Institute for Research in Open-, Distance- and eLearning, Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences, Brig, Switzerland.
Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2012 Sep;32(5):367-74. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-1313.2012.00928.x. Epub 2012 Jul 4.
Most recently light and mobile reading devices with high display resolutions have become popular and they may open new possibilities for reading applications in education, business and the private sector. The ability to adapt font size may also open new reading opportunities for people with impaired or low vision. Based on their display technology two major groups of reading devices can be distinguished. One type, predominantly found in dedicated e-book readers, uses electronic paper also known as e-Ink. Other devices, mostly multifunction tablet-PCs, are equipped with backlit LCD displays. While it has long been accepted that reading on electronic displays is slow and associated with visual fatigue, this new generation is explicitly promoted for reading. Since research has shown that, compared to reading on electronic displays, reading on paper is faster and requires fewer fixations per line, one would expect differential effects when comparing reading behaviour on e-Ink and LCD. In the present study we therefore compared experimentally how these two display types are suited for reading over an extended period of time.
Participants read for several hours on either e-Ink or LCD, and different measures of reading behaviour and visual strain were regularly recorded. These dependent measures included subjective (visual) fatigue, a letter search task, reading speed, oculomotor behaviour and the pupillary light reflex.
Results suggested that reading on the two display types is very similar in terms of both subjective and objective measures.
It is not the technology itself, but rather the image quality that seems crucial for reading. Compared to the visual display units used in the previous few decades, these more recent electronic displays allow for good and comfortable reading, even for extended periods of time.
最近，具有高显示分辨率的轻便移动阅读设备变得流行起来，它们可能为教育、商业和私营部门的阅读应用开辟新的可能性。适应字体大小的能力也可能为视力受损或低视力的人提供新的阅读机会。基于其显示技术，可以将阅读设备分为两大类。一种类型主要存在于专用电子书阅读器中，使用电子纸，也称为电子墨水。其他设备，主要是多功能平板电脑，配备有背光液晶显示器。虽然长期以来人们一直认为在电子显示器上阅读速度较慢且与视觉疲劳有关，但新一代产品明确针对阅读进行了推广。由于研究表明，与在电子显示器上阅读相比，在纸上阅读速度更快，每行所需的注视次数更少，因此在比较电子墨水和液晶显示器上的阅读行为时，人们预计会有不同的效果。在本研究中，我们因此通过实验比较了这两种显示类型在长时间阅读时的适用性。
参与者在电子墨水或液晶显示器上阅读数小时，定期记录不同的阅读行为和视觉疲劳测量值。这些依赖测量值包括主观（视觉）疲劳、字母搜索任务、阅读速度、眼动行为和瞳孔光反射。
结果表明，在主观和客观测量方面，在这两种显示类型上阅读非常相似。
不是技术本身，而是图像质量似乎对阅读至关重要。与过去几十年使用的视觉显示单元相比，这些较新的电子显示器即使在长时间内也能提供良好舒适的阅读体验。
