What is the Future of Ink?

Ink and paper have been around for millennia. As long as civilizations have invented written communication, they’ve used different types of paper and ink applied with a specialized tool to convey their message. While the technology has progressively been refined, made less expensive, more accurate, and easily repeatable, the future still continues to hold even more surprises. However, one future technology is here now, and according to Wired magazine, it holds the key to what to expect in the coming years.

E Ink isn’t ink in your traditional sense: it’s an electronic display that looks, feels, and functions like ink, but can change at a moment’s notice. The technology got its first big application when Amazon released the Kindle tablet. For most people, the Kindle doesn’t even seem like a tablet: it doesn’t shine brightly like a phone or regular tablet, it doesn’t have the same feel or look as a tablet, in fact, to most people it doesn’t even look electronic. It looks like ink on paper.

There’s a good reason for this: E Ink is actually composed of extremely tiny black and white ink capsules that have been electrically charged. In order to create the image, the display rearranges these capsules using electrical fields. Once the image has been created, the fields shut off because keeping the image on the screen doesn’t use any power at all. As a result, modern Kindles are able to achieve unbelievably long battery life: some lasting as long as a month on a single charge!

This gives E Ink screens a huge advantage over traditional displays: not only do they use very little energy, but they’re also durable and very easy to read. That makes them ideal for all sorts of real-world applications: billboards, price tags, or even displays on the walls of your own house.

Today, innovators are starting to use this technology for all sorts of new, practical applications. Popslate makes a case for your cell phone that places one of these e-ink screens on the back of your phone, allowing you to get critical information such as the time, date, weather, and notifications without having to power up the large main screen on the front, which drains your battery.

While the list of applications are virtually endless, E Ink isn’t about to replace traditional paper anytime soon. Color E Ink displays are still a long way off. Likewise, there will never quite be a replacement for the security of traditional ink and paper, particularly when it comes to printing things like legal documents, which shouldn’t be able to be changed after they’re signed.