Blue Light Is Ruining Your Writing
E-Ink may be the solution to a more delightful writing experience.
After the kid is asleep, the writer prepares to work on her novel. Sitting at the desk she looks out the cabin window. It is early fall on the mountain and the first cold front is rolling in. She turns on the desk lamp spilling warm yellow light over the notepad. She hears the first crackle of the fire her husband lights in the other room. She is ready to begin writing…
She turns on her 32” 4k monitor. The room’s pleasant vibe is instantly washed away by the monitor’s harsh blue light.
There must be a more pleasing way to write in the modern century?
There is — e-ink displays are great devices for writing. Many people already read on devices like the Amazon Kindle. I recently discovered that the same technology makes for a delightful writing experience.
Writing on e-ink offers the same touted benefits as reading on one — less eye fatigue. For me, I just like the natural feel of using e-ink without a backlight. I love that the ambiance of the room isn’t abused by an LED monitor’s harsh lighting.
My setup
(My setup is shown in the introduction image.)
I write on the BOOX Go 10.3 using a wireless bluetooth keyboard. The BOOX line of e-ink tablets run full Android with access to the Play Store — which means you can install most any writing app you use on Android.
I’m typically on a computer 8–10 hours a day for my job as a software engineer. To combat eye fatigue, I have been researching ways to reduce my screen time. This is when I discovered the BOOX line of devices. The BOOX line caught my attention because they run Android, allowing me to install my regular newspaper apps and read away.
But while I was blogging one evening, it occurred to me that the BOOX device should work for writing as well. So I hooked up my wireless keyboard and gave it a try. I have been delighted by the experience. I write my initial drafts and edits in Google Docs on the device, and then move over to the computer to finalize uploading to the blog.
In the future, I am curious to try a dedicated e-ink computer monitor for both coding and writing, but this will need to wait. The costs of such devices are pretty steep, at least for the brands I discovered so far.
Let me know what you are writing on in the comments. Have you tried similar writing setups on e-ink?
