designed for slow pixels · no color, no animation, no gradient.
apply e-ink mode to this site
saves a preference locally. all pages then render grayscale with high contrast.
status: off
what is e-ink?
an e-ink display uses tiny charged pigment particles to render text. unlike an LCD or OLED, it only draws power when the image changes. once written, a page can stay on-screen for days without any power draw.
the trade-off: refresh is slow (often 300–500ms), grayscale only (usually 16 levels), and animation is unpleasant — ghosting smears the previous frame under the new one.
kindles, Kobo, Remarkable, Onyx Boox, Daylight DC-1, Supernote — all e-ink. and a beautiful screen when you treat it right.
the 7 rules of e-ink design
1.no color. designs should work in grayscale. color adds zero information on e-ink and implies things that aren't there.
2.high contrast. black-on-white or white-on-black. no pale grays for body text. subtle grays are for tertiary meaning only.
3.no animation. fades, transitions, scrolling lerps all leave ghosts. prefer instant state changes.
4.no gradients. e-ink dithers them into smears. use flat fills with hard edges.
5.serif body, sans headings. long reading is better with serifs. display text can be sans.
6.larger tap targets. e-ink devices usually have slow touch response. don't crowd buttons.
7.batch updates. change once, commit to the screen, then leave it. constant redrawing both wastes battery and ages the screen faster.
tools on this site that are e-ink friendly
/gitaquiet verse-of-the-day
/literature-clocka minute's quote · huge type
/taxpure calculation, no animation
/texttransforms · static lists
/regextext + highlights
/heritagecards, no motion
/languagesscript reference
/passportcountry list
/rtocode lookup
/ifscbank decoder
/gstindecoder
/numbersindian number words
/httpcodes reference
/lifeweeks-in-grid · static
/caveplato's allegory (mostly text)
/upiapps comparison
tools that will NOT work well on e-ink
/emergenceboids · constant animation
/rainparticles · constant animation
/gravity (/)physics simulation
/terminalglow effects + matrix rain
/stopwatchupdates every 100ms
/breathpulsing orb
/typinglive wpm updates
/focusticking ring
a bookmarklet for any site
drag this to your bookmarks bar. click on any site to apply an e-ink reader filter.
strips color, animation, transitions. works on most sites. drag the link above to your bookmarks bar.
what e-ink gets right
it is the only screen you can read in direct sunlight without squinting. it is the only screen whose battery life is measured in weeks. it is the only screen that, when off, is indistinguishable from a piece of paper.
there are fewer screens in the world that ask less of you. if you have a tablet that just sits there tempting you with notifications — e-ink is an experiment worth running.
notes on implementation
html.eink-mode {
filter: grayscale(1) contrast(1.2);
}
/* turn off all animations */
* {
animation: none !important;
transition: none !important;
}
/* high-contrast body text */
body { color: #000; background: #fff; }
the toggle above sets eink-mode on the html element via localStorage. each page reads this on load. you can add html.eink-mode { ... } rules page-by-page if you want custom overrides.