Mono e-ink displays are quite commonplace now. These low power persistent displays have found a natural home in e-reader devices but have been making their way into other interesting gadgets. However, e-ink and colour don't seem to have mixed, which holds back the display's potential.
Now the E Ink company hopes to expand the colour e-ink market with a new technology dubbed 'Print-Color E Ink'. The new tech means that colour e-ink displays can be similarly fast and as responsive as their mono brethren. Moreover, the 'Print-Color E Ink' panels are thinner and lighter than previous glass colour filter electronic paper while offering a better optical quality.
The attractions of this eye-health-friendly display will be first marketed to reading, education, and professional use applications. Taiwan's CTimes says these screens will first feature in products such as e-readers or e-paper notebooks aimed at these markets.
As well as 'Print-Color E Ink', E Ink develops and markets Advanced Colour ePaper (AceP) - a high-quality and fully-reflective colour e-paper display. This allows for a richer colour experience that maintains low power consumption and sunlight readability. AceP is targeted at digital signage and retail markets and is currently available in 13.3-inch demo kit form with a bundled Raspberry Pi 3. There must be something about the more saturated and vibrant looking AceP that makes it unsuitable for the kinds of applications 'Print-Color E Ink' will be used for - perhaps power consumption, response times, and/or panel thickness/weight.
Back with Print-Color E Ink, and it was demonstrated on a couple of devices at the Wacom Connected Event in Japan last month (see video above). A report and video from the event say that it will be in mass production by Q2 2020 and be shipping in products by Q3 2020.
Source: CTimes via Liliputing.
