Getting good photos on 6-color e-paper
Six-color e-paper can show surprisingly good photos, but it behaves very differently from a phone screen. Knowing its limits helps you pick images that work and fix the ones that do not.
Why photos look darker on paper than on screen
E-paper reflects room light instead of emitting its own. Its “white” is closer to light gray, its “black” is a dark charcoal and its colors are muted inks. The contrast between the lightest and darkest point is a fraction of a phone’s.
DitherInk accounts for this in two ways:
- It matches colors against a brightened palette, so light areas get white dots instead of being filled with darker inks.
- Auto mode stretches the contrast, lifts shadows and compresses the brightness range to what the panel can reach, so dithering does not spend dots on tones the panel cannot show.
Choose photos that suit the palette
Photos that work well:
- Strong, simple subjects: a person, a pet, a building against the sky.
- Clear colors that are close to the inks: blue sky, green leaves, red and yellow objects.
- Good lighting with visible contrast.
Photos that are harder:
- Low-light or hazy scenes. The panel’s narrow range makes them muddy. Auto mode helps, but contrast cannot be invented.
- Subtle pastel or skin-tone gradients. They have to be mixed from strong inks, which adds visible dots. 7-color panels with orange do a little better.
- Very fine detail like distant crowds or text in the background. The panel’s resolution simply cannot show it.
Crop tighter than you think
A 7.3” panel at 800×480 has fewer pixels than a thumbnail on a modern phone. Crop so the subject fills most of the frame. Use the 1:1 preview to see the result at the panel’s actual pixel size.
When to use Manual mode
Auto mode is the right choice for most photos. Switch to Manual if:
- A portrait looks harsh: lower the contrast slightly.
- Colors look washed out: raise saturation to 1.2 to 1.4.
- Edges look soft: add some sharpening or clarity.
Manual mode skips Auto’s contrast and color preparation but still compresses the brightness range and uses the same dithering.
Grayscale photos
Black and white photos on a 6-color panel can pick up colored dots, because gray has to be mixed from the available inks and black and white alone cannot always reach the right tone. If the result looks noisy, try converting the photo to a warm or cool tone first, or use a panel in 4-level grayscale mode for monochrome images.
Check the result on the real panel
Previews are an approximation. The Vivid preview shows the colors DitherInk matched against; real inks are darker. If you print the same image often, compare a few versions on the panel and keep the settings that work best for your room’s lighting.