E Ink announces next-generation color ePaper, E Ink Gallery 3

E Ink Corporation has announced the development of E Ink Gallery 3—its next generation electronic color paper for the eReader and eNote devices. In its announcement, the company notes that the new generation of color ePaper is based on their ACeP Advanced Color ePaper platform, which in turn is based on a four-color pixel system: magenta, cyan, white and yellow, allowing for display of a wide spectrum of colors—the new standard allows for display of over 50,000 colors.

Electronic ink is a material made of tiny cells that can be tuned to display black or white characters on some displays and colors on others. It got its name from its close approximation to black and white or colored inks used on traditional paper. It was invented by a team at MIT back in the late 1990s. Since that time, it has seen steady improvements in quality, with sharper images and the introduction of gray scales on black and white displays. Its use has also expanded, from dedicated eReader devices to phones, signs and smartwatches.

Improvements to the new ePaper standard include faster update times: 350 ms for black and white display, 500 ms for its fast color mode and 750 to 100 ms for standard mode. The company has also upgraded the number of pixels per inch that it displays to 300 ppi, and it allows for operation of devices that use it in a wider array of temperatures—from 0 to 50° C. The new standard will also allow for black and white pen (or stylus) input along with several other colors, all of which will update at 30 ms. And to ease the strain from lengthy reading sessions, readers using the new ePaper can use its ComfortGaze front light feature, which uses blue light to soften eye exposure. The new ePaper can also be used in foldable devices.

Not included in the announcement is delivery time, thus it is still not clear when the next general color standard will begin showing up in products or if companies like Kobo and Amazon will embrace the new standard and if so, which of their readers will be updated.