto them for work but they simply don't work well enough. I've converted some pdfs to kindle format and thats mostly ok, unless the text has columns in the layout. Close, but no cigar.

As pdfs are more for technical reference (work) I'm thinking a bigger pdf capable reader will be the thing to go for. Colour isn't that important to me, readability is.

I think this sort of high def image will be pretty good when it comes out, I might even save some pennies up to buy one.

2
0

Prick alert

He means an A4/Letter-sized page, as is obvious to anyone but the most pedantic of twats. Almost all PDFs you get are formatted to A4 or Letter and look awful on most eReader screens, hence wanting a screen large enough to show "full page" (ie A4/Letter size) PDFs.

Unfortunately you're a pedantic twat trying to score points from an anonymous commentator on some news website so you chose not to realise this.

2
0

More from The Register

Samsung Galaxy Note 8: Proof the pen is mightier?
Sammy’s iPad Mini killer has a stylus to stab other rivals too
Microsoft lures buy-curious vixens, corduroys with a cheap fondle
Surface slab sales latest: Will no one rid Ballmer of these turbulent tabs?
First look: iOS 7 for iPad
No, Apple hasn't released it yet, but that doesn't stop intrepid devs
 breaking news
Curtain drops on Apple Store ahead of WWDC: What lies behind?
Steve Jobs watching from on high. No pressure, lads
 breaking news
Cold, dead hands of Steve Jobs slip from iPhones: The Cult of Ive is upon us
Billionaire biz baron's death clears way for uber-shiny iOS 7
Airbus imagines suitcases that find themselves
Point your mobe at your smalls to track their every move
Surprise! Intel smartphone trounces ARM in power trials
Tests show equal performance while sipping significantly less juice
Samsung plans LTE Advanced version of Galaxy S4
1Gbps download capability could stiffen drooping S4 sales forecasts
Apple said to be 'exploring' 5.7-inch iPhone
Who's the copycat this time, Mr. Cook?
Google Chromebooks now in over 6,600 stores
Major, worldwide retail push begins this summer