Screen too dark?

[loui100]

Hello.
I got a Kindle Touch as a present. It's my first e-reader and I must say, though the quality of the image is pretty impressive, I am worried about the darkness of the screen. It seems extremely light-sensitive. It looks ok when directly under lamp light but if I take a step back (or sit down anywhere for that matter) the screen turns a dull, darkish tone. It's still readable but it gives me an uncomfortable feeling that something is not right and my eyes are sore after a while of reading. It's a similar feeling as if I were reading a normal book in very low-light conditions (but the overhead lamp in my room is rather strong, never had any problems reading under it). Is the Kindle supposed to be like that? Is it something to get used to? Or do I have a faulty unit? It would be hard to find another unit to compare where I live, hence my question.

Thanks in advance,
Loui

[CrystalStarr]

The Touch is an eink device. It is a reflective screen and is designed to give an experience similar to reading a book printed on paper. You need an external light source for a Touch just like you would a paper book.

If your room lights aren't enough you can explore the accessories forum here on kindle boards. There are lots of options and everyone has a favorite. Amazon even sells a case with a built in light.

[mooshie78]

That's just the way eink is. You have to have a good light source to be able to read it just like a paper book. And the background is more grey than a lot of print books.

[Linjeakel]

Hi, loui100, welcome to Kindleboards!

It's normal for the background on an e-ink screen to have a grey tint to it. The brighter the light you read in (whether natural or artificial) the greater the contrast and the more the words will seem to 'pop' from the screen. Just like reading a paper book, the worse the ambient light, the harder it is to read - the intention is to make the experience as similar to reading a paper book as possible, as opposed to reading from a computer or other backlit screen. It's most unusual for someone to suffer from eyestrain reading on an e-ink device - in fact the opposite would normally be true.

Without seeing your actual Kindle, it's hard to know if it's unusually dark. Is there anyone you know with a Kindle - any of the later models would do - that you could compare yours with directly?

[Kathy]

Change to the sans serif font. That is much darker and helps the contrast.

[loui100]

First of all, a great thanks to everybody for a quick and exhaustive response. Unfortunately here in Poland (Gdańsk/Danzig vicinity) there is practically no way for me to compare my Kindle to other devices. Everything is on order, there are no Kindles on display in shops or anywhere. I did take some photos but they had to be with flash and the screen looks okay under direct, bright light, even the background is practically white, so I probably haven't got a faulty unit. My complaint is that the screen looks signifcantly dimmer when farther away from the light source (i.e. ceiling lamp), which makes it seem somewhat dull in comparison, whereas I can read a normal book at all angles and distances without much significant loss in quality and contrast. With the Kindle I find myself constantly changing angles, rotating in my chair, etc. to find the optimal position, which is slightly disappointing. Probably just a matter of getting used to the slightly dimmer image and/or installing a brighter bulb (currently I have a rather warm variety in my room, maybe something whiter might help).

Also I have another question: I have noticed that the font often seems blurry. If I look closely I can see blurry, jagged edges around the letters. Is this supposed to be so? Are there any ways of helping this? On some youtube videos the text seems way, way crisper.

Thanks again,
Louis

[Morf]

Also I have another question: I have noticed that the font often seems blurry. If I look closely I can see blurry, jagged edges around the letters. Is this supposed to be so? Are there any ways of helping this? On some youtube videos the text seems way, way crisper.

There's an explanation of how the e-ink screen works here http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,73465.msg1181739.html#msg1181739 - follow the link to read the techie bit. 

On the newest Kindles (K4 and Touch), Amazon have changed the firmware so that it doesn't do a complete refresh on every screen change, it only does one every 5 screens or so.

The result is a faster page change (NEW! FASTER!!!!  ) but the trade off is a loss in quality.

On the keyboard Kindles you could force a full refresh by pressing Alt-G. This doesn't appear to be an option with the Touch.

You can set the touch to do a refresh every page change with Home-Menu-Settings-Reading Options-Page Refresh ON.

Doing a bit of searching, there are a number of discussion threads around about screen problems with the Touch. Possibly there are some quality control problems with them, and possibly the additional layers on the screen to give the touch capability have affected the quality slightly.

If you're not happy, get a replacement: I read one thread where somebody had had 5 replacements! (http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=Tx1GW0OJQII2EJG).


Having said that, my personal feeling about this? Virtually all new Kindle owners initially think the screen is fantastic, but then go through a period of feeling a little disappointed about it; it's darker than real paper, it flickers when it refreshes, the refreshes slow down (so the flicker becomes more obvious) when it's hot or cold, there is ghosting on the screen and so on.

Within a few days we all start to realise that it is normal, and that the advantages of the Kindle far outweigh the screen problems; then we ignore it and we're happy from then on.

HTH,

Morf

[sherylb]

Also, maybe changing the font size when not in adequate lighting will help.

[sherylb]

Oh, just thought of another thing...there are some books published in a format called Topaz that are more of a picture of a page than a true font so if you have downloaded one of those, you will notice poor quality overall in the book. Have you compared several books to see if there is a difference between how the books look?

[Ann in Arlington]

Oh, just thought of another thing...there are some books published in a format called Topaz that are more of a picture of a page than a true font so if you have downloaded one of those, you will notice poor quality overall in the book. Have you compared several books to see if there is a difference between how the books look?

I would amend this to say you "may" notice poor quality.  It depends on whether the publisher used all the advantages of Topaz in specifying a distinctive typeface to give character to the text -- with things like drop caps or embellished first Letters in chapters.  But many just use it as a short cut with a book that's already available in paper and what you end up with looks like it's basically been scanned and may have stray marks depending on the quality of the original. 

FWIW, the brighter the light the better the screen will look as it reflects ambient light rather than producing it's own.  Arguably, this is better for your eyes as you don't have a light shining in your eyes.  But you do need to have enough light in the room -- just as you would with a paper book.  An advantage, however, is that you have a choice of font styles and sizes so you can make the print larger and clearer if the light is a bit dim.  Which you can't do with paper.

[LeCoeurSec]

Hi there! I bought my first Kindle just a week ago (Kindle 4 or just Kindle, no touch screen). Just like someone here said, initially I was so impressed but after the "wow" moment has passed, I did notice that the screen is, in fact, a lot darker than the actual paper book (under the same light conditions). I went through a one-day phase of "I should have sticked with normal books", but now I'm over it and enjoying my new Kindle!.

Just like loui100 I have to constantly shift positions in search of better angle towards the light source. But I did discover one thing. Under a direct LED light (cool white LED!) the screen is fantastically white, and fonts amazingly black. So, now I am in search of a LED bulb with standard cap (for common sockets). I haven't tried warm white LEDs but since they emulate "normal" light bulbs, I suppose they will produce lesser effects on the Kindle screen.

[Morf]

Even after having my Kindle for more than a year, I'm also sometimes amazed by how good the screen looks in really good lighting. Besides LED's, my office overhead fluorescent lighting is good, and the best of the lot is of course daylight! If only we could get a bit more of that right now...