E Ink has a new generation of Kaleido, its color e-paper for e-readers and note-taking tablets. Dubbed Kaleido 4, it doubles the last generation’s color gamut volume to more than 40K, raises white reflectance by 15%, and improves contrast by 50%, E Ink announces.
Kaleido works by printing a color filter over E Ink’s ink layer. The company says the brighter white and extra contrast let color e-paper show images, charts, slides and video more clearly, with less of the grainy look.
That 40K is a gamut measure, not a color count. E Ink’s Kaleido page still lists 4,096 colors and 16 levels of gray, so this is better color for e-paper, not phone-screen color.
Under the ink sits a new oxide TFT backplane, which supports higher driving voltages and refreshes the screen faster. New algorithms add video playback at up to 18 frames per second.
Amazon already went this way with the Kindle Colorsoft. The 2024 original is built on Kaleido with a new display stack that goes all the way down to an oxide backplane, according to The Verge‘s hands-on at launch.
Hanvon Technology, which E Ink calls a leader in China’s e-reader market, has the first device with Kaleido 4: the M10C II smart e-paper notebook. Paired with Hanvon’s own “Enhanced Pressure Floating” technology and T2000 timing controller, it turns pages and scrolls 27% faster, E Ink says.
The M10C II also gets a wireless, battery-free pen with 8,192 levels of pressure and micro-etched tempered glass that cuts glare and parallax and gives the pen a paper-like drag. A redesigned front light gives it clearer, more natural color.
Kobo’s first color e-readers, the Libra Colour and Clara Colour, went on sale with Kaleido 3 screens on April 30th, 2024. If any new devices come out with these new Kaleido 4 screens soon, we’ll definitely let you know.
