E-books, Color Image question...

[-K2-]

After a bit of research, I'm of the understanding that most e-readers offer what is essentially just a monochrome display. Is that correct?

Though the few images I have are primarily maps and such, I need to adjust them if they will be displayed in B&W. That's not a problem since anything that goes to print would need to be gray-scale, but, if most e-readers display primarily B&W, then I'll cease generating two versions of the same image (color and B&W). Lastly, though I realize tablets, phones, PCs and so on display in color, I assume that different files are not generated for them vs. e-readers... or am I wrong in that assumption?

Thanks for your help!

K2

 

[Robert Zwilling]

I use a kindle fire which is color and surfs the web, movies. The book reader is part of the functions it has. The kindle readers are monochrome, the kindles tablets are color. Must be several versions of each out there. I never wanted just a reader, I wanted a tablet device. Anyone using a tablet I guess would probably has a color reading app. The kindle reading app I downloaded for the computer is color, I guess, because it shows the covers in color.

I made an art book for Amazon print on demand which came out far better, and easier than expected. I am now fooling around with a color version for kindles, originally thinking it wasn't going to be easy to do. There is a previewer which shows both black and white and color versions. Seems like getting the file properly set up is pickier than the paperback book version was. The monochrome previewer doesn't look like it has very much resolution for determining all the shades of gray.

 

[Overread]

As of today e-ink only commercially comes in black and white with some greyscaling but not a vast amount. Now as time passes that will improve, already the resolutions of them have increased quite significantly over the years. IT might well be future-proofing yourself to produce in colour now because one day we might well get colour e-ink (or a new tech that emulates the properties of e-ink but gives it in colour not just black and white). Also consider that many people still use tablets and phones where colour is a boon to have and if you ever took yourself into print colour is a big draw.

So whilst it might feel like more work now, I'd stick to it as you could have benefits for yourself in the future. Plus its a lot easier to do the colour and greyscaling now than it will be to have to come back to it all in 5 years time when you might have missplaced the original file or its corrupted itself or you just can't get into the same workflow.

 

[farntfar]

I just received my kindle of DISTAFF which as you know has a largely blue cover picture.
And I have to say that the the picture on my very early kindle is clearly less impressive than the colour one seen on my tablet.
I've also tried copying the colour picture and grey-scaling it, and it's still more impressive on the tablet than the kindle one. As Overread says, the kindle version just doesn't have the resolution. I don't suppose though that a greyscale original kindle version would be be any better with the early level of E-Ink that I have.

 

[-K2-]

Thanks for the responses folks. Just for the record, all of my images are generated 'in color,' but, realizing that print (and now learning that e-readers are B&W) will need to be in gray-scale, I test my images making adjustments accordingly. As a rough example, the color version needing tweaks as well, one of the least important maps in color, followed by a 'direct and un-altered' shift to grayscale (resolution reduced for the forum):

Though the loss of resolution changes it slightly, in the B&W some aspects need to be darkened/lightened, faded or enhanced to give them the proper balance and still demonstrate the differences the color is meant to imply.

That said, you have also pointed out something I didn't consider. That e-readers may not be a true '8-bit grayscale' (having 256 shades), but a simplistic 1 to 4-bit display. That I'll also have to look into.

Thanks for your help!

K2

 

[Eli Steele]

Not ideal, but I post my maps to my blog, and insert a hyperlink in the book.