Nook Touch screen contrast shots, font sizes. Kindle for Android on Nook Touch

IMAGES BY AN OWNER OF THE 2 E-INK NOOKS

*Click* on the top image or here to get the larger and clearer original photo that was used by mykoffee {MK), a BN forum member, to illustrate her message, which is still there although the accompanying photo isn't.  She tried to get the current font face and size as close as she could, and this was as close a match as she found.

Since I own a NookColor, which is stunning for color magazine reading, I am often in the Barnes and Noble Nook forums and am a B&N member.

  While I'm mainly interested in the NookColor messages there, I also saw the Nook Simple Touch at B&N the other day and reported in a blog entry Sunday that I felt the overall text for all books on the 2-page listing of the Nook Touch there struck me as too grayish and not dark enough for my eyes, which are used to the Pearl Screen as implemented for the Kindle 3.

 The two images here are by the Nook owner mentioned above in a posting at the B&N Nook forum.

This 2nd image here of the two Nooks is as it appeared in that B&N Nook forum message thread.

  When trying the Nook Touch on June 4, I tried all font faces at normal sizes to try to get a darker one.  The salesman said that what I saw was fine and the way it is.

  MK took these pictures for the B&N Nook Forum to illustrate that the new Nook text didn't appear as dark on the older E-Ink Nook when the font is the size MK prefers for reading.

  The reason the text of MK's old Nook-1 appears darker overall than what MK sees with the Pearl screen of the Nook Touch is that the older Nook text, although not quite as sharp as for the newer Nook, is a Fatter basic font which was implemented to be darker.

  MK tried to get the newer Nook's font-face and size as close to the older Nook as possible, but this was as close as MK could get with the font choices.
  To make the newer Nook text as dark as it appears on the older Nook, MK had to go to the next size up, but as I saw when visiting B&N, the NEXT step is *much* larger and MK doesn't want to read with a font that large.

  You can see the jump in font-size to get the darker appearance wanted if you go to the two photos, one above the other, at the message thread.  MK explains, "With the new Nook when you jump up to the next larger size font (second A from right) the jump is too big"...

  You'll also see that most people probably would not be bothered by this and that the large majority of those posting at the Nook forum say they really love this touchscreen model.

  One other customer, English Butterfly [EB], in that message thread had very much the same reaction as MT: "Thanks for the pictures,-  I am glad I am not the only one who feels this way- hope they can correct it!", and I saw that in another thread EB mentions the following:

' I have all 3 nooks- the first edition, nook color, and the 2nd edition.  Between the 1rst and 2nd edition [NookColor], I am partial to the first one... I like the fonts sizes better on the first nook, - it seems like the new fonts are either too small, or too big- seems like there is an error.  I am quite fond of my first edition nook, and think it is classier with colored books on it.  I also like the 3 G factor.  I may buy an additional 3 G Nook version 1, in case anything happens to my current one.  If I go on a trip, I depend on the 3G . The only upside for me on the new nook, is that it is lighter...'

  Again, by far, most postings I saw were by people who love the new Nook, including the screen contrast.  But I get asked about this a lot these days, and so I thought that in addition to my "Features comparison," which detailed the pluses of the Nook Simple Touch and then the missing features, and also the article on the not-visible and not-ready web browser, I should report this.

  At the Nook e-Ink forums' message topic listings, you'll see there also are problems right now with being able to "sync" the new Nook with other devices.  B&N Forum discussions for the Nook e-Ink readers are: General Discussion and Technical Support.

  Many of us were somewhat bothered by some Kindle 2's having lighter screen contrast (and I wrote about that quite a bit), to the extent that Kindle customer Ted Inoue made a set of darker fonts that could supplement the Kindle 2's fonts, and this user-addable font-set made all the difference for Kindle-2 customers who were sensitive to less-strong contrast - it's a good read.

Update
More online screen comparisons with e-Ink touchscreens (Nook, iriver)
See Business Insider's look at Kindle 3 vs Nook screens, which includes a link to the thorough PC World (Melissa Perenson) review of iriver, another e-Ink touchscreen, which mentions the Nook touch screen also.

Update July 2011 - Nick Bilton of the NY Times described Amazon's TouchCo's challenges with making a touch screen that doesn't lose some degree of screen contrast.


ROOTING THE NOOK TOUCH - What's it like?
The ever-investigative Mike Cane has an interesting article on the (not intuitive) 'rooting' of the Nook Touch and what the "Kindle for Android" app is like on the e-Ink, Android-based Nook.  It's illustrated with a video by zonyl.  The black flashing is something to behold, and you can see that with this app, Cane points out, "page shifting is done by showing pages sliding across the screen," which isn't handled well by e-Ink displays.

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PDFS on the Nook Touch and the Kindle 3

FROM E-READER CONFUSION THREAD AT MOBILEREAD FORUMS

I couldn't be here for most of the weekend, but am back and just saw a thread at Mobileread Forums about PDFs and how these are handled by the new NookTouch and the Kindle 3. Their message threads tend to be extremely informative and are often more technically focused than you'll see on most e-reader forums, but this one was just about which e-reader will handle PDFs better.  I've added my reply there and thought I'd include it here as well, while I catch up on other Kindle matters.

' From thuya1991

"Hi, everyone
I am just new to the e-reading community. I am thinking about buying below $200 e-reader with eink. Considering kindle but by reading all the threads here, I am so confused which one should I buy.

Reason to buy e-reader
- I have all of my books that I want to read in .pdf files (no need to access their stores or whatever)

  My other concern is that I could be able to copy my .pdf files to the e-reader and read it without buying them again."

[My reply]
1. ROTATION option
  The Kindle has a rotation option so you can read in Landscape mode, which makes most PDFs somewhat readable if they have special layouts, as the Landscape mode has more space and there is room to make the fonts larger and the margins are decreased as a Kindle feature for PDFs.

  For layouts in word, academic documents and for PDFs that are manuals or guides, the Landscape rotation mode is the difference between whether you can even read the document on a 6" screen or not.

2. PDF SCREEN CONTRAST ADJUSTMENT
  The Kindle 3 allows you to make the text darker, important because many PDFs are originally using color fonts for effect and these, and colors that are translated to B&W, can be almost too light to read -- in any case it can be very hard on the eyes.
  The Nook doesn't have this feature

3. OVERALL GRAYER B&W TEXT FONT
  In my viewing of a Nook Touch the other night, the fonts are too gray for my eyes, w/o the kind of screen contrast I'm used to with the Kindle 3 and DX. The crispness is missing. (I was surprised as I had not read any reaction like mine in press reviews yet, but today I was told of two (Len Edgerly and Instapaper's Marco Arment) who had noted it.

    The Kindle Chronicles: nooktouch-pell
    Marco.Org: Nook Touch review

  However, anyone who's not used other Pearl screens probably won't notice any problem at all, and basically, the fonts are clear. Just not dark enough for me.

4. ZOOM IN - Yes, with Kindle, No, with Nook Touch
  The Nook Touch can't Zoom in on an image. Illustrations cannot be zoomed.

  With the Kindle, you can move the cursor to the center of the photograph, which gives you an option to click on it and zoom to full screen. On -higher- resolution images, this can be invaluable, especially for maps or diagrams.

  [ I should have added that Kindle PDFs have zoom-in boxes
    although I often find them awkward. ]


5. RE PDFS THAT ARE JUST BOOKS IN ONE COLUMN
  Portrait mode will do fine with those, with either the Nook or the Kindle.


You can also see my Features comparison: Nook Touch and Kindle 3 '

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New Kindle-2 Screen Contrast Finding by Ted Inoue

This is an update to the original Kindle-2 screen-contrast story and updates, focusing on Ted Inoue's analysis.

While the original theories for varying screen-contrast of Kindle 2 screens involved thinner looking fonts and anti-aliasing that used the increased grayscales available to the Kindle 2, Inoue has done new tests from screen-grabs of the same page using both the Kindle 1 and Kindle 2, enlarged in Photoshop with examination of the pixel make-up of the characters.  They are the same.  Only 4-shades appear to be used for the basic font.

As Ted has explained, including on two forums following this, the variances in screen output of the same basic material comprising the font characters we see, indicates something seen in his earlier test of displays from his first Kindle 2 (Unit-A) vs his second Kindle 2 (Unit-B) - a difference in how both Kindle-2 units are rendering the same font.  What we see as less well-defined or less-sharp on Unit-A (which Ted notes as a unit that does not resolve well) shows less black brought to the 'surface' than we can see for the fonts from his second Kindle, Unit-B, when they're magnified.

  I have wondered if it was more a matter of seeing more black "brought to light" (that we can see) on the second unit so that his first unit's less-solid-blackened characters will appear less sharp then.  With Photoshop, we will tend to add contrast (more dark grays to black and more light grays to white) to enhance the perception of sharpness or definition of edges.

In the meantime, the screen-grabs from a Kindle 1 vs Kindle 2 mentioned above shows no difference in the basic font used for the devices.  Ted says that the differences that people can see easily in photographs result from how each unit renders the same basic combo of same pixels, and M. Matthews posted on March 28 that this might be related to the amount of voltage used to get the black portions to the surface and posted on April 28 that the variations we've seen indicate that the density of the black may be harder to control with the newer e-Ink screen with its 16-shades of gray vs 4 for the Kindle 1.  Whatever, it appears to be a quality control problem, especially with the seemingly unusual number of screens doing all right until brought into direct sunlight and fading under those conditions - a definite defect, since an advertised strength of the e-Ink screen (a feature I personally love) is how readable it is in direct sunlight.  There is an explanation, said to be given by an Amazon customer service representative, for the fading, having to do with faulty e-ink receptors.

Ted refers to some photo comparisons I made of my K1 and K2 and, in my own case, my Kindle 2 display is sharper and is black enough (though somewhat lighter in some lighting but good enough for me because it is definitely sharper than even my excellent Kindle 1).  I also took some photos last weekend of the Kindle2 vs the Sony PRS505 (using the older 8-shade e-Ink screen) and found the Kindle 2 looking very good in contrast (no pun intended).  They both have good displays.  But obviously, these screens can differ dramatically, though the large majority of owners appear to have units that meet the standards set for them.  The photos in my entry about problems for some users with bad screen contrast are repeated here for easier access.  These are some photo-comparison examples plus an added example and the most egregious one.
  In contrast, here are two examples of how the display should appear, taken with a cell phone last weekend while at Target:
Kindle-2 'Home' library listing and
Kindle-2 display of some text that I copied off a website to reference while shopping.

Amazon IS replacing units that are reported to have fonts that are too light to read, in connection with the warranty they do honor.  Customers have been very positive about how Amazon customer svc representatives have been handling this, with the exception of one official Communications executive who dismissed the concerns by telling Wired about a "few" customers wanting less gray shades!  From what I've read -- only as an offered option for pure-text reading where the font becomes gray instead of black.

As mentioned in the original screen contrast entry, customers who almost returned their Kindles have been ecstatic with the replacement fonts offered for trial by Inoue to Amazon Customer Service, at his site.

In the meantime, the long request-to-Amazon thread joined by new owners each day continues.  In between pleas for darker fonts displayed, they praise Inoue's new fonts (but which have to be uninstalled each time Amazon has a Kindle update). Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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Amazon is considering K2 screen contrast issue

Which inner gray box has a lighter gray?  Why does one seem lighter?

  Posted 3/24/09 at 3:57pm   (Updated 4/9/09, at the bottom)
  I called Customer Service a couple of times to ask what Amazon is saying to us these days about the screen/font issue with the Kindle 2, in that some customers have felt that the thinner new font, used with a lighter weight than is used for the Kindle 1, is not as easy on their eyes.

  Some customers are driving a petition for a gray screen that is a lighter gray because their Kindle 1's have a somewhat lighter gray and a darker basic font.  For others, the differences are slight, and I find I can read full-width webpages because of the new fineness of the fonts when it's decreased. It's that sharp.

  But the relative lightness of the thinner K2 basic font, along with a somewhat darker gray perceived by a percentage of users moved to write to forums and to comment-areas of review columns, raises an issue (readibility) which is important and Amazon had earlier been a bit tone deaf to the concerns.

 The complaints are from people who prefer high contrast and who want to keep their Kindle 2's but want them to be as easy on their eyes as was the Kindle 1.  There have been odd choices by Amazon, such as changing the HOME item-listing from a dark medium-size font of the K1 to the wispy non-bolded thinner font weight of the K2.  Some people prefer to read output from medium-point pens to that from fine-point pens. And vice versa.

That's what Amazon seems to be taking into consideration.  I was told they do take customer feedback seriously and are working on a way to modify the darkness/lightness of the screen but that it's important to find something that will work for most of it customers.  As we've seen, many magazine reviewers have mentioned the 'sharper' and 'crisper' lettering.  Customers who read for longer stretches of time in different lighting situations may have quite different responses.

  I'm somewhere in between. I often wish for the more defined K1 weight for the font but I don't think about it much when I don't have the K1 nearby. But I do notice I used to be able to read for hours without noticing any eye strain whatsoever (new to me).

However, it was good to see they ARE working on a solution that can work for more customers, though it may take a while.  This is better than the silence we'd heard or the idea that there was no real issue there.  So, I'm encouraged.

UPDATE - 4/9 - 4/12/09 At the Amazon forums, Ted-san (Ted Inoue) describes running private tests using the native Kindle 2 fonts, comparing the display of a tweaked set he made against that of the native font set.  It involves using a more bolded font as the basic one and making normally "bolded" fonts even more bolded to keep the differences.  He proposes that users have the option of choosing between 'normal' and 'enhanced' display while reading, so that those who like the current fonts setup as-is are not affected.

The perspicacious :-) and meticulous Inoue has reorganized his test reports, and his full set shows what the relative lack of contrast can look like for some users on some Kindle units and what effect modifications in font properties can have.  (However, my own Kindle 2 has far more contrast than shown and is very sharp too, but units in the same home have been reported to show noticeable variances in contrast ratio.)  Also, he has found an even better example (Michael Bach's) of an optical-illusion having to do with the perception of lightness and darkness of objects with constant luminance, their brightness values perceived as changing when seen against the luminance values of surrounding objects (simultaneous contrast).

 As for a fix, my own wish is simpler: that they just provide a darker-effect basic font similar to what they did for the Kindle 1 and that the e-Ink folks have a better quality control process over the relative lightness/darkness of the screen's gray.  Luckily, I have no problems with my Kindle 2 and I find mine a real joy to use (constantly), but my eyes are still more comfortable with the Kindle 1 font and I'm mindful that some other customers have a tougher time of it with the current-font to gray-background contrast ratio.  For balance, it appears most customers are quite happy with the current state, but enough aren't so that Amazon should do something, and I was told they were working on this very carefully, as mentioned, keeping in mind all customers need to be happy with the results.

UPDATE - 4/17/09 (late update) - On April 13, Wired's Gadget Lab posted an article about the screen font/background problem experienced by many K2 users.  By Priya Ganapati, it's an unusually accurate and thorough summary of the issues -- citing Ted Inoue's extensively detailed work on the anti-aliasing factor plus information from this blog and via a phone discussion).  It also references a busy Amazon forum thread that is a heavy request for darker fonts.  The story was picked up by most of the online computer and gadget sites, some listed at Inoue's "Kindle Optimizer" pages.

UPDATE - 4/26/09: Ted Inoue offered Amazon Customer Service representatives results of private tests with font replacements that would help the screen contrast issue for those having it.  It's a simple fix for those who want it or need it (there is a reason Amazon is doing easy Kindle 2 replacements) and the people who've been unhappy with their K2s are ecstatic over the change the fonts make.  Crunchgear writes today about the problems and the test results. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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