Sony has introduced an e-book reader that uses electrophoretic materials to provide a high-resolution, high-contrast display.

ECONOMIST: REPORTS

Two outfits, SiPix Imaging and Bridgestone, are working on electrophoretic displays that are similar to E Ink's.

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So-called electrophoretic frontplane technologies are another alternative, but they have their own limitations.

ECONOMIST: REPORTS

But the combination of organic electronic backplanes and electrophoretic frontplanes could produce truly rollable, albeit monochrome, displays in the not-too-distant future.

ECONOMIST: REPORTS

Electrophoretic displays work in a different way, using a form of electronic ink that has been under development since the 1970s.

ECONOMIST: Electronic screens as thin as paper are coming soon

In electrophoretic displays, tiny white and black pigment particles are given opposite electrical charges and encapsulated in microcapsules of about the diameter of a human hair.

ECONOMIST: REPORTS

But the technology is still improving, notes Mike McCreary, vice-president of research and advanced development at E Ink, a pioneer of electrophoretic displays based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

ECONOMIST: REPORTS

The drawbacks of electrophoretic displays are that they have slow response times, since the pigment particles take time to move, and that colour versions are still in development.

ECONOMIST: REPORTS

Not only does this mean that electrophoretic displays are cheaper to run, the lack of constant refreshment makes them more comfortable to read as comfortable, it is claimed, as printed paper.

ECONOMIST: Electronic screens as thin as paper are coming soon