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An issue of contrast: Which e-readers let you use bold even on DRMed e-books?
August 29, 2009 | 10:45 am
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By David Rothman
When, just when, will E Ink be truly like white paper—with a high contrast between text and background? Ideally it’ll happen in the next few years. But until then, I’ll be very grumpy, as are Robert Kingett and Nicholson Baker.
“This was what they were calling e-paper?” Baker has written of his Kindle. “This four-by-five window onto an overcast afternoon? Where was paper white, or paper cream? Forget RGB or CMYK. Where were sharp black letters laid out like lacquered chopsticks on a clean tablecloth?”
Until we get decent contrast on the Kindle and other E Ink gizmos, the next best thing could be the ability to use boldface type on the full texts of even DRMed ebooks. The Cybook Gen 3 in the photo has that capability, a menu choice called embolden. Know of any others devices with embolden, and how do you feel about it?
Forward, not backwards, please
I just hope that people upgrading their Gen3s—for ePub or a newer Mobipocket—won’t lose the magical ability to make text stand out just a little more with E Ink. And if embolden can show up in other machines, then so much the better. Alas, with DRMed books, you can’t tweak the files to introduce bold.
Detail: I’ve heard that some publishers don’t want mere users to be able to do the boldface act on their own. If so, shame.
Technorati Tags: Cybook Gen3
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Comments:
Just one more reason to remove the DRM before putting the book onto the reader. Honestly, removing the DRM from my purchased titles is always the first step in my ereader workflow. It is so easy and then allows me to alter the formatting to suit me using embedded bold fonts on my reader, making for an enjoyable reading experience with good contrast.
I like the contrast on my Cybook just fine. I don’t want a bright give-me-a-headache white background.
And I don’t think the right answer to any of these problems is to buy what they’re selling then do something illegal to make it the way we want it. I think we should not buy. When you buy, you support the things you don’t like. You’re sending an extremely loud and clear message that you’ll buy it the way they want it. If you want them to change, don’t buy. Send a letter to the publisher instead.
I’m happy with my eink screen as is–it is easier on the eyes than my old backlit lcd displays, even at minimum brightness–but my current firmware-of-choice for BeBook, OpenInkpot, offers a bold option.
Its nice to know I have the option but my current preferred reading font–Georgia–is dark enough on its own.
Maybe the other readers could solve the problem just be leting users choose their own font face?
I thought I cared about this until I randomly grabbed a bunch of print books off of my shelves — mass market paperbacks, trade paperbacks, clothbound — no two of them had the same degree of contrast, and some even have grey-ish pages. The print copy of ‘Foundation’ that I’m reading (which I picked up used), has beige-ish pages, and is less contrast-y than my Kindle’s display. In general, as books age, their contrast seems to diminish. Says the reader who buys books like crazy which might not actually get *read* for several years…
I find that my Kindle’s contrast is fine for normal indoor conditions, and *excellent* — easier on my eyes than print — when I’m reading in the sunshine.
Christine, I think you are cutting off your nose to spite your face. I got the e-reader because I like to read. I don’t mind buying the books to read, but do mind the DRM because it limits what I can do to make my reading experience better. As for writing a letter for each and every book I want to read but has DRM to the publisher, that would take way too much time to bother and waste for me. It typically takes between 10 and 30 seconds to remove the DRM. As to the legality of this, that depends on where you live. I don’t live in a DMCA region, thus it is not illegal for me to remove DRM. There are many laws over the years that have been illegal but later found silly and stupid. Perhaps this type of law will one day be repealed, but I doubt it since the media corporations have way too much influence in politics.