There will be a number of new 13.3-inch digital note taking devices with colour e-paper displays, using E INK Kaleido 3. A number of products will be unveiled at CEATEC show in Japan, where Good e-Reader will be live on the scene, showcasing exclusive coverage. Fujitsu has announced that they will be showing off their 13.3-inch Kaleido 3 e-note and Linfiny and AIOI Systems have partnered up for a 13.3-inch Kaleido 3 for a smart inspection system, due to be released in April 2024. I have also heard that new 13.3-inch colour e-notes might be announced, as early as next week, from a major brand.
What is Kaleido 3? The 3rd generation colour e-paper, E Ink Kaleido 3, has been available for e-readers and digital note-taking devices for about a year. It offers richer colours, increasing its colour saturation by 30% compared to the previous generation, E Ink Kaleido Plus, in addition to 16 grayscale levels and 4,096 colours. Kaleido 3 also uses E Ink ComfortGaze, a new front light technology that reduces the amount of blue light, with a reduced Blue Light Ratio (BLR) and Blue Light Toxicity Factor (BLTF) by up to 60% and 24%, respectively. BLR is the ratio of toxic blue to total blue light output, and BLTF is the brightness to hazardous blue ratio. Additionally, the responsiveness of the ink means that Kaleido 3 can play animations and videos. How do the inner workings of this new colour e-paper work?
The last few generations of colour e-paper could only display 4,096 colours and 100 PPI. Kaleido 3 managed to increase the colour accuracy to 150 PPI. This was accomplished by putting the Color Filter Array closer to the ink layer. The company did further updates to the print pattern; in the past, they used glass and switched to plastic. Do colours look washed out as in previous versions of Kaleido? E INK said K3 reduces the light scatter and loss of colour. LCDs using CFA do not have this issue, given that they are emissive. The trade-off is energy efficiency and eye fatigue. E INK is also using RBGW colors and not CMYK.
Now that the 13.3 Kaleido 3 floodgates have been opened, 2024 will be a big year for viewing and editing full-colour PDF documents on an A4-sized screen, which has been the holy grail.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
