Have been so caught up in Mirasol and Pixel Qi that have ignored a big truth about the Color eReader value proposition.
Color doesn’t add very much to reading.
Don’t get me wrong – Color is cool.
- Color means illustrations in color.
- Textbooks apparently can’t function without color images.
- All your non-reading stuff like pictures look prettier.
- It’s a selling point.
- People are used to color screens.
Color is a big deal to some people for various reasons – However, books were never in color.
If we love to read books (or newspapers or blogs) why do we need color?
What exactly does Color add to reading?
It’s not an easy question to answer.
- Went through the first 20 paper books on my shelves and 18 of the 20 are black and white inside. The other two would lose nothing if they were in black and white.
- Read Already Dead by Charlie Huston yesterday morning on my Sony Reader Touch Edition (which, like the Kindle, is excellent for reading in bed and reading one handed) - It was perfectly OK. The black and white didn’t reduce my reading pleasure whatsoever.
- What tangible benefit could you get from having a color capability for a reading device when most books are not in color?
If you ask any of the people why they want a color eReader their answers have little to do with actually reading books -
- For some people it’s to read textbooks – that’s a different use case. The Entourage Edge, Netbooks with Kindle for PC etc. address that.
- Some people want the perception that it’s cool technology – Valid and in no way related to reading.
- A few people think if it isn’t color it’s outdated technology.
- Comic lovers want color – Again, a completely separate use case.
If you distil down to features that are essential for reading books - Color just isn’t a critical feature.
Weighing Color against other Features
Here are a few features I’d choose over color -
- The capability to write – including handwriting recognition.
- A really good journal software – like David RM’s The Journal 4.
- A mixture of Folders and Tags and Libraries so there can be a Next 5 To Read List and a Favorites List.
- 3rd party Apps.
- Full blown email support.
Color would make me feel good and that has value – However, being able to keep a journal would add infinitely more value (your favorite feature is probably different).
There’s a very long list of features that trump Color
It’s surprising just how many features add more to reading than having a color screen displaying black and white alphabets -
- Great Contrast – whiter background and blacker, bolded Font.
- Full Blown Browser.
- Unbreakable and Flexible Screens.
- Sub $200 prices.
- Free Internet.
- Incredible Battery Life.
- 60 second downloads – Honestly, would you exchange color for 60 second downloads? It’s not an instant answer.
- Much Greater Range of eBooks – all books available as eBooks.
- A reading light. That’s the only reason my Kindle for iPhone app gets used.
- A 7″ or 8″ screen.
Well, perhaps a few of those are stretches – However, Color suddenly doesn’t sound like the #1 killer feature people are saying it is.
Why is Color such a big deal?
Have absolutely no idea.
- Color was the #2 reason (#1 was people don’t read) the Kindle wasn’t supposed to succeed.
- Color is the feature a lot of people say they’re waiting for.
- Everyone is always asking about Color.
- Everyone’s excited about Mirasol and Liquavista and Pixel Qi.
For TV and movies color makes sense.
With books you’re using your own imagination – Isn’t that what’s supposed to provide color?
Perhaps someone could explain to me why the #1 feature for the next generation of eBook Readers is color when it adds so little to the book reading experience.
Filed under: Color Kindle Reader | Tagged: color ereader, color kindle
While I won’t disagree that there are many features that I might choose over colour, I don’t think it’s as useless as you imply. From a publisher point of view, colour would add a lot to the shopping experience– being able to browse the Kindle store and look at all the book covers in colour would make them a lot more enticing (because try as we might, a lot of us still judge books by their covers). Publishers go to a lot of effort to come up with cover art that will sell their book to the right audience, and the art does lose something in the black-and-white translation. It may not be directly related to the reading experience, but if it drives up ebook sales I can see why they’d want to push for it.
Also, why are comics a separate use case? I suppose I can see the argument about textbooks, since they are aimed at a very specific market. I read most of my comics in book format, and it seems natural to me to want to read those same comics on my Kindle. I wouldn’t want to have to pick up a separate device when I feel like switching my reading from prose to graphic novel.
Why is color such a big deal? Because it doesn’t limit what we can do with a book or the device.
For example, Bibles often have the words of Jesus in red text. Not very easy to do when you have only shades of gray to choose from.
Highlighting — might be a bit better doing it in yellow (as is the norm on paper) rather than a black box.
Then there’s photography, art, and color theory books — all books that demand color displays. Sure, Kindle for PC and iPhone will display the color, but why should we lug around a laptop for reading or go for a smaller screen? Sometimes, the detail of a photo is needed and neither of those options offer optimum illustration options.
Books have never been only black & white. Books have always had the option to become more than the text through illuminated text and illustration.
As long as we limit the eReader to only black & white text, there will never be a reason why absolutely every book should become an eBook. If a book contains video on a DVD, shouldn’t the eBook come with the same video?
I’m a photographer that prefers to work in black & white. So, I have no problem with the world of black & white. However, when we have at least 54 books dealing with color in the Kindle store in just the art & photography books (with many more possible in the future), there is definitely a major issue that needs to be addressed on the hardware end.
With books, you’re not always using your own imagination. The book has never limited the imagination as to what a book could be, therefore the eBook shouldn’t have to limit the imagination as to what an eBook can be.
Really good reasons to look forward to color.
The illuminated text point is a good one. The option to enrich the text is a very good reason for color.
I’m still not sure it’s the #1 reason people feel it is. However, there are advantages I had missed.
I believe that a color ereader is a game changer. First, as you state, it gets other people’s attention. Second, it really opens the door on magazines, newspapers (most of which have color picturs therse days), comic books, and anything. Just because books don’t need color (and 95%of my reading on my Kindle is books) doesn’t mean it won’t enhance the reading experience.
Protesting against color is very shortsighted. Saying you want other things FIRSt is just unhelpful. color will GREATLY expand the ereader base market.
Children’s books? MUST have color-just one example.
So, no reason to protest against color, especially if it is NOT backlit and adds little if anything to the cost.
some good points. We’ll have to see what the arrival of color ereaders at the end of the year does to sales.
What Timothy and Richard said.
Why colour ? – in a nutshell – children’s books
How about the advertising perspective? IMHO people would buy more books if book covers and descriptions are in color on the ereader.
Just because most books are not in color now does not mean that they should not be or would not be improved by color. Most pop sci books don’t bother with many diagrams, but I think that a well-done diagram would help comprehension immensely.
I read a fair number lot of non-fiction books (not textbooks), and graphs and diagrams (while usually in grayscale, I assume because printing a color book would be much more expensive) are readable and understandable, but color would make them much more comprehensible.
For instance, see this diagram: http://www.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/myosin/trees/gifs/tree.jpg . Can it work in grayscale? Sure – there is white-space around the different groupings. However, it is much easier to comprehend in color.
I could also see color enhancing fiction books – it would depend on how it was done. For instance, if the text were very subtly tinted differently throughout the book, it could affect the mood of the reader without being distracting. Is it necessary? No – good authors can easily set the mood without resorting to color, and it wouldn’t exactly improve a badly-written book. But as a previous poster said – that doesn’t mean that color wouldn’t enhance the experience of reading.
i’m with switch11 on this one. i don’t think that color will add much, and that other priorities should be looked at first. however, if they can release a color kindle for the price of the current k2 (or close to that price), then drop the price of the current k2 (or release a b&w version for cheap), then that might be good. i think there are lots of readers who would love to get a kindle, who aren’t able to pay the money. i think that dropping the price of the kindle would be the number 1 priority. i also do not know any current kindle owners who would be willing to pay extra for color.
Thanks so much for making this point. I’ve been thinking this very thing since I first laid my hands on an original Kindle. What on earth would color add? And I say this as a comic book fan and reader – I personally consider comics a form that (at least for now) are simply better in print rather than electronic form.
What I want instead is better eInk. Whiter white and blacker black. Although I enjoy reading on my Kindle DX, it always bothers me that the screen is grey – not white – a fact that made glaringly obvious by the glossy white plastic case of the reader. The text is still not even close to a 300 dpi laser printer in quality, and there is only one font.
I want better black and white text that looks even more like a real book. I could care less about color. Personally, I would not pay anything extra for it at all. I’d rather have better contrast and better fonts.
Magazines.
[...] L’article original et en Anglais a été écrit par « switch11″ et peut être lu ici. [...]
What some other people have said – it really expands the -reading- potential of an ereader. I don’t care about other media functionality, or the ability to run apps (unless they make reading better). I also don’t really care about things like note-taking. But color means things like magazines, newspapers, photography books, comics (which I would -love- to be able to read on my Kindle), etc. Not that there aren’t black and white comics, I suppose, but that seems to be mainly an Asian thing and I’m more Western-centric in my comic reading. Plus, technologies like Mirasol promise to address the terribly slow refresh rate, which is certainly ignorable when reading books, but I think would become a significant issue for some other sorts of reading material.
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Color e-readers would MAINLY expand the use of e-readers past just reading books, and obviously boost their market adoption rate.
In some ways, I agree with switch11, if I was taking the perspective of a bookworm, which I am. I’m sure any e-reader owner has had people who don’t read coming up to them and ask questions like ‘Is it educational for my kids?’, ‘Can I watch videos on it?’ or ‘Can I play games with it like an iPhone?’ etc. These are all valid questions, but as switch11 said, not at all related to reading a book.
I have to say that if e-readers begin to have color screens, like the rumored iSlate perhaps, they will lose their reputations as cool but niche devices for bookworms and become something akin to a tablet computer. Anyone from those who need a portable PC to casual gamers and internet junkies would have a reason to buy one.
This is not an entirely bad thing if it manages to successfully merge two devices we can’t leave the house with into one useful piece of convergence. But if I still need my iPhone to make calls and my laptop to do any serious work then I don’t see how a color e-reader would be of much use to someone who just wants to read UNLESS it (now this may be confusing) is made primarily to be an e-reader. No video player, gaming possibilities or MS Office allowed!
If you can’t really converge devices to make life simpler, then what’s the point really. :p
On that note, I’d like to end by saying that color definitely has its uses, but only if it doesn’t cost much more than current popular e-readers and never tries to replace a laptop or phone.