New E Ink displays and expansion of Webtoons
Several technological innovations are affecting the world of eBook readers.
E Ink company has in fact presented the third generation of its colour electronic ink displays, Kaleido 3 and Gallery 3. The main difference between the two product lines lies in the fact that the former (cheaper) uses a colour filter over the monochrome ink, while the latter (more expensive) ‘natively’ has white, cyan, magenta and yellow.
THE E INK KALEIDO 3 SERIES
New Kaleido series panels use 16 grey levels to achieve 4,096 colours, with ppi increasing from 100 to 150. Saturation has also been increased by 30 per cent compared to the previous generation, with a significantly higher perceived contrast.
In addition to this, E Ink also presented ComfortGaze, a new type of front illumination that decreases the amount of blue light reflected from the display, with a claimed reduction of 60 per cent.
THE E INK GALLERY 3 SERIES
Also new on the Gallery front, E Ink’s other display range. Mainly used in the commercial sector (e.g. billboards) due to the rather high refresh rate, a new generation for the consumer audience now appears.
The new Gallery colour displays have a refresh rate of 0.5 seconds for the monochrome version and 1.5 seconds for the colour mode. This is a considerable improvement over the previous generation, where the refresh rate was 2 seconds for the monochrome mode and as much as 10 seconds for the colour mode. Still speaking of the colour display, the resolution doubles (from 150 to 300 ppi) as well as the operating temperature, which is now from 0° to 50° (like monochrome displays).
Other upcoming novelties concern the possibility of input with a pen and the presentation of the first foldable and roll-up versions.
WEBTOONS EXPAND
As far as the eBook and digital comics market is concerned, the expansion of Webtoons continues. Already launched in the early 2000s, Webtoons are now becoming increasingly popular worldwide.
They are manhwa (comics from South Korea), digitised to be read on devices such as PCs and, subsequently, optimised for smartphones. With the worldwide expansion of the latter from 2010 onwards, Webtoons have become increasingly popular, also thanks to a vertical layout designed especially for scrolling smartphones.
At present, the world of Webtoons is mainly aimed at the Asian market, but it is likely that in the future this type of comic will also become increasingly popular in the West.
