alex-a-soto

That's how I think about it too.

E-readers are vertically integrated devices: the hardware, software, UI, and refresh behavior are all tailored around reading. E-ink tablets like reMarkable are similar, but optimized around writing and annotation.

A traditional monitor is much more general-purpose, so it doesn't get the same kind of end-to-end optimization for the display medium. I think there's room for an in-between category: a more interactive e-ink device where both the hardware and software are designed around the strengths and limits of the panel.

There's some related work happening in this direction:

https://nlnet.nl/project/epd-wayland/

In normal use, we don't expect fast refresh to significantly reduce an E Ink panel's lifetime.

The E Ink material itself is long-lived, the main stress is on the driving electronics and waveform behavior during refreshes. Our approach doesn't add extra refresh cycles, the display starts responding sooner, which improves perceived speed without adding extra refreshes.

So far, fast refresh hasn't been the dominant failure mode in our testing. Physical stress, bending, pressure, heat, and moisture are much larger risks.

On eye strain: E Ink is reflective and bistable, so a static image doesn't require continuously emitted light. Fast updates can still produce artifacts like flashing, dithering, or ghosting, but that's a different issue from a display that continuously flickers.

So I'd say this addresses an important part of the problem, though comfort will vary by person.

Also I recommend checking out the following resources:

- https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okjJURIejIY

The stylus solution is provided by E Ink to us. E Ink made the switch from EMR to USI a few years ago, so most E Ink devices, including the Modos Flow are using USI now.

Our driver board works with color e-ink screens.

Yes, this is one of the areas I’m most excited about; it makes e-ink more practical for everyday use and opens the space for experimentation. In the long run, as the community grows and more people get involved, we’ll see even more possibilities.

Yes, that’s the mental model I’ve been working from. Variable refresh tied to user input makes a lot of sense: short bursts of speed for navigation or editing, then settling into a low-power static state.

Part of the challenge is deciding what belongs in hardware and what should sit higher up in the OS or software stack.

Hopefully, as more people get the kits and the community grows, we’ll be able to think through these questions together and explore where the right balance between hardware and software should be.

We’d like to offer a kit for the MNT Reform, and possibly the Framework, in the future, though it’s not part of our current roadmap.

Thank you!

> Maybe you can optimize many of them away (if some parts of the screen don't move, especially if software was rewritten to optimize for the display).

Yes, that’s definitely something we want to work toward. As the community grows, we hope to tackle these kinds of optimizations together.

> A high power SIMD/NEON arm64 probably could do the job, but I think the Spartan6 is a good choice as well and has more obvious and straightforward parallelism

Yes, precisely for the reasons you stated. We also talk more about it below:

- https://www.youtube.com/live/okjJURIejIY

- https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider?tab=readme-ov-file#desi...

I agree with your points. I would add:

- Making the project open allows people to reuse displays they already own.

- Others can contribute and build on what’s been created.

- Open source firmware, documentation, and the driver board make development more accessible and help remove barriers that previously slowed community projects.

- It’s designed to work with a variety of electrophoretic panels, not only those from E Ink.

In the long run, this openness will strengthen the ecosystem, making it easier for new ideas to take shape and spread.

Another gameplay video I'd recommend seeing is Blanc: https://www.youtube.com/live/9PAKPfHBa5Q?feature=shared&t=11...

Our driver board, under continuous use, draws about 1 to 1.5W. A recent article below goes into some detail about our design choices.

https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-paper-monitor/u...

I’d recommend watching the video below, where we talk about how fast refresh affects a panel’s lifespan.

https://www.youtube.com/live/okjJURIejIY?feature=shared&t=24...

> How many shades of grey does it support?

16 levels of grayscale support.

> How bad is the ghosting?

Ghosting depends on the mode you're using and the content.

> How white is the background?

Varies, depends on the panel you're using.

> Is it clear enough to be used white-on-black?

Yes

> How often does it need a full screen refresh?

That's up to you; you can manually clear with a button press, use auto-clear mode, or programmatically control it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoDYEZE7gDA&ab_channel=Modos

I’d recommend watching the video below, where we talk about how fast refresh affects a panel’s lifespan.

https://www.youtube.com/live/okjJURIejIY?feature=shared&t=24...

Our driver board, under continuous use, draws about 1 to 1.5W. A recent article below goes into some detail about our design choices.

https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-paper-monitor/u...

Thank you for your thoughts and support. I agree, doing this in X11 is definitely doable. I’ve seen others achieve similar results by running a daemon that listens for damage regions. I hadn’t considered using a custom backend video driver; that’s something I’ll be looking into.

My focus has mostly been on Wayland, but possibly prototyping in X11 could be a starting point. Some people I've met are interested in using computer vision techniques at the hardware level, or making a camera rig.

What excites me most is getting this into people’s hands, seeing what they create with it, and working together to improve it and explore new use cases. One use case that I learned about recently:

E-Ink News: The mystery of cuttlefish disguise, scientists use E Ink technology to explore its secrets

https://www.ereaderpro.co.uk/en/blogs/news/e-ink-news-the-my...

Can't wait to see what you have in mind ;)

Great! The board uses about 1-1.5W under continuous use with no OS/kernel power optimizations.

Three years ago, I posted about modding a ThinkPad T480 into an e-ink laptop: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26245563

That turned into a community project and eventually into building our own FPGA-based e-ink display controller to improve refresh speed and reduce ghosting.

The result is a dev kit and monitor: open hardware, supports 6–13" monochrome and color e-ink panels over HDMI or USB-C, up to 75 Hz with sub-100 ms latency, and includes a C API.

Hardware, firmware, docs and schematics: https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider

Thanks for sharing! Would it be alright if I try it out during our livestream this week?

We have some other videos, with more to come this week.

Generative Forest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fLYVwh4XCE

Return of the Obra Dinn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClK8lDJWJcw

At 0:47, both sides use the same e-ink panel, the left in outdoor conditions, and the right indoor.

Latency was one of the challenges we addressed, and our driver board supports different panels, you can use one with lower glare if preferred.

I didn’t know about GNU Enscript, going to check it out. Thanks!

It’s an electrophoretic display, in the category of e-paper, informally called e-ink, made by the company E Ink.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper#Electrophoret...

Thanks! Yes, it does update quickly, and ghosting is still an issue, though I think there’s room for improvement on the OS/software side. I gave a talk at the Linux App Summit earlier this year where I shared some ideas for how this could work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7xTs9-2AgU

Thank you for your kind words. I agree that small teams can achieve a lot.

We’re grateful to NLnet and the EU, whose support made this project possible and especially in overcoming complex challenges. We’ve made a point of attending conferences and sharing what we’ve learned. Now that the project is ready, we can focus on expanding that knowledge and collaborating with people everywhere.