Electronic ink(E-ink) technology produces a low-power, paper-like display for e-readers, such as the Amazon Kindle.
E-Ink is proving to be a platform on which incredible and versatile projects can be realized. E-Ink’s amazing characteristics such as excellent visibility, paper-like readability and extremely low energy consumption make it perfect for all sorts of incredible products, from phones and accessories to digital signs.
But what exactly a E-Ink reader and how it works?
What exactly is E Ink?
E Ink comes with many names. It is also referred as Electronic Paper or ePaper. The exact principle of E Ink is to mimic the real paper and pen feel.
Imagine you write something on a piece of paper. Now same piece of text will look exactly like paper in the E Ink display. It will have the same level to sharpness and viewing angle as real paper.
So how does E-Ink produced such images and our smartphone can’t?
How Does E Ink Work?
Like our human body is made up of small cells which is the smallest units of our body. Just like that E Ink displays are made of Ink capsules. An e-ink display consists of a grid of millions of capsules. A capsule contains several sub-capsules, each of which hold a tiny colored droplet.
Depending upon the number of colored droplets present inside each capsules it is classified as 4 types:
- One Pigment Ink System (Only Black In)
- Two Pigment Ink System (Black and White Ink)
- Three Pigment Ink System (Black, White and Red Ink)
- Four Pigment System (Achieves full color gamut)
Two Pigment Ink System
Kindle uses Two Pigment Ink system having black and white Ink droplets. It is made up of millions of tiny microcapsules, each about the diameter of a human hair. Each microcapsule contains negatively charged white particles and positively 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 viewer. This makes the surface appear white or black at that spot.
Why E Ink Displays are preferred
No power needed to hold an image
Amazon Kindle comes with E Ink’s technology. This technology is commonly called “bistable”. Bistablility refers to the fact that an image on an E Ink screen will be retained even when all power sources are removed. This means that the display is consuming power only when something is changing. For example, when reading on an Kindle, power is only needed when turning to a new page but no power is consumed by the display while reading the page. This technology significantly reduces the power consumption and is a key reason why Kindle have such long battery life.
No backlight
Kindle have E Ink displays. These displays are called “reflective displays”. In an LCD, or “emissive display”, light from a backlight is projected through the display towards your eyes. In an E Ink display, backlight is not used. Rather, ambient light from the environment is reflected from the surface of the display back to your eyes. As with any reflective surface, the more ambient light, the brighter the display looks. This attribute mimics traditional ink and paper, and users of Kindle have said that they do not have the same eye fatigue as with LCDs when reading for long periods of time. Therefore, eliminating the need for a backlight significantly increases the battery life versus using a traditional LCD.
Rugged
E Ink displays have an ink layer laminated to a plastic film substrate. They are tougher than most LCD displays which keen to shatter easily.
It’s actually been very interesting to see the benefits I’ve had over the past week of picking up my Kindle instead of just scrolling on my phone for hours.
I you are planning to buy any E-Ink displays then you can check out our Amazon Kindle review and Top 5 Reasons to buy Amazon Kindle.
