A colour e-ink display for art
Y-Ink is an e-ink display that shows over 500,000 colours, draws nothing in standby and emits no blue light. Here is how it works, and what changes.
- 500,000colours, a world first on e-ink
- 0 Won standby: the image holds by itself
- 36×less energy than an LCD screen
- 0blue light emitted
How electronic ink works
E-ink was developed at MIT in the 1990s. The principle rests on millions of microcapsules, each the thickness of a hair, laid on a thin sheet.
Each capsule holds negatively charged black particles and positively charged white particles, suspended in a clear fluid. When an electrode applies a field, the particles migrate to the surface or away from it. Seen from the front, the capsule turns black, white or grey.
The image is made of millions of these capsules. It looks like printed ink because, physically, it is: pigments, not light.
Bistability: zero standby consumption
Once the particles are in place, they stay. Nothing holds them but the viscosity of the fluid. The display can be unplugged: the image holds for weeks.
The display only draws power when the artwork changes, during the fraction of a second in which the capsules reorganise. Over a year of use, that is up to 36 times less energy than an LCD or OLED screen of the same size, which must power its backlight or diodes continuously.
No blue light
A conventional screen emits its own light, with a strong blue component. E-ink emits nothing. It reflects ambient light, like a canvas or a page.
In practice: readable in full sun, no flicker, no eye strain. In the evening the display darkens with the room instead of lighting it.
The Y-Ink breakthrough: over 500,000 colours
Consumer colour e-ink combines pigments and a filter: it tops out at a few thousand colours, often washed out. Enough for an e-reader, not for a saturated resin artwork.
Y-Ink is a technology developed by Yaniv Edery to reproduce his works. It shows over 500,000 colours on e-ink, a world first, while keeping bistability, reflectivity and near-zero consumption.
The “Y” is the artist's initial. It replaces the “E” of E-Ink: a standardised technology becomes an artist's technology, developed and controlled by one person.
A connected display, an evolving artwork
The Y-Ink display ships with a launch artwork, chosen at checkout from the artist's series. With the app it becomes an evolving work of art: change the piece by time of day, mood, season.
The app also generates original pieces with an AI trained on several hundred works by Yaniv Edery, then sends them to the display. Each piece is unique, and authentically “Edery” in essence.
Specifications
- Technology
- Y-Ink colour e-ink, > 500,000 colours
- Format
- Landscape 3:2
- Standby consumption
- 0 W (bistability)
- Blue light
- None (reflective display)
- Connectivity
- Wi-Fi, controlled by the Y-Ink app
- Frame
- Matte black lacquered wood, 18 mm edge
- Price
- €499 + Y-Ink app €20/month, subscribed with the display