E-paper display reaches the realm of LCD screens

Posted by rbanffy 9/9/2025

E-paper display reaches the realm of LCD screens(spectrum.ieee.org)

619 points | 206 commentspage 3

pedrogpimenta 9/9/2025|

This is great, but I see lots of ghosting and apparently low contrast. Sad to see no mention of it in the article.

shinycode 9/10/2025||

Did anyone tested Viwoods AiPaper ? Forgetting about the AI part, the screen is Carta 1300 + Mobius which is rare. It’s really thin and light as well and software is updated regularly to match the competition, it has Android to install apps. While not perfect it looks quite good !

h4ch1 9/10/2025||

What's the best e-paper/e-ink display on the market with a good price-performance ratio that I can use to tinker around with?

I basically want to build a custom e-reader with a RasPi Zero for learning/home use, 8-10inches would be great.

Don't care much about it being touchscreen.

eigenhombre 9/10/2025||

> I basically want to build a custom e-reader with a RasPi Zero for learning/home use, 8-10inches would be great.

Though smaller than your target size, I did[1] something similar, and it was great fun. I believe there are still Waveshare hats with larger display sizes.

[1] https://johnj.com/posts/e-paper-rpi-display/

h4ch1 9/11/2025||

Oh looks like a fun project :D nice writeup.

Yeah even I could only find waveshare displays at the size I wanted that were cheap enough not to burn a significant hole in my pocket.

steinvakt2 9/10/2025||

Remarkable

h4ch1 9/10/2025||

> I basically want to build a custom e-reader with a RasPi Zero for learning/home use, 8-10inches would be great.

Night_Thastus 9/10/2025||

I've been using a Kobo Libra color lately, and man E-ink has gotten SO GOOD.

It's high resolution, snappy, and the whole package is light as a feather and with batteries that last for ages.

I know some people prefer paper, but I love modern e-readers. They're amazingly tuned.

ffitch 9/9/2025||

does anyone know how would e-ink compare to oldschool reflective TN LCD displays (those in Casios from the nineties)? I have a Playdate device with this type of screen and it seems pretty cool, I wonder why so few devices today are taking advantage of it.

dredmorbius 9/9/2025||

Transflective LCD screens ("e-paper") compete with e-ink currently.

Monochrome e-ink has a better resolution and contrast ratio than old-school LCD devices (I'm comparing my experiences with a Palm Pilot in the 1990s and an Onyx BOOX in the 2020s). LCD can refresh far faster, in the 100+ / 100s Hz range, where typical e-ink refresh rates in my experience have been in the single-digit to low-double-digit Hz range (video is doable but far from ideal).

E-ink also displays quite nicely with a "frontlight", which brightens the background (whiter whites) without washing out the foreground (print/ink). Illuminated LCD displays tend to wash out the dark fields, though I've not viewed e-paper directly and cannot speak to that.

TFA is describing a far higher e-ink refresh rate than I've experienced directly.

jmcphers 9/9/2025||

I also have a Playdate! I think it's a Sharp MIP rather than TN LCD. MIP is actually pretty popular in some places -- particularly smartwatches where battery life matters more than bright colors; Garmin, Coros, Pebble etc. all use MIP displays for the lower end models.

The thing about MIP is that the viewing angles are just not that amazing. I have had a Kindle and a Kobo, and they look like paper no matter how I hold them. My Playdate however needs to be positioned at a pretty specific angle with respec to the light to get the best contrast.

smrtinsert 9/10/2025||

I watched some cheesy sci fi movie awhile ago that was completely forgettable except for the fact that their only screen technology seemed to be full color e ink. It was glorious. Would love to transition to it as soon as possible

justinclift 9/11/2025||

Wonder if you could make some kind of epaper laptop by combining one of these displays + controller, with a Framework motherboard/keyboard/components and 3D printing your own chassis?

maxlin 9/10/2025||

It is a bit difficult to tell what is compression artifacts and what is real here, but there's still a fair bit of "tailing" in the image.

So, it is comparable to LCD sure, but to an oldd LCD of CSTN tech or such.

est 9/10/2025||

I always think refresh rate and color aren't the problem, eink vendors need to find the right customer crowd.

For color e-ink displays, instead of competing with LCDs, target a niche market: 8-color terminals for programmers.

rfoo 9/10/2025||

Then refresh rate is a problem.

szszrk 9/10/2025||

Working with a modern terminal is very much dynamic... It always was, really.

We always aimed at fixing the lag, be it terminal rendering performance, network jitter (mosh anyone?), proper tab completion (including the ones that require network responses to complete), TUIs...

I'd still use eink for terminal, if it was cheaper. Just saying refresh rate is important for terminals.

HelloUsername 9/9/2025|

Nice, they have a video of playing Return of the Obra Dinn on the screen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClK8lDJWJcw

anecdatas 9/10/2025||

The ghosting in that video is unbelievably strong. To the degree that I'd consider that unplayable. It's certainly not the experience the dev intended (given how much effort they put into the moire shader).

Is refresh rate necessarily tied to ghosting? Like higher refresh rate also means higher ghosting?

alex-a-soto 9/9/2025|||

Another gameplay video I'd recommend seeing is Blanc: https://www.youtube.com/live/9PAKPfHBa5Q?feature=shared&t=11...

namtab00 9/9/2025||

That game is beautiful, more so on the eink display...

numbsafari 9/9/2025||

Clearly there are some issues with ghosting?

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