Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Epson, E Ink teaming up on 300-dpi electronic paper device

By | May 17, 2011, 7:37am PDT

Summary: Colorized e-book readers and related apps for tablets are becoming more popular, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more development with electronic ink displays.

Colorized e-book readers and related apps for tablets are becoming more popular, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more development with electronic ink displays.

Epson and E Ink have announced that the two companies are teaming up to develop a brand new 9.7-inch electronic paper device. The 300-dpi display will support 2,400 x 1,650 pixels, promising to deliver “razor-sharp text and images.”

In comparison, currently-available electronic ink e-book readers such as Barnes & Noble’s Nook Wi-Fi/3G and the Amazon Kindle sport monochrome ink screens with 160-dpi and 600 x 800 resolutions. That’s certainly clear enough for text and even some basic images (just look at the images of authors that pop up on the Nook’s screensaver), but Epson and E Ink seem to be shooting for something much more advanced.

When it comes to images, it’s hard to argue that digital black and white ink can substitute for color, but perhaps such technology can at least offer a more competitive and budget-friendly price tag to customers. Additionally, with a display larger than the average e-reader and approximately the same size as the iPad, it’s possible that this product will be targeted towards more professional-related functions such as education and research.

However, we’ll have to wait for this one. The prototype is being showcased at SID Display Week in Los Angeles this week. Epson will continue to work and manufacture the device while E Ink worries about the display. No word on availability or pricing just yet.

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Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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Ideal for A4 documents
Christian Benesch 17th Feb
I think this will finally fulfil what the 9.7" displays (DX, JetBook) where pretending to do but do not quite yet do.
Upload PDFs and read them without having to crop and zoom. This is what they are shooting for. To make electronic paper also to be of the actual size of the real paper. There is a myriad of documents out there laid out to look especially good in A4, just the eReaders can't tap into that market.
resolution will be much more popular.

The distance from the eyes to tablet's screen is higher than to smartphone (like 16" against 12"), so expected IPS screen for iPad -- 2048x1536 will fit to "Retina" category despite having only about 265 dpi.
That actually looks like it might work!
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Great that they are continuing to innovate in electronic ink displays. Black and white ink can't really substitute for color,but who knows.. Yet consumers are still waiting for innovations that would offer them lower priced gadgets or even cheap ink for printers or a much lower priced E INK...
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it. Look advanced to more added agreeable from you! However, how can we communicate? overoll news
Epson ink and E ink both have some of the best printer ink on the market, this should be a great partnership.
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Ideal for A4 documents
Christian Benesch 17th Feb
I think this will finally fulfil what the 9.7" displays (DX, JetBook) where pretending to do but do not quite yet do.
Upload PDFs and read them without having to crop and zoom. This is what they are shooting for. To make electronic paper also to be of the actual size of the real paper. There is a myriad of documents out there laid out to look especially good in A4, just the eReaders can't tap into that market.

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