History & Now

The Original Story of E-ink (2026)

• Introduction
• How e-ink was made?
• How it works?
• What are the most successful products came in e-ink?
• A small change
• New changes came 
• New products

Introduction :

Gen.Z is the last generation, which has seen the paper full generation to paperless digital world, they have seen the people who reads newspaper daily, with monthly fee of 120-150 rupees, collecting magazines embedded in it,ads of political parties, read books for exams and comic books for entertainment, writing letter to fathers and family members, sending money by post and searching for network in their Nokia Motorola keypad phones just for simple conversations, going for fairs and public gatherings without their phones and camera,  photo albums used to be the nostalgia machine, reason for family meetings, marriage video on T.V were family combiner, Going to haats and markets for grocery shopping, now on flip side same generation has seen the news in Youtube and online news websites through their smartphones and computers, book reading has democratised online free book PDFs are there, amazon kindle has taken the lead in digital book reading, audio books have taken lead, videos are new search engine, every photo video is available to online platforms like Youtube and Google photos, messages are sent via social media like - instagram, snapchat, etc. everything is personalised.

A 360 degree turn is going on from first party to third party, in the name of business and services who cares profit only, everything from identity to payments everything is collected, wallets become UPI, life is becoming the money, from dispersed to concentrated in a smartphone or a digital device is going on, a cultural and societal change is observed.

Now there comes gen Alpha which does not experienced any of these things, purely tech savvy born out of tech world highly dependent on it, from pleasure to education whole life is controlled under it, they are the natural adopters of changed world called social media and quick pleasure, AI and e-commerce everything, tablets, smartphones and computers are products of their daily life. For these kids and adults the E-ink technology is there to make their eye and life easy without friction and strain.

How E-Ink was made ?

joseph jacobson

The story started in mid 1990s, when Joseph Jacobson was completed his PG from Stanford  in physics, and MIT has offered the job, he was chilling in beach in  free time and reading book, just after finishing the book, he started thinking why not make an electronic book which mimics the looks feels of paper where we can store tons of books and does  not emit blue light like LCD displays, also it should be power efficient, having this idea in mind he taken this idea to two MIT graduating students - Barret Comiskey he is doing his major in mathematics and J.D Albert he was doing major in mechanical engineering.

Both of them were very rebellious students, at that time its something impossible to make such a thing called electronic paper, so keeping this goal in mind they started experimenting.

The first idea was directly inspired from LCD display-sandwich design, top and bottom layers were glass, in between is liquid crystals, instead of liquid crystals we will put microcapsules. 

The idea for micro capsules was, to make perfectly half white and half black mixed spheres thinner than hairs, which holds positive charge for white part and negative charge for black part, when the electric filed is applied to their respective opposite charges rotate the ball and we can see content in black or white, Black part should made from carbon black and white part made from titaniumdioxide.

At that time the material scientists have raise their hands and said #impossible  because its next to impossible to make a perfectly half white and half black microcapsules,they are having very hard time.

But..But.. Albert and Comiskey were busy in their research, reading the research papers, patents, for new ideas, doing new experiments and modification in the process of trial and error, as time passes, Albert made a prototype in which he made all white spheres and all black spheres, immersed in the liquid and started doing experiments.

23 Jan 1997 around 02:00AM both of them have put capsules in solution and 2 copper electrodes in ends found that capsules are moving in effect of electric current, this is exactly what they wanted, this is main blueprint where they need to refine more and more to make in consumer friendly and usable.

Now J.D and Comiskey have patented this under the name Microcapsulated electrophoretic display, this products have tick all the boxes jacobson wanted

- Paper like feel.

- Battery consumes only when it refreshes means almost nothing.

- It doesn't emit light since its a capsule filled within chemicals.

Now its time to sell, Albert, Comiskey, Jacobson, Russ Wilkox, Jerome Rubin all 5 of them formed the E-ink corporation, the main work of this corporation is to develop next versions, which devices and commercial as well as private applications are deployed, license and distribution are done.

(Left to Right) JD Albert, Barrett Comiskey and Joseph Jacobson are
inducted into the National Inventors
Hall of Fame for the invention of electronic ink.

Another piece of history says that when two boys were developing the e-ink independently we have a company named XEROX which was a research power house at that time, this is the company that developed our modern MICE, Laser printers, Graphical User Interface, A programming language called Smalltalk, Ethernet etc... etc...were notable inventions that we use today>

In the XEROX a person named NICHOLAS K. SHERIDAN has proposed the idea of E-ink in 1970s in his office they were using computers for everything, and old computers cause very high eye strain due to their lack of eye comfort features, so he thought why not make a display which look and feel like paper, cause very low eye strain and match the features of paper and pen, they have the same concept to  make the micro capsules with white and black on both sides, rotate in the electric field applied, one main change was it was not dipped in any liquid or ink, its just there, with in the rubber sheets, the main problems with them was to make it commercial and they have to make such a surface that can conduct electricity that ccan move the micro capsules. 

There the E-ink corporation taken the lead and partnered exclusively with Lucent technologies to develop their e-ink books and tablets display, Lucent technologies has made a plastic film transister which can be used to conduct electricity, as time passes the xerox company unable to develop this tech and they were late in the e-ink scene, the market and people were not ready to purchase such a prototypes, and that's why they thought to take exit and not spent much money on it, and they disappeared with time.

In the mean time E-ink corporation has managed to patent and started for first product to launch ready.

How it works?

well the working mechanism of the e-ink is very simple there are two particles of balls one is black coloured with positive charge and white with negatively charged, immersed in clear liquid ink in the front layer of display and last panel is electricity conductors, when the electricity is applied opposite charged balls appeared in display, this model was named as E-ink CARTA- 

Credits - eink.com(https://www.eink.com/tech/detail/How_it_works)

this system is so much efficient, when you apply the touch or change in input, there it gets refreshed, particles get rearranged and battery consumed, battery can lasts for months and months, its like in stand by mode by default, it does not emit any blue light, one can read books for hours and hours, this what jacobson really wanted. 

The first products

Sony is the front runner in technology and new advancements, this is no exception, in 2004 sony has launched the first e-book reader called "LIBRIE" in partner with E-ink corporation, it was japan only model it never went global, but newer version will eventually gets in U.S.

TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA
/ AFP / Getty Images

• This e-book reader was having 6" display 800*600 pixels.
• Keyboard, Page turn button (left side)
• 300gm weight
• 10MB internal storage, with Sony properitery memory card slot
• 4 AAA batteries.
• Price - $410

though the product looks promising, design was made to keep in mind to match the books of school with left side page turn button, but it was not that successful, first reason it was japan only and market was not needed that kind of e-reader, market was not ready, needed lots of advertisement. 

After watching this amazon has seen the potential of e-ink in various domain like price tags, advertisement banners and e-readers,Books renting(by making users believe that they were buying but actually its rent) they launched their first e-reader called KINDLE in 2007.

• This device was first launched in U.S
• 6" display
• 250 MB internal storage
• 4 levels of grey scale
• Speakers, Headphone jack, SD card slot
• $399 price tag. 

this device was sold out in 5.5 hrs and kept in out of stock for 5 months and second generation was about to come.

The second generation came out in 2009 which is having -

• 6" inch display
• Adjustable font size
• MP3 music player with AAC support
• 02 GB of internal storage 32 MB RAM, can store 1550 books,
• 1530 mAh battery 
• weight is about 290 gm 
• Arm 11 processor 
• Read aloud text 
• No memory card slot 
• Pricing in U.S $299

Interestingly this kindle was launched in 100+ countries with the price tag of $279.

Amazon has launched the KINDLE DX in which 

• comes with 9.7" big display, 16 levels of grey scale
• 128 MB RAM
• 4 GB internal storage
• Native PDF support
• Micro USB 2.0 with 3.5mm jack
• with increased weight of 540gm
• all other features like processor and battery were almost same, the U.S pricing for this device was $489. This product goes international in 2010 and priced around $379.

From the history of kindle as of now in 2026 kindle has 11+ generations launched, with kindle oasis series with 3rd generation running, kindle paper white series 12th generations were spotted.

• The kindle number series has increased its screen size between 6"-7" storage increased from 2 GB to 16 GB, 
• Kindle Oasis series was display monster, increase its storage from 2 GB to 64 GB, 
• LED were added as light sources, since E-ink doesn't emit light by itself,
• New fonts were added.
• Prices were reduced drastically, there was kindle touch 4th gen costs $99 
• The pricier product like Kindle Scribe at $399 was writing ready - 10.2" display, touch screen with stylus, 64 GB storage, 
• Kindle oasis further added IPX8 rating and audiobook feature
• Processor increased from single core ARM 11 to Dual core Mediatek 8110, 8113 custom processors

In 2005 a watch making company SEIKO launched the first e-ink based watch named SEIKO 

SPECTRUM in 2006, This watch comes with stainless steel case, made in limited numbers to only 500 units and priced at $2200 and it was japan only model.
The thickness was 9.9 mm, 80 Gm of weight, 30 meters water resistance, it was not for the daily users but a collector's item.

SEIKO also launched Seiko Spirit SBPA003 another e-ink based digital watch 

• 
  Matrix style 1.5" display                
• Resin body and straps
• Alarm, World time, Timer
• Radio wave setting, Solar powered 
• Date, Time 
• Time zones setter
• ALL these were basic features.

Kindle was just a begining, new brands came in the game like POCKETBOOK in 2007 founded in Ukraine, launched Pocket book 301, Pocket book 360 (2009), Pocket Book Pro 603, Pocket Book 903 was launched in 2011, this was first e-reader with Bluetooth and WiFI with 3G connectivity support.

KOBO launched its first e-reader in 2010, Kobo touch, Kobo wifi, Kobo Glow, Kobo mini, Kobo Clara, Kobo Libra, Kobo Elipsa, were popular ones the first e reader supports 6" display 1GB of storage, this were highlights no one provide at that time.

KOBO SAGE

Bernes and Nobel Nooks is also the same company who makes e - readers, they all use e-ink two ink system's developed version e-ink Pearl.

There is another player with different approach to e-inks the Remarkable to read and write on e-ink display like pen and paper, this is comparatively new company and only company in this segment now, They launched first product in 2017 named Remarkable 1 

• 10.3" display (based on e-ink carta)
• inbuilt stylus
• 8 GB storage
• 512 MB RAM (DDR3)
• 3000 mAh battery
• Type-c port, PDF, E-PUB formats supported.
• 350 gm weight

This product was also available in amazon india site at a hefty price tag of 50,000 rupees, now the second generation is there pricing is 64,999 rupees.

Slowly E-ink has entered the commercial space, In 2018 Japan used it as Bus stop display banner, London, Sydney, Singapore, did the same.

U.S, Japan, Germany uses it as Train stations time tables, Supermarkets and Malls use it as price labels.

Advertisement banners, Store hoardings, are common utilities. This is used now worldwide especially developed in countries.

Motorola launched first phone with e-ink named Motofone F3 in 2006, this phone features

a 1.45" inch display with battery lasts upto 2 weeks, Call, SMS, Time, Alarm, this was feature phone but with bang battery life.

First smartphone was Yota phone launched way back in 2013, with main display 4.3" rear e-ink display was highlight. 

Bigme, TCL, Mudita, Hisense chinese players launched their e-ink based smartphone in 2017, like Hisense A2, etc, but coloured ones were more successful.

A Small change

E-ink corporation was acquired by Prime View International in year 2009 at the disclosed price of $450 Mn, this company is Taiwan based who make electrophoratic panels so its common sensical to buy the company, now company has changed the name to E-ink holdings.

New changes

After monochrome its obvious to go by coloured design, and thats what they do, apart from further developing two ink system they started developing the three colour system and four colour systems.

They are developing the classic one with monochrome like e-ink Carta, and e-ink pearl. But The first attempt was E-ink Triton Series which was launched in 2010, in this what they have done was put a colour filter above the black and white Micro-capsules, from this filter 4096 colours can be produced, the colours were not ample but they have more big problems, the resolution was very low as compared to b&w its 1/3, and colours look very dull.

In this version two e-readers were launched - Pocketbook, Colour Lux.

Triton 2 was next update and E-ink Kleido were respectively.

But company was working on multi-pigment approach like 3-4 colour pigment combinations. In 23 May 2013, e-ink Spectra 3000 was launched with 3 particle system -

E-ink Spectra 3000 (eink.com)

In this system White, Red, Black Micro-capsules were made, white balls being negatively charged, black and red were positively charged immersed in clear fluid. The balls were made of different sizes, small sized balls move easily whereas large balls move slowly, amount of electrical charges are different for different particles.

This system was used mostly in super market and mall shelf labels.

In 2021 company introduced 4 Particle system named Spectra 3100 series -

eink.com e-ink, spectra 3100

This system is very interesting since we can make various combo, company made 3 possible combinations in 4 particle system

White, Yellow, Red, Black

Red and black were positively charged and white and yellow were negatively charged apart from different sizes as well.

White, Yellow, Red, Blue

This system is same as previous one but without black ball and instead blue ball is used, this was named Spectra 6.

White, Yellow, Magenta, Cyan

This system was named as E ink Gallery and E ink prism, this model was showcased in 2016, can produce almost every colour, found in products like gallery and prism, 

E-ink Marquee is the latest iteration in e-ink colour line with much more vibrant colours in same four colours.

Now we have e-ink displays that supports 25" and 28" basically the size of monitors and televisions, with close to real like feel.

E-ink gallery plus was introduced with 60,000 colours production, this is perfect for ad banners and display hoardings.

New Products came

In 2024 and 2025 Amazon launched Kindle coloursoft signature edition with e-ink kleido it supports 32GB storage max, and limited stocks.

Kobo Libra colour, Kobo Clara colour, Pocketbook verse pro e-reader, and much more were the recent names with coloured versions.

Bigme Hibreak, was the smartphone with e-ink display, 

This phone comes with 5.84" e-ink display
6GB + 128GB storage,                                                Android 11 with playstore.

Hisense A5 CC, Hisense A7 CC, Hisense A9 were launched globally and china, 

Hisense A7 

Hisense A9

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